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> Btrfs [...] still doesn't match ZFS in features [...] Isn't the feature in question (array expansion) precisely one which btrfs already had for a long time?
by cesarb 2y ago
> Btrfs [...] still doesn't match ZFS in features [...]
Isn't the feature in question (array expansion) precisely one which btrfs already had for a long time? Does ZFS have the opposite feature (shrinking the array), which AFAIK btrfs also already had for a long time?
(And there's one feature which is important to many, "being in the upstream Linux kernel", that ZFS most likely will never have.)
- wkat4242 2y agoZFS also had expansion for a long time but it was offline expansion. I don't know if btrfs has also had online for a long time? And shrinking no, that is a big missing feature in ZFS IMO. Understandable considering its heritage (large scale datacenters) but nevertheless an issue for home use. But raidz is rock-solid. Btrfs' raid is not.
- unsnap_biceps 2y agoRaidz wasn't able to be expanded in place before this. You were able to add to a pool that included a raidz vdev, but that raidz vdev was immutable.
- wkat4242 2y agoOh ok, I've never done this, but I thought it was already there. Maybe this was the original ZFS from Sun? But maybe I just remember it incorrectly, sorry. I've used it on multi-drive arrays but I never had the need for expansion.
- ryao 2y agoYou could add top level raidz vdevs or replace the members of a raid-z vdev with larger disks to increase storage space back then. You still have those options now.
- _gea 2y agoYou can online expand a ZFS pool for years by replacing disks with larger ones or by adding vdevs. On current OpenZFS you can even expand a Raid-Z by adding disks to it. To shrink a pool, you can remove vdevs. On OpenZFS this is limited to mirror vdevs, native ZFS from Oracle can remove Raid-Z. Kernel integration is not so important as long as use distributions that include ZFS support at distribution level mainly Proxmox and TrueNAS or Ubuntu.