Choosing a filesystem

sandytoshev · n00b Joined: 30 Dec 2007 Posts: 8

Dear all,

I haven't cared much about filesystems since ext4 - it had been pretty much all I need. But I am going to make a fresh install on a new machine and had in mind to make the best choice for a filesystem. The machine will be with intel i5, good motherboard (but a desktop one) and 16GB of RAM. The system disk is going to be SSD (120GB), there will be two 2TB green WD disks in software mirror for data and one 3TB disk for not sensitive data. The machine will be used for data storage, mail server that is not loaded at all and routing (very small traffic). All-in-all a home server for everything you may need.
Been reading lately a lot about ZFS - but it seems like a lot of work

So the question will be the best filesystem for the mirror and for the SSD. Don't really care about the 3TB disk.

Thank You all very much in advance.

Jaglover · Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 1:29 am Post subject:

Well, my personal adventure would be Btrfs as long as we talk Linux. I have been using EXT4 for root and XFS for /home and storage (I consider UPS mandatory in my location - LA countryside), but with my next box I will go Btrfs. Just my 2¢.
_________________
My Gentoo installation notes.
Please learn how to denote units correctly!

krinn · Watchman Joined: 02 May 2003 Posts: 7470

I would certainly not put my sensible data on your 2TB mirror disks, mirroring two shitty disks is just mirroring two shitty disks.
I'm sure the one that create them wants tag them as they should be "SHITTY & CHEAP", but the communication/commercial guy told him : <hmmm, tag it "GREEN" dude...>

"green" disks have a lifetime of a mayfly : a broken disk is certainly one that consume less than a running one.
"green" disks consume less power or generate less heat : again there's a reason. Try tell me the rpm your disk is running, looks like it's something that is forget in their sheets specs.
but the couple : poor materials + poor perf gave cheaper disks.
If you care about your datas, add the extra bucks and buy better disks. And if you care about the planet : add the extra bucks and buy better disks and stop using gentoo.

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21633

I believe some "green" disks achieve their powersaving by spinning down if they receive no I/O for slightly longer than the Windows block scheduler typically leaves the drive idle. Since Linux uses a completely different block scheduler, it is not uncommon for them to spin down prematurely. Western Digital provides a DOS-based program that you can run to force the drive not to spin down. Of course, the standard power management options on hdparm do not work on these drives because that would be too easy. According to the man page, you can use -J to issue a WD-Green specific command that worked in the drives it was tested on. Even the man page suggests using the Western Digital DOS-based program instead, though.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 7:39 pm Post subject:

sandytoshev,

A word of advice about buying WD Greens - Don't.

I have 5 of them in raid5 in my media server. Two failed at 9 months old. a raid5 missing two drives is no fun at all.
Still, all 8Tb is backed up to DVD and CD.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

666threesixes666 · Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 7:51 pm Post subject:

btrfs is aiming to deprecate zfs. its fsck is not mature. ive lost data on xfs from its fsck not being mature. ive been going on and on and on about jfs for a very long time for having the best file system checks out of all of the file systems i have dealt with. i have not touched reiserfs & ext2-3 fsck take forever and a half. jfs is from ibm.... trust the evil empire

John R. Graham · Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 8:05 pm Post subject:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 9:10 pm Post subject:

John R. Graham,

hehe ... its a media server - those DVDs/CDs are the original bought and paid for DVDs/CDs.
I had to rip them all for the server but nowI can find anything I want apart from recent aquistions.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

John R. Graham · Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2013 9:30 pm Post subject:

Ah. A light dawns.

- John
_________________
I can confirm that I have received between 0 and 499 National Security Letters.

Atmmac · Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2013 8:13 pm Post subject:

Reiser4? =D

jpc22 · Apprentice Joined: 29 Jan 2012 Posts: 195

JFS is pretty robust even with power outages and as long as you use the deadline scheduler it has good performance.