Create a VM on ZFS storage without having an ext4 filesystem on top of the ZFS host filesystem

[Wouter Samaey]

Is it possible to create a VM on underlying ZFS storage, and not have the VM format it's disk as ext4 but instead use the zvol directly? Thus avoiding a filesystem on filesystem situation...

Just wondering if this kind of thing makes sense and is possible so ZFS can be put to optimal use.

 

[dcsapak]

how would that work with vms? the vm needs some kind of hardware it accesses, not a filesystem

with containers this is the way it works (this is possible because the container and the host share a kernel)

 

[Wouter Samaey]

Well it's an open question so I don't really know.
You make a valid point that I hadn't considered!

Maybe I should mount a network share for some data by installing samba on the host...

 

[LnxBil]

Maybe I should mount a network share for some data by installing samba on the host...

That is one way to go. Samba and ZFS work very well together in a Windows environment. You can "emulate" shadow copy on the server side and can use it on the client side:

https://blog.chaospixel.com/linux/2...ots-and-windows-shadow-copies-with-samba.html