Btrfs is a great filesystem for proxmox in raid 1. Stop telling people not to use it

Btrfs gets a bad rap sometimes but I have been using it for years and it works very well. It is able to take failing hardware and power outages and still has good performance.

17 points · 30 comments · view on lemmy.world

30 Comments

Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 2y (9 replies)

For those without knowledge: Alternatives to BTRFS are what? EXT4 or NTFS?

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 2y

Mostly ZFS, XFS and ext4

Valon_Blue@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 2y (7 replies)

Correct, btrfs is a filesystem format.

Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 2y (6 replies)

What are the alternatives to it? NTFS? EXT4? ExFAT? FAT32??

sxan@midwest.social · 3 pts · 2y (5 replies)

xfs. ext4 doesn't have a comparable feature set, and nobody is going to use those others as their main filesystems on Linux. bcachefs will be a contender, once it's included in the kernel, or if you're the sort who compiles their own kernels.

poVoq@slrpnk.net · 7 pts · 2y (4 replies)

The only file-system that is somewhat comparable to btrfs is OpenZFS. Xfs isn't.

Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Seems like zfs or btrfs?
At least I usually read about storage file system usually being ZFS by default.

jelloeater85@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y (1 reply)

ZFS has been around for a long time. Rock solid w RAID. See FreeNAS. ZFS was orig on BSD but AFAIK got ported to Linux a while back.

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 2y

It now TrueNAS and both freebsd and Linux use the same implementation (openzfs)

sxan@midwest.social · 2 pts · 2y

Yeah, zfs is what I meant. Or yfs, as in "Y-use anything but btr-FS?"

TCB13@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 2y

Yes BTRFS is really good and solid. Usually survives hardware failure much better than the EXT* crap. And sub volumes and snapshots, damn finally a modern filesystem.

poVoq@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 2y

Agreed, I switched over from OpenZFS to btrfs and while it does lack some more advanced features, using btrfs for raid1 disk pools has been a very solid and hassle free experience.

beerclue@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y (2 replies)

To be honest, I don't see a benefit for btrfs (or zfs). I prefer plain ext4 (no LVM). It's simpler and faster. I have no need for snapshots. Proxmox handles my vms and my working machines are just a collection of dot files... But that's just me. It's good that there are choices.

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Ext4 is slower than btrfs

beerclue@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y

It's been a while since I looked at benchmarks (https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-5.14-File-Systems). It could be these days.

jelloeater85@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y (2 replies)

I've used Proxmox in the past w it, worked okie. One crazy hypervisor, ton of features. I mostly stick w VMware, it just works. My uptime is measured in years.

Auli@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 2y

Well I'll never get a uptime like they in proxmox cause I update.

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 2y

You can do the same thing with proxmox.

The benefit of proxmox is that it is libre and uses Linux components.

billygoat@catata.fish · 1 pts · 2y (1 reply)

It has been a while since I looked at it but does proxmox support HA replication using btrfs? From what I remember only zfs worked with those features.

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 2y

I don't know as I don't use that feature

Glarrf@midwest.social · 1 pts · 2y (5 replies)

My anecdotal experience with btrfs is that it constantly broke in raid 1, no problems with any other filesystems on the exact same hardware and setup. YMMV

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 4 pts · 2y (1 reply)

How long ago was that? Modern btrfs is pretty stable.

Glarrf@midwest.social · 1 pts · 2y

Last year, unraid, identical SSDs. I changed so many sata and power cables, so many settings.

jelloeater85@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 2y (2 replies)

I love it for single drives, but for RAID, ZFS all the way.

conrad82@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 2y (1 reply)

ZFS also supports single drives, is there a reason to use btrfs instead?

jelloeater85@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y

IIRC it works with TimeShift, aka time machine for Linux.

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

Its supposed to be called betterFS but Jim Salter keeps calling it butter FS. Doesn't really inspire confidence. At least it's gonna need.. a better name

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 2y (2 replies)

I don't know who Jim is but I just call it butterfs

amniote@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Jim Salter, the former mod of r/zfs ? Former Ars Technica ? Currently in the ' 2.5 Admins' podcast?

He's the hot knife of butter FS.

possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 2y

Ok that still doesn't ring a bell but he seems important to you so that's good enough for me