ZFS Essentials

xy16644 · Jan 16, 2010

I am interested in teaching myself ZFS and came across this book at Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Solaris-ZFS-E...TF8&coliid=I3A443AY645GEY&colid=1OFKYDFOKK1PX

called: Solaris 10 ZFS Essentials

Is this book going to be ok if I want to use/learn ZFS on FreeBSD?

Has anyone read this book and is it any good?

If this isn't a good book to buy can anyone recommend a good book/place to learn ZFS on FreeBSD?

Many thanks! :e

vermaden · Jan 16, 2010

Solaris 10 documentation is that good that you would not need to buy this book: http://docs.sun.com

For example, "ZFS Administration Guide"
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-5461

xy16644 · Jan 16, 2010

Wow, thank you! I just downloaded the PDF version of "ZFS Administration Guide".

Is it relevant to a FreeBSD user?

vermaden · Jan 16, 2010

ZFS on FreeBSD is ZFS version 13, there are some patches to upgrade it into version 14, current ZFS version in development is 22, so everything that is beyond version 13 is not available, like deduplication from version 21.

Also boot environments are not ported to FreeBSD (there are some patches but its still pretty limited).

Other features shuold work without problems, when in doubt, ask here.

xy16644 · Jan 16, 2010

Thanks vermaden.

To upgrade ZFS to version 14 on FreeBSD 8.0. do I need to upgrade a port?

Wow, so they're on version 22 now. Doesn't that mean FreeBSD 8.0 is quite behind since its only on verion 13 currently?

I thought FreeBSD 8.0 could boot off a ZFS partition?

vermaden · Jan 16, 2010

xy16644 said:
Thanks vermaden.

To upgrade ZFS to version 14 on FreeBSD 8.0. do I need to upgrade a port?

Wow, so they're on version 22 now. Doesn't that mean FreeBSD 8.0 is quite behind since its only on verion 13 currently?

I thought FreeBSD 8.0 could boot off a ZFS partition?

You cannot upgrade ZFS version just like that, you will have to use 9-CURRENT to have latest patches.

Check this thread to get more info which ZFS version provides what upgrades:
http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=9009

About booting from ZFS, yes, its possible with GPT partitions:
http://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/GPTZFSBoot

.. but I prefer using MBR partitions for compatibility to boot other OSes:
http://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=4200

xy16644 · Jan 16, 2010

Guess I'll have to wait for FreeBSD 9!! What is Deduplication?

I was reading a bit about ZFS at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS

and they mentioned that Transparent encryption was in beta, how would this work? Native encryption sounds like a very handy/useful feature for ZFS!

oliverh · Jan 16, 2010

>Wow, so they're on version 22 now. Doesn't that mean FreeBSD 8.0 is quite behind since its only on verion 13 currently?

No, it's stable Vs development (22).

Migrating to 8-stable while using ZFS is in my opinion the best you can do to get the latest fixes.

oliverh · Jan 16, 2010

xy16644 said:
Guess I'll have to wait for FreeBSD 9!! What is Deduplication?

I was reading a bit about ZFS at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZFS

and they mentioned that Transparent encryption was in beta, how would this work? Native encryption sounds like a very handy/useful feature for ZFS!

You don't have to wait for FBSD 9, many things will be MFCed if they don't break something.

Deduplication: http://www.cuddletech.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=1092

xy16644 · Jan 16, 2010

I am on FreeBSD 8.0-RELEASE-p2 currently on i386. Never run a stable release yet.

xy16644 · Jan 16, 2010

oliverh said:
You don't have to wait for FBSD 9, many things will be MFCed if they don't break something.

Deduplication: http://www.cuddletech.com/blog/pivot/entry.php?id=1092

Thanks for the dedup link. Wow, ZFS just amazes me more and more when I read about it. I can't wait to experiment with it!!