From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 10 14:47:48 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9016E1065678 for ; Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:47:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from joao.barros@gmail.com) Received: from fg-out-1718.google.com (fg-out-1718.google.com [72.14.220.159]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0DB018FC08 for ; Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:47:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from joao.barros@gmail.com) Received: by fg-out-1718.google.com with SMTP id l26so2204229fgb.35 for ; Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:47:46 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to :subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type :content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; bh=KVQd0lzF5DE1AUOjODpPqYxG46ZbQqK7qNH+FwozSUk=; b=DnnzuVHBZCSi+1wgLh6Ccap6x5dL3m3jWUWXqvVp2RbYzyCirmDC28QFU44ZGOQqq7 pJwQMLeBnhEc8eIcgKRHYnRPNS+w17U8iG+kS6GHUB0V7l/gqCzK7KonJynmmt83tEWy +xl5Gj07RrZ9pn6OGNQH8pyUJ4BtYvFt1mDJI= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version :content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition :references; b=pYQGP/aqzT+K0z+MsFinZ80HWQSjnrIQuHM6gnSIDAeLn0E9TXfuUdOhGW/JrMJ5u6 BzoEIZF1UXuZXWXh9FfaRrKRDaEYAlXez0p20l6NkpbZZtJlNnzVoanw1vSKUewjNGJ1 PGeeD7XsmAT/gvJwKpXCBOLEiZgUADnubFAWQ= Received: by 10.181.210.14 with SMTP id m14mr2120558bkq.163.1226328466424; Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:47:46 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.181.55.1 with HTTP; Mon, 10 Nov 2008 06:47:46 -0800 (PST) Message-ID: <70e8236f0811100647o4cd98966o8108a0e7ecc08bb5@mail.gmail.com> Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:47:46 +0000 From: "Joao Barros" To: "John Nielsen" In-Reply-To: <200811011517.37640.lists@jnielsen.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <20081101114717.0ffc2ec8@valhala> <200811011517.37640.lists@jnielsen.net> Cc: Nicolas Martyanoff , freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ZFS for a desktop computer X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:47:48 -0000 On Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 7:17 PM, John Nielsen wrote: > On Saturday 01 November 2008, Nicolas Martyanoff wrote: >> I'm thinking about switching my main desktop to FreeBSD for various >> reasons (main one, I love it on my laptop and server), and I've been >> considering using ZFS. I'd like to have a disk-modular system, ie.: >> >> - Being able to have mirroring. >> - Being able to add new disks without effort. >> - Being able to add new disks AND mirroring disks (spare disks ?) at >> the same time. >> >> I'm gonna begin with 2x 1TB disks with mirroring, and I'd like to be >> able to add, if needed, new disks, for example 2x 1.5TB to get 2.5TB >> diskspace fully mirrored. The whole process shouldn't need to reinstall >> the system, or to change the slice/partition layout, ie. be totally >> transparent for the data. >> And for this particular need, ZFS seems to be the way to go. > > I'm happily using ZFS on a 32-bit FreeBSD desktop system (that also plays a > home server role). It should meet your disk-modularity requirements above, > with the exception that it's not possible to add disks to a raidZ set > (though it is possible to add additional sets to the same zpool). > >> However, I'm a bit worried about FreeBSD's ZFS implementation: >> >> - I've got a 64bits dual core 2GHz CPU, but can't use an amd64 FreeBSD >> since Xen, NVidia drivers and wine don't work on it; but ZFS is said >> to be unsuitable for i386. > > That's overstating the case. The extra memory headroom on amd64 may make > things simpler, but it's certianly possible to run ZFS on FreeBSD i386 as > long as you have a couple gigs of RAM (I actually only have 1.5 GB) and > follow the tuning guidelines. You should also be willing to monitor your > system and go through one or two fine-tuning cycles > >> - It's said you can't boot from a ZFS pool. > > There are patches available to allow this but frankly I don't see the Can you point out those patches? Thx > appeal. I think it makes much more sense to have / (including /boot) be a > regular UFS2 filesystem on a small partition. If something goes wrong you > can boot from a CD or single-user and not have to worry about getting your > ZFS pools back online before you can even start troubleshooting the system. > Since (unlike Solaris) FreeBSD doesn't force you to dedicate whole disks to > ZFS, this is a viable option. As Miroslav mentioned you can make a small > root partition on two disks and set them up as a gmirror, leaving the > remainder of the disks available for your zpool(s). > >> So could you please tell me if using ZFS is ok for me, or should I use >> a gmirror system (but I don't think I can easily add new disks to this). > > You could get most if not all of what you're after with gmirror, gvirstor, > gjournal, etc but it sounds like ZFS is really what you're after and I > think you'll be fine. I haven't actually added any disks to my setup since > I switched to ZFS but it's nice knowing that I can. Add to that cheap > snapshots, checksumming and self-healing and easy administration and I tink > it's an easy sale. > > JN -- Joao Barros