From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jul 13 19:59:41 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 90804C2A for ; Sun, 13 Jul 2014 19:59:41 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-lb0-x232.google.com (mail-lb0-x232.google.com [IPv6:2a00:1450:4010:c04::232]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 1A85A2433 for ; Sun, 13 Jul 2014 19:59:40 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-lb0-f178.google.com with SMTP id 10so2277605lbg.9 for ; Sun, 13 Jul 2014 12:59:39 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; bh=fWHzvTZpG/ARTsVxFkxxkuN6Gg6egLhzgQfBueFA5QI=; b=M0lMr/NLQGUHT0OWGwj5emzvYrO5La2kZSPTLE8F6DFo+QDZA7gr2HSIeIXwn8cmYK sb85SfycltarYLP9GD3tD+DY76yDVHkWhGtVH0xITy6Pu9uE2YyRzePkelUBlSagRwjO ogXy6gthQTMJhUxozk9QhMNZj5J847zd2ynMpQnplLswJLO3MouOxh5j7Z4K/wdRqQZe Exg0QsHdlR1LXkgDMdo0G4LbHCnDXyQvN2/hUGN+1UhHod46W3t2FZLAGWQSW9Un0juD KbPabqvbg3mbUBNQaJD6M/I7qM54l2NpG1Y6s1uGrCTYDefTETwxc8XmwyO+V8Yv/Xfa P+eg== MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Received: by 10.112.88.202 with SMTP id bi10mr10242007lbb.4.1405281578954; Sun, 13 Jul 2014 12:59:38 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.112.30.4 with HTTP; Sun, 13 Jul 2014 12:59:38 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20140713190308.GA9678@bewilderbeast.blackhelicopters.org> References: <20140713190308.GA9678@bewilderbeast.blackhelicopters.org> Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 14:59:38 -0500 Message-ID: Subject: Re: deciding UFS vs ZFS From: Curt Dox To: "Michael W. Lucas" Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.18 Cc: questions@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 19:59:41 -0000 On Sun, Jul 13, 2014 at 2:03 PM, Michael W. Lucas wrote: > Hi, > > We have two 'big' filesystems, UFS and ZFS. How do people decide when > to use which? I'm trying to build a "decision matrix" of when to use > each. > > My virtualization system runs KVM, so I use UFS on VMs. Restoring > ZFS disk images via dd can be problematic. > > For larger boxes running on real iron, I use ZFS. > > But there's a whole range of conditions between these two. And the way > to fill in the gray spaces is to ask. > > So, how do you decide to use which filesystem? > > ==ml > > -- > Michael W. Lucas - mwlucas@michaelwlucas.com, Twitter @mwlauthor > http://www.MichaelWLucas.com/, http://blather.MichaelWLucas.com/ > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to " > freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > UFS is something I had little choice about, it was the default at the time. Now that ZFS exists for FreeBSD and I am well aware that it enjoys "the more the better" amount of RAM. When I have a system that will be capable of up to 32GB RAM (or more) and I plan for redundancy (raidz1 or raidz2) with easy upgrades to larger capacity (once all drives match the larger size), and faster access times due to multiple spindles, then ZFS is my choice. I generally plan for redundancy and expandability which means ZFS has become my own default. I am definitely a ZFS neophyte but unafraid :)