"So, just what are these advanced features of ZFS? Its developers re-examined filesystem design from the ground up. The result, according to the ZFS Web page, is that its developers have “blown away 20 years of obsolete assumptions, eliminated complexity at the source, and created a storage system that’s actually a pleasure to use.” Examples of its advanced features include:
* Pooled storage — The filesystem enables storage space from multiple disks to be “pooled” and allocated to specific mount points on an as-needed basis. This feature effectively combines volume-resizing and Logical Volume Management (LVM) features, but at the filesystem level. With ZFS, you don’t need to worry about how to size your partitions, since the filesystem adjusts itself automatically!
* RAID-Z — This feature is similar to Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) level 5 support, but with less overhead.
* Always-consistent disk space — The disk space is kept consistent at all times through copy-on-write operations. Thus, there’s no need to perform disk checks after a system crash or power outage.
* Disk scrubbing — This feature is similar to the Error Correcting Code (ECC) feature of certain computer memory modules; it permits the computer to detect and correct on-disk errors.
* Snapshots and clones — A snapshot is a read-only copy of a filesystem, and a clone is a read/write copy of a filesystem. You can use snapshots and clones to preserve a fixed version of a filesystem or to make backups of a filesystem.
* Built-in compression — ZFS supports compression at the filesystem level, which is particularly handy if you’re low on disk space or if you store highly compressible data."
http://www.linux-mag.com/id/6371
* Pooled storage — The filesystem enables storage space from multiple disks to be “pooled” and allocated to specific mount points on an as-needed basis. This feature effectively combines volume-resizing and Logical Volume Management (LVM) features, but at the filesystem level. With ZFS, you don’t need to worry about how to size your partitions, since the filesystem adjusts itself automatically!
* RAID-Z — This feature is similar to Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) level 5 support, but with less overhead.
* Always-consistent disk space — The disk space is kept consistent at all times through copy-on-write operations. Thus, there’s no need to perform disk checks after a system crash or power outage.
* Disk scrubbing — This feature is similar to the Error Correcting Code (ECC) feature of certain computer memory modules; it permits the computer to detect and correct on-disk errors.
* Snapshots and clones — A snapshot is a read-only copy of a filesystem, and a clone is a read/write copy of a filesystem. You can use snapshots and clones to preserve a fixed version of a filesystem or to make backups of a filesystem.
* Built-in compression — ZFS supports compression at the filesystem level, which is particularly handy if you’re low on disk space or if you store highly compressible data."
http://www.linux-mag.com/id/6371
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