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by binaryapparatus 2771 days ago
ECC is nice to have but absolutely not a show stopper if you don't have it. Plenty of articles and discussions online, example: http://jrs-s.net/2015/02/03/will-zfs-and-non-ecc-ram-kill-yo...

Claim that you can only use ZFS with ECC memory to feel safe is false.
2 comments
agapon 2771 days ago
Wait until you get a 1-bit flip in a spacemap record. Then you just won't be able to import your pool (insta-panic). And good luck with fining and fixing that flipped bit.
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solarengineer 2771 days ago
While it is indeed false that one needs ECC RAM to use ZFS, ECC by itself helps keep the data is memory safe.

I used to use non-ECC memory on my laptop when running Belenix, and I now use ECC memory on my servers at Hetzner where I run my own Illumos builds.

(I'm one of the maintainers of Belenix, an early opensolaris based distro that was the foundation of Solaris 11. I'm working on reviving it again)

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