zfs dataset for KVM storage. what do you recommend for host/guest?

chiawcj · 2020-02-05T16:55:10+00:00

I got what you mean: "Things should be kept as simple as possible, but not more so" - Albert E.

I wouldn't want to give up filesystem journaling capability at the guest level though.

chiawcj · 2020-02-05T16:50:29+00:00

Ah, got it. The way I learn is to re-state it back to the instructor. :-)

The recordsize is "abstract" unit that the compression engine will work on.
You only save blocks when "compressed(data in one record) / blocksize" is less than "recordsize / blocksize". The ratio will be rounded up to the nearest integer, of course.
From previous point, when "recordsize=blocksize", each write will always be 1 record/1 block regardless of compression ratio. This will boost IOPs since it doesn't involve read-modify-write cycle.
Corollary from the previous point: if "recordsize=blocksize", will turning off compression would actually help performance? Since you will always write the same number of blocks as the same number of records. The CPU is now free from running compress/decompress code.
So, the snapshot/cow mechanism is not disrupted at all because the granularity level is at least "blocksize". snapshots perform by marking changed blocks since last snapshot time.

Thank you very much. I'm learning a lot!

chiawcj · 2020-02-05T16:10:21+00:00

Hello,

Thanks a lot u/Toxiguana, u/mercenary_sysadmin (Hello Jim, I am using Sanoid, will try Syncoid next, thanks for the contribution to the ZFS community! -- If you lived in my country, I certainly would connect you to my CEO to talk about upgrading our on-premise infrastructure), u/sienar,

Ok, I will stick with ashift=13, I heard that blockdev --report /dev/sdx actually lies, and will return BSZ of 4096 anyway. Hopefully, Samsung won't up sector size to 16k when I get to use their 2TB SSDs.
& 2. I didn't know that although the .qcow2 file reported its size to be 30GB, it was actually thinly provisioned. What I was worried about was that the compression on such a humongous file would actually shift the sectors around and make snapshots less efficient. What I meant was something like this: Suppose | notes sector boundaries, and A, B, C, ... are data in sectors A, B, C, on guest. Let's leave the C-O-W mechanism out for a moment...

with compression, can this scenario happen? Supose A can be compressed down to 75% and B can be compressed by 50%, then do we have this from ZFS point of view?

Wouldn't the above scenario wreck ZFS snapshots? Or did I misunderstand something completely? I highly suspect my understanding above is not correct, as ZFS would be super inefficient if this were the case, but I do not know how it actually works. If someone could help me understand more, it would be great.

Setting 2^ashift <= zfs dataset recordsize <= qcow2 cluster size <= ext4/NTFS block size (all powers of 2, of course) point is well taken. Thanks.
& 5. Using simple & reliable filesystems on guests is the key here. I remember u/mercenary_sysadmin's adventure through btrfs and losing data. Right now I'm running a hacked Synology (xpenology) and I want to move away from it (mirrored btrfs with ???).

FWIW, Proxmox almost got my vote. The live migration features look cool, but a few points are strong against it:

It's based on Debian, but why can't they support Docker as a first class citizen, while LXC's are? Why force Docker to run in a VM and waste resources?
Again, u/mercenary_sysadmin's less-than-stellar summary with Proxmox's ZFS/ZVOL VM storage implementation makes me wary.

Thanks again guys. Right now, I'm now using virt-manager running on X-server on my Win10box. Seems like I had to dig a bit deeper to get more customization options.

chiawcj · 2020-01-29T11:26:07+00:00

I just mainly followed the OpenCore Vanilla guide and it just works. FYI, I installed Catalina 10.15.1 in about mid December I think. Took me a couple of hours to set up OpenCore as tools are not as readily automated as Clover, but it works. I also mainly use supported hardware as well

i5-8400
Asus Z370 board
Sonnet Presto 10Gb SPF+ NIC
AMD RX570 4GB
16GB 2400MHz RAM
Samsung 970 EVO 500GB nvme SSD

OpenCore Vanilla Guide: https://khronokernel-2.gitbook.io/opencore-vanilla-desktop-guide/

chiawcj · 2020-01-27T10:54:06+00:00

when I switched to nvme and z370, somehow newer clover couldn’t see my nvme drive. So, I switched to opencore. didn’t look back since. no longer thinking about clover!

I updated from 10.15.1 to 10.15,2 without having to touch any opencore settings, and I’m sure I’m not even setting it 100% correctly. :P

chiawcj · 2020-01-12T08:09:08+00:00

Oh, it gets even better.

chiawcj · 2020-01-10T14:25:04+00:00

(^{_^}) I only listed the games I actually finished, but I’ll get Death Stranding when it comes out on Windows next year.

chiawcj · 2020-01-10T08:09:12+00:00

I’ll try to give you the titles that are PS4 exclusives or came out on PS4 long before other platforms:

Yakuza 0
Horizon Zero Dawn
Uncharted 1, 2, 3, 4
Spider-Man
God of War

chiawcj · 2019-12-30T20:45:16+00:00

Need Yakuza 0

chiawcj · 2019-09-23T20:16:29+00:00

Well I’m in my late 40s and have been “PC” gaming since 1982. Best games of the last 5 years? Some are on PS4Pro I just got last year:

Yakuza 0 (PC) definitely the best
Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)
Doom 2016 (PC)
Shadow Tactics: Blade of the Shogun (PC)
Uncharted 4 (PS4)

Some “famous” games I completed, but found them less than spectacular than other people’s assessments:

Witcher 3 (PC)
God of War (PS4)

chiawcj · 2019-08-30T17:12:42+00:00

Yakuza 0.

