Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > linux.debian.user > #226172

Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups

Show all headers | View raw

On 8/13/20 02:31, David Christensen wrote:
> On 8/12/20 5:14 PM, rhkramer@gmail.com wrote:
>> I'm getting closer to setting up a consistent backup plan, backing up
>> to an
>> external USB drive.  I'm wondering about a reasonable filesystem to
>> use, I
>> think I want to stay in the ext2/3/4 family, and I'm wondering if
>> there is any
>> good reason to use anything beyond ext2?
>>
>> (Some day I'll try ZFS or BTRFS for my "system" filesystems, but don't
>> see any
>> point (and don't want to learn) either of them at this point -- I
>> don't see
>> much need for a backup filesystem.)
>>
>> But, I'll listen to opinions ;-)
> 
> Without knowing anything about your resources, needs, expectations,
> "consistent backup plan", etc., and given the choices ext2, ext3, or
> ext4 for an external USB drive presumably to store backup repositories,
> I would also pick ext4.
> 
> 
> But, none of the ext* filesystems have bit rot protection.  btrfs and
> ZFS do.
> 
> 
> btrfs is supported by the Debian Installer.  I used btrfs for Debian
> system disks for several years.  I discovered too late that btrfs
> requires routine maintenance (to balance its binary trees?).  The disks
> got progressively slower and software started misbehaving.  Notably,
> Thunderbird began losing messages when moving them from an IMAP folder
> to a local folder (!).  I went back to ext4 for my Debian system disks.
> 
> 
> Due to GPL and CDDL license conflicts, Debian does not support ZFS OOTB.
>  Notably, the Debian Installer lacks support for ZFS.  (Some brave and
> skilled people have figured out how to install Debian with ZFS on root;
> STFW for details.)  There is a 'contrib' ZFS kernel package available
> that can be installed on a working Debian system.  This makes it
> possible to use ZFS for most everything except boot and root.  ZFS is
> mature and reliable.  I use ZFS for FreeBSD system disks, file server
> live data, backups, archives, and images.  Migrating to ZFS was
> non-trivial, and I am still wresting with disaster preparedness.

Debian ZFS root (and boot) is not *that* hard; see the instructions at

 https://openzfs.github.io/openzfs-docs/Getting%20Started/Debian/Debian%20Buster%20Root%20on%20ZFS.html

They certainly are not harder than installing early Debian releases (as
I remember it from around 20 years ago, and should not be hard for
anyone building a backup system and server. Installation as an
additional file system should not be notably different from installing a
file system package from main, except for the notice the GPL
incompatibility notice that will pop up during installation.

I would recommend installing from buster-backports to get the current
openzfs release which includes improvements (notably native encryption)
as well as fixes.

Tom Dial

> 
> 
> David

Back to linux.debian.user | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups rhkramer@gmail.com - 2020-08-13 02:20 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Keith Bainbridge <keithrbaugroups@gmail.com> - 2020-08-13 02:40 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Ben Caradoc-Davies <ben@transient.nz> - 2020-08-13 03:00 +0200
    Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2020-08-13 11:00 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Mark Allums <maa@allums.com> - 2020-08-13 03:20 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for  backups Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2020-08-13 05:20 +0200
    Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2020-08-13 11:00 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2020-08-13 10:40 +0200
    Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Tom Dial <tddial@comcast.net> - 2020-08-13 20:10 +0200
      Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups rhkramer@gmail.com - 2020-08-13 22:00 +0200
        Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2020-08-13 22:20 +0200
          Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2020-08-13 22:40 +0200
            Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-08-13 23:00 +0200
              Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups ghe2001 <ghe2001@protonmail.com> - 2020-08-13 23:40 +0200
                Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Jonathan Dowland <jon+debian-user@dow.land> - 2020-08-14 11:40 +0200
                Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups <tomas@tuxteam.de> - 2020-08-14 12:00 +0200
          Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups rhkramer@gmail.com - 2020-08-14 03:30 +0200
            Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2020-08-14 07:10 +0200
        Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Tom Dial <tddial@comcast.net> - 2020-08-14 04:50 +0200
    Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups David Christensen <dpchrist@holgerdanske.com> - 2020-08-20 00:10 +0200
      Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Ben Caradoc-Davies <ben@transient.nz> - 2020-08-20 01:40 +0200
        Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Michael Stone <mstone@debian.org> - 2020-08-20 04:20 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for  backups local10 <local10@tutanota.com> - 2020-08-13 21:50 +0200
  Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2020-08-14 07:30 +0200
    Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2020-08-14 17:40 +0200
      Re: Recommendation for filesystem for USB external drive for backups Andrei POPESCU <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> - 2020-08-15 13:00 +0200

csiph-web