Since 2016, I’ve had a fileserver mostly just for backups. System is on 1 drive, RAID6 for files, and semi-annual cold backup.
I was playing with Photoprism, and their docs say “we recommend placing the storage folder on a local SSD drive for best performance.” In this case, the storage folder holds basically everything but the pictures themselves such as the database files.
Up until now, if I lost any database files, it was just a matter of rebuilding them by re-indexing my photos or whatever, but I’m looking for something more robust since I’ll have some friends/family using Pixelfed, Matrix, etc.
So my question is: Is it a valid strategy to keep database files on the SSD with some kind of nightly backup to RAID, or should I just store the whole lot on the RAID from the get go? Or does it even matter if all of these databases can fit in RAM anyway?
edit: I’m just now learning of ZFS caching which might be my answer.
So I’m kind of on the fence about this. I ran a raid boot disk system like 12 years ago, and it was a total pain in the ass. Just getting it to boot after an update was a bit hit or miss.
Right now I’m leaning towards hardware nvme raid for the boot disk just to obfuscate that for Linux, but still treat it delicately and back up anything of importance nightly to a proper software raid and ultimately to another medium as well.
Oh I wasn’t saying to not, I was just saying make sure you’re aware of what recovery entails since a lot of raid controllers don’t just write bytes to the disk and can, if you don’t have spares, make recovery a pain in the ass.
I’m using MD raid for my boot SSDs and yeah, the install was a complete pain in the ass since the debian installer will let you, but it’s very much in the linux sense of ‘let you’: you can do it, but you’re figuring it out on your own.
Where I’ve landed now is
A) just migrate everything over so I can continue working. B) Migrate my mdadm to ZFS C) Buy another NVME down the road and configure it with the onboard RAID controller to prevent any sudden system downtime. D) Configure nightly backups of anything of import on the NVME RAID to the ZFS pool. E) Configure nightly snapshots of the ZFS pool to another webserver on-site. F) rsync the ZFS pool to cold storage every six months and store off-site.