ZFS compatibility

[Marko Bauhardt]

Hi,
i read some blog posts about FreeNas/Nas4Free/FreeBSD regarding ZFS.
As i understand is that FreeNas supports ZFS version v5000 which supports Feature flags.
Some blog posts mentioned that they was not able to import a FreeNas created ZFS pool (via GUI) into Nas4Free because of feature flags they are not supported by Nas4Free or FreeBSD.

Is that true, that FreeNas implements their own feature flags and a ZFS pool created by FreeNas is incompatible to Nas4Free or FreeBSD?

Thanks
Marko

 

[Ericloewe]

ZFS isn't gratuitously incompatible - but FreeNAS/FreeBSD's version is a bit ahead of most (I assume NAS4Free uses the latest FreeBSD ZFS version as well...).

Additionally, FreeNAS has some details that make it unwise to use pools created in other OSes, long-term.

 

[Marko Bauhardt]

Ok. But FreeNas and Nas4Free are based both on FreeBSD 9.3. So FreeNas and Nas4Free should be ZFS compatible to each other or?
What you mean exactly with "FreeNAS has some details that make it unwise to use pools created in other OSes"

Thx
Marko

 

[Ericloewe]

Ok. But FreeNas and Nas4Free are based both on FreeBSD 9.3. So FreeNas and Nas4Free should be ZFS compatible to each other or?
What you mean exactly with "FreeNAS has some details that make it unwise to use pools created in other OSes"

Thx
Marko

The file system itself should be fully compatible.

However, some of FreeNAS' features may make certain assumptions about the exact partition layout or other details, meaning that not every pool not created with FreeNAS will work flawlessly with FreeNAS.

The data itself is readable in FreeBSD with the relevant feature flags.