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ZFS on Linux is very buggy. And when something breaks (maybe because one of those numerous bugs) there are no proper tools for repair. Your ZRAID and ZLOG prob

ZFS on Linux is very buggy. And when something breaks (maybe because one of those numerous bugs) there are no proper tools for repair. Your ZRAID and ZLOG probably won't matter. The to-go tool for removing corrupt superblocks is a 10 year old hacky python script, it's ridiculous.

mustache_kimono 4y ago
Not been my experience at all. I have seen folks get in over their heads though. Like -- "OMG I've somehow broken boot for ZFS on root and I don't know how to fix!!" or "I'm using a custom kernel and OMG things don't work!!" Canonical has even been complicit. When you download an HWE kernel, you don't also download a newer/matching versions of the tools. This should pretty clearly be considered a bug[0], and fixed but Canonical perhaps doesn't have the bandwidth? I just can't lay any of these problems at the feet of ZFS though. Right now I trust ZFS a hell of a lot more than I trust Linux to Do The Right Thing. When ZFS seems broken (though I have little experience with native encryption so this may not apply to it), I am far more likely to think the issue is Linux, my distribution, or me, than any problem with ZFS. I'm a pretty serious ZFS lover though.[1] [0]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/zfs-linux/+bug/1939210 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/zfs-linux/+bug/193... [1]: https://github.com/kimono-koans/httm https://github.com/kimono-koans/httm
SkyMarshal 4y ago
Not my experience. I've been running natively-encrypted ZFS on Linux for over a year now with zero bugs or errors. It may help that my distro NixOS has excellent support for it.
- Avamander 4y ago
  Only a year? I've used ext4 for more than seven years and ZFS for a few months. ZFS shat itself irrecoverably - ZRAID, ZLOG (PLP), ECC RAM and UPS be damned. People's issues sit open on GitHub for years. ZFS on Linux is empirically and anecdotally not trustworthy.
mgerdts 4y ago
The last time I needed to use fsck to repair a filesystem was less than six months ago. After running it I found that my entire directory hierarchy was garbage and lost+found had at least hundreds of files named by their inode numbers. It would have taken me forever to piece this back together if it was a filesystem that I cared about. This is consistent with my experience with fsck in decades past. In 15 years of using zfs, I’ve never lost a pool when it was in a mirror or raidz layout.

mustache_kimono 4y ago

Not been my experience at all. I have seen folks get in over their heads though. Like -- "OMG I've somehow broken boot for ZFS on root and I don't know how to fix!!" or "I'm using a custom kernel and OMG things don't work!!" Canonical has even been complicit. When you download an HWE kernel, you don't also download a newer/matching versions of the tools. This should pretty clearly be considered a bug[0], and fixed but Canonical perhaps doesn't have the bandwidth? I just can't lay any of these problems at the feet of ZFS though. Right now I trust ZFS a hell of a lot more than I trust Linux to Do The Right Thing. When ZFS seems broken (though I have little experience with native encryption so this may not apply to it), I am far more likely to think the issue is Linux, my distribution, or me, than any problem with ZFS. I'm a pretty serious ZFS lover though.[1] [0]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/zfs-linux/+bug/1939210 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/zfs-linux/+bug/193... [1]: https://github.com/kimono-koans/httm https://github.com/kimono-koans/httm

SkyMarshal 4y ago

Not my experience. I've been running natively-encrypted ZFS on Linux for over a year now with zero bugs or errors. It may help that my distro NixOS has excellent support for it.

Avamander 4y ago
Only a year? I've used ext4 for more than seven years and ZFS for a few months. ZFS shat itself irrecoverably - ZRAID, ZLOG (PLP), ECC RAM and UPS be damned. People's issues sit open on GitHub for years. ZFS on Linux is empirically and anecdotally not trustworthy.

mgerdts 4y ago

The last time I needed to use fsck to repair a filesystem was less than six months ago. After running it I found that my entire directory hierarchy was garbage and lost+found had at least hundreds of files named by their inode numbers. It would have taken me forever to piece this back together if it was a filesystem that I cared about. This is consistent with my experience with fsck in decades past. In 15 years of using zfs, I’ve never lost a pool when it was in a mirror or raidz layout.