Editing Introduction to a Self Managed Life: a 13 hour & 28 minute presentation by FUTO software (section)

== How we’re storing our data: ==

We’re not keeping your 40 terabytes of GNU/Linux ISOs on solid state storage. That is a waste of money &amp; resources (unless you’re insanely rich). I set up the system drives on SSDs so that my photos, documents, mail, and android backups would be quickly accessible and these services highly responsive. I don’t need that level of responsiveness for my collection of GNU/Linux ISOs, though. This is where ZFS pools come into play.

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=== What is ZFS? ===

ZFS is a complete storage management system that combines:
* File system functionality
* Volume management
* RAID capabilities
* Data integrity checking
* Automatic repair features

It’s like having a RAID controller, Linux LVM, and a file system all in one.

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=== Why ZFS? ===

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==== 1. Data Integrity Built-In ====

* ZFS constantly checks for corruption using checksums
* ZFS automatically repairs corrupted files if you have redundancy
* ZFS saved me twice from the consequences of my bad decisions when I bought Seagate products.

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==== 2. Snapshots That Actually Work (although I’m not getting into that here) ====

* Take instant snapshots that don’t eat up space
* Roll back changes when you inevitably mess something up
* Keep multiple versions of files without doubling storage needs

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==== 3. Dynamic Stripe Sizes ====

* Unlike hardware RAID, ZFS can adjust stripe size on the fly

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