> My original motivation was preventing bitrot, but I've since seen that rationale called into question[0].
The article is interesting in his contrarian view, however, when it comes to bitrot, it counters anecdata with other anecdata:
> One bit flip will easily be detected and corrected, so we’re talking about a scenario where multiple bit flips happen in close proximity and in such a manner that it is still mathematically valid. While it is a possible scenario, it is also very unlikely. A drive that has this many bit errors in close proximity is likely to be failing
I detected bitrot once or twice, and in neither case the drive was failing. This is anecdata though - is it valid? Who knows.
I'm personally skeptical about blanket statements (which the author makes) without seriously backing data.
I have a ZFS setup, and it's arguable whether it's a hassle in itself. At least for RAID-1 setups (I have two), once installed, it's not inherently harder to maintain than other FSs. Installation is manual, and that's definitely a hassle, but users are definitely intended to be advanced ones.
Regarding SMART: it's not as easy at the article author states. I have a laptop that periodically pops up with new instances of a certain error, but the SMART guides says that this is not an error one needs to consider, so I'm confused. Additionally, the smart-notifier of Ubuntu (at least up to 18.04) is broken. I agree that SMART is important to consider, but it's not straightforward as it seems.
The article is interesting in his contrarian view, however, when it comes to bitrot, it counters anecdata with other anecdata:
> One bit flip will easily be detected and corrected, so we’re talking about a scenario where multiple bit flips happen in close proximity and in such a manner that it is still mathematically valid. While it is a possible scenario, it is also very unlikely. A drive that has this many bit errors in close proximity is likely to be failing
I detected bitrot once or twice, and in neither case the drive was failing. This is anecdata though - is it valid? Who knows.
I'm personally skeptical about blanket statements (which the author makes) without seriously backing data.
I have a ZFS setup, and it's arguable whether it's a hassle in itself. At least for RAID-1 setups (I have two), once installed, it's not inherently harder to maintain than other FSs. Installation is manual, and that's definitely a hassle, but users are definitely intended to be advanced ones.
Regarding SMART: it's not as easy at the article author states. I have a laptop that periodically pops up with new instances of a certain error, but the SMART guides says that this is not an error one needs to consider, so I'm confused. Additionally, the smart-notifier of Ubuntu (at least up to 18.04) is broken. I agree that SMART is important to consider, but it's not straightforward as it seems.