The document discusses the architecture of ZFS and how it has evolved. It describes ZFS as a combined file system and volume manager that provides data integrity and manages storage pools. It supports various access interfaces like NFS, SMB, iSCSI and can be used with virtualization technologies like containers and virtual machines. The document also shows how networking speeds and storage densities have increased dramatically over the last 30 years enabling technologies like ZFS.

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11. ●
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12. ●
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13. ●
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14. NFS SMB Local files
VFS
Filesystem
(e.g. FFS, ext)
Volume Manager
(e.g. LVM, SVM)
NFS SMB Local files
VFS
DMU
(Data Management Unit)
SPA
(Storage Pool Allocator)
iSCSI FC
SCSI target
(e.g. COMSTAR)
ZPL
(ZFS POSIX Layer)
ZVOL
(ZFS Volume)
File interface
Block i/f
ZFS
Block
allocate+write,
read, free
Atomic
transactions
on objects

15. ●
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16. Hypervisor
VM A VM B
A A’ B B’

17. Hypervisor
VM A VM B
A A’ B B’ B’’

18. Hypervisor
VM A VM B
A A’ B B’

19. Hypervisor
VM A VM B
A A’ B
B’’
B’
Hypervisor
VM B

22. A1
B1
C1
D1
E1
F1
G1
H1
I1
J1
K1
L1
Hypervisor
VM C VM D
VM A VM B
A2
B2
C2
D2
E2
F2
G2
H2
I2
J2
K2
L2
Hypervisor
VM G VM H
VM E VM F
A3
B3
C3
D3
E3
F3
G3
H3
I3
J3
K3
L3
Hypervisor
VM K VM L
VM I VM J

23. A1
B1
C1
D1
E1
F1
G1
H1
I1
J1
K1
L1
Hypervisor
VM C VM D
VM A VM B
A2
B2
C2
D2
E2
F2
G2
H2
I2
J2
K2
L2
Hypervisor
VM G VM H
VM E VM F
Hypervisor
VM K VM L
VM I VM J
A3
B3
C3
D3
E3
F3
G3
H3
I3
J3
K3
L3

24. A1
B1
C1
D1
E1
F1
G1
H1
I1
J1
K1
L1
Hypervisor
VM C VM D
VM A VM B
A2
B2
C2
D2
E2
F2
G2
H2
I2
J2
K2
L2
Hypervisor
VM G VM H
VM E VM F
Hypervisor
VM K VM L
VM I VM J
A3
B3
C3
D3
E3
F3
G3
H3
I3
J3
K3
L3

26. Networking speeds
up by <10,000x in 30 years
1986: 10Base2 (thin
ethernet)
standardized
2012: 40Gbit/sec
commercially available

27. Vast increase in amount of storage:
$/GB down by >1,000,000x in 30 years
1984: <10KB/$
2014: >10,000,000KB/$
source: http://www.mkomo.com/cost-per-gigabyte-update

28. A
B
C D
Hypervisor
VM C VM D
VM A VM B
E F
G
H
Hypervisor
VM G VM H
VM E VM F

29. A
B
C D
Hypervisor
VM C VM D
VM B
E F
G
H
A’
Hypervisor
VM G VM H
VM E VM F
VM A
VM A

30. A
B
C D
Hypervisor
VM C Ctr D
VM A Ctr B
E F
G
H
Hypervisor
VM G Ctr H
VM E Ctr F Lightweight containers
(e.g. zones, jails, LXC)Virtual machines

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34. OpenZFS
Linux FreeBSD illumosMac OS X
illumos
Linux FreeBSD
Mac OS X
Current
End Goal

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