[Your opinions wanted] EXT4 vs ZFS

  • Hello,


    I know there are many articles on the Internet that cover this but I just wanted to open up some discussion as I will probably have additional follow up questions.


    I'm in the process of getting my homeserver set up.


    The server will act as a file server and media server. I'll mostly be storing data on my server but I'll also be occasionally streaming video.


    I currently have Open Media Vault running for my OS and I'll most likely end up setting up the disks in a RAID1 configuration.


    My ultimate goal is to never lose my data.


    I understand there are benefits and drawbacks to both EXT4 and ZFS


    So for I understand,

    • XFS - provides protection against 'bit rot' but has high RAM overheads.


    • EXT4 - I know nothing about this file system.


    Which file system would you consider the best for my needs and what should I be aware of when considering the filesystem you recommend?


    Please add your thoughts and comment below.


    Thanks in advance!


    TL:DR Should I use EXT4 or ZFS for my file server / media server. Please explain the reasons for your choice.

  • ZFS requires ECC RAM, and supported-motherboard.
    If you have those elements, then you can use it to protect from data loss.
    Otherwise, use RAID or un-RAID for your ext4.
    Regardless the method you chose, you still need to backup your daily on often.


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS


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    2 Mal editiert, zuletzt von tinh_x7 ()

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Unless you need realtime mirroring, I would use ext4 and rsnapshot instead of zfs/raid 1/etc. rsnapshot will run hourly to sync drive 1 to drive 2 and create multiple changes. This is the most reliable setup in my opinion.


    zfs doesn't have high ram overhead unless you are doing deduplication and maybe compression.

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  • any reason why not snapRaid run sync hourly?

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  • SnapRAID is supposed to be good for large media files, but not too good for files that change frequently. Running it on an hourly basis seems a bit overkill.


    RAID1 is good for system drives, because it's all about high availability.


    Even with appropriate hardware, I wouldn't go with ZFS. If your system breaks, you can pull out your ext4 drive and read it on pretty much any computer.

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    any reason why not snapRaid run sync hourly?


    If he is thinking raid1, I would be more inclined to use rsync with the --checksum flag than snapraid.

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    • Offizieller Beitrag


    The only true way to not lose data, is have a backup (IE, Raid1 is NOT A BACKUP).


    I'm a big fan of rsync over Raid1. I don't have my rsync job set to delete on the "backup".. then every so often when I know there's nothing I've accidentally deleted.. I set the job to delete everything on the target that isn't on the host drive.. and then run the job manually. When it's done, I turn the delete option off until the next time I decide to make sure the drives exactly mirror each other.

  • Even with appropriate hardware, I wouldn't go with ZFS. If your system breaks, you can pull out your ext4 drive and read it on pretty much any computer.

    you can do the same with ZFS.


    I create my pool on Nas4Free then change my mainboard ( and the sata controller) and import ZFS pool with no lost of data, the I move to OMV and import my pool from CLI and use
    with ZFSPluging, works fine, but plugging do not cover all the power of ZFS so finally export the pool and import in other NAS with FreeNAS, so you can see, no data lost on all this moves.

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