Storage: BTRFS vs ZFS vs plain EXT4 DM raid

May 26, 2026
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Hi all,

Currently I am running on PVE 9.1 with native MDADM RAID5(3x8 TB disks) looking into prospects for switching to BTRFS or ZFS but every now and then power goes out.
At the moment I got 4 TB used out of ~ 16 TB and despite some issues it works awesome.
Anyone got experience with ZFS and BTRFS with once a month power outages ?
With ZFS data should be safer but I will need to wipe all 3 disks at the same time
With BTRFS I can copy data on 1 disk, wipe other 2 and expand first disk and "btrfs balance" from raid 0 to raid 5 however raid 5 is prone to issues during power outages.
Phoronix also doesn't make the choice easier with this one https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.17-EXT4
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Looks like running EXT4 on DM raid is looking good for my 'buthcer' setup