Hardware to use / ZFS implications

[f4242]

Congratulation for the 1.0 release!

This new product is very interesting. I wonder on what kind of hardware I should use PBS? ZFS make it difficult to use server hardware we usually use (Dell/Lenovo 1U server with raid controller). I understand ZFS doesn't deal well over a raid controller but in the same time the PBS hardware requirements tell us to use hardware RAID with battery or a redundant ZFS setup. I'm confused because I assumed PBS is using ZFS under the hood.

Can you advice?

Thanks.

 

[Cookiefamily]

PBS can use basically whatever filesystem you throw at it. XFS, EXT, NFS, SMB, ZFS, ...
The deduplication isn’t done by the storage backend but by the software itself.
this means you can definitly go with a „normal“ raid and EXT4 for example.
You should be able to use ZFS as well, most raid controllers allow a Non-RAID mode that passes through the disks individually, on some you might need to do a JBOD configuration. What is cool about ZFS: you can add a „Special Device“ that handles metadata. If you put that on mirrored NVMe or „normal“ SSDs you will significantly speed up PBS.

 

[f4242]

Mmm interesting! So the only feature I lose by using ext4 running on hardware raid is the special device that handles metadata?

What dev are suggesting here? Hardware raid or zfs?

Thanks

 

[tom]

Hardware raid or zfs?

I prefer ZFS (on top of NVMe/SSD). I skipped hardware raid controllers year ago and I never look back.