Btrfs RAID5/6... anyone here every tried it?

I've always wondered, given the warnings in documentation, if there are any people brave enough to try Btrfs in a RAID5/6 configuration. Has anyone here actually tried it with "real" data?

7 points · 8 comments · view on lemmy.world

8 Comments

eldereko@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 3y
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jyte@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 3y

It depends on what you call "real" data.

I find it good enough for home NAS that serve as jellyfin instance and store a hell lot of stuff. Things I would rather keep, but anything really critical is stored on several computers.

Works well so far (about 4 or 5 years already now) with raid5 for data but raid1 for metadata.

AbidanYre@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3y

I tried it probably a decade ago and it ended badly.

The last time I checked it seemed like "the powers that be" running btrfs had shifted focus away from raid 5/6 because enterprises didn't care about it.

poVoq@slrpnk.net · 1 pts · 3y

Given how flexible RAID1 in btrfs is, I don't really see any benefit in using RAID5/6.

circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 3y

If the devs say "unstable", it's probably unstable.

Mimo@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 3y

Some people in the comments of this claims to use it with real data https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.2-Btrfs-EXT4

If you use it don't forget to use RAID1 for metadata

_HR_@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 3y (2 replies)

Yes.

OneCardboardBox@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 3y (1 reply)

I'd like to hear more. Are you still using it? What's kind of data do/did you store on it?

_HR_@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 3y

Yes, as in, there were people using Btrfs RAID 5/6. It didn't end well. Not that I've used it - I very much prefer having my data safe.

The warnings in the docs are there for a reason - those modes of Btrfs simply aren't finished and thus aren't fit to be used.

You can test this yourself easily in a VM, this will let you see how things fail for Btrfs 5/6 when one of the disks "fails".