Storage Management & Pooling#
When it came to choosing the current storage software/tool for this media server I had a few requirements that I wanted the setup to :
- Pool all drive under a single directory
- Ability to expend the drive pool with more drives later
- Avoid restricting the drive to this pool/system only, without the need to wipe it. (think hardware raid)
- Support mismatch of drive size and types
- Drive redundancy support (raid like)
ZFS?#
ZFS was one of the first options I wanted to see if I could use, but back then it did not allow for expending the pool after its first initial release. Which didn’t work for me as I was not sure I wanted to limit the pool to a size and stick to it, I wasn’t sure how much storage I would want at the end.
Combined with the high usage of RAM ZFS requires I decided to look in other directions for my pooling needs.
LVM#
LVM was a tool I was familiar with and has hit most of my needs when it came for a pooling storage tool, adding drives to the pool would be an easy task but removing them, as well as deciding where the actual files landed was not an feature that LVM had. Which lead me to look at other options, but LVM was a strong contender.
MergerFS & SnapRAID#
MergerFs has checked all my requirements but the drive redundancy capabilities, this is where snapRAID a tool that is often recommended along side mergerFS due to the two tools complimenting each other.
MergerFS is a union file system that sits on the file system level, which allows each drive to be configured with it own file system, as well as does not add anything to the drive to restrict them from being plucked out of the pool and connected to another system.
When combined with snapRAID which allows for raid like drive redundancy to help with physical drive failures. While still allowing the pool to be flexible and redundant. While keeping to the KISS principles.