The most critical requirement for a database server is data integrity and availability. Database operations are heavily memory-intensive, and the server's RAM is used to cache data for fast access. A standard memory module can be susceptible to single-bit or multi-bit errors caused by electrical or magnetic interference. These errors can lead to silent data corruption, application errors, or complete system crashes. Fault-tolerant memory, such as Error-Correcting Code (ECC) memory, includes mechanisms to detect and correct these errors in real-time, ensuring the integrity of data in-flight and at rest. This makes it the most fundamental and important component for a reliable database server.

A. File and Print software: This defines a different server role. While a database server's OS might support these services, they are not a core component for the database function itself.

B. GPU accelerators: GPUs are specialized processors for parallel computing tasks like AI/ML or VDI. They are not a primary requirement for general-purpose transactional or relational database servers.

C. Antivirus Software: While security is a critical operational consideration for any server, fault-tolerant hardware is more fundamental to the server's core mission of preventing data corruption and ensuring uptime.

1. HPE ProLiant Gen10 Servers and HPE Gen10 Plus servers - Memory User Guide: "HPE SmartMemory is ideal for HPE ProLiant rack and tower servers

Apollo servers

Synergy compute modules

and BladeSystem servers. It authenticates whether memory has passed the rigorous HPE qualification and testing processes

unlocking certain performance and high-availability features

such as Advanced ECC." (Page 5

"HPE SmartMemory"). This document emphasizes that high-availability features like Advanced ECC are a key part of the server's memory subsystem

which is crucial for enterprise workloads like databases.

2. HPE White Paper

"Memory RAS features for HPE ProLiant/Synergy Gen10 Servers...": "For enterprise servers

memory reliability is a key contributor to overall system availability... A server memory failure can result in scenarios ranging from a system reboot to silent data corruption." (Page 3

"Introduction"). This source directly links memory reliability (fault tolerance) to preventing data corruption and maintaining system availability

the primary concerns for a database server.

3. Patterson

D. A.

& Hennessy

J. L. (2017). Computer Organization and Design RISC-V Edition: The Hardware Software Interface. Morgan Kaufmann. In the chapter on memory hierarchy

the text explains the necessity of ECC for servers: "Since the soft error rate is proportional to the size of the memory

servers with their large main memories and caches were the first to need protection... For servers

this continued protection of memory is a requirement." (Section 5.5

"Dependability

Reliability

and Availability"). This foundational computer architecture text establishes ECC memory as a standard requirement for servers to ensure dependability.