---
category: tool
tool: zfs
contributors:
    - ["sarlalian", "http://github.com/sarlalian"]
filename: LearnZfs.txt
---


[ZFS](http://open-zfs.org/wiki/Main_Page)
is a rethinking of the storage stack, combining traditional file systems as well as volume
managers into one cohesive tool.  ZFS has some specific terminology that sets it apart from
more traditional storage systems, however it has a great set of features with a focus on
usability for systems administrators.


## ZFS Concepts

### Virtual Devices

A VDEV is similar to a raid device presented by a RAID card, there are several different
types of VDEV's that offer various advantages, including redundancy and speed.  In general
VDEV's offer better reliability and safety than a RAID card.  It is discouraged to use a
RAID setup with ZFS, as ZFS expects to directly manage the underlying disks.

Types of VDEV's

* stripe (a single disk, no redundancy)
* mirror (n-way mirrors supported)
* raidz
	* raidz1 (1-disk parity, similar to RAID 5)
	* raidz2 (2-disk parity, similar to RAID 6)
	* raidz3 (3-disk parity, no RAID analog)
* disk
* file (not recommended for production due to another filesystem adding unnecessary layering)

Your data is striped across all the VDEV's present in your Storage Pool, so more VDEV's will
increase your IOPS.

### Storage Pools

ZFS uses Storage Pools as an abstraction over the lower level storage provider (VDEV), allow
you to separate the user visible file system from the physical layout.

### ZFS Dataset

ZFS datasets are analogous to traditional filesystems but with many more features.  They
provide many of ZFS's advantages.  Datasets support [Copy on Write](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy-on-write)
snapshots, quota's, compression and de-duplication.


### Limits

One directory may contain up to 2^48 files, up to 16 exabytes each.  A single storage pool
can contain up to 256 zettabytes (2^78) of space, and can be striped across 2^64 devices.  A
single host can have 2^64 storage pools.  The limits are huge.


## Commands

### Storage Pools

Actions:

* List
* Status
* Destroy
* Get/Set properties

List zpools

```bash
# Create a raidz zpool
$ zpool create bucket raidz1 gpt/zfs0 gpt/zfs1 gpt/zfs2

# List ZPools
$ zpool list
NAME    SIZE  ALLOC   FREE  EXPANDSZ   FRAG    CAP  DEDUP  HEALTH  ALTROOT
zroot   141G   106G  35.2G         -    43%    75%  1.00x  ONLINE  -

# List detailed information about a specific zpool
$ zpool list -v zroot
NAME                                     SIZE  ALLOC   FREE  EXPANDSZ   FRAG    CAP  DEDUP HEALTH  ALTROOT
zroot                                    141G   106G  35.2G         -    43%    75%  1.00x ONLINE  -
  gptid/c92a5ccf-a5bb-11e4-a77d-001b2172c655   141G   106G  35.2G         -    43%    75%
```

Status of zpools

```bash
# Get status information about zpools
$ zpool status
  pool: zroot
 state: ONLINE
  scan: scrub repaired 0 in 2h51m with 0 errors on Thu Oct  1 07:08:31 2015
config:

        NAME                                          STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        zroot                                         ONLINE       0     0     0
          gptid/c92a5ccf-a5bb-11e4-a77d-001b2172c655  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

# Scrubbing a zpool to correct any errors
$ zpool scrub zroot
$ zpool status -v zroot
  pool: zroot
 state: ONLINE
  scan: scrub in progress since Thu Oct 15 16:59:14 2015
        39.1M scanned out of 106G at 1.45M/s, 20h47m to go
        0 repaired, 0.04% done
config:

        NAME                                          STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        zroot                                         ONLINE       0     0     0
          gptid/c92a5ccf-a5bb-11e4-a77d-001b2172c655  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors
```

Properties of zpools

```bash

# Getting properties from the pool properties can be user set or system provided.
$ zpool get all zroot
NAME   PROPERTY                       VALUE                          SOURCE
zroot  size                           141G                           -
zroot  capacity                       75%                            -
zroot  altroot                        -                              default
zroot  health                         ONLINE                         -
...

# Setting a zpool property
$ zpool set comment="Storage of mah stuff" zroot
$ zpool get comment
NAME   PROPERTY  VALUE                 SOURCE
tank   comment   -                     default
zroot  comment   Storage of mah stuff  local
```

