Is zfsguru stable yet?

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sub.mesa

New Member
Dec 28, 2010
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Hey OBasel!

FreeNAS 0.8 and ZFSguru both are still in development. ZFSguru is beginning to be in a usable state, but lacks core features, especially compared to the older FreeNAS 0.7.x releases.

I'm not very familiar with all the Solaris-based derivatives like Nexenta, but i can tell you about BSD variants:

FreeNAS 0.7.x
Stable NAS release with alot of features and widely tested.

FreeNAS 0.8
Complete rewrite and still in development, still lacks many features compared to original FreeNAS project.

ZFSguru 0.1.7
New project not related but similar to FreeNAS; advantages lie in features, performance and user-friendly operation.


Compared to FreeNAS, ZFSguru has some advantages:
- more user friendly web-interface
- ZFS-only system means your RAM will be more efficiently used than with UFS + ZFS systems
- easily upgrade the FreeBSD system to new versions via web-interface
- powerful benchmark that produces graphic images of ZFS performance under varying pool configurations
- uses vanilla FreeBSD releases; making it easy to extend ZFSguru with other software; it would still be a native official FreeBSD install with nothing stripped away


If you're looking for a sleek NAS operating system for your next ZFS build, ZFSguru could be a candidate. But if you need a working solution now, the older FreeNAS 0.7.x releases may be more appropriate.

However, you can use Virtualbox to test each solution in a virtual environment with virtual disks and at least 1GB of memory assigned to it. The ZFSguru LiveCD can be downloaded here. You don't need to burn the .iso file to cd if you just want to test it using Virtualbox.

Cheers!
 
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Jeggs101

Well-Known Member
Dec 29, 2010
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How does virtualbox handle disk cache? I think I heard something about virtualbox not allowing the OS to manage what is in the disk buffer and that can cause data loss in power failures or something like that.
 

sub.mesa

New Member
Dec 28, 2010
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That's right, though i believe this does not apply to disks that have been added as raw disks using the "internalcommands createrawvmdk -rawdisk" option. But it would apply to normal virtual disks so if you want to use that as real solution you would need to tweak Virtualbox to obey the flush commands that ZFS sends. More information on that can be found here.

If you just want to test, this shouldn't be an issue.
 

fblittle

New Member
Apr 5, 2011
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Gridley, CA (near Sacramento)
I would suggest using Solaris 11 Express and then load napp-it to have a remote console. Solaris 11 has all the most advanced zfs features, and gives you the advantage of being able to confugure it on the server UI or shell. All the other storage platforms discussed here are based on the Oracle Solaris OS and they are not updated with the latest versions of zfs. freeNas works well, but is based on a older version of zfs. napp-it is easy to use and woks well.
 

PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
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ZFS Guru and FreeNAS will not be 'stable' until the underlying BSD implementation of ZFS is truly 'stable' (which might be never).

Use SE11, Nextenta or OpenIndiana with Napp-it if you want a stable, working ZFS. These will always have the a more current, more stable and more flexible implementation of ZFS. ZFS Guru and FreeNAS are great wrappers, but neither one can ever be better than the platform they run on - and FreeBSD will always be an also ran.
 
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Loto_Bak

New Member
Mar 10, 2011
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Ahem....
ZFS v15 is already considered very 'stable' on FreeBSD
As well FreeBSD as an OS is one of the most stable I've ever used
I would have no issues considering these two 'stable'

FreeBSD provides a very stable and working ZFS implementation despite Piglovers comments. (Albeit a few versions behind solaris)
 

zicoz

Member
Jan 7, 2011
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0
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Anyone know where I can get the Solaris 11 Express image? Oracle.com doesn't want to let me access it.

I'm logged in on oracle.com, but when I'm pressing the download ling I get sendt to a new login page where my current username/password isn't accepted.