The State of ZFS on Linux

jeremy · 09-11-2014, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Linux users familiar with other filesystems or ZFS users from other platforms will often ask whether ZFS on Linux (ZoL) is “stable”.

The short answer is yes, depending on your definition of stable. The term stable itself is somewhat ambiguous. While one would think that stable means “ready for production use”, that can mean that it does not lose data, that it does not crash, that it is a drop-in replacement for an existing filesystem, that changes to the disk format are forward compatible, that updates are always flawless or some combination thereof. Consequently, the long answer is much more nuanced than a single word can express.

Furthermore, as the name ZFS on Linux suggests, the question of ZoL stability is answered partly by how ZFS itself protects against data loss events, and, separately, how ZFS works on Linux, as opposed to other operating systems where it has been used much longer than on Linux.

In order to fully answer this question, I have divided this subject into several different posts that allow me to go into each topic in depth, without subjecting the reader to what turns out to be some very dense topics. This post provides a summary of my conclusions and includes links to more detailed explanations. A full list of supporting posts is available at the bottom.

Let’s jump in.

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Are any LQ members using ZFS on Linux?

--jeremy