Thanks. OpenSUSE 13.2 uses btrfs as default (!!) and we have one prototype of our system running it (most of our productions are still running older openSUSE on ext4).

We are considering switching to Scientific Linux, but the btrfs question remains. The prototype is doing fine so far, but what we are really interested in with BTRFS is RAID and compression (not tried yet).

The new openSUSE release from yesterday (apparently no longer called "openSUSE" but "Leap") decided to use SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Linux) as upstream, while keeping btrfs as default, and I don't know if that means SLES (a major enterprise distro) also considers BTRFS mature.

If you recommend not using BTRFS in Scientific Linux until Red Hat makes a major release of it, that could mean 3 years of waiting given their release life cycle. I am no longer sure which way to go…

Benjamin Lefoul
nWISE AB



________________________________________
From: David Sommerseth [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, November 05, 2015 11:54 AM
To: Benjamin Lefoul; [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: BTRFS

On 05/11/15 09:38, Benjamin Lefoul wrote:
> Hi,
>
> If the btrfs filesystem on SL7 mature enough for a production environment?
> According to Sanders van Vugt it was not even available in RHEL 7.0, but will be (is?) in updates…

I would claim that btrfs is NOT ready for primetime production where
your data is precious.  If your intention is to use it on systems where
you have good backups to get acquainted with it, test it in a broader
scale and do bug reporting, then it is probably fine.

Btrfs have also been a topic on a few conferences I've been on over the
years (like devconf.cz), and file system developers doing btrfs
presentations have often said that btrfs still needs to be treated
carefully.  It just takes time to develop and mature an advanced file
system.

In addition I would also say that once RHEL puts it in a release ready
for production, that's the point where you can begin to have real
confidence in the file system.  Currently I believe it is only available
as a technology preview.  More on technology preview can be found here:
<https://access.redhat.com/support/offerings/techpreview>

On the other hand, I am conservative and very careful when it comes to
data integrity.


--
kind regards,

David Sommerseth