ZFS

[Freddie Cash <fjwcash@gmail.com>]

On a related note to the LVM thread, I'm curious if anyone has implemented 
a storage backend using ZFS for Zimbra, whether it be on Solaris, 
FreeBSD, or even MacOS X Server.  (I guess this would be similar to using 
a NetAPP filer.)

I'm just wondering if this would make things like snapshots and backups 
simpler, seeing how ZFS snapshots are nearly instantaneous and unlimited 
in number.  Basically, all the things that are wrong with LVM+FS are 
non-existent in ZFS.

For example, put 24x 500 GB SATA drives into a 5U enclosure, put FreeBSD 
onto CF with the the 24 drives in a ZFS raidz2 pool (gives just under 10 
TB of usable space), and then share those out via NFS.  Use separate 
boxes for the Zimbra hosts, using the NFS shares for storage.  Or maybe 
even iSCSI instead of NFS.

We're using FreeBSD and ZFS on our remote backup server, and must say that 
it is a much nicer/simpler storage management system than any Linux, LVM, 
RAID, MD, FS setup we've come across.  (As an aside, our backup server 
remotely backs up every file on over 70 servers around the district, 
every night, with nightly snapshots, and super-quick file and system 
recovery, with approx 2 GB of data changing between snapshots, all in a 
server that cost $10,000.  Gotta love FreeBSD, ZFS, and Rsync.)

-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwcash@gmail.com