4 ms·

I agree completely[1]. I'm not sure Ubuntu Server actually even offers ZFS during the install on any volume, nevermind on the root FS. EDIT: [1] Well, now that

I agree completely[1]. I'm not sure Ubuntu Server actually even offers ZFS during the install on any volume, nevermind on the root FS. EDIT: [1] Well, now that I think about it... I don't agree that the skepticism should be based on licensing. I just think that ZFS-on-Linux is perhaps not mature enough quite yet and we do have off-site backups anyway, so we might as well try it if we're not doing anything absolutely 24/365-critical.

rleigh 10y ago
It's not supported by the installer (for 16.04), but you can do it by hand. It's poorly documented--there are several guides with contradictory advice--and it took me several attempts, but all the bits are there from GRUB to the initramfs and the main init. I got my workstation EFI booting with GRUB direct to root on ZFS a few weeks back; I can now "zfs send" whole system snapshots directly to my NAS. Once this is a single option in the installer like it is for LVM, it will become properly usable. Right now, it's for masochists who want to experiment only (for the rootfs). Regarding maturity, it's certainly not as well tested as on e.g. FreeBSD or Solaris, but it's been around for a good while at this point and I know a few people who have been running it for several years trouble free. I would certainly place it above Btrfs in the reliability stakes. The main limitations I've seen are cosmetic or Linux-specific; the zfs command is setuid root, which prevents delegating dataset admin to users (snapshot/send/recv your data, create your own subsidiary datasets etc.), Linux doesn't do NFSv4 ACLs in its VFS, and you can't transparently create NFS exports via zfs properties. None of these affect data integrity though. Not holding my breath waiting for NFSv4 ACLs, though it would certainly be a massively beneficial feature.

4 ms·

I agree completely[1]. I'm not sure Ubuntu Server actually even offers ZFS during the install on any volume, nevermind on the root FS. EDIT: [1] Well, now that

by lomnakkus 10y ago

rleigh 10y ago
It's not supported by the installer (for 16.04), but you can do it by hand. It's poorly documented--there are several guides with contradictory advice--and it took me several attempts, but all the bits are there from GRUB to the initramfs and the main init. I got my workstation EFI booting with GRUB direct to root on ZFS a few weeks back; I can now "zfs send" whole system snapshots directly to my NAS. Once this is a single option in the installer like it is for LVM, it will become properly usable. Right now, it's for masochists who want to experiment only (for the rootfs). Regarding maturity, it's certainly not as well tested as on e.g. FreeBSD or Solaris, but it's been around for a good while at this point and I know a few people who have been running it for several years trouble free. I would certainly place it above Btrfs in the reliability stakes. The main limitations I've seen are cosmetic or Linux-specific; the zfs command is setuid root, which prevents delegating dataset admin to users (snapshot/send/recv your data, create your own subsidiary datasets etc.), Linux doesn't do NFSv4 ACLs in its VFS, and you can't transparently create NFS exports via zfs properties. None of these affect data integrity though. Not holding my breath waiting for NFSv4 ACLs, though it would certainly be a massively beneficial feature.