When dealing with large-scale data storage, businesses require a solution that prevents data corruption, while providing flexible backup tools. The next-generation Btrfs file system brings these tools to Synology NAS servers, allowing businesses and organizations to reduce maintenance overhead and efficiently store their data.
Btrfs is a modern file system developed by multiple parties and now supported by select Synology NAS models. Btrfs was designed to address obstacles often encountered in enterprise storage systems, such as fault tolerance, management, and data protection.
In any storage system, keeping metadata intact is critical as it includes important information, such as folder structures, filenames, access permissions, and the location of each file. Btrfs stores two copies of metadata on a volume, allowing for data recovery if the hard drive is damaged or suffers from bad sectors.
Traditional storage systems might experience errors that go completely unnoticed which result in corrupt data being provided to applications with no warning or error messages. In order to avoid these types of errors, Btrfs provides checksums for data and metadata, generates two copies of metadata, and then verifies the checksums during each read process. Once discovering a mismatch (silent data corruption), the Btrfs file system is able to auto-detect corrupted files (silent data corruption) with mirrored metadata, and recover broken data using the supported RAID volumes, including RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, F1, and SHR.
The Btrfs file system introduces a powerful snapshot feature allowing you to create a point-in-time copy of an entire shared folder. That way, if human error results in a lost or corrupt database, you can quickly restore the data back to the previous time at which the snapshot was captured.
Taking a snapshot consumes only a small amount of additional storage space, while exerting little impact on system performance thanks to Btrfs's copy-on-write architecture.
Automatically create point-in-time copies of data up to every 5 minutes without affecting performance, guaranteeing granular data backup and recovery.
Retain up to 256 hourly, daily, or weekly recovery points according to your individual needs. Smart retention options automatically delete unneeded versions.
Capture snapshots instantly and backup data without worrying about files being modified or deleted during the backup process.
Employees can view earlier versions of files and restore them to a previous state by themselves using File Station or Windows File Explorer.
Compared with the traditional server-side copy, which requires processing time, Btrfs fast-clone technology allows instant file copy to be achieved on File Station, SMB and AFP protocols if the source and destination are both on the same Btrfs volume.
Compared to ext4 volumes, Btrfs does not require double the storage space for Drive's file versioning and history data. You can retain historical versions of files when using Drive — without worrying about consuming too much storage space.
Traditional backup methods require time to copy data from one place to another, potentially leading to inconsistent data if files are modified during the backup process. Btrfs solves this issue by taking a snapshot before the backup process starts, and then copying the snapshot data to the backup destination — with no need to worry about files being modified, moved, or deleted.
Specify a storage limit for individuals shared folders, so your storage space will not be consumed by a particular shared folder. This is helpful for controlling available storage space when multiple teams or departments store files on the same Synology NAS server.
With Btrfs, you can simply select a shared folder and make a clone of all the contents nearly instantaneously. This is useful when testing updates to websites or databases and you need a quick clone.
Metadata mirroring and checksums are enabled by default on all Btrfs volumes. However, copy-on-write and checksums need to be separately enabled for files.
Open Storage Manager and create a new volume. You will be prompted to choose a file system (btrfs or ext4) during the creation process.
Snapshot Replication (available on Synology NAS models that support Btrfs) includes options to take snapshots on demand or configure schedules and retention policies. You can browse and restore snapshots using Snapshot Replication, File Station, Windows File Explorer, or other file protocols.
Learn more about Snapshot Replication
Open Control Panel and go to the Shared Folder tab. Then click the arrow on the create button and select Clone to clone a shared folder.
Get technical details regarding the wide variety of data backup and protection tools provided by Synology NAS.
Do you already have a Synology NAS with Btrfs? See how to use all the features with DSM Help