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Neither HFS Plus nor NTFS does any data integrity checking; aka checks for “bit rot” on data files stored on the system. This is concerning because Time Machine and similar tools cannot detect if they are backing up corrupt data.
Are there tools that can detect corruption and warn me of it?
What is the best consumer strategy for keeping my data integrous? Do I have to go all the way and create a ZFS/Btrfs NAS to store my information?
Update:
After some research I found that there are 2 ports of ZFS to Mac OS X:
This seems the best approach to gaining data integrity on Mac OS.
1I've been using ZFS for years now on my home server, with FreeBSD. It's really great but eats as much RAM as you throw at it. ZFS for Linux should be sufficiently stable by now, I'm using it on one of my dedicated servers. No problems there either. – Daniel B – 2014-12-04T23:41:50.440
@DanielB Very good to know! Now I have a new project to spend time on! – JakeGould – 2014-12-04T23:46:17.833
2I'd add setting it up right is a bit tricky. There's a SF regular who's a wizard at this, and if I recall correctly he suggests having a fast SSD for ZIL and l2arc. You're also going to want a ton of ram on your storage box as Daniel B mentioned. – Journeyman Geek – 2014-12-05T00:16:34.307
It'd probably be easier to use FreeNAS to set up ZFS on FreeBSD than doing it from scratch, since you're looking to build a NAS anyway (unless, of course, you prefer to set it up manually so you understand it). – Suchipi – 2014-12-05T06:25:40.367
@Suchipi “Unless, of course, you prefer to set it up manually so you understand it.” For the original poster, maybe that is the best option. But I do Linux/Unix development, systems administration and security work. Even if I setup something the easy way I assure you at some point I will have to “dig deeper” to really get it to work the way a client desires. So I would rather build from scratch; works better for my process. – JakeGould – 2014-12-05T06:29:18.167
There’s really no need for any trickery in SOHO environments. My system has a Sandy Bridge Pentium and runs RAID-Z2 without problems at ~10k IOPS and >400 MB/s with 6 disks. ZIL and L2ARC are unnecessary for most mass storage applications. After all, you only have Gigabit Ethernet, right? ;) – Daniel B – 2014-12-05T08:33:35.920
@DanielB Could you explain your last point some more. You lost me with the ZFS terms. What are ZIL and L2ARC, why are they unnecessary and what's the relation to ethernet? – hekevintran – 2014-12-05T18:41:25.507
@DanielB Instead of elaborating in comments it might be better if you posted a new answer outlining how you have successfully setup an NFS with ZFS on a small scale. – JakeGould – 2014-12-05T20:10:29.907