Any reason to leave compression on for MP4 Video data?

[tony95]

99.9% of my data is MP4 video, so I have compression turned off. Is there any reason to leave it on since I don't think MP4 video will compress. The only reason I can think of might be if the metadata or something else benefits from enabling compression.

 

[Kris Moore]

By default ZFS will "check" to see if the incoming data is compressible and save it compressed if so, or write it as is if not. Leaving it on shouldn't hurt anything.

 

[winnielinnie]

The only reason I can think of might be if the metadata or something else benefits from enabling compression.

Metadata is always compressed.

Leaving LZ4 compression on has little to no performance penalty, but the real benefits depend on your real-world use and how well it works for you.

 

[tony95]

Okay, since there is really no reason to turn it on, I won't. Thanks.

 

[HoneyBadger]

I'd suggest you leave it enabled at the pool level, then override that with "disabled" for your MP4/media dataset. That way if you ever decide to store other file types that do benefit from compression (like "pretty much anything else") you'll get to reap the rewards there.

 

[winnielinnie]

Oh, hi @HoneyBadger! I didn't see you in here until I slammed my F5 key a couple times! (Even though the alerts showed you as the most recent reply) :snicker snicker: