ZFS or EXT4 for a Single non-essential data drive

[colin1234]

I'm adding shucked 14TB external drive to my Proxmox Server as a drive for non-essential data (ie. Linux ISOs). As a single drive, is it worth it for me to use ZFS or can I just use EXT4? Is there any real advantage to ZFS in this situation, especially if the drive is just going to fill up until I buy another one (ie. I won't be keeping it under 80% as recommended)

I'll also say that I have everything backed up to Backblaze, so this is not a single drive with one copy of data if that makes a difference.

 

[leesteken]

I'm adding shucked 14TB external drive to my Proxmox Server as a drive for non-essential data (ie. Linux ISOs). As a single drive, is it worth it for me to use ZFS or can I just use EXT4? Is there any real advantage to ZFS in this situation, especially if the drive is just going to fill up until I buy another one (ie. I won't be keeping it under 80% as recommended)

If you want compression or snapshots or checksums to detect drive/cable/controller problems (which you cannot fix with a single drive!) then use ZFS or Btrfs.
ISO's can easily be checked by calculating the checksum (once in a while) and comparing it against the expected on the website you downloaded if from (like bittorrent does on verify).

I'll also say that I have everything backed up to Backblaze, so this is not a single drive with one copy of data if that makes a difference.

If you get (silent) data corruption, you'll won't notice it on Ext4 and it will become part of the backups (and maybe you won't have a good version after a while). However, Linux ISO's can probably all be downloaded again when that happens (so I don't see the point of backing them up).

Why do you even consider ZFS for Linux ISOs? I feel that the choice is obvious and you seem to dislike ZFS. Feel free to use whatever you like or what works best for you (as it does not matter to Proxmox).

 

[gfngfn256]

especially if the drive is just going to fill up until I buy another one

Imagining the average ISO is 3GB (I don't accurately know what the average is, I'm guessing ballpark-style), that would give you 4666 ISOs to fill that 14TB drive! How many ISOs actually exist out there? I think that 14TB drive is literally wasted on just ISOs. But let us not forget - that drive isn't mine!

 

[Neobin]

Imagining the average ISO is 3GB (I don't accurately know what the average is, I'm guessing ballpark-style), that would give you 4666 ISOs to fill that 14TB drive! How many ISOs actually exist out there? I think that 14TB drive is literally wasted on just ISOs. But let us not forget - that drive isn't mine!

There could very well exist another definition of "Linux ISOs"...