From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Nov 2 23:15:03 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 57362106568D for ; Sun, 2 Nov 2008 23:15:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from gaijin.k@gmail.com) Received: from yw-out-2324.google.com (yw-out-2324.google.com [74.125.46.31]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 066678FC0A for ; Sun, 2 Nov 2008 23:15:02 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from gaijin.k@gmail.com) Received: by yw-out-2324.google.com with SMTP id 9so831418ywe.13 for ; Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:15:02 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:subject:from:to:cc :in-reply-to:references:content-type:date:message-id:mime-version :x-mailer:content-transfer-encoding; bh=d393E+xO+lGYAZDvqHlD7aTZJA9kktJpVfmg6H/IrBE=; b=x6as4v/Xnh8UbFRrw5Fn4P9QX5ZTQ8n1SFmaMPdbL9fz/qigf0aYgL35AVNocykzVV /LkTUKF75SoXoHiZe3i2A6foeUEsu0f3dcbYu876REChF8ooRg1LSrvZdRlSmR289Ue8 IiAGTeT2OqifXNjlvBek9jXF+TYmYi3hZv1Ps= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=subject:from:to:cc:in-reply-to:references:content-type:date :message-id:mime-version:x-mailer:content-transfer-encoding; b=LZzNgSAFICTJH7QY4KMPJ+5z8xc4Os+7WdV3woXjZHcKCM5XX57r+IZbRp9ndaWvmG ZthiGhSSKczDBYrtEeOUUMgvk7xrKjOWRi42+6MlMbYDvx7O85rKDUFakG0yMMb24sHn Trd4NzqVL4yqXUOylUqJsCRYw1VuVTFDgslk8= Received: by 10.150.155.4 with SMTP id c4mr2038761ybe.107.1225667702162; Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:15:02 -0800 (PST) Received: from ?10.0.3.231? (pool-70-111-21-88.nwrk.east.verizon.net [70.111.21.88]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id 7sm5679905ywo.7.2008.11.02.15.15.00 (version=SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Sun, 02 Nov 2008 15:15:01 -0800 (PST) From: "Alexandre \"Sunny\" Kovalenko" To: John Nielsen In-Reply-To: <200811011517.37640.lists@jnielsen.net> References: <20081101114717.0ffc2ec8@valhala> <200811011517.37640.lists@jnielsen.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Date: Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:14:30 -0500 Message-Id: <1225667670.12521.7.camel@RabbitsDen> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.22.3.1 FreeBSD GNOME Team Port Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit 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: Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:15:03 -0000 On Sat, 2008-11-01 at 15:17 -0400, 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 Just a "me too". I am using ZFS on my i386 (Core Duo) laptop: / and /boot are UFS2, /usr and /home are ZFS. Main appeal in my case was the startup time after the panic -- doing fsck on 120GB /home was not fun. I have to admit that machine has 3GB of real memory in it, though. -- Alexandre "Sunny" Kovalenko (Олександр Коваленко)