ZFS vs BTRFS vs mdadm?

I recently bought an HP 800 G4 Mini to run some services, upgrading from my N100 box.

I want some storage redundancy. The system supports two M.2 NVMe SSDs and a 2.5″ SATA SSD. I plan to use the two NVMe drives in a RAID 1 mirror for applications and the SATA SSD for the OS. This storage will only be for applications, as I have a separate NAS for general storage.

The main applications I want to run are the Pterodactyl panel for game servers and LibreNMS, both using MySQL, with all services running in Docker.

My questions:

Should I use a ZFS mirror, BTRFS RAID 1, or mdadm with Ext4? I like the checksumming and snapshot features of ZFS and BTRFS, but I’ve heard databases don’t always work well on CoW filesystems.

How can I set up notifications if a drive fails? I have SNMP monitoring via LibreNMS and would like alerts to go through that.

For the two NVMe drives in the RAID, is it better to use different models or are two identical drives fine?

Tagged: NAS

General

All Replies

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)

Jace Elric

Participant

October 16, 2025 at 9:24 am

You have an IBM Power9 S914 server with 64 GB of RAM, an HMC 7063-CR1, and a TS4300 tape library that holds 40 LTO cartridges. This is enterprise hardware intended for running AIX or Linux on POWER9 and managing large-scale tape backups, and it is very different from standard x86 servers like your Dells. Its resale value is roughly $3,000–$8,000 depending on the CPU, RAM, and whether tape drives are included. The most practical way to sell it is through IT resellers, enterprise auctions, or to universities and labs. Keeping it would provide a platform for learning POWER systems and enterprise backup workflows, but for a home lab focused on media or SaaS, selling it and using the proceeds for modern x86 servers is likely more useful.

Jace Elric

Participant

October 16, 2025 at 9:00 am

For your HP 800 G4 Mini, the two NVMe drives can be set up in a RAID 1 for Docker applications with MySQL. The simplest and most reliable option is mdadm with Ext4, which gives stable RAID 1 redundancy, predictable database performance, and easy monitoring with LibreNMS. A ZFS mirror is also an option if you want checksums and snapshots, but it requires tuning for database performance and uses more memory. BTRFS RAID 1 is less suitable for write-heavy databases due to potential fragmentation and slower writes. Using two identical NVMe drives is recommended for consistent performance. Drive failure alerts can be handled through mdadm or ZFS and integrated with LibreNMS. Overall, mdadm + Ext4 is the straightforward choice, while ZFS adds extra protection with more complexity.

Viewing 2 replies - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)