[BBLISA] filesystems supporting snapshots

[Peter Galvin]

Or of course you can build a low cost NAS using ZFS - just use Solaris 10.


On 8/22/07 5:07 PM, "Tom Metro" <tmetro+bblisa at vl.com> wrote:

> Arthur Gaer wrote:
>> My understanding--from a few years ago--was that NetApp's filesystem
>> snapshot facility was something of a side-effect of NetApp's propriety
>> WAFL file system/implementation...
> 
> That's my understanding as well.
> 
> I've also wondered, given the value of that feature, why we haven't seen
> it appear in one of the community developed, open source file systems.
> 
> 
> Jeff Wasilko wrote:
>> ZFS from Sun gets you pretty much everything that Netapp has
>> (filesystem-wise), and more.
> 
> I guess Sun saved the community the trouble of developing it (and
> conveniently patented all the best parts).
> 
> Sun opens ZFS source code
> http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20051117-5595.html
> 
> This 2005 article gives some background on ZFS and says:
> 
>    So, now that the ZFS source code is available for use, will we be
>    seeing it in Linux sometime soon? According to a Sun FAQ about ZFS, a
>    Linux port "is currently being investigated."
> 
> 
> And then an article from about a year ago:
> http://www.linuxinsight.com/zfs_filesystem_for_linux.html
> 
>    When ZFS was first announced, I'm sure many Linux hackers had a
>    thought how it would be a great idea to port such a great filesystem
>    to Linux. Unfortunately, ZFS source is distributed under Sun's CDDL
>    license which is (some say deliberately) incompatible with the GPL
>    license that Linux kernel uses. So, it looks like there will be no
>    native port of ZFS for Linux in the foreseeable future. What a pity.
> 
> (More in the license issues here:
> http://zfs-on-fuse.blogspot.com/2007/04/zfs-in-linux-kernel.html )
> 
>    Still, lurking around the web, I have found the next best thing, a
>    project to port ZFS to the popular FUSE framework: ZFS on
>    FUSE/Linux[1].
> 
>    Thanks to relieved FUSE licensing, which allows dynamically linking
>    with it without any restrictions, it looks like it's possible to port
>    ZFS to FUSE without any licensing problems. Of course, implementation
>    of filesystem in userspace can never reach speed and stability of
>    in-kernel filesystems, but I still find it very interesting.
> 
> 1. http://www.wizy.org/wiki/ZFS_on_FUSE
> and http://zfs-on-fuse.blogspot.com/
> 
> So it is already available on Linux, but in toy form. So much for
> creating a low-cost NAS using ZFS. I guess there is always FreeBSD[2].
> 
> 2. http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2007-April/070544.html
> 
>   -Tom


--Peter

Blog: http://pbgalvin.wordpress.com