Directory backend for long-term containers?

LXD
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I understand that filesystems like ZFS/Btrfs are ideal when frequently creating/cloning new containers etc. due to features like CoW.

From what I can tell, they however perform worse for general desktop use (reading & writing data of average size and quantity).

I have some containers that hold large applications (and their environment) for many months without any cloning, snapshots or the likes. What do you think about using a directory-based storage backend on ext4 for those (leaving Btrfs for transient / microservice containers)? I know this isn’t the typical container use case, but it might give sufficient performance benefits (less overhead) to justify it.

I’d love to hear your input!

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Yeah, that’s fine to do, so long as you’re fine with all the restrictions of directory based containers.

Another approach would be to create custom storage volumes on a dir backed pool and attach those to the containers that need it.

1 Like
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We are now running dir backed for a year on lxd all good.

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Could you elaborate a bit on “all the restrictions”

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https://lxd.readthedocs.io/en/latest/storage/#storage-backends-and-supported-functions

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I am a new LXD user and I have a similar doubt. I am intending to use LXD to setup a development environment on top of my main Ubuntu installation. As I would not like to mess up my main system, I would like to setup a sort of VM. I do not have space for any additional partition. Therefore, I am limited to loop device or dir.

Please, could someone advise on the recommended LXD setup for a development environment (mainly for developing and compiling of applications)?

Thanks in advance.