Maintaining high data integrity

An article of manufacture comprising:

• a computer readable storage medium having computer readable instructions embodied therein to cause a processor to execute a method comprising:
• defining a protection domain for a set of errors using an association between data and a first integrity metadata, the protection domain to protect data traversing an input/output (I/O) datapath having a storage device and a first generation integrity point for a host as opposite endpoints;
• defining a first sub-domain nested within the protection domain using an association between the data and a second integrity metadata, the first sub-domain to further protect data traversing a portion of the datapath having a second generation integrity point as an endpoint;
• defining a second sub-domain nested within the protection domain using an association between the data and a third integrity metadata, the second sub-domain to further protect data traversing a position of the datapath having a third generation integrity point as an endpoint;
• and
• wherein the first and second sub-domains are nested in the protection domain as a hierarchy.

An apparatus comprising:

• means for defining a protection domain for a set of errors using an association between data and a first integrity metadata, the protection domain to protect data traversing an input/output (I/O) datapath having a storage device and a first generation integrity point for a host as opposite endpoints;
• means for defining a first sub-domain nested within the protection domain using an association between the data and a second integrity metadata, the first sub-domain to further protect data traversing a portion of the datapath having a second generation integrity point as an endpoint;
• means for defining a second sub-domain nested within the protection domain using an association between the data and a third integrity metadata, the second sub-domain to further protect data traversing a portion of the datapath having a third generation integrity point as an endpoint;
• wherein the first and second sub-domains are nested in the protection domain as a hierarchy;
• and
• wherein the third integrity metadata is operable to detect a subset of the set of data errors.