Data Integrity Field (DIF) is an approach to protect

data integrity Data integrity is the maintenance of, and the assurance of, data accuracy and consistency over its entire life-cycle and is a critical aspect to the design, implementation, and usage of any system that stores, processes, or retrieves data. The ter ...

computer data storage Computer data storage is a technology consisting of computer components and recording media that are used to retain digital data. It is a core function and fundamental component of computers. The central processing unit (CPU) of a compute ...

from

data corruption In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete values that convey information, describing quantity, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of symbols that may be further interpreted. ...

. It was proposed in 2003 by the

T10 subcommittee The InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), (pronounced "insights"), is an ANSI-accredited standards development organization composed of Information technology developers. It was formerly known as the X3 and NCITS. ...

of the International Committee for Information Technology Standards. A similar approach for data integrity was added in 2016 to the NVMe 1.2.1 specification. Packet-based storage transport protocols have CRC protection on command and data payloads. Interconnect buses have parity protection. Memory systems have parity detection/correction schemes. I/O protocol controllers at the transport/interconnect boundaries have internal data path protection. Data availability in storage systems is frequently measured simply in terms of the reliability of the hardware components and the effects of redundant hardware. But the reliability of the software, its ability to detect errors, and its ability to correctly report or apply corrective actions to a failure have a significant bearing on the overall storage system availability. The data exchange usually takes place between the host CPU and storage disk. There may be a storage data controller in between these two. The controller could be

RAID Raid, RAID or Raids may refer to: Attack * Raid (military), a sudden attack behind the enemy's lines without the intention of holding ground * Corporate raid, a type of hostile takeover in business * Panty raid, a prankish raid by male college ...

controller or simple storage switches. DIF included extending the

disk sector In computer disk storage, a sector is a subdivision of a track on a magnetic disk or optical disc. Each sector stores a fixed amount of user-accessible data, traditionally 512 bytes for hard disk drives (HDDs) and 2048 bytes for CD-ROMs an ...

from its traditional 512 bytes, to 520 bytes, by adding eight additional protection bytes. This extended sector is defined for

Small Computer System Interface Small Computer System Interface (SCSI, ) is a set of standards for physically connecting and transferring data between computers and peripheral devices. The SCSI standards define commands, protocols, electrical, optical and logical interface ...

(SCSI) devices, which is in turn used in many enterprise storage technologies, such as Fibre Channel. Oracle Corporation included support for DIF in the Linux kernel. An evolution of this technology called T10 Protection Information was introduced in 2011.Safeguarding Data From Corruption - Technology Paper
PDF, Seagate, 2011

References

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External links

Linux Data Integrity
August 30, 2008, Oracle Corporation, by Martin K. Petersen (archived from the original on January 9, 2015)
Linux Storage Topology and Advanced Features
November 24, 2009, by Martin K. Petersen
Data Integrity Field - T10.org
working on Feb 15 2019. Error detection and correction