Does Ext4 filesystem diminishes life of SSD?

deepclutch · 09-21-2014, 04:53 AM

I am planning to install Ubuntu/Debian on a new SSD and was searching for info when stumbled upon this link:

Quote:

Originally Posted by askubuntu

I would not use ext4 on a solid state drive based on anecdotal evidence and my own experience that suggests ext4 can greatly diminish the lifetime of a SSD due to the number of reads and writes associated with the file system. One article I recently read suggested that unoptimized (accounting for page size, etc.) ext4 on an SSD can cut the disk life in half. After a week of trouble shooting, I've come to the conclusion that my own SSDs have only lasted eight months due to this issue. If you use an SSD, do lots of reading on how to optimize the file system based on things like flash page size which may be different than the typical cylinder size the file system is set up for.

Quote:

Originally Posted by askubuntu

The last time I tested it, and I haven't heard differently yet anywhere, ext4 eats solid-state media. (thumbdrives, solid-state drives, etc.) I don't recommend using it on such a device. Use ext3 instead. For most cases on SSD you won't be able to tell the difference anyway.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=187214
http://askubuntu.com/questions/75061...xt4-for-my-ssd
Related:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...sd-4175417236/

ReaperX7 · 09-21-2014, 04:58 AM

If you have an SSD you should use JFS.

deepclutch · 09-21-2014, 05:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

If you have an SSD you should use JFS.

What superiority JFS has over Btrfs. does the concerns over ext4 genuine?
Does JFS have journelling in case of crashes to backup data?

knudfl · 09-21-2014, 05:09 AM

JFS : Journaled File System for Linux ...

http://jfs.sourceforge.net/
"IBM's journaled file system technology, currently used in IBM enterprise servers"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JFS_%28file_system%29

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syg00 · 09-21-2014, 05:12 AM

Should ?. What about f2fs - at east it was designed specifically for FTL devices.
As for me, I happily use ext4.

fatmac · 09-21-2014, 06:28 AM

The old problem of too many writes to disk doesn't exist with modern SSD, however it is advisable to use 'noatime' in your /etc/fstab entry, and not put 'swap' onto an SSD, other than that, it doesn't matter which filesystem you choose to use.

Germany_chris · 09-21-2014, 09:11 AM

Really it doesn't matter I've got ext 4 running on an OCZ Vertex+, it's been on ext4 for two years. Before that it was HFS+ swap has been on the dive in both instances ext4 is not killing drives

rokytnji · 09-21-2014, 10:33 AM

Does not look like it so far. YMMV from mine.

Code:

# parted -l
Model: ATA APPLE SSD SM128 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 121GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End     Size    File system  Name  Flags
 1      1049kB  9438MB  9437MB  ext4
 2      9438MB  121GB   112GB   ext3

http://postmyimage.com/img2/299_Oh_No.png

I never liked Apple anyways. But this one fell off a truck. (just the drive, not the laptop).

Code:

~$ inxi -M
Machine:   System: Hewlett-Packard product: Presario CQ57 Notebook PC v: 068C110003204910000620100
           Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 3577 v: 24.48
           Bios: Hewlett-Packard v: F.42 date: 11/07/2011

ReaperX7 · 09-21-2014, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deepclutch

What superiority JFS has over Btrfs. does the concerns over ext4 genuine?
Does JFS have journelling in case of crashes to backup data?

Btrfs is still in development and isn't considered stable for general usage.

JFS is still the most recommended file system for GNU/Linux.

metaschima · 09-21-2014, 11:46 AM

Whatever filesystem you decide to use, make sure TRIM is enabled and I would also use noatime in fstab.

JFS has TRIM support in newer kernels, it is journaled, and it is faster than other filesystems on a SSD:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...38_large&num=1

I've been using it for a long time and never had any problems.

rokytnji · 09-21-2014, 01:59 PM

Good source of info

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Solid_State_Drives

pwalden · 09-21-2014, 04:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by metaschima

Whatever filesystem you decide to use, make sure TRIM is enabled and I would also use noatime in fstab.

JFS has TRIM support in newer kernels, it is journaled, and it is faster than other filesystems on a SSD:
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pag...38_large&num=1

I've been using it for a long time and never had any problems.

Agreed, I use ext4 with noatime on a USB 3 memory stick mounted on a RaspberryPi. No problems after 1 years of continual use.

jefro · 09-21-2014, 07:50 PM

Many SSD's have basically all that you need to secure data without a journal. All SSD's will slow down way too soon. It's their dirty little secret that they don't tell us.
Disable journal would be my suggestion. Move swap off to mechanical or don't use swap.

deepclutch · 09-22-2014, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ReaperX7

Btrfs is still in development and isn't considered stable for general usage.

JFS is still the most recommended file system for GNU/Linux.

I haven't used JFS filesystem. it was ext2/3 and now ext4 which I have used all along.
I am planning to install Debian Linux into a new SSD. formatting with GPT partition table. with JFS, for any unforeseen reason, power failure occurs, can it be recovered as easily as ext4? with ext4, running a fsck.ext4 -fvy /dev/sdX solves the problem most of the time.
So, Although not enough reasons cited, JFS is unofficially preferred for SSDs in Gnu/Linux?

ReaperX7 · 09-22-2014, 11:34 PM

JFS supports TRIM very well and is a Copy-On-Write file system.

JFS has great data recovery support compared to other file systems. As long as the file system journal writes are kept current regularly, you'll rarely experience data loss.

It's no ZFS, but it's better than BtrFS is currently.