Best data storage strategy for my home NAS

Zitat von sokol

What about partition configuration of the disks itself

OMV uses the whole drive to create the raid.

Zitat von sokol

Is it ok to create RAID 6 array with btrfs filesystem on top f it

Yes it's possible as there is the option to format the array with btrfs, the question is why

Zitat von sokol

that can meet my requirements, that is:

I did answer these in post 2

Zitat von sokol

Is there any simple way to support file history using ext4 fs

what do you mean by simple,as I said according to the MS docs you can use network storage for this, so you create a share with the appropriate permissions then add that share to SMB and it's accessible across the network.

Zitat von sokol

How stable is zfs these days on OMV

It's usable, it's a plugin but not sure if it's maintained and some of the config if there is a problem is command line

Zitat von cabrio_leo

What do you mean exactly with "file history"

This it also allows you to use a network location, rather than 'mapping' a share to windows.

Zitat von cabrio_leo

That´s interesting! I didn´t know this feature.

TBH neither did I, but I believe you can select what is backed up, as it uses your 'locations' i.e. Documents, Photos, Videos, I wouldn't this as I have 365 for the family. But I also use UrBackup to backup an image of each machine, which I know I can restore.

Zitat von sokol

I think I've already explained why I would like to follow this way, because I would like to have a redundant array. Since RAID 5 these days at current disk volumes is dangerous due to high possibility of a second disk failure, I decided to utilize RAID 6 which has 2 parity disks. Obviously JBOD does not protect against a disk failure which is most common problem in storage devices. If one disk fails, I'll loose all the data from the array in the case of JBOD.

I think one of us is missing something somewhere, have a read of this as to snapshots then ZFS is your only choice, your reference to a btrfs raid is still the same today.

A raid setup is about availability, there is no redundancy and I've certainly never said anything about JBOD, if a controller supports it then then smart is effective and usable, your card doesn't support JBOD, just passthrough. TBH if cabrio_leo can assist you with ZFS then fine, but it's quite different to Freenas and Xigmanas.

I shall unwatch this thread as I don't thing I can add anything else, good luck with whatever you do.

**Sorry - this post was delayed a bit **

ZFS has been stable for decades, even on Linux. It's the grand daddy of COW file systems. But understanding the effects and limitations of adding drives to an ZFS array, is another topic. If it was me, I'd use ZFS and go with a RAID 10 (like) configuration with VDEV's made up of zmirrors. When adding two drives at a time, an array can be expanded with no limitations and with high safety, but the cost is 50% of disk realestate. (Typical of RAID 1 and 10.)

With ZFS, you can get SNAPSHOTS with file versioning good up to one year (or more if configured for it using something like zfs-auto-snapshot).
Past file versions, even full filesystems states, within snapshots, can be made visible to windows clients with the following command line.
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zfs set snapdir=visible <pool>/<dataset>

To return to default:

zfs set snapdir=hidden <pool>/<dataset>

**For those who may happen onto this post:**
The above is for file / folder restoration purposes and should be changed back to =hidden when done. It's a bad idea to leave snapshot dir's visible to windows clients and backup servers, long term. Backup app's and command lines that backup your server's files, that are not snapshot aware (most of them), would be backing up several copies of the same file or folder.

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There's BTRFS to consider but it's still (still) not ready for a RAID6 configuraton. (It's still listed as unstable. BTRFS Status)

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While it can be done, I don't think there's any real benefit to setting up mdadm RAID6, the formatting it with BTRFS. You'd get error detection and a few minor tools but that would be it. The real benefits wouldn't be available.
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You might consider SNAPRAID. That can be configured for RAID6 like protection, allowing for the loss of 2 disks. Disk aggregation can be done with Mergerfs which provides a common mount point for multiple disks.

Zitat von sokol

I strongly believe that this is something very common in the world of home NAS and there are plenty regular users which have similar requests to their storage place and already adopted good strategies.

You might be surprised. Most users seem interested in the maximum storage space possible, and are begrudging of the drives / space required for a measure of safety. The majority think that some form of RAID protects them from data loss (not true) and completely forego backup. Bitrot protection and correction is understood only by a very few.