Confusion about btrfs maintenance

[andreas85]

You find good Information about Btrfs in the wiki

Btrfs

and in

[HowTo] make btrfs faster

No, that’s not a sensational headline! In short: Be sure to use the noatime mount option ! Make your own judgment after you try it. Or make your own judgment after following the link provided: But be aware, this is a lot of text to read, and not the easiest material. I'll try to summarize this in an easy to understand way.

@jackdinn

secondly, the btrfs assistant only shows 3 of the 4 (scrub, trim, balance, defrag) it does not show trim.

Note that Btrfs is not a Windows file system!

Best to check with the source (Btrfs developers)

• Defragmentation
  is rarely needed with Btrfs. Should not be used if snapshots or compression are used

• Scrub
  is not beneficial at all. It can only be beneficial if you have RAID 1. And even then only if you really think something is wrong.

• Trimming
  is done automatically by systemd Btrfs at best

• Balance
  is needed in some cases. But Btrfs will balance itself as long as you don’t exceed 80% fullness

Used carelessly, these commands only put a strain on the lifespan of the hard drive/ssd, but do nothing more than waste heat