ZFS for Newbies

Dan Langille thinks ZFS is the best thing to happen to filesystems since he stopped using floppy disks. ZFS can simplify so many things and lets you do things you could not do before. If you’re not using ZFS already, this entry-level talk will introduce you to the basics. Things we will cover include:

a short history of the origins
an overview of how ZFS works
replacing a failed drive
why you don’t want a RAID card
scalability
data integrity (detection of file corruption)
why you’ll love snapshots
sending of filesystems to remote servers
creating a mirror
how to create a ZFS array with multiple drives which can lose up to 3 drives without loss of data.
mounting datasets anywhere in other datasets
using zfs to save your current install before upgrading it
simple recommendations for ZFS arrays
why single drive ZFS is better than no ZFS
no, you don’t need ECC
quotas
monitoring ZFS
This talk is designed to get you interested in ZFS and see the potential for making your your data safer and your sysadmin duties lighter. If you come away with half the enthusiasm for ZFS that Dan has, you’ll really enjoy ZFS and appreciate how much easier it makes every-day tasks.

Dan Langille

Dan Langille first started with Unix-like operating systems sometime in the early 1980s. In 1998, he discovered FreeBSD on a near-daily basis after needing a firewall for his ADSL connection. From that start, he began several online journals, founded two highly successful open source conferences, and eventually turned his hobby into a profession.

Dan now works as a sysadmin for a widely-known infosec company and is frequently impressed by those he works with.

When not running conferences or working, Dan blogs about this activities. He wishes he did more mountain biking.