How to disable GlusterFS bitrot detection

Disabling GlusterFS bitrot detection removes background checksum work from a volume, reducing CPU and disk activity when verification overhead is not acceptable for the current workload.

Bitrot detection is configured per volume through the gluster CLI and stored as a volume option. When enabled, it runs the Signer and Scrubber daemons on each node, where the signer calculates checksums for files and the scrubber periodically verifies those checksums to flag corrupted objects.

After bitrot is disabled, GlusterFS stops signing new data and stops scheduled verification, increasing the chance that silent corruption goes undetected until the data is accessed. Confirm that an alternate integrity mechanism is in place (replication/self-heal, end-to-end checksumming, application checksums), and review existing corruption reports in /var/log/glusterfs/bitd.log and /var/log/glusterfs/scrub.log before relying on the volume again.

1. List available GlusterFS volumes to confirm the target volume name.

   $ sudo gluster volume list
   volume1
   volume2

   gluster commands can be run from any node in the trusted storage pool.

2. Check the current features.bitrot setting for the volume.

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

   A disabled volume may show disable or off, depending on version and command output.

3. Disable bitrot detection for the volume.

   $ sudo gluster volume bitrot volume1 disable
   volume bitrot: success

   Disabling bitrot stops background checksum signing and scrubbing, increasing the risk of undetected silent corruption.

4. Verify that features.bitrot is disabled for the volume.

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

   If the value remains on, confirm the volume name and the management connectivity to the trusted storage pool.