ZFS autotunes memory allocation based on how much ram you have, if you have 128GB ram free, ZFS will use that. In fact all operating systems eat GB's of free RA

ZFS autotunes memory allocation based on how much ram you have, if you have 128GB ram free, ZFS will use that. In fact all operating systems eat GB's of free RAM just like ZFS. Software raid has a larger write penalty, that is why you see slower write performance versus using hardware raid. As I said earlier, writing directly to memory helps. Recommended read: http://rickardnobel.se/raid-5-write-penalty/ http://rickardnobel.se/raid-5-write-penalty/