I am using ReFS (as opposed to NTFS) for my shared hard drive on Windows Server 2012. I notice that it uses more space for very small files. So that is a minor disadvantage so far. Also can't use data deduplication nor can you boot of it. So I am wondering for all the pros here, anyone using ReFS? How are you finding it? As good as the hype?
Is it as good as the hype? I guess it depends on what hype you've been listening to exactly. But I've rolled it out on my WS2012E box that I'm using for file serving and backups, and combined with Storage Spaces I've been happy with it. It means I have metadata checksums for all of my files, I don't have to wait on the server to run chkdsk before coming back up if anything should happen (e.g. power outage), and for the mirrored spaces it auto-deploys integrity streams and does data scrubbing on its own. It's not a night and day change - the real difference is going to come once I experience a failure mode - but so far I'm happy with it. For data storage it's a good fit.
I asked the same on Neowin: neowin.net/forum/topic/1144592-any-early-feedback-on-refs We'll see what people say.
One scary response:- "Yeah... DON'T USE IT. SERIOUSLY. When I upgraded my home file server, I made three RAID arrays. a 10TB RAID-5 for Media, a 3TB RAID-10 for Hyper-V VMs, and a 2TB RAID-1 for pc backups. Every File System was formatted to NTFS, except the RAID-10, I decided to try ReFS for that, thinking it would be more resilient and better for VMs. Then one day, the power connector on my SAS Expander had come loose, or a pin didn't touch...something happened, and when I fixed it, and rebooted the box, My "E:" drive was gone from windows. Did some checking, did some searching, and low and behold the answer on technet to a missing RAID drive with ReFS? "Rebuild it from backups". Something happened that caused either the file system itself or windows to think the array was empty, as in nothing used (said 3/3TB free). Fortunately I had backups from a week or two prior, so I didn't loose much, except a week of email (exchange VM), however I will NEVER use ReFS again until it's been around for a few years like NTFS, and can prove itself. If I were you...I'd steer clear. It does not handle power loss AT ALL. The two NTFS volumes? not a scratch on them..they were just fine."
Does ZFS have this problem of data loss if it encounters a " power connector on my SAS Expander had come loose" problem?