Original author(s) | Sun Microsystems |
---|---|
Developer(s) | OpenZFS Project |
Initial release | Ported to various systems between 2006 and 2010. Forked from OpenSolaris August 2010 |
Stable release | |
Preview release | |
Repository | github |
Written in | C |
Operating system | OpenSolaris, illumos, OpenIndiana, FreeBSD, NetBSD, macOS, Linux, OSv |
License | Common Development and Distribution License |
Website | openzfs |
OpenZFS is an open-source implementation of the ZFS file system and volume manager initially developed by Sun Microsystems for the Solaris operating system, and is now maintained by the OpenZFS Project. Similar to the original ZFS, the implementation supports features like data compression, data deduplication, copy-on-write clones, snapshots, RAID-Z, and virtual devices that can create filesystems that span multiple disks.
One of the main capabilities of OpenZFS is self-healing. The file system can detect and correct errors while in use, without the need for a dedicated file system checker. This feature makes it suitable for mission-critical applications that require high availability.
OpenZFS is mainly used in enterprise and data center environments, as well as consumer devices like network-attached storage (NAS) devices, where data reliability and safety is essential. While initially designed for Solaris, development has since focused on Linux, while ports exist for various BSD distributions and macOS. Unlike Oracle ZFS, OpenZFS is licensed under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL), enabling both open-source and commercial use of the file system.
Founding members of OpenZFS include Matt Ahrens, one of the main architects of ZFS. [3] In 2020, the codebases of OpenZFS and ZFS on Linux, a kernel module allowing ZFS to be used on Linux, were merged and released as OpenZFS 2.0, allowing other non-Linux operating systems to receive the various improvements that the Linux driver had incorporated over time. [4] [5]
The ZFS file system was originally developed by Sun Microsystems for the Solaris operating system. The ZFS source code was released in 2005 under the Common Development and Distribution License as part of the OpenSolaris operating system, and it was later ported to other operating systems and environments. [6] [7]
The following is a list of key events in the development of ZFS and its various implementations: [6] [8]
As the FSF (Free Software Foundation) claimed that there was a legal incompatibility between the CDDL and the GPL in 2005, Sun's implementation of the ZFS file system couldn't be used as a basis for the development of a module in the Linux kernel, couldn't be merged into the mainline Linux kernel, and Linux distributions generally did not include it as a precompiled kernel module. [17] [18] [19] As a workaround, FUSE, a framework that allows file systems to run in userspace, was used on Linux as a separation layer for which the licensing issues did not apply, although with a set of its own issues that includes a performance penalty. [7] [20] However, the April 2016 release of Ubuntu 16.04 LTS includes ZFS as a kernel module. [21] [22]
In the release version of Mac OS X 10.5, ZFS was available in read-only mode from the command line, which lacks the possibility to create z-pools or write to them. [23] Before the 10.5 release, Apple released the "ZFS Beta Seed v1.1", which allowed read-write access and the creation of z-pools; [24] however, the installer for the "ZFS Beta Seed v1.1" has been reported to only work on version 10.5.0, and has not been updated for version 10.5.1 and above. [25] In August 2007, Apple opened a ZFS project on their Mac OS Forge web site. On that site, Apple provided the source code and binaries of their port of ZFS which includes read-write access, [26] but without an installer. [27] In October 2009, Apple discontinued development of the ZFS project on Mac OS Forge with no explanation. Apple removed everything but the CDDL-licensed portion of the source code for their final build of the ZFS project, code named "10a286". Complete ZFS support was originally advertised as a feature of Snow Leopard Server before launch, [28] but by the time the operating system was released all references to this feature had been removed from its features page. [29]
Apple's "10a286" source code release, and versions of the previously released source and binaries, have been preserved and new development had been adopted by the MacZFS project [30] [31] [32] to continue development outside of Apple. As of July 2012, Mac ZFS implements z-pool version 8 and ZFS version 2, released with the October 2008 release of Solaris. Additional historical information and commentary can be found on the Mac ZFS web site and FAQ. [33] However, the project ceased development in mid 2013 with a message asking users to switch to O3X. [34]
Although the ZFS filesystem supports Linux-based operating systems, difficulties arise for Linux distribution maintainers wishing to provide native support for ZFS in their products due to legal incompatibilities between the ZFS's CDDL license and the GPL license used by the Linux kernel. To enable ZFS support within Linux, a loadable kernel module containing the CDDL-licensed ZFS code must be compiled and loaded into the kernel. According to the Free Software Foundation, the wording of the GPL license legally prohibits redistribution of the resulting product as a derivative work, [56] [57] though this viewpoint has caused some controversy. [58] [59]
One potential workaround to licensing incompatibility was trialed in 2006, with an experimental port of the ZFS code to Linux's FUSE system. The filesystem ran entirely in userspace instead of being integrated into the Linux kernel, and was therefore not considered a derivative work of the kernel. This approach was functional, but suffered from significant performance penalties when compared with integrating the filesystem as a native kernel module running in kernel space. [60] As of 2016, the ZFS on FUSE project appears to be defunct, as the ZFS on Linux kernel driver has prevailed over the userspace one.
