[pstadler]

To mitigate the likeliness of damage during transit, it's recommened to use ECC memory with ZFS. I had FreeNAS running on a system with a faulty memory module. ZFS correctly discovered damage in random files I just transferred over. Luckily, it wasn't too late to replace the bad module and repeat the transfer.

Lessons learned:

- Run MemTest86 on hardware before using it as storage

- Use an FS that does checksums

Unfortunately, the latter doesn't seem to apply to APFS.

[voidz]

Can you always just buy ECC memory (I have DDR3, I guess it's more affordable now since it's a little bit older), or does something else (cpu, motherboard) need to support it as well?

[pstadler]

You need a compatible motherboard and CPU.

[tw04]

Which is why Intel kinda sucks. It would cost them basically nothing to have ECC enabled on all of their hardware, but they insist on using it as a differentiator between server and desktop parts.

AMD (at least in the past), includes it on all parts so that it's up to the consumer to choose.

[rincebrain]

While I agree that it'd be nice if Intel didn't use ECC as a server/desktop delimiter, AMD's stance (at least for AM3 and AM4 parts) appears to have been "the CPUs support it, but we haven't run any validation tests on it; if the motherboard manufacturers want to validate it and turn it on, great".[1][2] Which is not quite the same as it being enabled on all parts.

[1] - http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-review...

[2] - https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/5x4hxu/we_are_amd_crea...

[tw04]

That absolutely does mean it's enabled on all parts. They also don't validate the chips against FreeBSD - does that mean you can't run FreeBSD on their chips? Or do you think it would be ridiculous to expect them to test scenario's outside of the market they're targeting?

Do you have any idea the cost of running validation tests? I'm not the least bit concerned that they haven't "validated" the ECC functionality. It's enabled, they know it works, it's the same ECC they use on server class chips, and if someone found a bug I have no doubt they'd issue microcode to fix it.

[rincebrain]

I should have perhaps included the article which tried _enabling and using_ ECC on a Ryzen CPU+MB. [1]

Page 5 is perhaps the most important one, where it observes that neither Windows nor Linux appear to react by halting to a UE, and Windows can't quite figure out that ECC is enabled on the platform and parse the notifications it gets as such.

So, sure, I should concede that it is "enabled" on all parts, I was wrong. But that doesn't mean it should be trusted on any of them.

[1] - http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-review...

[dmitrygr]

Precisely because it is a market segmentation tactic, they do allow ECC on lower end chips which they do not see stealing marketshare from Xeon.

My home media center PC / NAS runs an i3-4370 CPU with ECC RAM

[pstadler]

The same is true for AMD's new Ryzen CPUs, ECC support is enabled. You still need a suitable motherboard though.

[dmm]

On linux you can force enable ECC on an unsupported motherboard with

> ecc_enable_override=1

Most motherboards have the extra memory traces in place even if they don't enable ECC.

[dwighttk]

"cost them basically nothing"

"using it as a differentiator between server and desktop"

so it would cost them SOMETHING...

[coldtea]

Something related to artificial milking, as opposed to tangible production costs.

[dwighttk]

Sure, but as a consumer it is kind of nice that my chips are probably a little less expensive because server companies are paying more for their chips.