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I would like to disable ZFS self-healing in case of scenario as described here: https://pthree.org/2013/12/10/zfs-administration-appendix-c-why-you-should-use-ecc-ram/ In that scenario bad RAM (ECC or non-ECC) in combination with self-healing causes on disk data corruption which I want to avoid. I don't want to disable checksums. If a checksum fails I want it to be logged, but not repaired in case the error is caused by faulty RAM and not by a faulty disk.

Is it possible to disable ZFS self-healing without disabling checksums? And if it is, please tell me how.

Mathieu
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    Or use ECC RAM? – ewwhite May 12 '14 at 17:21
  • Yes, use high quality components like ECC RAM. What if ECC RAM fails, couldn't that cause data corruption? And what if you have 2 Core 2 Duo systems with 8 gigs non-ECC RAM lying around you wanna use as file servers? You might want ZFS to do checksums to check your data but avoid self-healing/auto-repearing data in case the RAM is failing? – Mathieu May 14 '14 at 21:54

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I'm not sure what the focus of this question is. ZFS relies heavily on RAM. If in doubt, use higher-quality components when it comes to servers, system boards, RAM, etc. I haven't used a server in the past decade that didn't feature ECC RAM and a way to monitor system health.

ewwhite
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    You would be stunned at the number of people that have the attitude "oh, that ECC RAM is a bit more expensive...why bother? I'll just get the regular stuff, it's just as good!". Having returned 4 sticks of "regular" RAM in the last year that randomly failed, I can assure anyone I meet that if you have the option of ECC, *get it*. – Avery Payne May 12 '14 at 20:31