Upgrade ZFS version 15 on FreeNAS 8

[quantumtraveler]

FreeNAS 8 comes with ZFS version 15. Why does it not come with the latest version of ZFS? And how can I upgrade to version 33?

 

[marcusmarcus]

FreeNAS is based on FreeBSD release 8.2 which supports ZFS version 15. FreeBSD 8-Stable branch has support for ZFS version 28 but AFAIK stable does not really mean stable. I believe ZFS version 28 is the most recent version that Oracle put out the source for and the newer versions are still closed source, May be wrong about this though.

 

[quantumtraveler]

Thanks, so with FreeNAS we're bound to the supported version of ZFS i.e. 15. I was under the impression that we can upgrade the version of ZFS within FreeNAS 8.2 :(

 

[marcusmarcus]

I'm sure you can upgrade it, I was just explaining why it only comes with version 15 and that if it is possible to upgrade it you could probably only upgrade it to version 28. Either that or wait until FreeBSD supports version 28 in a Release and not just the Stable branch and then for FreeNAS to start using that version of FreeBSD.
A quick search of this forum for ZFS 28 came up with http://forums.freenas.org/showthread.php?2153-How-about-patch-FreeNAS-8-to-zfs-v28&highlight=ZFS
I have not read through that thread but maybe it will help you.

 

[quantumtraveler]

Thanks Marcus, I did read that post but it didn't answer my specific question like you did :) I am interested to know why FreeNAS comes with version 15 and not a later release version? Also, would you know if the ZFS Raid 5 read/write speed (in particular the write speed) is faster in later versions?

 

[louisk]

Depends on how much work you are willing to do. If you're willing to rebuild FreeNAS from scratch using a new version of FreeBSD and work out any bugs associated with that upgrade, I'm sure you can get to at least v28. If you're not willing to do that, I think you're likely going to have to wait for an update from iX Systems.

All the code is available online, should you wish to pursue that angle.

 

[Brand]

would you know if the ZFS Raid 5 read/write speed (in particular the write speed) is faster in later versions?

There is no such thing as a ZFS Raid 5. There is a ZFS Raid-Z, ZFS Raid-Z2, and ZFS Raid-Z3. Perhaps are are talking about ZFS Raid-Z?

 

[louisk]

I'm using ZFS RAIDZ (4x8 spindle vdev) at work and we're getting about 950Mbit (max of gig-e) out of it. One of the keys to ZFS is to have multiple vdevs in your zpool. A vdev doesn't act like a traditional RAID device in terms of speed. A vdev is the same speed as a single spindle in the vdev (if they are all 7200rpm sata, the vdev will be the speed of a single 7200rpm sata). In order to get more speed, you need to have multiple vdevs in your zpool so it can stripe across them.

 

[William Grzybowski]

A vdev is the same speed as a single spindle in the vdev (if they are all 7200rpm sata, the vdev will be the speed of a single 7200rpm sata).

I think the explanation is a bit misunderstanding...

The vdev will take as long as the slowest disk to get the chuck of data (which is smaller as the disk count increases in the vdev), no having the speed of a single sata...