[Beowulf] Big storage

[Bruce Allen]

Hi Xavier,

>>>> PPS: We've also been doing some experiments with putting 
>>>> OpenSolaris+ZFS on some of our generic (Supermicro + Areca) 16-disk 
>>>> RAID systems, which were originally intended to run Linux.

>>>  I think that DESY proved some data corruption with such 
>>> configuration, so they switched to OpenSolaris+ZFS.

>> I'm confused.  I am also talking about OpenSolaris+ZFS.  What did DESY 
>> try, and what did they switch to?

> Sorry, I am indeed not clear. As far as I know, DESY found data 
> corruption using Linux and Areca cards. They moved from linux to 
> OpenSolaris and ZFS, avoiding other corruption. This has been discussed 
> in HEPiX storage workgroup. However, I can not speak on their behalf at 
> all. I'll try to get you in touch with someone more aware of this issue, 
> as my statements lack of figures.

I think that would be very interesting to the entire Beowulf mailing list, 
so please suggest that they respond to the entire group, not just to me 
personally.  Here is an LKML thread about silent data corruption:
http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/linux-kernel/2007/9/10/191697

So far we have not seen any signs of data corruption on Linux+Areca 
systems (and our data files carry both internal and external checksums, so 
we would be sensitive to this).

Cheers,
 	Bruce