Re: HDD long-term data storage with ensured integrity
On 2024-04-10, David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> wrote:
>>
>> I use Btrfs, on all my systems, including some servers, with soft Raid1
>> and Raid10 modes (because these modes are considered stable and
>> production ready). I decided on Btrfs not ZFS, because Btrfs allows to
>> migrate drives on the fly while partition is live and heavily used,
>> replace them with different sizes and types, mixed capacities, change
>> Raid levels, change amount of drives too. I could go from single drive
>> to Raid10 on 4 drives and back while my data is 100% available at all
>> times.
>> It saved my bacon many times, including hard checksum corruption on NVMe
>> drive which otherwise I would never know about. Thanks to Btrfs I
>> located the corrupted files, fixed them, got hardware replaced under
>> warranty.
>> Also helped with corrupted RAM: Btrfs just refused to save file because
>> saved copy couldn't match read checksum from the source due to RAM bit
>> flips. Diagnosed, then replaced memory, all good.
>> I like a lot when one of the drives get ATA reset for whatever reason,
>> and all other drives continue to read and write, I can continue using
>> the system for hours, if I even notice. Not possible in normal
>> circumstances without Raid. Once the problematic drive is back, or after
>> reboot if it's more serious, then I do "scrub" command and everything is
>> resynced again. If I don't do that, then Btrfs dynamically correct
>> checksum errors on the fly anyway.
>> And list goes on - I've been using Btrfs for last 5 years, not a single
>> problem to date, it survived hard resets, power losses, drive failures,
>> countless migrations.
>
>
> Those sound like some compelling features.
I don't believe in immortality. After many a summer dies the swan.
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