A native port of ZFS for Linux produced by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was released in March 2013, [61] [62] following these key events: [63]
As of August 2014 [update] , ZFS on Linux uses the OpenZFS pool version number 5000, which indicates that the features it supports are defined via feature flags. This pool version is an unchanging number that is expected to never conflict with version numbers given by Oracle. [64]
Another native port for Linux was developed by KQ InfoTech in 2010. [65] [66] This port used the zvol implementation from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a starting point. A release supporting zpool v28 was announced in January 2011. [67] In April 2011, KQ Infotech was acquired by sTec, Inc., and their work on ZFS ceased. [68] Source code of this port can be found on GitHub. [69]
The work of KQ InfoTech was ultimately integrated into the LLNL's native port of ZFS for Linux. [68]
While license incompatibilities may arise with the distribution of compiled binaries containing ZFS code, it is generally agreed that distribution of the source code itself is not affected by this. In Gentoo Linux, configuring a ZFS root filesystem is well documented and the required packages can be installed from its package repository. [70] Slackware also provides documentation on supporting ZFS, both as a kernel module and built into the kernel. [71] [72]
The question of the CDDL license's compatibility with the GPL license resurfaced in 2015, when the Linux distribution Ubuntu announced that it intended to make precompiled OpenZFS binary kernel modules available to end-users directly from the distribution's official package repositories. [73] In 2016, Ubuntu announced that a legal review resulted in the conclusion that providing support for ZFS via a binary kernel module was not in violation of the provisions of the GPL license. [74] Other organizations such as the Software Freedom Law Center followed Ubuntu's conclusion, [75] while the FSF and SFC reiterated their opposing views. [76]
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS ("Xenial Xerus"), released on April 21, 2016, allows the user to install the OpenZFS binary packages directly from the Ubuntu software repositories. [21] [77] As of 2024 [update] , no legal challenge has been brought against Canonical regarding the distribution of these packages.
As of 2019, Ubuntu supports experimental installation of ZFS as a root filesystem, starting with the 19.10 release ("Eoan Ermine"), to support coexistence of a nearly pure ZFS OS with GRUB and other operating systems on the same disk. [78] [79]
A version of TrueNAS by iXsystems, based on Debian Linux. As with TrueNAS Core (based on FreeBSD), it uses OpenZFS for storage and adds a variety of additional features. These include expanded device driver support, KVM virtual machines, PCIe passthrough and container support via Kubernetes and Docker. Furthermore, it allows clustered Docker and ZFS via gluster. Information about the current release can be found at the iXsystems Software Status page. [80]
A port of open source ZFS was attempted in 2010 but after a hiatus of over one year development ceased in 2012. [81] In October 2017, a new port of OpenZFS was announced by Jörgen Lundman at OpenZFS Developer Summit. [82] [83]
A newer open source port of ZFS which is considered a BETA release, can be found also on GitHub. [84]
Latest FOSS stable release |
ZFS Pool Version Number | Release date | Significant changes |
---|---|---|
5000 | OpenZFS | Unchanging pool version to signify that the pool indicates new features after pool version 28 using ZFS feature flags rather than by incrementing the pool version |
Originally, version numbers of the pool and file system were incremented as new features were introduced, in order to designate the on-disk file system format and available features. This worked well when a single entity controlled the development of ZFS, and this versioning scheme is still in use with the ZFS in Oracle Solaris. [85] [86]
In a more distributed development model, having a single version number is far from ideal as all implementations of OpenZFS would need to agree on all changes to the on-disk file system format. The solution selected by OpenZFS was to introduce feature flags as a new versioning system that tags on-disk format changes with unique names, and supports both completely independent format changes and format changes that depend on each other. A pool can be moved and used between OpenZFS implementations as long as all feature flags in use by the pool are supported by both implementations. [8] : 20, 26–27 [87] : 2–3 [88]
In OpenZFS, the pool version is permanently set to 5000, signifying that the pool indicates new features by setting or unsetting ZFS feature flags rather than by incrementing the pool version. [38] The number 5000 was chosen because it is expected to never conflict with version numbers given by Oracle. Legacy version numbers still exist for pool versions 1–28. [89] [90] [91] Future on-disk format changes are enabled / disabled independently via these feature flags.
