Zettabyte file System (ZFS)

Zettabyte file System  (ZFS)

 ZFS is a 128-bit file system developed by Sun Microsystems in 2005 for OpenSolaris. A Solaris file system that uses storage pools to manage physical storage. The ZFS pooled storage model eliminates the concept of volumes and the associated problems of partitions, provisioning and stranded storage by enabling thousands of file systems to draw from a common storage pool, using only as much space as it actually needs. ZFS also uses RAID-Z, a data replication model that is similar to RAID-5 but uses variable stripe width to eliminate the RAID-5 write hole-that is stripe corruption due to loss of power between data and parity updates. 

ZFS runs on Solaris, FreeBSD and Linux variants, and includes built-in data services and features such as replication, deduplication, compression, snapshots and data protection. The Sun development team began work on ZFS in 2001 and integrated it into the Unix-based Solaris and open source OpenSolaris operating systems in 2005.

After acquiring Sun in 2010, Oracle Corp. discontinued work on open source ZFS. The company trademarked the name "ZFS" and turned ZFS into its proprietary root file system for Oracle Solaris, Oracle's ZFS Storage Appliances, mainframe storage (VSM) and other Oracle technologies. Oracle continues to develop and add features to its proprietary ZFS. The open source version of ZFS is now known as OpenZFS.

Features  

• Endless scalability

Well, it’s not technically endless, but it’s a 128-bit file system that’s capable of managing zettabytes (one billion terabytes) of data.  No matter how much hard drive space you have, ZFS will be suitable for managing it.

• Maximum integrity

Everything you do inside of ZFS uses a checksum to ensure file integrity.  You can rest assured that your files and their redundant copies will not encounter silent data corruption.  Also, while ZFS is busy quietly checking your data for integrity, it will do automatic repairs anytime it can.

• Drive pooling

The creators of ZFS want you to think of it as being similar to the way your computer uses RAM.  When you need more memory in your computer, you put in another stick and you’re done.  Similarly with ZFS, when you need more hard drive space, you put in another hard drive and you’re done.  No need to spend time partitioning, formatting, initializing, or doing anything else to your disks – when you need a bigger storage “pool,” just add disks.

• RAID

ZFS is capable of many different RAID levels, all while delivering performance that’s comparable to that of hardware RAID controllers.  This allows you to save money, make setup easier, and have access to superior RAID levels that ZFS has improved upon.



References:-

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/Z/ZFS.html
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/Z/ZFS.html
http://www.howtogeek.com/175159/an-introduction-to-the-z-file-system-zfs-for-linux/