FreeBSD + ZFS on a production server?

[Wojciech Puchar]

> On a system with an Athlon 1700+ and only 512 MB of RAM,
> receiving snapshots on OpenSolaris renders the GUI pretty
> much useless.

looks like very bad CPU and I/O scheduling on Solaris.
maybe that's their 32-64 hardware threads capable chip is advertised so 
much? :)

>
> On FreeBSD ZFS operations can cause delays as well, but it's
> significantly better than on OpenSolaris, even though FreeBSD's
> ZFS pool lies on a geli-encrypted gmirror while OpenSolaris uses
> the disk directly.

there is quite big difference with geli. it is CPU eater and produces 
delays noticable on machines that like P3 or less. but at least - it does 
something useful unlike these ZFS checksumming and other things.

> Note that the system is below Sun's recommended specifications
> for ZFS, though. Things may look differently on more powerful
> systems.

but comparision probably the same, or difference less noticable on 
stronger systems.

>
> You can use geli(8) for checksumming, it can be combined with gmirror
> but unless with ZFS, you don't get automatic "self-healing".

whatever it means ;)