Twitter
Blogs
RSS Feed
Slideshare
LinkedIn
Facebook
YouTube
Google+Database administrators face many challenges in developing and supporting applications that are often the lifeblood of their organization. One of the concerns is the integrity of data as it travels the I/O path between applications on a server and disk drives on a storage area network (SAN). When data corruption is undetected, or “silent”, there can be serious consequences if reporting and decision making is unknowingly based on inaccurate data. In some industries, regulatory compliance mandates such as Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) are also specifying data integrity controls for the protection of customer records.
Over the years, vendors have implemented many features to ensure data integrity. Database vendors have added logical integrity checks, server memory is protected by Error Correcting Code (ECC), PCI Express buses are protected by Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC), storage area networks are protected by CRC, and storage arrays are protected through various error detecting and correcting techniques. Even with these checks, increasing complexity of the data center environment and growth in storage have led to significant concerns about silent data corruption.
Oracle and Emulex have been early leaders in enhancing data integrity are continuing that effort. In 2007, Emulex, Oracle, LSI and Seagate announced the Data Integrity Initiative (DII). DII was established with the goal of developing an end-to-end data integrity solution. DII is still actively pursuing this goal. In addition to participation in DII, Oracle announced the contribution of block I/O data integrity infrastructure code to Linux and the acceptance of this code into the 2.6.27 Linux kernel. This open source code was developed by Oracle in conjunction with Emulex and exposes key data protection information to the Linux kernel. The BlockGuard Data Integrity feature is available on Emulex LightPulse 8Gb/s Fibre Channel HBAs- models LPe12000, LPe12002 and LPe12004. For the first time, subsystems can utilize crucial data integrity features that extend from applications to the Linux operating system to storage. Comprehensive data integrity capabilities are now enabled across the entire software stack. This helps reduce system downtime, provides costs savings and helps companies meet their regulatory compliance objectives.
For more information please see the links on the page.