Remove zpool

```bash
$ zpool destroy test
```


### Datasets

Actions:
* Create
* List
* Rename
* Delete
* Get/Set properties

Create datasets

```bash
# Create dataset
$ zfs create tank/root/data
$ mount | grep data
tank/root/data on /data (zfs, local, nfsv4acls)

# Create child dataset
$ zfs create tank/root/data/stuff
$ mount | grep data
tank/root/data on /data (zfs, local, nfsv4acls)
tank/root/data/stuff on /data/stuff (zfs, local, nfsv4acls)


# Create Volume
$ zfs create -V zroot/win_vm
$ zfs list zroot/win_vm
NAME                 USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
tank/win_vm         4.13G  17.9G    64K  -
```

List datasets

```bash
# List all datasets
$ zfs list
NAME                                                                       USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
zroot                                                                      106G  30.8G   144K  none
zroot/ROOT                                                                18.5G  30.8G   144K  none
zroot/ROOT/10.1                                                              8K  30.8G  9.63G  /
zroot/ROOT/default                                                        18.5G  30.8G  11.2G  /
zroot/backup                                                              5.23G  30.8G   144K  none
zroot/home                                                                 288K  30.8G   144K  none
...

# List a specific dataset
$ zfs list zroot/home
NAME         USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
zroot/home   288K  30.8G   144K  none

# List snapshots
$ zfs list -t snapshot
zroot@daily-2015-10-15                                                                  0      -   144K  -
zroot/ROOT@daily-2015-10-15                                                             0      -   144K  -
zroot/ROOT/default@daily-2015-10-15                                                     0      -  24.2G  -
zroot/tmp@daily-2015-10-15                                                           124K      -   708M  -
zroot/usr@daily-2015-10-15                                                              0      -   144K  -
zroot/home@daily-2015-10-15                                                             0      -  11.9G  -
zroot/var@daily-2015-10-15                                                           704K      -  1.42G  -
zroot/var/log@daily-2015-10-15                                                       192K      -   828K  -
zroot/var/tmp@daily-2015-10-15                                                          0      -   152K  -
```

Rename datasets

```bash
$ zfs rename tank/root/home tank/root/old_home
$ zfs rename tank/root/new_home tank/root/home
```

Delete dataset

```bash
# Datasets cannot be deleted if they have any snapshots
zfs destroy tank/root/home
```

Get / set properties of a dataset

```bash
# Get all properties
$ zfs get all  zroot/usr/home                                                                                              │157 # Create Volume
NAME            PROPERTY              VALUE                  SOURCE                                                                          │158 $ zfs create -V zroot/win_vm
zroot/home      type                  filesystem             -                                                                               │159 $ zfs list zroot/win_vm
zroot/home      creation              Mon Oct 20 14:44 2014  -                                                                               │160 NAME                 USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
zroot/home      used                  11.9G                  -                                                                               │161 tank/win_vm         4.13G  17.9G    64K  -
zroot/home      available             94.1G                  -                                                                               │162 ```
zroot/home      referenced            11.9G                  -                                                                               │163
zroot/home      mounted               yes                    -
...

# Get property from dataset
$ zfs get compression zroot/usr/home
NAME            PROPERTY     VALUE     SOURCE
zroot/home      compression  off       default

# Set property on dataset
$ zfs set compression=gzip-9 mypool/lamb

# Get a set of properties from all datasets
$ zfs list -o name,quota,reservation
NAME                                                               QUOTA  RESERV
zroot                                                               none    none
zroot/ROOT                                                          none    none
zroot/ROOT/default                                                  none    none
zroot/tmp                                                           none    none
zroot/usr                                                           none    none
zroot/home                                                          none    none
zroot/var                                                           none    none
...
```


### Snapshots

ZFS snapshots are one of the things about zfs that are a really big deal

* The space they take up is equal to the difference in data between the filesystem and its snapshot
* Creation time is only seconds
* Recovery is as fast as you can write data.
* They are easy to automate.

