RAID0 1 10 ... do not exist in ZFS

esi_y

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Nov 29, 2023
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So I do not even feel like posting this to BZ because, well [1], but I have noticed that on this forum, it is very common to refer to ZFS "RAID levels" as if ... it was not ZFS.

I am quite positive this is caused by the Proxmox installer (and documentation, too [2]).

I have never seen ZFS (apart from here) used with these terms, I get it might have been put there for ease of people coming from elsewhere, but it actually is confusing when in ZFS talk there's a RAID discussion, it means RAIDZs and of course 1,2,3 are very different from a mirror. When people come to the forum, they often say 1 and mean a mirror, etc.

If you do not find this a problem, think of ZFS RAID60, how weird it sounds (although you probably can guess what I mean). If people go search anywhere else (BSD forums), they will not find what they look for (RAID1, etc.). It's pure Proxmox-isms at this point and it's messy.

I feel like if Proxmox wants to be a proponent of ZFS, it should also educate its users on the proper terminology (vdev single disk, mirror, striped mirror and parity raids).

Obviously, I cannot really point to the authoritative documentation that it does not contain the terms [3] as some sort of explainer, because it does not contain them.

I hope someone picks this up for BZ and docs + installer update or at least answer, why this was done, discuss it here.

EDIT: Filed into BZ: https://bugzilla.proxmox.com/show_bug.cgi?id=5806

[1] https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/proxmox-workflow-bugzilla-reporting-etc.155952/
[2] https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/ZFS_on_Linux#_installation_as_root_file_system
[3] https://openzfs.github.io/openzfs-docs/man/v2.2/7/zpoolconcepts.7.html
 
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