ZFS Dataset Hierarchy | Data Hoarder Edition

ZFS is flexible and will let you name and organize datasets however you choose–but before you start building datasets there’s some ways to make management easier in the long term.  I’ve found the following convention works well for me.  It’s not “the” way by any means, but I hope you will find it helpful, I … Read more

VMware vs bhyve Performance Comparison

Playing with bhyve Here’s a look at Gea’s popular All-in-one design which allows VMware to run on top of ZFS on a single box using a virtual 10Gbe storage network.  The design requires an HBA and a CPU that supports VT-d so that the storage can be passed directly to a guest VM running a ZFS … Read more

Best Hard Drives for ZFS Server (Updated Oct 2022)

Updated October 19, 2022. Today’s question comes from Jeff…. Q. What drives should I buy for my ZFS server?  Answer: Here’s what I recommend, considering a balance of cost per TB, performance, and reliability.  I prefer NAS or Enterprise-class drives since they are designed to run 24/7 and also are better at tolerating vibration from … Read more

FreeNAS vs. OmniOS / Napp-It

       2015-01-07: I’ve updated this post to to reflect changes in FreeNAS 9.3.  I’ve been using OpenIndiana since late 2011 and switched to OmniOS in 2013.  Lately I started testing FreeNAS, what drove me to do this is I use  CrashPlan to backup my pool but recently Code 42 announced they’ll be discontinuing … Read more