How to disable GlusterFS bitrot detection

Leaving GlusterFS bitrot detection enabled on a busy volume can keep signer and scrubber work running after an integrity-check window has ended. Disabling it stops GlusterFS from maintaining and scanning bitrot signatures for that volume, reducing background storage load when another integrity control is taking over.

The gluster volume bitrot command changes bitrot state per volume from any trusted storage pool node. When bitrot is enabled, GlusterFS starts signer and scrubber daemons on each node; the signer records object checksums, and the scrubber compares stored data against those signatures during scheduled scans.

After bitrot is disabled, new writes are not signed and scheduled scrubs no longer provide a corruption report for that volume. Review recent scrub status and the /var/log/glusterfs/bitd.log and /var/log/glusterfs/scrub.log files before disabling detection on data that still depends on GlusterFS for silent-corruption checks.

1. Open a terminal on any node in the trusted storage pool.
2. List available volumes to confirm the target volume name.

   $ sudo gluster volume list
   volume1
   volume2

   Replace volume1 in later commands with the volume that should stop bitrot detection.

3. Confirm the volume is started before changing bitrot state.

   $ sudo gluster volume info volume1
   
   Volume Name: volume1
   Type: Replicate
   Status: Started
   Number of Bricks: 1 x 2 = 2
   Transport-type: tcp
   Bricks:
   Brick1: node1:/srv/gluster/brick1
   Brick2: node2:/srv/gluster/brick1
   Options Reconfigured:
   features.bitrot: on

   Related: How to check GlusterFS volume status

4. Check the current features.bitrot setting.

   $ sudo gluster volume get volume1 features.bitrot
   Option: features.bitrot
   Value: on

   If the value already shows disable or off, bitrot detection is not active for that volume.

5. Review the last scrub status before disabling detection.

   $ sudo gluster volume bitrot volume1 scrub status
   Volume name: volume1
   State of scrub: Active (Idle)
   Scrub impact: lazy
   Scrub frequency: biweekly
   Bitrot error log location: /var/log/glusterfs/bitd.log
   Scrubber error log location: /var/log/glusterfs/scrub.log
   Error count: 0
   Corrupted objects:
   None

   Run this check while bitrot is still enabled if recent corruption findings matter for the handoff.

6. Disable bitrot detection for the volume.

   $ sudo gluster volume bitrot volume1 disable
   volume bitrot: success

   Disabling bitrot stops background checksum signing and scheduled scrubbing. Use another integrity check before trusting this volume for silent-corruption detection.

7. Verify that features.bitrot is disabled.

   $ sudo gluster volume get volume1 features.bitrot
   Option: features.bitrot
   Value: disable

   Some GlusterFS releases may report a disabled value as off. If the value remains on, confirm the volume name and trusted-pool management connectivity.