[svn.haxx.se] · SVN Dev · SVN Users · SVN Org · TSVN Dev · TSVN Users · Subclipse Dev · Subclipse Users · this month's index

Re: 2 users working on same file caused a change to be reverted rather than merged

From: Toby Thain <toby_at_telegraphics.com.au>
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:12:20 -0500

On 17-Feb-09, at 11:21 PM, Andreas Schweigstill wrote:

> Hello!
>
> Toby Thain schrieb:
>> This is a flaw of *all* RAID-1 systems, software or hardware
>> (excepting the few in the high end that implement checksums).
>
> No, it is only related to some OS which do some performance
> optimizations. On Solaris one can set md_mirror:md_mirror_wow_flg=0x20
> which disables performance optimization.
>
>> It also risks integrity if the system suffers a sudden interruption
>> during writing (e.g. powerfail, panic, etc).
>
> That is another problem which can't be completely solved. But this
> has nearly nothing to do with normal operation.
>
>>> Nowadays these WOW problems "should" be non-existing but I am not
>>> dure since when Linux soft-RAID handles them correctly.
>>
>> There is no solution; the flaw is inherent in the design. *Non-
>> checksummed* RAID-1 cannot determine which side of the mirror holds
>> valid data.
>
> They just can't determine the valid mirror side in the case of an
> interruption or for computing clusters which access the same disks.
>
> And for normal use it is not important that both sides of the mirror
> contain the same data also on short timescales. It is sufficient that
> read operations on the same sector/block return consistent data.

There are several ways the mirror sides can get out of sync
unbeknownst to the storage layer. Sudden interruption is only the
most common. RAID-1 users should be aware that in general there is no
recourse when it does.

--Toby

>
>> Sun's ZFS solves this problem entirely.
>
> ZFS solves many problems, but the WOW problem was/is mainly present on
> Solaris systems using the normal Sun Volume Manager with UFS.
>
> Regards
> Andreas Schweigstill
>
> --
> Dipl.-Phys. Andreas Schweigstill
> Schweigstill IT | Embedded Systems
> Schauenburgerstraße 116, D-24118 Kiel, Germany
> Phone: (+49) 431 53035-435, Fax: (+49) 431 53035-436
> Mobile: (+49) 171 6921973, Web: http://www.schweigstill.de/
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> http://subversion.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?
> dsForumId=1065&dsMessageId=1183336
>
> To unsubscribe from this discussion, e-mail: [users-
> unsubscribe_at_subversion.tigris.org].

------------------------------------------------------
http://subversion.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=1065&dsMessageId=1186160

To unsubscribe from this discussion, e-mail: [users-unsubscribe_at_subversion.tigris.org].
Received on 2009-02-18 15:13:16 CET

This is an archived mail posted to the Subversion Users mailing list.

This site is subject to the Apache Privacy Policy and the Apache Public Forum Archive Policy.