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Posts tagged with: filesystem

HOWTO: Migrate a UFS Root Filesystem to ZFS

Solaris 10 10/08 (u6) is due to be released within the next month of so (I don't have an exact date) and one of the great features to come with it is ZFS boot. You can already use ZFS boot on Nevada and OpenSolaris defaults to ZFS, but this will be the first release of officially supported Solaris 10 to have ZFS boot.People have been waiting for this for a long time, and will naturally be eager to migrate their root filesystem from UFS to ZFS. This article will detail how you can do this using Live Upgrade. This will allow you to perform the migration with the least amount of downtime, and still have a safety net in case something goes wrong.These instructions are aimed at users with systems ALREADY running Solaris 10 10/08 (update 6) or Nevada build 90 (snv_90) or later.  Continue reading ►

ZFS: Rampant Layering Violation

I stumbled upon a great article (via Ars Technica) by Jeff Bonwick, responding to Andrew Morton's claim that ZFS is a "rampant layering violation" because it cuts across the traditionally separate worlds of the filesystem, volume manager, and RAID controller.I think ZFS is a brilliant invention and believe it'll go far. It removes complexity and cost, improves data reliability and generally makes people's (both sysadmins & desktop users) lives soooo much easier. Too many times I've had to be the bearer of bad news and let a customer know their data is corrupt and they'll have to restore from backup. Most of the time we can work out where the problem has occurred and take the necessary steps to prevent or reduce the chances of it from occurring again. However there are times, particularly when dealing with 3rd party storage and it's associated software, that an explanation can't be found and I have to refer the customer to the 3rd party vendor. These problems are invariably due to over complexity in the storage stack.Whilst ZFS does have it's limitations (can't shrink or boot from ZFS just yet), work is in place to remove these limitations. Remember, ZFS is in it's infancy - all it's competitors have been in the public sector for many many years.One of the comments on Jeff's post caught my eye (I've copied part of it verbatim)...  Continue reading ►
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