a better filesystem?

rals2007 · May 30th 2017

Which is the better filesystem for a non-raid (single Data HD) setup, btrfs or ext4?

Judibet · May 30th 2017

Hello,

It's an unterminable debate :-).
BTRFS is very good.
Ext 4 is very good to.

But BTRFS is in developement .

I tried BTRFS and I have va very good Filesystem for NAS!

Check this link to have more precisions.

rals2007 · May 31st 2017

thank you for the reply
One more thing...
if ever i decide btfrs as my filesystem which is still under development, can i simply just "update" it with a cli command/gui if a better "stable" one comes out later on without destroying the existing filesystem and start from scratch again?

Judibet · May 31st 2017

Be carreful!
If OMV is booting in FAT32 partition (/boot).
The OS is running is ext 4 (/)
You can create a BTRFS partition without incident for your data but it's another partition.

Don't forget that ext4 is very good for OMV filesystem and BTRFS for NAS Datas.

rals2007 · May 31st 2017

thats what i meant, btrfs filesystem for the storage data and leave the OMV HD filesystem as default.

My setup is:
128gb SSD for OMV system.
4TB HD for storage

Judibet · May 31st 2017

Quote from rals2007

thats what i meant, btrfs filesystem for the storage data and leave the OMV HD filesystem as default.

My setup is:
128gb SSD for OMV system.
4TB HD for storage

OK, sorry If I didn't understood before .
I don't know but I think we don't have to reformat for updating BTRFS.
They update sometimes BTRFS but we don't need to reformat.

Don't forget it's always better for make a bakup.

You could check the BTRFS changelog here.

rals2007 · May 31st 2017

thank you so much for all the help & info Judibet. Backing up the data and will do btrfs

ness1602 · May 31st 2017

If you dont need snapshoting,or any of the pluses of BTRFS,i would say go with EXT4.

rals2007 · May 31st 2017

i just want to savour btrfs

ness1602 · May 31st 2017

Yes,btrfs is interesting. You can just view it as ZFS for Linux by Linux. Just dont use for now Raid5,6

rals2007 · May 31st 2017

so after creating btrfs, /etc/fstab now shows it as:

Code

/dev/disk/by-label/MediaHD /srv/dev-disk-by-label-MediaHD"

it used to be:

Code

UUID=af6e6a5c-6392-4584-a524-1a479a6524a6 /media/af6e6a5c-6392-4584-a524-1a479a6524a6

Is this correct?

It seems the location is somewhat changed from /media to /srv

Judibet · May 31st 2017

Hello,

For me, its /dev/disk/...
Like you.

But yes, you could use the disk UUID.

Only one thing is bad.
The destination /media/af6e6a5c-6392-4584-a524-1a479a6524a6 exist????

Ensure with blkid to check is the UID is good and ls if /media/af6e6a5c-6392-4584-a524-1a479a6524a6 exist.

Don't use this script if you are not sure or your UID, mountpoint and /etc/fstab content!

Bash: add2fstab.sh

if [ ! -d /media/af6e6a5c-6392-4584-a524-1a479a6524a6 ];
then
echo -e "This directory didn't exist!\n";
exit 1;
else
echo -e "It's OK, this directory exist!\n";
cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak
echo -e "\nUUID=af6e6a5c-6392-4584-a524-1a479a6524a6 /srv/dev-disk-by-label-MediaHD btrfs defaults,nofail 0 2\n" >> /etc/fstab
mount /srv/dev-disk-by-label-MediaHD
fi

For information:

Bash: /etc/fstab

/dev/disk/by-label/MediaHD fstype /srv/dev-disk-by-label-MediaHD none bind,nofail 0 2

Equal:

Bash: /etc/fstab

UUID=af6e6a5c-6392-4584-a524-1a479a6524a6 fstype /srv/dev-disk-by-label-MediaHD none bind,nofail 0 2

ryecoaaron · May 31st 2017

Quote from rals2007

Is this correct?

It seems the location is somewhat changed from /media to /srv

Yes this is correct. OMV doesn't use UUIDs anymore since they may be duplicated with LVM snapshots. The default mounting location changed in 3.0.67 (I think) to /srv.

rals2007 · May 31st 2017

Quote from Judibet

The destination /media/af6e6a5c-6392-4584-a524-1a479a6524a6 exist????

It doesnt exist. thats the old value written in fstab.i wrote it down before converting it to BTRFS

Quote from ryecoaaron

Yes this is correct. OMV doesn't use UUIDs anymore since they may be duplicated with LVM snapshots. The default mounting location changed in 3.0.67 (I think) to /srv.

Great! Thanks for the info

So does this mean I'm all good?

Judibet · May 31st 2017

Could you send us your /etc/fstabl content, please?
You need to make no error on it.

rals2007 · May 31st 2017

Old FSTAB (Storage HD is EXT4)

Code

# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
# / was on /dev/sdc1 during installation
UUID=623ec8c1-d525-4b4f-be5c-fdcb9a31c1a6 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sdc5 during installation
UUID=5ab274bb-0d42-4228-b823-cff5b3753747 none            swap    sw              0       0
# >>> [openmediavault]
UUID=af6e6a5c-6392-4584-a524-1a479a6524a6 /media/af6e6a5c-6392-4584-a524-1a479a6524a6 ext4 defaults,nofail,user_xattr,noexec,usrjquota=aquota.user,grpjquota=aquota.group,jqfmt=vfsv0,acl 0 2

New FSTAB (Storage HD is BTRFS)

Code

# / was on /dev/sdc1 during installation
UUID=623ec8c1-d525-4b4f-be5c-fdcb9a31c1a6 /               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
# swap was on /dev/sdc5 during installation
UUID=5ab274bb-0d42-4228-b823-cff5b3753747 none            swap    sw              0       0
# >>> [openmediavault]
/dev/disk/by-label/MediaHD1 /srv/dev-disk-by-label-MediaHD1 btrfs defaults,nofail 0 2

ryecoaaron · May 31st 2017

You should never edit the OMV section of fstab. It is regenerated every boot. If something is wrong, it needs to be edited in config.xml and then omv-mkconf fstab.

rals2007 · May 31st 2017

I didn't. it changed on its own after i convert my storage from EXT4 to BTRFS.
Here's what i did:
1. Backup my storaga data
2. Unmounted and created BTRFS filesystem n my storage HD
3. created shared folder as MediaHD
4, restared, then i noticed the stab changed by itself

ryecoaaron · May 31st 2017

Quote from rals2007

I didn't. it changed on its own after i convert my storage from EXT4 to BTRFS.

You did it the right way. I was just mentioning that in case people wanted to convert to btrfs from ext4 without unmounting/mounting from the OMV web interface.

vl1969 · May 31st 2017

couldn't you just use btrfs-convert FAQ ?

Participate now!