Smooth snapshots, security

As you would expect, ZFS incorporates snapshots with simple one-line CLI commands, and it allows snapshots to be addressed in both read-only and read-write forms. Rollbacks and individual file inspection in snapshots are also easy to do. Further, ZFS has integrated rsync-like file synchronization, allowing for truly different backup methods, such as piping raw file system data across SSH connections to backup servers with enough smarts to be usable across high-latency links.

There’s also the not-so-small matter of ACLs, which ZFS handles with standard POSIX-compliancy and allow/deny inheritance. Checksumming is a boon from a security standpoint as well: Because every block has a checksum, data can’t be modified at that level without detection. Oh, and did I mention that ZFS can also sit on top of other storage elements, such as iSCSI LUNs (logical unit numbers) and swap volumes? Sun says its engineers have subjected ZFS to more than a million forced, violent crashes in the company's labs without losing data integrity or leaking a single block. I haven’t witnessed such a crash, but I have to say I believe Sun’s claims.

There are downsides to ZFS, such as the current inability to boot from a ZFS volume on Solaris, and the fact that if a snapshot is taken during a scrub operation or mirror resilvering, the process will start over. ZFS is not perfect, but existing development efforts within Sun and via the open source community are likely to overcome these hurdles in time.

Speaking of open source, at the moment several projects are under way to port ZFS beyond Solaris. There are nascent Linux and FreeBSD ports in the works as well as ZFS for Mac OS X. Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X, is said to include many capabilities that seem to directly map to ZFS features. Rumors have been flying for months, including some very convincing screenshots, but the proof will be in the final release of Mac OS X 10.5.

It’s not every day that the computer industry delivers the level of innovation found in Sun's ZFS. More and more advances in the science of IT are based on simply multiplying the status quo. ZFS breaks all the rules here, and it arrives in an amazingly well-thought-out and nicely implemented solution. This is the kind of engineering that made Sun a powerhouse. The achievement of ZFS certainly portends well for a company that might just be pulling itself back from also-ran status and into the limelight once more.