ZFS usage

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GelinosOne

New Member
Nov 13, 2017
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Hallo Everybody,



First of all I want to apologize for some potential mistakes in my English but I’m not an English native speaker …

Also I don’t know if I put the question into the right topic, correct me if I’m wrong



My Question is about the ZFS file System

I want to use ZFS for a private Storage of private Data (for example pictures, movie files, music, etc.) and because I have a big collection of files I have the fear of loosing them due to Bit rot



The First Question I’d like to know if ZFS only works for NAS Devices or can I also use it for HDD Devices ?
This does involve the question, if ZFS has to be „online“ all the time or if I can only activate the device with ZFS if I need it to get some data.?



I read that ZFS uses Checksums to prevent Date corruption (Bit Rot).

My Question is, does ZFS detects errors by itself or do I have to make tests to check all my files ?
(maybe like we have to detract windows pcs or something like that or is it an automatic process ?)

Can I merge many disks (which are put into only single HDD Enclosure (for example with JBOD)) into one big Data Pool ?


I’d also like to know if I have a User Interface for copying, deleting and moving files from my desktop to my RAID-Z Drive ?
And am I able to format the Drive / the pool with a UI or do I have to use a terminal ?



Last question - does ZFS has a implementation for windows / macOS or is it only for Linux, FreeBSD and so on ?



P.S.: Sorry for the long post, but I’m not really experienced with this topic
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
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Hi,
1. and last question - You can use it for disks only if you have a Operating System that supports it - FreeBSD, Solaris and variants, Linux.
You can offline the drive without problem, but it will not be able to scrub/scan for errors

2. It uses checksums to check on writing and scrubs to check whether something has changed after a while while on disk

3. Yes multiple disks (ideally identically in size) can be set up as one pool. If different in size then usually smallest size dictates poolsize (unless you have a mirror setup).

4. If you use an appliance it will offer a gui to create the pool, I assume similar on linux. For copying data - on linux you weill be able to use regular gui tools, on appliances you'll most likely use a share (smb or nfs) and then can use your regular OS tools.
 

i386

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2016
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Last question - does ZFS has a implementation for windows / macOS or is it only for Linux, FreeBSD and so on ?
There was an implemnetation for mac but I think it was abandoned a while ago.
On openzfs summit a proof of concept was shown with zfs running on windows 10 (FAQ - OpenZFS), but other than that, no. No impelementation for windows.
 

gea

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2010
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ZFS was developped for Solaris where it is native.
On the free Solaris forks like OpenIndiana or OmniOS you get Open-ZFS. ZFS is the only filesystem on Solaris and its free forks.

Open-ZFS was then ported to BSD, another Unix where ZFS is the major filesystem. Solaris evolved from BSD so they are rather similar regarding ZFS.

Open-ZFS was then ported to Linux (ZoL). ZFS is a filesystem among many there. One of the reason it does not work as troublefree compared to Solaris or BSD where it just works and an update does not break ZFS.

Open-ZFS on OSX use Zol as base.
OpenZFS on OS X

Open-ZFS on Windows: currently not
 

GelinosOne

New Member
Nov 13, 2017
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1. and last question - You can use it for disks only if you have a Operating System that supports it - FreeBSD, Solaris and variants, Linux.
You can offline the drive without problem, but it will not be able to scrub/scan for errors
Why does it not check for errors ?
Or did I only understand you wrong.
Do you mean that it won't scan for errors at all or only if the drives are turned off.
Honestly I could understand the second :D
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
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Yes, if the drives are offline then no error checking;)
So if you only online them when in use then you would be impacted by scrub performance hit or couldn't scrub or would have to online out of regular operations to scrub.