A few questions about ZFS

[Daniel Andersson]

That sounds promising! Too bad my server
doesn't have that kind of hardware. =D
Might try zfs after all. Got any recommendations
on disks? preferrably 500gb. Then again, the
size and make of the disks doesn't matter with
zfs, does it?

"
I am using zfs with a 6-disk raidz (2.5tb) pool and another non-replicated
pool as root. It is used as a media server/gateway/firewall. I've had no
zfs related panics since moving to a core 2 cpu with 4gb ram. I think I've
encountered the zfs/nfs deadlock twice, requiring a reboot each time. The
load isn't stellar, but I was using it to rip/encode DVDs, download a
dozen or so torrents and stream several media files all at the same time.
The only instance where there was a hiccup was if I was extracting several
large archives simultaneously, the media streamer would hiccup once or
twice until the system compensated better for the sudden increase in disk
I/O.

All in all, with zfs, I feel like the two times I did have to reboot I
avoided a lengthy fsck. The ability to scrub the disks and detect data
corruption (which has not occurred) as well as the plusses of pooled
storage without spending far too much on a raid controller outweigh any
potential downsides. Now if only I could find a PCIe SATA controller with
4 or 8 ports that isn't one of those expensive RAIDs (prefer to invest
more in disks than controllers)."