The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

Making the ZFS file system (Interview)

Jan 18, 2022

Matthew Ahrens, co-founder of the ZFS project at Sun Microsystems, shares the intriguing journey of the ZFS file system. He discusses its architectural innovations like copy-on-write and the evolution from a proprietary model to open-source. Matt explores the critical features that ensure data integrity and management, including RAID-Z capabilities. He also hints at exciting future developments such as a cloud-based ZFS object store, emphasizing community involvement and collaboration in its ongoing enhancement.

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ANECDOTE

Jurassic Server Woes

Sun's Jurassic server, used by kernel developers, suffered storage administration issues with UFS and Solaris Volume Manager.
These included incorrect disk resilvering and difficulty understanding system status, motivating ZFS's creation.

INSIGHT

ZFS Prioritizes Usability

ZFS prioritizes ease of storage administration over pure performance.
Features like snapshots, replication, and checksums contribute to its overall utility.

INSIGHT

ZFS: Enterprise for the Masses

ZFS integrates file system and volume management, offering enterprise features.
Snapshots, compression, and replication become accessible without expensive products.

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This week Matt Ahrens joins Adam to talk about ZFS. Matt co-founded the ZFS project at Sun Microsystems in 2001. And 20 years later Adam picked up ZFS for use in his home lab and loved it. So, he reached out to Matt and invited him on the show. They cover the origins of the file system, its journey from proprietary to open source, architecture choices like copy-on-write, the ins and outs of creating and managing ZFS, RAID-Z and RAID-Z expansion, and Matt even shares plans for ZFS in the cloud with ZFS object store.

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Featuring:

Matthew Ahrens – GitHub, LinkedIn, X
Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!