6 ms·

Does anyone have a good idea if ZFS is something I might want on a (workstation or home) laptop, including power usage? Or more for a desktop/server?

ianai 7y ago
I’d do it as it has a lot of neat features. But I’d make sure that laptop had a “large“ (16g or more) amount of ram and a couple cores to spare.
wil421 7y ago
Why would you put ZFS on a laptop? How many drives can you fit into a laptop? I’m running FreeNas at home with 6x4TB WD Red drives. All my computers back up to FreeNas. My Plex server reads/writes all its media from it as well. I’m going to switch FreeNas to a Linux server with ZFS at some point.
- 0xcde4c3db 7y ago
  > Why would you put ZFS on a laptop? Data validation, snapshots, compression, zfs send (for backups)?
- pm7 7y ago
  > Why would you put ZFS on a laptop? How many drives can you fit into a laptop? Checksums, compression, snapshots (so easy and fast incremental backups using send/receive). ZFS is much more then RAID. Also, even with only one drive we can increase our chances a bit using copies=2.
ses1984 7y ago
I wouldn't put zfs anywhere except a server or non root volume, the resource usage is high and if I had to guess it would have an impact on battery life. Unleas you're into either file systems or installers as a hobby, let others be the early adopters.
- pm7 7y ago
  > I had to guess it would have an impact on battery life. I guess it saves battery due to ARC (adaptive replacement cache). > Unleas you're into either file systems or installers as a hobby, let others be the early adopters. ZFS is already quite old filesystem as has great features (for example: checksumming, snapshots, compression) that should be already standard.
  - ses1984 7y ago
    >ZFS is already quite old filesystem as has great features (for example: checksumming, snapshots, compression) that should be already standard. Sure but if you don't know how zfs works do you really want to figure it out in the middle of trouble shooting installation problems, or post install root volume problems?
    - pm7 7y ago
      > Sure but if you don't know how zfs works do you really want to figure it out in the middle of trouble shooting installation problems Isn't it similar to using mdraid, lvm and dm-crypt without experience? > or post install root volume problems? In my other comments I suggested to not use ZFS for rootfs unless someone is already experienced.
      - ses1984 7y ago
        >Isn't it similar to using mdraid, lvm and dm-crypt without experience? Those are all pretty different, but yeah basically we agree on this. I'm not sure about battery life, if I had to give a more nuanced answer I would say it probably depends on use case and you should measure it if you want to be sure.
kissgyorgy 7y ago
Since I started seriously using it for my home server, I decided that I never want to use any other file system on any of my machines, it's that good. I use it on my desktop machine and will never look back. Snapshotting can be beneficial for any kind of machine for example.
stiray 7y ago
I am using it on my mini server for around 10 years (freebsd 3x3tb as zraid + 10tb disk for casual things) and now on laptop as a root for fedora and I wouldnt part from it. It is the only fs with snapshot capabilities that i fully trust. It didnt crash even once. It is battle proven and I never understood why distributions are not including it as a default or at least as a part of basic installation. Although I would avoid encryption for a few years. Just for any case. One thing if you start playing with it (I am surprised how little users know about this feature): you can access the snapshot content using hidden "directory" /.zfs/snapshot/snapshotname ;) Just cd into it. One word of warning, near end of pool capacity it will start to fragment (there is no defragmenter for it, but if they have made implementing encryption, defragmentation shouldnt be far away) and performance will drop. Dont let it happen, always keep 10-20% free and dont forget about old snapshots size.
kstenerud 7y ago
I used it under BSD for ages, and started using it in Linux many years ago, first as FUSE, then ZOL. It's rock solid. The only thing is that it "uses" all your RAM, but gives it back as needed. Also, if your volume gets over 90% full, it starts becoming VERY inefficient.
pm7 7y ago
I use it on both servers and notebooks. I did not notice increased power usage, but if it matters to you, you should check it. I use it mainly for non-root volumes because of bad experience in the past (dkms deciding to not build zfs module on first try after update, kernel incompatibility, grub incompatibility, etc.). It's better now, but unless you are experienced I would suggest to not use it for root. Main reasons I use it: * checksums - I had undetected data corruption * snapshots - great addition to backups * compression
UI_at_80x24 7y ago
Yes you do. Instant backups (snapshots) alone are worth the investment. Take a snapshot before you update your kernel, and poof super-simple recovery. Working on a project and need to access it remotely? Take a snapshot and then pull it to wherever you are, your dev environment anywhere. (Different use-case from GIT.) Snapshot /home/ and worry less about computer migrations. ZFS is _THE_ power-user tool of the decade hands down. Disclaimer: I run FreeBSD on my workstation, laptop, and servers. I've never tried to "mix & match" FreeBSD & Linux ZFS implementations.
- StavrosK 7y ago
  I run Linux with ZFS on my home NAS and I will echo your sentiments. Accidentally deleted some photos? They're all in Photos/.zfs/2019-10-14/. I can't wait to run ZFS on my desktop too.

ianai 7y ago

I’d do it as it has a lot of neat features. But I’d make sure that laptop had a “large“ (16g or more) amount of ram and a couple cores to spare.

wil421 7y ago

Why would you put ZFS on a laptop? How many drives can you fit into a laptop? I’m running FreeNas at home with 6x4TB WD Red drives. All my computers back up to FreeNas. My Plex server reads/writes all its media from it as well. I’m going to switch FreeNas to a Linux server with ZFS at some point.

