ZFS (was Reliable Firewire drives)

[John C. Welch]

On 02/08/2008 13:04 PM, "Dan Shoop" <shoop at iwiring.net> wrote:

>> ZFS is indeed quite nice, however, it is not the perfect magic spell
>> its PR
>> is trying to make it be. Like every other bit of software written,
>> it has
>> bugs, including this one:
>> <http://bugs.opensolaris.org/view_bug.do?bug_id=6458218> that bit
>> Joyent in
>> the ass: <http://discuss.joyent.com/viewtopic.php?id=19430>
> 
> It would be fair to note when mentioning this that they were running
> an out of date version of their OS and that had they updated like they
> should have they'd never have been bitten by their problem. Also this
> bug was from 2006 and was fixed long ago so while yes, ZFS, like
> anything -- including HFS -- can have bugs, this one was squashed in
> short order. All pointing out the above proves is that you need to
> keep up with your updates, which is true for any software you use.

It also points out that contrary to PR, ZFS is not the magic file system,
it's not perfect in form and execution, nor is it the last filesystem you'll
ever need. It is a very good file system, but the magical thinking it
inspires needs to end and bloody soon.

> 
>> As well, ZFS is still only supported as *read only* on Mac OS X, so
>> unless
>> you have a lot of expertise with ZFS at all levels, running the beta
>> R/W
>> implementations on Mac OS X is not recommended at all.
> 
> To be fair the beta r/w *is* the production ZFS codebase, so the only
> thing really beta about it is that it's running or has been ported on
> OS X.

That's really immaterial. As of now, on Mac OS X, R/W ZFS is not supported
by the OS Vendor. Period. Its status on other platforms is completely
irrelevant to that fact. If that's not a concern, then act accordingly, but
for many that *is* a concern.

-- 
John C. Welch         Writer/Analyst
Bynkii.com              Mac and other opinions
jwelch at bynkii.com