We would like to switch to ZFS for managing our storage and would be glad to avoid the headachews of setting up a ZFS server from scratch. So this readymade and well-supported solution from a reputed manufacturer looks really interesting.
We have an archive that is meant for long-term preservation and so the data integrity ZFS can provide is a real bonus. For the same reason, our question before buying is: what about future compatibility?
If - one never knows - in the future we want to move to a different ZFS server, will we be able to attach the storage configured under the Readynas embedded ZFS system to a new ZFS implementation? WIll the pools be recognized? Will it be easy, difficult, or impossible?
Thank you for your patience, looking forward to some expert answer.
Ready-DATA product line comes with built in ZFS. ReadyNAS products come with BTRFS which is quite as good for data protection. It includes snapshots and bitrot protection for example. ZFS has been tested for a longer period, BTRFS is younger but really promising and is already available as default filesystem in some linux distributions. I believe that BTRFS will be supported out of the box by more linux distributions than ZFS.
ZFS is merely a filesystem, migration is not a problem, you would have to set another server and copy the data to it via network. Of couse if your future server supports ZFS, plugging the disk directly to it may be an option depending on the real configuration you would have. I hate doing things like that though, because you never know what could go wrong when working with the main set of data. Of course, ZFS is not a substitute for proper backup and you should have a decent backup plan that takes natural disaster, human error et theft/hack into account.
Thank you for the quick reply. I didn't know the filesystem difference between the ReadyNAS and ReadyData series - thanks for the head-up. Also the tip about Btrfs is interesting. Some more research to do... 🙂
xeltros wrote:
Ready-DATA product line comes with built in ZFS. ReadyNAS products come with BTRFS which is quite as good for data protection. It includes snapshots and bitrot protection for example. ZFS has been tested for a longer period, BTRFS is younger but really promising and is already available as default filesystem in some linux distributions. I believe that BTRFS will be supported out of the box by more linux distributions than ZFS.
ZFS is merely a filesystem, migration is not a problem, you would have to set another server and copy the data to it via network. Of couse if your future server supports ZFS, plugging the disk directly to it may be an option depending on the real configuration you would have. I hate doing things like that though, because you never know what could go wrong when working with the main set of data. Of course, ZFS is not a substitute for proper backup and you should have a decent backup plan that takes natural disaster, human error et theft/hack into account.
I'd like to help you a bit more but I haven't tested ReadyDATA. From what I heard, it is designed for enterprises with an optional ReadyRecover feature that helps to backup.