0xcde4c3db 7y ago
> Why would you put ZFS on a laptop? Data validation, snapshots, compression, zfs send (for backups)?
pm7 7y ago
> Why would you put ZFS on a laptop? How many drives can you fit into a laptop? Checksums, compression, snapshots (so easy and fast incremental backups using send/receive). ZFS is much more then RAID. Also, even with only one drive we can increase our chances a bit using copies=2.

ses1984 7y ago

I wouldn't put zfs anywhere except a server or non root volume, the resource usage is high and if I had to guess it would have an impact on battery life. Unleas you're into either file systems or installers as a hobby, let others be the early adopters.

pm7 7y ago
> I had to guess it would have an impact on battery life. I guess it saves battery due to ARC (adaptive replacement cache). > Unleas you're into either file systems or installers as a hobby, let others be the early adopters. ZFS is already quite old filesystem as has great features (for example: checksumming, snapshots, compression) that should be already standard.
- ses1984 7y ago
  >ZFS is already quite old filesystem as has great features (for example: checksumming, snapshots, compression) that should be already standard. Sure but if you don't know how zfs works do you really want to figure it out in the middle of trouble shooting installation problems, or post install root volume problems?
  - pm7 7y ago
    > Sure but if you don't know how zfs works do you really want to figure it out in the middle of trouble shooting installation problems Isn't it similar to using mdraid, lvm and dm-crypt without experience? > or post install root volume problems? In my other comments I suggested to not use ZFS for rootfs unless someone is already experienced.
    - ses1984 7y ago
      >Isn't it similar to using mdraid, lvm and dm-crypt without experience? Those are all pretty different, but yeah basically we agree on this. I'm not sure about battery life, if I had to give a more nuanced answer I would say it probably depends on use case and you should measure it if you want to be sure.

kissgyorgy 7y ago

Since I started seriously using it for my home server, I decided that I never want to use any other file system on any of my machines, it's that good. I use it on my desktop machine and will never look back. Snapshotting can be beneficial for any kind of machine for example.

stiray 7y ago

I am using it on my mini server for around 10 years (freebsd 3x3tb as zraid + 10tb disk for casual things) and now on laptop as a root for fedora and I wouldnt part from it. It is the only fs with snapshot capabilities that i fully trust. It didnt crash even once. It is battle proven and I never understood why distributions are not including it as a default or at least as a part of basic installation. Although I would avoid encryption for a few years. Just for any case. One thing if you start playing with it (I am surprised how little users know about this feature): you can access the snapshot content using hidden "directory" /.zfs/snapshot/snapshotname ;) Just cd into it. One word of warning, near end of pool capacity it will start to fragment (there is no defragmenter for it, but if they have made implementing encryption, defragmentation shouldnt be far away) and performance will drop. Dont let it happen, always keep 10-20% free and dont forget about old snapshots size.

kstenerud 7y ago

I used it under BSD for ages, and started using it in Linux many years ago, first as FUSE, then ZOL. It's rock solid. The only thing is that it "uses" all your RAM, but gives it back as needed. Also, if your volume gets over 90% full, it starts becoming VERY inefficient.

pm7 7y ago

I use it on both servers and notebooks. I did not notice increased power usage, but if it matters to you, you should check it. I use it mainly for non-root volumes because of bad experience in the past (dkms deciding to not build zfs module on first try after update, kernel incompatibility, grub incompatibility, etc.). It's better now, but unless you are experienced I would suggest to not use it for root. Main reasons I use it: * checksums - I had undetected data corruption * snapshots - great addition to backups * compression

UI_at_80x24 7y ago

Yes you do. Instant backups (snapshots) alone are worth the investment. Take a snapshot before you update your kernel, and poof super-simple recovery. Working on a project and need to access it remotely? Take a snapshot and then pull it to wherever you are, your dev environment anywhere. (Different use-case from GIT.) Snapshot /home/ and worry less about computer migrations. ZFS is _THE_ power-user tool of the decade hands down. Disclaimer: I run FreeBSD on my workstation, laptop, and servers. I've never tried to "mix & match" FreeBSD & Linux ZFS implementations.

StavrosK 7y ago
I run Linux with ZFS on my home NAS and I will echo your sentiments. Accidentally deleted some photos? They're all in Photos/.zfs/2019-10-14/. I can't wait to run ZFS on my desktop too.