AI-powered
podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
2.5 Admins
2.5 Admins 172: HOLEy ZFS
Dec 7, 2023
Jim and Allan discuss the recent ZFS data corruption bug, the complexities of interacting with ZFS on a lower level, the importance of keeping Free BSD up to date, managing servers with ZFS replication, the advantages of using golden images and ZFS replication, the significance of automated monitoring with Nagios, and the need for functional naming conventions for servers in an IT environment.
31:32
AI Summary
AI Chapters
Episode notes
Podcast summary created with Snipd AI
Quick takeaways
- A recent ZFS bug, caused by a change in behavior in core utils, has been found to affect the file system's race condition nature, leading to possible file corruption or zeros during copying operations.
- Using ZFS as the underlying file system for managing a fleet of 40+ servers offers benefits such as reliable replication for backups, seamless system upgrades with boot snapshots, and the importance of automated monitoring for proactive issue detection.
Deep dives
ZFS Bugs and Behavior Change in Core Utils
The podcast episode discusses recent ZFS bugs that were initially attributed to the block cloning feature in OpenZFS 2.2, but it turned out to be caused by a change in behavior in core utils. The bug was found to be present in the original Sun version of ZFS and not specific to later versions like Alumos or free BSD. The bug is difficult to encounter due to its race condition nature. It occurs when modifying a file while another process requests information about the presence of data or holes in the file. Core Utils 9.2 changed some defaults related to handling sparse files, which affected the race condition in ZFS. The bug could lead to file corruption or files filled with zeros during copying operations. The issue has been fixed in OpenZFS 2.2 and 2.1.14, with patch updates available for different versions of ZFS on Linux and free BSD.
Get the Snipd
podcast app
Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
AI-powered
Discover
highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
Save any
moment
Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways
Share
& Export
Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more
AI-powered
podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover
highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode