Running The Native ZFS Linux Kernel Module, Plus Benchmarks

"In August we delivered the news that Linux was soon to receive a native ZFS Linux kernel module. The Sun (now Oracle) ZFS file-system has long been sought after for Linux, though less now since Btrfs has emerged, but incompatibilities between the CDDL and GPL licenses have barred such support from entering the mainline Linux kernel. There has been ZFS-FUSE to run the ZFS file-system in user-space, but it comes with slow performance. There has also been work by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories in porting ZFS to Linux as a native Linux kernel module. This LLNL ZFS work though is incomplete but still progressing due to a US Department of Energy contract. It is though via this work that developers in India at KQ Infotech have made working a Linux kernel module for ZFS. In this article are some new details on KQ Infotech's ZFS kernel module and our results from testing out the ZFS file-system on Linux.

"In the August article covering KQ Infotech's ZFS implementation, it was shared that the kernel module would be released in the next month. The module was released in September, but it was only available to a limited number of closed beta testers with a general availability release at a later date. Fortunately, we have had access to this ZFS module for testing and we have been informed by KQ Infotech that the GA release of their ZFS implementation is expected to come the first week of January. KQ Infotech works around the CDDL-GPL licensing issues with ZFS by distributing the kernel module separately with no plans for pushing it into the mainline Linux kernel."

Complete Story

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