btrfs

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jgreco

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No. If you want to use btrfs, you need Linux. The GPL is generally incompatible with FreeBSD, whereas a proper free software license such as the one ZFS uses allows ZFS to be integrated into a variety of operating systems.
 

mattbbpl

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No. If you want to use btrfs, you need Linux. The GPL is generally incompatible with FreeBSD, whereas a proper free software license such as the one ZFS uses allows ZFS to be integrated into a variety of operating systems.
Why is the GPL incompatible? Just curious on the legaleze.
 

anodos

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How do you think the question of "do I need ECC?" is related to the question of "can I use btrfs?"

Presumably, the thought process would be the following:

1) ZFS requires ECC memory
2) btrfs does not require ECC memory
3) I do not have ECC memory
therefore
4) I should use btrfs.

Since (4) is not possible, the OP is re-evaluating (1).

Of course, the process of (1)-(4) indicates that the OP should probably spend more time reading / learning before trying to deploy a NAS appliance.
 

danb35

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From what I can find online, and an application of basic logic, it seems that ECC is equally important for btrfs as for ZFS. If the thought process you describe accurately reflects OP's, he's wrong on 3 of 4.
 

cyberjock

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On the note of btrfs and ECC, there's lots of ways to look at this. btrfs uses its own checksumming, so for the same reasons that ZFS needs ECC, I'd expect btrfs to have the same problem.

Of course, if you look at the bigger picture, virtually all systems gain stability and reliability by using ECC. Every system I've ever used that had non-ECC RAM fail suffered catastrophic corruption of the file system. That applies to NTFS, FAT32, and the Mac one (HFS?).

So again, if you're looking for a system that is less likely to corrupt your file system due to RAM errors, you should consider ECC RAM a requirement, regardless of the file system and OS you chose to use.
 

jgreco

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Why is the GPL incompatible? Just curious on the legaleze.

The BSD license is a very permissive license. You can do lots of things with the software, including taking the software and creating something like FreeNAS, and then not giving away the source code to the product that you're trying to sell to make a living. This is why Apple OS X userland is based on FreeBSD. Microsoft has used BSD code in their TCP/IP stack. The licensing primarily requires attribution, once you meet the terms of the license, it's available for use.

The GPL is ... different. Proponents like to refer to it as a "free" license, but it is an unusual definition of "freedom" that imposes significant restrictions on what you can and cannot do, which, to my mind, is not "freedom." The GPL is an attempt to coerce the people who benefit from software into providing their code back to the community for free. This seems like a nice idea on one hand, but if we were to look at a product like TrueNAS, it means that there'd be very little to protect a company such as iXsystems who has spent a huge amount developing a quality product from the nefarious types who might release GrinchNAS and sell it for cheaper, because, well, y'know, copying code is tons cheaper than developing it.

For more details, see https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/articles/bsdl-gpl/article.html

For a very quick TL;DR ...

[Y]ou had copyright, which is what the big companies use to lock everything up; you had copyleft, which is free software's way of making sure they can't lock it up; and then Berkeley had what we called ‘copycenter’, which is ‘take it down to the copy center and make as many copies as you want.’

— Kirk McKusick, BSDCon 1999
 

Mr_N

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Maybe he likes to surprise them by sneaking up on it and pulling the power cord :P
 

jgreco

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I was thinking more like he was sprinkling them with metal filings.
 

phier

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looks like cyberjock is spreading information that are not true and apparently he doesnt understand concept in the details.. I use pc for more then 25y, never with ecc and never occured any fs corruption because of ram.
 
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