After years of development and testing, the ZFS raidz expansion is finally here and has been released as part of version 2.3.0. ZFS is a popular file system for Linux and FreeBSD. RAIDz is like RAID 5, which you find with hardware or Linux software raid devices. It protects your data by spreading it across multiple hard disks along with parity information. A raidz device can have single, double, or triple parity to sustain one, two, or three hard disk failures, respectively, without losing any data. Hence, expanding or adding a new HDD is a very handy feature for sysadmins in today’s data-sensitive apps.
ZFS 2.3.0: Raidz Expansion Now Available
The OpenZFS project announced version 2.3.0 today. You need at least:
- Linux kernel version 4.18 – 6.12
- FreeBSD releases or version 13.3, 14.0 – 14.2
What’s new in OpenZFS version 2.3.0?
The key features are:
- RAIDZ Expansion: You can now add new devices to an existing RAIDz pool, which increases storage capacity without any downtime. This feature is a killer featue in my opinion as a professional sysadmin and IT person.
- Fast Deduplication: This version includes a significant performance upgrade to the original OpenZFS deduplication functionality. Deduplication allows identical data to be stored only once, greatly reducing overall storage size. But, you must carefully consider this option.
- Direct IO: This feature enables bypassing the Adaptive Replacement Cache (ARC) for read and write operations, enhancing performance in scenarios like using NVMe devices where caching could impede efficiency.
- JSON Support: There’s now optional JSON output for the most commonly used ZFS commands, making it easier for scripting and automation tasks for your IT tasks.
- Extended Longer File Name Support: ZFS now supports file and directory names with lengths of up to 1023 characters. This will make NFS and CIFS users happier on Windows or macOS/Linux desktops.
- Apart from that a variety of critical bug fixes have been implemented to address issues reported in earlier versions. Numerous enhancements throughout the codebase have been made to improve overall performance for ZFS on Linux and FreeBSD operating systems.
Summing up
This is massive news for ZFS users, particularly for sysadmins and IT folks using Linux and FreeBSD like myself. The expansion of the Raidz feature has been one of the most requested features for years, and it has finally arrived. I will first experiment with it in a virtual machine and then try it out with real hardware by adding a new hard drive for the NAS device. I am using ZFS with both Debian and FreeBSD, and my experience is positive with OpenZFS.
See also
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