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?

Yes. Both implementations of ZFS are cut from the same cloth so they should be interoperable. ZFS is both a file system AND a volume manager so you won't have to worry about UFS on top of it and what not.

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? _______________________________________________ Roundtable mailing list Roundtable@muug.mb.ca http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable

The man page (http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=zfs&sektion=8&manpath=FreeB...) was directly imported from OpenSolaris which says something in and of itself. I have heard of some success using it but I would wait a release or two before I would consider it production stable. If by production you mean home use and you backup your data regularly then in that case I would say 'have at it.'

I would say it would be a cold day in hell before I would even be allowed to consider running it on one of the X4500's (I dream for that day).