Actions:
* Create
* Delete
* Rename
* Access snapshots
* Send / Receive
* Clone


Create snapshots

```bash
# Create a snapshot of a single dataset
zfs snapshot tank/home/sarlalian@now

# Create a snapshot of a dataset and its children
$ zfs snapshot -r tank/home@now
$ zfs list -t snapshot
NAME                       USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
tank/home@now                 0      -    26K  -
tank/home/sarlalian@now       0      -   259M  -
tank/home/alice@now           0      -   156M  -
tank/home/bob@now             0      -   156M  -
...

Destroy snapshots

```bash
# How to destroy a snapshot
$ zfs destroy tank/home/sarlalian@now

# Delete a snapshot on a parent dataset and its children
$ zfs destroy -r tank/home/sarlalian@now

```

Renaming Snapshots

```bash
# Rename a snapshot
$ zfs rename tank/home/sarlalian@now tank/home/sarlalian@today
$ zfs rename tank/home/sarlalian@now today

# zfs rename -r tank/home@now @yesterday
```

Accessing snapshots

```bash
# CD Into a snapshot directory
$ cd /home/.zfs/snapshot/
```

Sending and Receiving

```bash
# Backup a snapshot to a file
$ zfs send tank/home/sarlalian@now | gzip > backup_file.gz

# Send a snapshot to another dataset
$ zfs send tank/home/sarlalian@now | zfs recv backups/home/sarlalian

# Send a snapshot to a remote host
$ zfs send tank/home/sarlalian@now | ssh root@backup_server 'zfs recv tank/home/sarlalian'

# Send full dataset with snapshos to new host
$ zfs send -v -R tank/home@now | ssh root@backup_server 'zfs recv tank/home'
```

Cloneing Snapshots

```bash
# Clone a snapshot
$ zfs clone tank/home/sarlalian@now tank/home/sarlalian_new

# Promoting the clone so it is no longer dependent on the snapshot
$ zfs promote tank/home/sarlalian_new
```

### Putting it all together

This following a script utilizing FreeBSD, jails and ZFS to automate
provisioning a clean copy of a mysql staging database from a live replication
slave.

```bash
#!/bin/sh

echo "==== Stopping the staging database server ===="
jail -r staging

echo "==== Cleaning up existing staging server and snapshot ===="
zfs destroy -r zroot/jails/staging
zfs destroy zroot/jails/slave@staging

echo "==== Quiescing the slave database ===="
echo "FLUSH TABLES WITH READ LOCK;" | /usr/local/bin/mysql -u root -pmyrootpassword -h slave

echo "==== Snapshotting the slave db filesystem as zroot/jails/slave@staging ===="
zfs snapshot zroot/jails/slave@staging

echo "==== Starting the slave database server ===="
jail -c slave

echo "==== Cloning the slave snapshot to the staging server ===="
zfs clone zroot/jails/slave@staging zroot/jails/staging

echo "==== Installing the staging mysql config ===="
mv /jails/staging/usr/local/etc/my.cnf /jails/staging/usr/local/etc/my.cnf.slave
cp /jails/staging/usr/local/etc/my.cnf.staging /jails/staging/usr/local/etc/my.cnf

echo "==== Setting up the staging rc.conf file ===="
mv /jails/staging/etc/rc.conf.local /jails/staging/etc/rc.conf.slave
mv /jails/staging/etc/rc.conf.staging /jails/staging/etc/rc.conf.local

echo "==== Starting the staging db server ===="
jail -c staging

echo "==== Makes the staging database not pull from the master ===="
echo "STOP SLAVE;" | /usr/local/bin/mysql -u root -pmyrootpassword -h staging
echo "RESET SLAVE;" | /usr/local/bin/mysql -u root -pmyrootpassword -h staging
```


### Additional Reading

* [BSDNow's Crash Course on ZFS](http://www.bsdnow.tv/tutorials/zfs)
* [FreeBSD Handbook on ZFS](https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/zfs.html)
* [BSDNow's Crash Course on ZFS](http://www.bsdnow.tv/tutorials/zfs)
* [Oracle's Tuning Guide](http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/articles/servers-storage-admin/sto-recommended-zfs-settings-1951715.html)
* [OpenZFS Tuning Guide](http://open-zfs.org/wiki/Performance_tuning)
* [FreeBSD ZFS Tuning Guide](https://wiki.freebsd.org/ZFSTuningGuide)
