ZFS, a new breed of filesystem

One of the key features of Solaris 10 is the new ZFS (Zettabyte File System). The new Solaris 10 06/06 update 2 (release notes is the first of the open releases to support a stable version of ZFS.

ZFS itself covers two aspects of data storage, first it treats all physical volumes logically (which means you gain the potential for features like redundancy, or aggregation of multiple devices into a larger resource) and then it treats all filesystems as virtual (which means you can create a filesystem to the size you want, across all available logical volumes).

The combination of the two means that you can create the filesystems you want, without being limited by single physical storage, or by the limitations of a typical RAID device.

ZFS manages to do this not just with high-end solutions like hardware RAID, it'll do it with standard disks and devices, and, as the name suggests, it'll do it with such limits that are so large, it seems unlikely that we'll reach them any time soon. ZFS has also garnered a lot of interest, and there is already a Linux port in the works.

James Dickens has collected an amazing range of links, including some video tutorials if you want some more information.