From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 20 12:00:21 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Delivered-To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 57DAF16A482 for ; Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:00:21 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (lurza.secnetix.de [83.120.8.8]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B128E13C46A for ; Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:00:20 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from olli@lurza.secnetix.de) Received: from lurza.secnetix.de (lclejq@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id l5KC0DS1015277; Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:00:18 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from oliver.fromme@secnetix.de) Received: (from olli@localhost) by lurza.secnetix.de (8.13.4/8.13.1/Submit) id l5KC0DMf015276; Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:00:13 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from olli) Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:00:13 +0200 (CEST) Message-Id: <200706201200.l5KC0DMf015276@lurza.secnetix.de> From: Oliver Fromme To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG, om-lists-bsd@omx.ch In-Reply-To: <1182338018.10483.27.camel@bigapple.omnis.ch> X-Newsgroups: list.freebsd-current User-Agent: tin/1.8.2-20060425 ("Shillay") (UNIX) (FreeBSD/4.11-STABLE (i386)) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.1.2 (lurza.secnetix.de [127.0.0.1]); Wed, 20 Jun 2007 14:00:18 +0200 (CEST) Cc: Subject: Re: ZFS status now in June? / stable enough for a file server? X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG, om-lists-bsd@omx.ch List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 20 Jun 2007 12:00:21 -0000 Olivier Mueller wrote: > I have to setup a file storage server (non-critcal, just as secondary > backup server) and I am wondering if would be a realistic idea to start > using ZFS. I spent some time browsing the lists and newsgroups, and the > status wiki page looks "good": http://wiki.freebsd.org/ZFS . > > The http://www.freebsd.org/releng/index.html page also states: > June 2007 Start FreeBSD 7.0 Release Process, so this may also be > a positive point about overall stability? :) As far as I know, 7-current is now in code freeze (though I haven't seen a "heads up" on this list yes). That means that it is now becoming progressively stable. Personally I think that it was quite stable even before it entered the freeze. > It would be to store lots of data, and the FS-compression feature of ZFS > would be quite interesting for this server. Of course I'd be glad to > help debugging any issues I may see. > > So if you are already using ZFS in "pre-production", I would be glad for > a short "go/no go" feedback, thanks :-) My two cents: It works very well in general. I haven't seen any reports recently from people who actually lost any data due to ZFS problems. (Certainly someone will correct me if I'm wrong.) However, there are a few things that you should be aware of. First: The more RAM, the better. Second, ZFS works much better on amd64 than on i386. That's because of the larger address space and related vm management. If you run ZFS on i386, you will need to spend some time on tuning it (maxvnodes sysctl etc., see the list archives), otherwise you might run into panics. On amd64, ZFS seems to run fine out of the box without tuning. Bottom line: If you intend to set up ZFS with 7-current on an amd64 machine with a decent amount of RAM -- by all means, go ahead. Best regards Oliver -- Oliver Fromme, secnetix GmbH & Co. KG, Marktplatz 29, 85567 Grafing b. M. Handelsregister: Registergericht Muenchen, HRA 74606, Geschäftsfuehrung: secnetix Verwaltungsgesellsch. mbH, Handelsregister: Registergericht Mün- chen, HRB 125758, Geschäftsführer: Maik Bachmann, Olaf Erb, Ralf Gebhart FreeBSD-Dienstleistungen, -Produkte und mehr: http://www.secnetix.de/bsd "We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing."         -- Mother Teresa