Oracle contributes Linux code for detecting 'silent data corruption'

Oracle today announced that it has contributed code to the Linux kernel aimed at alerting IT administrators to "silent data corruption" that might interfere with the accuracy of database queries, turning up wrong answers.

The 2.6.27 Linux kernel got bolstered today by "block I/O data integrity infrastructure" code which is seen by Oracle, the code's contributor, as a first for any operating system.

Essentially, the new code uses metadata -- or "data about the data" -- to look out for any data corruption that a query might encounter while making its way through the database and other layers of the software stack, said Monica Kumar, Oracle's senior director of Linux and open source marketing, in an interview with BetaNews.

The capability is designed to warn in advance of incorrect answers to database queries that might be caused by "silent data corruption," she said. "If any data is corrupt, an alert is sent back to the IT administrator," BetaNews was told.

In addition to its long-time role as a developer of databases, middleware, and applications for multiple OS, Oracle also sells a flavor of Linux called Oracle Linux.

Oracle collaborated on the new Linux code with hardware storage vendor Emulex, Kumar said. "This isn't Oracle's first contribution to Linux, but I'd say it's among the most significant," according to the Oracle executive.

"For more than a decade, Oracle has been an integral member of the Linux community and this latest work with Emulex, to bring enterprise-class data integrity capabilities to Linux, is another example of Oracle's ongoing contributions to better Linux for all users," contended Andrew Morton, Linux 2.6 kernel maintainer, in a statement.

Oracle and Emulex are also working together on establishing an early adopter program that will allow IT administrators to try out the new capabilities. "This is just getting started now, but we'll be reporting back on how it goes," Kumar told BetaNews.

The code contribution from Oracle includes generic support for data integrity at the block and file system layers, in addition to support for the T10 Protection Information Model (formerly known as DIF) standard and the Data Integrity Extensions.

The Data Integrity Extensions, jointly developed by Oracle and Emulex, are aimed at augmenting the T10 standard by enabling protection information to be transferred to and from host memory, for end-to-end data integrity protection.

The Oracle-developed code is the first implementation of the T10 Protection Information Model standard for an OS, according to Kumar.