On 29-Feb-08, at 5:29 PM, Kevin McGregor wrote:
I see that the latest FreeBSD release, 7.0, is supposed to support Sun's ZFS file system. I was wondering if you were to (for example) install FreeBSD on disk A using FreeBSD's 'normal' file system (UFS? UFS2? FFS? I haven't been following BSD file systems), and then set up disks B and C as a mirrored ZFS pool, could you later install OpenSolaris on disk A (replacing FreeBSD) and have it read the existing ZFS stuff on disks B and C? Or install OpenSolaris first, then FreeBSD later?
I would be surprised if this worked. From my understanding (which could be wrong, and likely is) FBSD's works with GEOM in a way, so I would doubt it would work. It would be an interesting test, but I wouldn't risk my data trying it.
As a bonus question, would anyone care to comment as to whether FreeBSD 7.0 or OpenSolaris (any version) are stable/reliable enough for a (home) production file server, specifically with respect to the ZFS support?
OpenSolaris is stable, it eventually becomes the Solaris build, so I would run it (and do). I would check to see what build is considered 'safe' though. I know a bunch of people that run it in production.
As for FreeBSD, as of 8 months ago (or so, whenever BSDCan was), the guy that ported ZFS to FreeBSD said he wouldn't run it in production. He said he hoped 7.0 would be production ready, but I am not sure where it's at.
I would do some research and or post to the FBSD lists (or just email him directly).
shawn