[sf-lug] filesystem for a 3TB external USB drive

[Rick Moen]

Quoting jim (jim at systemateka.com):


> Thanks for the reply. 

No problem.  (Jim was kind enough to jog my memory offlist of the fact
that it wasn't he who posed the question at the beginning of this
thread, but rather Sameer.  Nothing wrong with the question, and it was
an interesting topic, but, as originally posed, more detail about
requirements was necessary before it could be intelligently answered.)

> http://www.nexenta.org/  # behaves oddly with my browser 
> 
> seems to be a ZFS-based storage appliance with a variety 
> of software tools;

Um, no.

It's a general-purpose *ix OS with a GNU userspace atop a Solaris
kernel.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nexenta_OS

>     the machine I was working with was a supermicro 1U, 
> can't remember now exactly its configuration (e.g. I'm 
> pretty sure only one power supply rather than a dual 
> power supply that's common in enterprise class machines). 

Yes?

I hope you noted Ted T'so's point in the passage I quoted, which is that
PC-type HBAs and hard disks often behave really, really badly as they
lose power, and can write highly destructive garbage in the fraction of
a second before they fully lose power.  For that reason, there are
severe risks in using filesystems designed with the assumption of
well-behaved workstation-grade hardware (e.g., ReiserFS, XFS), and there
is safety to be found in filesystems coded defensively with poorly
behaving hardware in mind (e.g., ext3).