Introduction to Data Integrity and Protection

Beyond the basic advances found in the file systems we have studied thus far, a number of features are worth studying. In this chapter, we focus on reliability once again (having previously studied storage system reliability in the RAID chapter). Specifically, how should a file system or storage system ensure that data is safe, given the unreliable nature of modern storage devices?

This general area is referred to as data integrity or data protection. Thus, we will now investigate techniques used to ensure that the data you put into your storage system is the same when the storage system returns it to you.

CRUX: HOW TO ENSURE DATA INTEGRITY

How should systems ensure that the data written to storage is protected? What techniques are required? How can such techniques be made efficient, with both low space and time overheads?