[Discuss] btrfs

[Edward Ned Harvey (blu)]

> From: discuss-bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org [mailto:discuss-
> bounces+blu=nedharvey.com at blu.org] On Behalf Of Jerry Feldman
> 
> Essentially, btrfs has been mentioned in a number of other contexts, but
> since it is now available on several distros, let's just start a thread
> on btrfs.

The caution that I want to throw out here is:  About a year ago, I installed a system running btrfs.  It passed all my tests.  I was able to run jobs on it, slice and dice everything the way I wanted to.  But the system was crashy.  (About once a week.)  Between me and the other admin, we wasted a ton of time digging into kernel, drivers, and all sorts of other stuff.  Until one day, when I simply reformatted btrfs with ext4, and then the problems went away.

The other admin is still in control of that system, and just this week I talked to him about this again, and he said btrfs still isn't ready for production.  He's guessing maybe the Oct release this year, hopefully...

I encourage lots of fun with btrfs at installfest.  But even when it looks great, I discourage putting it into production, except in the most conservative and expendable test scenarios.