HAST (Highly Available Storage) is a new concept for FreeBSD and it is under constant development. HAST allows to transparently store data on two physically separated machines connected over the TCP/IP network. HAST operates on block level making it transparent for file systems, providing disk-like devices in /dev/hast directory. In this article we will create two identical HAST nodes, hast1 and hast2. …
In this guide I will demonstrate how you can install a fully functional full root on ZFS FreeBSD9 using a GPT scheme with a non legacy root ZFS mountpoint optimized for 4K drives. We will also use ZFS for SWAP. You can use this as a reference guide for a single or mirror installation. (1) …
In a previous article we saw how easy is to use ZFS send/receive to perform differential backups using incremental snapshots. Today, we will see how we can automate the procedure in order to send incremental snapshots to a different machine over ssh. There are two prerequisites for this procedure to work. First, the machine that is receiving the snapshots must …
This is an updated guide showing how you can install a full ZFS system using FreeBSD9. In this guide I will demonstrate how you can install a fully functional full ZFS FreeBSD9 using a GPT scheme. We will also use ZFS for SWAP You can use this as a reference guide for a single or …
ZFS is a very advanced file system with numerous features and currently FreeBSD is the only open source mainstream OS that fully supports it. One of its great feature is the ability to create snapshots. An ever better one is the ability to send those snapshots to a different location. But the coolest of all …
We were expecting ZFS v28 in FreeBSD 9.0-Release. Fortunately for those who don’t want to wait, ZFS v28 was merged in to 8.2-Stable. The new version promises much better performance and comes with two new features: autoexpand & dedup Like the name suggests, autoexpand allows a pool to expand its capacity. Imagine that you have …
The new bsdInstaller is here but unfortunately as we saw it still doesn’t support a full ZFS installation. Also, due to the new layout of the installer the traditional way of installing from <FIXIT> doesn’t work anymore. The installation files are now located under /usr/freebsd-dist and the new “Live CD” option doesn’t create any kind …
I always thought that ZFS was the most exciting addition to FreeBSD during the last ten years that I am involved. Generally speaking the process of cloning a live system has been the cause of many headaches in the past. You can find many tools, commercial and open source, that try to ghost the full …