On 2/13/20 10:31, Andy Smith wrote:
> Hi Dennis,
>
> On Wed, Feb 12, 2020 at 05:55:52PM -0600, Dennis Wicks wrote:
>> I have 4TB running on an AMD Ryzen under Buster. What is the current
>> consensus of the best file system to use for general data usage?
>
> If your 4TB isn't composed of at least one more drive for redundancy
> then for me all questions of which filesystem to use would be moot.
> Storage is fairly cheap compared to the hassle of having to eat the
> downtime and restore from backup, when a non-redundant drive dies.
>
> With redundancy sorted out, ZFS is probably technically the best
> filesystem but is perhaps complicated, slightly inflexible and with
> other disadvantages related to being developed and shipped
> externally to the kernel.
>
> If that puts you off of ZFS, (ext4 or XFS)-on-LVM-on-mdraid are fine
> choices, just accept that bitrot can happen.
Having used both XFS, JFS, and ext4 on LVM on Linux and ZFS on both
Linux and Solaris, I think that ZFS, although different, is no less
complicated or inflexible than the other identified options. Adding
mdraid probably would not decrease complexity.
The sticky part of ZFS is mostly ideological: a significant number of
users decline it due to its claimed GPL incompatibility, while others
believe that, built and installed as a module by the end user('s
administrator) is "free enough." There also is a possible matter of
performance loss due to a kernel change about a year ago that privatized
a couple of kernel functions ZFS used. There was a lot of heated
discussion at the time, and predictions of disastrous ZFS performance
degradation, but I have not noticed it in a domestic laptop/workstation
environment, and the OpenZFS developers seem to have taken care of the
technical part of the issue. [1] gives a reasonable summary of the issue
and also some perspective on ZFS. [2], especially the extensive forum
comments, looks at some of it from a wide range of perspectives.
[1]
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/01/linus-torvalds-zfs-statements-arent-right-heres-the-straight-dope/
[2] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/01/13/zfs_linux/
Regards,
Tom Dial
>
> I do not recommend btrfs and anyone who does should have a look at
> the linux-btrfs mailing list to see how many cases of data loss and
> loss of availability people have reported this month.
>
> Cheers,
> Andy
>
