ZFS is a local file system and logical volume manager to direct and control the placement, storage, and retrieval of data in business-class computing systems. ZFS is an advanced file system featuring some exciting features such as:
1. Stored storage
Unlike other file systems, ZFS combines the features of a file system and a volume manager. This means that, unlike other file systems, ZFS can create a file system that spans a number of drives. Not only that, but you can add storage space to a collection by adding another unit. ZFS will manage partitioning and formatting.
2. COPY-on-write
In most file systems, when data is overwritten, it is lost forever. On ZFS, the new information is written in another block. Once the writing is complete, file system metadata is updated to indicate the new information. This ensures that if something happens to the system during the writing process, the old data will be retained. It also means that the system is not allowed to run fsck after a system crash.
3. Snapshots
ZFS uses snapshots to track changes in the file system.
4. Check data integrity and auto repair
Whenever new data is created in ZFS, it creates a control amount for those data. When reading these data, the checksum is checked. If the amount of control does not match, then ZFS knows that an error has been detected. ZFS will automatically try to correct the error.
5. RAID-Z
ZFS can manage RAID without requiring additional software or hardware. ZFS has its own RAID implementation: RAID-Z.
6. High storage potential
When the ZFS was created, it was designed to support more storage space. ZFS eliminates the need to configure traditional RAID arrays. Instead, you can create ZFS funds and even add units to those pools at any time. The ZFS pool behaves exactly like RAID, but the functionality is built into the file system itself. Also, ZFS acts as a replacement for LVM, allowing you to partition and manage partitions without too much headaches. It is also a CoW file system. Without becoming too technical, it means that ZFS will protect your corruption data gradually over time. ZFS creates file checksums and allows you to re-import these files into a previous version.
sudo apt install zfsutils
ZFS creates a directory in the root filesystem for your pools. You can browse them by name using the GUI or CLI file manager. ZFS is extraordinarily powerful and there are many other things you can do with it, but these are the basics. ZFS works well with NAS systems as well. No matter how stable and robust is ZFS, it’s always best to back up data when you implement something new on your hard drives. ZFS on Linux is a project that aims to bring the Oracle file system to everyone’s favorite GNU platform.