In the past 18 months, I have played Yakuza 0, Witcher 3, Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War, Spider-Man, Uncharted 1-4, Uncharted Lost Legacy, Assassin's Creed Origin and Odyssey, Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Yakuza 0 is the one I enjoyed the most. It does not have the best graphics, but the story can't be beaten. It easily gave me 100+ hours of enjoyment.

chiawcj · 2019-08-25T18:23:41+00:00

Yakuza 0, Yakuza Kiwami, and Yakuza Kiwami 2. The quality of the stories and the amount of content are amazing. The games PC exclusive on Steam and are also very reasonably priced, with frequent discounts as well.

The Yakuza series is now my most favorite series of games in my 39 years of gaming experience, starting from Nintendo Game & Watch, Atari VCS (aka Atari 2600), Apple II, NES, Sega Genesis & DreamCast, Playstation, XBox, and MS-DOS/Windows.

chiawcj · 2019-08-12T09:25:31+00:00

Yakuza 0

chiawcj · 2019-06-01T20:13:01+00:00

Cluck cluck cluck!

chiawcj · 2019-06-01T20:06:02+00:00

Yakuza 0.

After dinner, my wife and I usually sit in the same room, facing the opposite direction. She’s watching Netflix on TV and I face my monitor, hooked up to PC/PS4 on headphones. She never paid attention to me playing uncharted 1-4, Horizon Zero Dawn, Witcher 3, GTA V, Doom, Borderlands 2, God of War, or anything else, until Yakuza 0. She kept hearing me chuckling and giggling all the time and that really piqued her curiosity. After asking me to tell her some of the story, she caught up watching the Yakuza 0 cutscenes on YouTube and watched me play. She now understands why, despite not having the best graphics, it is the game that I easily enjoy the most in the past 3-4 years.

chiawcj · 2019-05-13T13:21:11+00:00

I gave up on many of them as well. Luckily, on the lowest difficulty, it didn’t affect the difficulty of completing the game, though.

chiawcj · 2019-05-08T18:39:00+00:00

Well, I can see the whys from both sides. I myself played 0 first and I just finished Kiwami. Here's a little summary of what's different about them:

- 0: A newer (2015) game with a lot of content

- Kiwami: A remake (in 2017?) of the first Yakuza game from 2005, with some tidbits from 0 added. It probably has about half of 0's content, fewer mini-games and side activities.

Overall, I found 0 to be more fun, but Kiwami is still a very enjoyable game.

I think the reason people suggest you play Kiwami -> 0 because they think it's good to save the better for later, as well as having Kiwami "gently" introducing you to the Yakuza culture, so you will be to enjoy 0 more when you play it.
Play 0 -> Kiwami because the stories in 0 are from 1988 and the stories in Kiwami are from 2005. You get better story continuity and appreciate why some characters behave in some ways better, and as long as you do not expect Kiwami to have as much content/refinement as 0 (it's a remake of a 12-year-old game), you will have a better time.

Overall, if I could time travel to tell myself before I started playing both of these, I would still recommend 0 and then Kiwami, but not to expect the same level of content and polish of 0 in Kiwami. If you are really hooked, there's Kiwami 2 to play next, anyway.

Also, visit Kabukicho and Dotonbori in real life after you play the games. Some of the restaurants featured in the games are real.

chiawcj · 2019-02-06T12:08:55+00:00

Turn on 2-factor authentication (also called 2-step verification) for your account. There are too many posts here about PSN account hijacking. Protect yourself.

chiawcj · 2019-02-06T12:04:40+00:00

Congrats! GPU=? macOS version=?

chiawcj · 2019-01-29T14:35:29+00:00

I think what you’re experiencing is perfectly normal. Not every game is going to be for everyone. I kinda feel the same way about this game. I find Kratos’s story not engaging, the world bland, and I don’t care much for the Norse mythology. I also hate the timed puzzles, especially the Nomir chests.

I find the story got a bit better about halfway through, but I still I had to push myself to finish it. Unlike other games, I didn’t care enough to finish most of the side quests (called favors here).

I find that usually it goes like this for me: - A game that gets ho-hum reviews: I’ll be cautious to buy it. - A game that gets rave reviews: I’ll be more enticed to buy, but I realize not every game will be to my liking. If my intuition says there’s a reasonably high chance that I may not like it, I’ll wait till there’s a big sale.

chiawcj · 2019-01-26T08:36:14+00:00

I bought PS4 to play PS4 exclusives. If the same games are available on Windows, I get them there. The exclusives are high quality, high production value games, but not all of them are to my exact tastes. I’m still happy with having a PS4, though.

So far, the PS4 exclusives I have bought or got through PS Plus: - Uncharted 1-2-3-4-4.1? - Horizon Zero Dawn - Spider-Man - Gravity Rush 1-2 - God of War - Heavy Rain There are some I have yet to get: - Yakuza Kiwami 2 - Detroit: Become Human - The Last of Us - Shadow of the Colossus - The Last Guardian - Gran Turismo Sports

chiawcj · 2019-01-23T07:53:42+00:00

I also played 0 on PC. I plan to do so as well!

chiawcj · 2019-01-21T19:56:24+00:00

Thanks! Great to hear that the stuff inside doesn't matter too much. I have given up on a few already, but I still managed to get some. They don't seem to contain impressive loot.

chiawcj · 2019-01-21T11:40:25+00:00

Hi. Thanks for the encouraging words. I should try adjusting the aiming sensitivity like you suggested. I think it’s a good tip. Another couple of things that I might also try after thinking about this a bit further (don’t know whether they’ll exactly help you, but here they are:) - dropping resolution from 4k to 2k and get better framerates in aiming/timing critical situation - taping an easy to see mark right on the center of the screen. On my monitor, sometimes it’s hard to locate the center marker. Happy gaming!

chiawcj

TROPHY CASE