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From: Grant Taylor <gtaylor@tnetconsulting.net>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Anyone Using OpenZFS?
Date: Fri, 10 Jan 2025 17:55:07 -0600
Organization: TNet Consulting
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On 1/10/25 13:48, Farley Flud wrote:
> I hear a lot about the virtues of OpenZFS, which is available for 
> GNU/Linux albeit, due to license concerns, only in a roundabout way.

I'm fairly certain that FreeBSD has also been using OpenZFS for the last 
3-8 years.

> A separate external module must be compiled and then added to the 
> kernel.

I believe I've seen directions on how to integrate that external module 
into a kernel that doesn't support modules.  Some sort of way to graft 
it into the kernel tree so you don't need modules.  I think.

> Since my programming predilection is HPC/scientific/engineering, 
> I know little about disk I/O concepts.  So answer these questions if 
> you are able.
> 
> Is OpenZFS suitable/recommended for a desktop workstation?

I see no reason to not use (Open)ZFS on a desktop workstation.

> What are the benefits of OpenZFS compared to EXT4?

I think that (Open)ZFS's flexibility and capabilities put it in a 
completely different (IMHO better) class than Ext4.

  - snapshots
  - clones
  - send & receive
  - RAID like capabilities
  - (logical) volume management
  - data protection in addition to metadata.

> Is OpenZFS stable enough to be trusted?

I've been using (Open)ZFS to manage millions of files for more than 10 
years.  I'm very happy with it.

> I will appreciate all responses.

The only thing that I will say is that (Open)ZFS is not as fast as a raw 
file system like Ext4.  But I believe that the minor performance penalty 
is well worth it for snapshots and send & receive.



-- 
Grant. . . .