From owner-freebsd-isp@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jul 7 16:10:17 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 495E6106566C for ; Tue, 7 Jul 2009 16:10:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fjwcash@gmail.com) Received: from rv-out-0506.google.com (rv-out-0506.google.com [209.85.198.224]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1E8088FC25 for ; Tue, 7 Jul 2009 16:10:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fjwcash@gmail.com) Received: by rv-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id f9so1623373rvb.43 for ; Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:10:16 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=uG7GWuM2Rowyb/0SfFafSmtpKdfAFYTywKdb8uFpymA=; b=K7igJVGiOlBOKZSW8fiO7WX8gA80DFFBYWT2j/CDAUPqPNjxwlWp6lmGW9okB95Bxh iL9PR9BeU77QK/rsRDuO529Dgqj3/XyjBa+VbgT6ZzMa/J7FgiDmTnLsKa087L62oxx+ HAit8VGbOJeONWnqQRTQoIHU0cFM5Xby8nP5E= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type; b=mG9nQWBH63Ow3nAvKhwt591PfDgOG9IqeIjdn2gq9gkWrRLDEr/lMJkxsMVjwG/HwY bWNFYEYnT1KUN1PuB1rNtUyCppiQbnsbU8t0HWY3yR5uu1j6CimZcFuchb0Beo+3zF8j q42dCEcfu+xUjMtlIvuSGEdA9fKHJvctJ38RI= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.141.4.20 with SMTP id g20mr3718362rvi.121.1246983016579; Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:10:16 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4A536C7B.7030902@ericx.net> References: <4A536C7B.7030902@ericx.net> Date: Tue, 7 Jul 2009 09:10:16 -0700 Message-ID: From: Freddie Cash To: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Subject: Re: zfs in production X-BeenThere: freebsd-isp@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Internet Services Providers List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:10:17 -0000 On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 8:40 AM, Eric W. Bates wrote: > Sorry to ask an obvious question... But what's the advantage to zfs? > There's plenty of information regarding ZFS available online. :) A very quick synopsis of the main features would be: - pooled storage setup, which can be easily expanded as needed, and is available to all filesystems/volumes - built-in striping (RAID0), n-way mirroring (RAID1), raidz1 (modified RAID5), raidz2 (modified RAID6) - copy-on-write, and transactional filesystem - posix-compliant filesystem layer, and block storage / volume manager - infinite, constant-time, in-filesystem snapshots (read-only) - snapshots can be promoted to clones (read/write) - clones can be promoted to separate filesystems - built-in compression - end-to-end data integrity using checksums There's a whole bunch more to it than the above. Once you start using pooled storage for servers, it's really hard to go back to the old way of slicing and partitioning and allocating specific amounts of storage to each filesytem. :) -- Freddie Cash fjwcash@gmail.com