一句话：提出 Hardware Sentinel，利用软件故障信号检测数据中心硬件静默数据损坏并大规模验证。
静默数据损坏（SDC）由硅缺陷等因素引起，会在大规模基础设施中不可预测地影响应用并降低服务可靠性，传统硬件测试难以阻止其传播。本文提出 Hardware Sentinel，从段错误、core dump、应用崩溃和日志等软件故障指标中检测 SDC，采用应用层自顶向下方法并考虑负载、环境与老化等因素。作者在大型数据中心机群跨应用、内核与硬件配置验证，分析 6 年以上故障数据，识别数百颗缺陷 CPU。相比 Fleetscanner 和 Ripple，有效覆盖分别提升 1.74 倍和 1.92 倍，覆盖 7 代 CPU、13 种负载和 27 个区域。
Silent Data Corruptions (SDCs) pose a significant challenge in large-scale infrastructures, affecting data center applications unpredictably and reducing service reliability. Primarily caused by silicon defects, traditional hardware testing methods are insufficient to prevent SDC propagation. SDCs are influenced by various factors, including data randomization, workload characteristics, environmental conditions, and aging, necessitating top-down approaches from the application layer. In this paper, we introduce Hardware Sentinel, a novel framework that detects SDCs through typical software failure indicators such as segmentation faults, core dumps, application crashes, and logs. We have validated our framework in a large-scale data center fleet, across diverse application, kernel, and hardware configurations, achieving a high success rate of SDC detection. Hardware Sentinel has uncovered novel instances of SDCs, surpassing the detection capabilities of published testing techniques. Our analysis of over 6 years' worth of application and system failure data within a large-scale infrastructure has successfully identified hundreds of defective CPUs that triggered SDCs. Notably, the Hardware Sentinel flow increases effective coverage over existing hardware-testing methods like Fleetscanner (out-of-production testing) by 1.74x and Ripple (in-production testing) by 1.92x. We share the top kernel exceptions with the highest correlation to silent data corruption failures. We present results spanning 7 CPU generations from multiple semiconductor manufacturers, 13 large-scale workloads, and 27 data center regions, providing insights into the trade-offs involved in detection and fleet deployment.
@inproceedings{DuttaDRVS25,
title = {Hardware Sentinel: Protecting Software Applications from Hardware Silent Data Corruptions},
author = {Rhea Dutta and Harish Dattatraya Dixit and Rik Van Riel and Gautham Vunnam and Sriram Sankar},
booktitle = {ASPLOS},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1145/3676641.3716258}
}