1: # ZFS on NetBSD
2:
3: This page attempts to do two things: provide enough orientatino and
4: pointers to standard ZFS documentation for NetBSD users who are new to
5: ZFS, and to to describe NetBSD-specific ZFS information. It is
6: emphatically not a tutorial or an introduction to ZFS.
7:
8: Many things are marked with \todo because they need a better
9: explanation, and some have question marks, indicating that the
10: statement needs verification.
11:
12: # Documentation Pointers
13:
14: See the man pages for zfs(8) and zpool(8).
15:
16: [Oracle ZFS Administration Manual](https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E26505_01/html/E37384/index.html)
17: [FreeBSD Handbook ZFS Chapter](https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/zfs.html)
18:
19: # Status of ZFS in NetBSD
20:
21: NetBSD has imported OpenZFS. \todo versions, links
22:
23: ## NetBSD 8 and earlier
24:
25: While there is some ZFS code, it is old, and seems to have significant
26: problems. If one wants to use ZFS, first upgrade to NetBSD 9. It is
27: unlikely that anyone is interested in helping, other than telling you
28: to upgrade to 9.
29:
30: (Reports of how well NetBDS 8 works are welcome on netbsd-users, if it
31: can actually be recommended for use.)
32:
33: ## NetBSD 9
34:
35: There have been fixes since 9.0 RELEASE. It is best to upgrade along
36: the netbsd-9 branch, but the release should be ok.
37:
38: \todo This is OpenZFS as of X. Most aspects work solidly.
39:
40: \todo This supports pool version 28/5000 (really true?). Of the
41: feature flags found in modern OpenZFS, \todo are supported.
42:
43: ## NetBSD current
44:
45: There is initial support for ZFS root, via booting from ffs and pivoting.
46:
47: One can make a ccd using a zvol as a component. This allows reading a
48: GPT label from the zvol, which is useful in case the zvol had been
49: exported via iscsi and some other system created a label.
50:
51: ## things that aren't suported yet
52:
53: \todo (?) hotswap
54:
55: \todo (?) direct boot into zfs root
56:
57: ## Architectures
58:
59: Most people seem to be using amd64.
60:
61: To build zfs, one puts MKZFS=yes in mk.conf. This is default on amd64
62: and aarch64 on netbsd-9. In current, it is also default on sparc64.
63:
64: More or less, zfs can be enabled on an architecture when it is known
65: to build and run reliably. (Of course, users are welcome to build it
66: and report.)
67:
68: # NetBSD-specific information
69:
70: ## rc.conf
71:
72: The main configuration is to put zfs=YES in rc.conf, so that the rc.d
73: scripts bring up ZFS and mount ZFS filesystems.
74:
75: ## mount order
76:
77: NetBSD 9 mounts other filesystems and then ZFS filesystems. This can
78: be a problem if /usr/pkgsrc is on ZFS and /usr/pkgsrc/distfiles is on
79: NFS. A workaround is to use noauto and do the mounts in
80: /etc/rc.local.
81:
82: NetBSD current after 20200301 mounts ZFS first. \todo Explain
83: consequences.
84:
85: ## TRIM
86:
87: There is some notion of TRIM and zfs using it.
88:
89: \todo Explain how this relates to NetBSD.
90:
91: # Memory usage
92:
93: Basically, ZFS uses lots of memory and most people run it on systems
94: with large amounts of memory. NetBSD works well on systems with
95: comparatively small amounts of memory. So a natural question is how
96: well ZFS works on one's VAX with 2M of RAM :-)
97:
98: More seriously, one might ask if is reasonable to run ZFS on a RPI3
99: with 1G of RAM, or even if it is reasonable on a system with 4G.
100:
101: \todo Give ballpark level for minimum sane RAM, and the amount which
102: is cleanly enough.
103:
104: FreeBSD has some documentation about memory use. There is a notion of
105: a minimum of 1G, and using 1G for 1T of storage, and more if
106: deduplication is enabled. FreeBSD considers all i386 systems to be
107: low memory; this appears to be a clue.
108:
109: \todo Explain if the FreeBSD sysctl list applies, or if not what we
110: should do instead.
111:
112: [FreeBSD low memory documentation](https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/zfs-advanced.html)
113:
114: # Interoperability with other systems
115:
116: \todo Explain pool version and feature flags relationship to FreeBSD,
117: Linux, OpenIndiana/Illumos/?, and ?
118:
119:
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