Hello Guys,

i am wondering what would be the best file system or file system combination for me.

Ive got 6 Disks so far and id actually like to have a 2 disk redundancy (hope thats correct; so up to 2 disks may fail with no data loss).
Beside these normal disks ive got a 2TB ssd that could serve as Cache

I am using only Windows PCs and some devices like Scanner that access the Server. Beside that i need some Dockers (Paperless-NGX, Immich, Nextcloud, ...) and maybe in future a VM for like 3CX Phone-System


My idea was that i get a cache with the SSD, a storage with Parity for the most secure stuff (dont want to loose this data) and some pool for like not so important stuff that i might just put somewhere in case i will need it one day.

As ive got 2 NAS still, i am able to backup also stuff that is in a pool with no redundancy



All data or at least certain data should be encrypted in case some guy breaks in and steals the server :-)

Thanks in advance

2 minutes ago, Saarlaender said:

2 disk redundancy (hope thats correct; so up to 2 disks may fail with no data loss)

Redundancy doesn't mean no data loss, it means you can keep working if you lose two disks at the same time. There's plenty of ways to lose data without a hardware failure. Rather than worrying about a file system, think about backing up your important stuff so a hardware failure, or multiple hardware failures isn't catastrophic.

Well i understand 2 parity disks the way that it can rebuild data if up to 2 disks fail

isnt it like that?

i had once a hhd fail, then during rebuild the second disk failed and all data was lost

So i like to have an option to rebuild if up to 2 disks fail

beside that i have like mentioned 2 more nas to backup important stuff. but still wondering if i should use btrfs, xfs or zfs

For the array, xfs is recommended for the typical user, but if you care about checksums and/or snapshots, btrfs or zfs are good options, just be aware that currently there's a write performance issue with zfs when used with the array, pools are not affected.

Thanks

i am not sure what/if i would need to do to have proper like snapshots. ZFS is too risky for me, so question would be xfs or btrfs. I like to run encryption (and it seems i cant switch from non encrypted to encrypted...), so is there something id need to consider?

What would be best way to switch from non encrypted to encrypted? It was just for a test but in meanwhile i did some data transfer, setting up docker etc :-D didnt expect it to last (due to cpu error, discussed in another thread).

To enable encryption, you need to empty that disk, format it with an encrypted filesystem, move the data back, then repeat for the other ones, personally I only recommend using encryption only if it's really necessary, if not, you are just adding another layer of things that can go wrong, and can difficult recovery sometimes.

Well, i am about to place personal photos, personal data and company data. I dont want thiefs (unlikely but possible) to grab that stuff when they decide to enter the building

On 6/4/2025 at 4:22 PM, Saarlaender said:

Well i understand 2 parity disks the way that it can rebuild data if up to 2 disks fail

isnt it like that?

Sure, but if you get filesystem corruption, a file deleted by mistake or a failure of the whole system that won't help. Separate backups are always essential.