this post was submitted on 04 Dec 2023
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Two new versions of OpenZFS fix long-hidden corruption bug (www.theregister.com)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The OpenZFS development team have put out not one but two new releases of the open-source cross-platform filesystem for Linux and FreeBSD.

This was necessary because while, as we reported a week ago, it was OpenZFS 2.2.0 that brought the issue to light and made it visible, it didn't actually cause the problem.

It merely exposed an underlying bug which had been around for years: OpenZFS 2.2.0's new, faster copy function simply made the existing issue much more likely to happen.

For instance, the bug was also confirmed in Illumos, the open-source fork of OpenSolaris which has continued development since Oracle killed off the open source project in 2010.

Unfortunately, it looks like Red Hat backported this functionality from Coreutils 9.x to 8.x, and it's been identified in CentOS Stream 9 as well as in the OpenELA source code.

There's a newer overview of the issue on Github, but the investigation as to when the bug first appeared is still underway, as the comments there show (along with a link to our earlier story).

The original article contains 603 words, the summary contains 174 words. Saved 71%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Tried to search for ZFS and just hit a lot of different stuff. I'm a senior CS/programmer person, slowly(since quite some time) but steadily floating/flowing/jumping from ms and all their obligatory stuff to a more personal small world. ❤️. Linux & al.

In that smaller world (with FOSS, Lemmy and so on!) I'd love having some sort of hard drive security, where I can chuck in an old drive, or replace another, but, hear me out, change the motherboard controlling all that too.

Today home is a mix of Linux (ThinkPad, ThinkCentre, Dell) Windows (kids playing + the little box for the "windows only" stuff), Mac (Adobe 🥲), and an old old Synology NAS (3TB+2TB backup).

All mixed up on ethernet and WiFi.

I am not going to be able to change this infrastructure very much (cables everywhere already).

Can I set up something so, for example if my ThinkPad crams(drive or mobo or say I just lose the laptop) I can like get it back in working conditions buying another ThinkPad and like switching out a burned out harddrive in a RAID system?

I wonder because Linux seems to separate "your things" and the "os things" very well, but there are obviously lots of other things, can you safeguard those things too?

Cheers to FOSS.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You're a senior CS person and you are asking if you should have a backup system in place? o_O

Sorry if this sounds like a personal attack but it's something you should have though of a long, long time ago, as a CS person. Even when still using Windows.

Assuming you are serious, then yes there are ways to save your data under Linux, with different levels of complexity and privacy.

The bare minimum is some basic cloud backup. Not ideal for privacy, but at least if your drive dies you won't lose your files.

Local backup in the form of a NAS or home server is also an option, and allows different systems (Windows, Mac, Linux) to save a copy of their files. Way better from a privacy perspective if setup properly BUT your are one fire or one burglary away from losing everything.

If you want to reconcile privacy AND safe storage then to me there are a few options :

  • End to end encrypted cloud storage if you trust the third party (Proton drive, Tresorit, etc)
  • End to end encrypted cloud storage that you control (requires very high skills and a lot of work and money. And a lot of maintenance)
  • Local network storage (NAS/homeserver) with an encrypted backup regularly sent to the cloud
  • Hybrid end-to-end encrypted cloud using a non encrypted cloud solution (like Google Drive) with Cryptomator or equivalent (if you trust them).

So many options, depending on your sensibility to privacy and your technical knowledge. You can also mix. For example most of my personal files are hosted on Microsoft OneCloud because it's stable and fast enough. I mean almost my entire home folder (excluding configuration) is replicated there. But some of the sensitive files, mostly scans of official documents like tax returns, healthcare receipts, etc, are end to end encrypted using Cryptomator. Also my passwords are saved in an shared encrypted Keepass database. And all my drives are encrypted (with LUKS) including my external drives.

Anybody who has dug that topic long enough knows that total privacy and total security are a myth. It simple doesn't exist. You need to find the balance between privacy, security and practicality that suits you. If you are paranoid, then getting to a reasonable level of all three is going to be a LOT of work and money. If you are just cautious, and are willing to trust reputable third parties, then it's quite possible to have a working solution without spending too much time and money. And the very bare minimum is to chose between a backup with little privacy, or more privacy with the acceptance that you may lose everything.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

Uh no, I have a distinct backup system with Amazon glacier. My question was about day to say stuff, so that when a drive goes, or a mobo fries, I don't have to go through all the hassle reinstalling and reconfiguring everything.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

That's a great setup. Until someone breaks in and steal all the hardware, of the house burns down.

I would add regular backups from the NAS to an archiving cloud like Backblaze, Amazon Glacier, Azure Archive... Doesn't eat too much bandwidth and it cost very little (until you need to recover the data, but hopefully you won't). :)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Oh yes this seems like it, thanks!

[–] stifle867 1 points 11 months ago

Might be worth posting this to a seperate thread for some more attention.