Legacy version numbers still exist for pool versions 1–28, and are implied by the pool version 5000; [92] the initial proposal was to use 1000 as the pool version. [87] : 4 Future on-disk format changes are enabled and disabled independently via feature flags.
Feature flags are exposed as pool properties, following these naming scheme rules: [87] : 4
For example, feature@com.foocompany:async_destroy is a valid property name, and it could be shortened to feature@async_destroy. [87] : 4
Each pool feature can be in either disabled, enabled, or active state. Disabled features are those that will not be used, and no on-disk format changes will be made; as a result, such features are backward-compatible. Enabled features are those that will be used, no on-disk format changes have been made yet, but the software may make the changes at any time; such features are still backward-compatible. Active features are those that have made backward-incompatible on-disk format changes to the pool. [87] : 5
When any pool feature is enabled, legacy version of the pool is automatically upgraded to 5000 and any other prerequisite features are also enabled. By default, new pools are created with all supported features enabled. In general, state of a feature can be changed from active back to enabled, undoing that way performed on-disk format changes and making the pool compatible again with an older OpenZFS implementation; however, for some features that might not be possible. [87] : 5, 9 [92]
On-disk format changes can be associated with either features for write or features for read. The former are the features that an OpenZFS implementation must support to be capable of writing to the pool, while supporting such features is not mandatory for opening the pool in read-only mode. The latter are the features that an OpenZFS implementation must support to be able to read from the pool or to just open it, because opening a pool is not possible without actually reading from it. [87] : 7
For example, async_destroy feature adds a new on-disk data structure to keep track of freed datasets, but an OpenZFS implementation does not need to know about this data structure to access the pool in read-only mode. Additionally, writing to a pool that has some features in active state is not possible by an OpenZFS implementation that does not support the same features. [87] : 7–8
A list of feature flags and which operating systems support them is available from the OpenZFS documentation Web site [93] (here the old Open-ZFS.org Web site [94] )
Historically, OpenZFS has been implemented as a core ZFS code, with each operating system's team adapting it to fit into their projects. This led in some cases to feature stagnation and divergence of features and command lines, as different operating systems developed divergent features and bug fixes, often for a single platform rather than across all platforms. Over time, new feature development shifted from Illumos to Linux. [95] These new features and fixes then had to be backported to Illumos before they could be re-ported for FreeBSD. [95] But this was difficult because the Linux version also included many smaller changes, which were hard to disentangle. [95]
In 2018, it was agreed that OpenZFS development would be overhauled to remedy these issues. [95] Rather than try to import all the Linux changes to other platforms piecemeal, the entire Linux ZFS code would be 'pivoted' as a whole, with other platforms being based on the more actively developed Linux version. [95] A wide range of ported and new features, including many long-desired enhancements, would also be rolled out or ported across platforms, and future changes would be discussed across platforms before being implemented. [95] The plans included appropriate porting layers to prevent Linux, GPL or Linux-KPI shim code from being introduced to other platform kernels. [95]
The features in progress or ported for OpenZFS 2.0 is lengthy, and includes:
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