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Need help with my setup, ECC for all?

Is it safe for data integrity to use a "non ECC mini pc" that runs docker containers from the volumes of a "NAS with ECC ram"?

Or does the mini pc also require ECC ram for the data integrity?

Sorry if it is a noob question.

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3 comments
  • First, why is every post on this forum -1? Somebody must be holding a grudge.

    Second: it doesn't matter. ECC just prevents bit flips in RAM, once data leaves a system it's irrelevant whether it had ECC or not.

    I've been running servers of various kinds for decades. There is a difference between running servers on hardware with ECC vs none, but it's not a big deal. Unless you're running, like, banking software or something where accuracy or uptime is critical...I wouldn't sweat it. You may just have to reboot cuz of a kernel panic once or twice a year.

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  • While ECC memory is nice to have, potential data integrity issues can be mitigated against by using a file system with sufficient redundancy and checksum error correction like zfs or btrfs.

    Just run a regular scrub for errors to be auto-corrected from the extra copies.

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    • That would be the plan, the NAS with ECC would run zfs with weekly scrubs (4 to 6 drives)

      Edit: now running ECC on devices with critical data or databases

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