xref: /linux/drivers/ras/Kconfig (revision 8636a1f9677db4f883f29a072f401303acfc2edd)
19b45ef44SBorislav Petkovmenuconfig RAS
29b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	bool "Reliability, Availability and Serviceability (RAS) features"
39b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	help
49b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  Reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) is a computer
59b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  hardware engineering term. Computers designed with higher levels
69b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  of RAS have a multitude of features that protect data integrity
79b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  and help them stay available for long periods of time without
89b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  failure.
99b45ef44SBorislav Petkov
109b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  Reliability can be defined as the probability that the system will
119b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  produce correct outputs up to some given time. Reliability is
129b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  enhanced by features that help to avoid, detect and repair hardware
139b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  faults.
149b45ef44SBorislav Petkov
159b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  Availability is the probability a system is operational at a given
169b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  time, i.e. the amount of time a device is actually operating as the
179b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  percentage of total time it should be operating.
189b45ef44SBorislav Petkov
199b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  Serviceability or maintainability is the simplicity and speed with
209b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  which a system can be repaired or maintained; if the time to repair
219b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  a failed system increases, then availability will decrease.
229b45ef44SBorislav Petkov
239b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  Note that Reliability and Availability are distinct concepts:
249b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  Reliability is a measure of the ability of a system to function
259b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  correctly, including avoiding data corruption, whereas Availability
269b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  measures how often it is available for use, even though it may not
279b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  be functioning correctly. For example, a server may run forever and
289b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  so have ideal availability, but may be unreliable, with frequent
299b45ef44SBorislav Petkov	  data corruption.
309b45ef44SBorislav Petkov
319b45ef44SBorislav Petkovif RAS
326c36dfe9SBorislav Petkov
33*8636a1f9SMasahiro Yamadasource "arch/x86/ras/Kconfig"
346c36dfe9SBorislav Petkov
359b45ef44SBorislav Petkovendif
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