Solaris ZFS Administration Guide

Preface

The ZFS Administration Guide provides information about setting up and managing Solaris^TM ZFS file systems.

This guide contains information for both SPARC® based and x86 based systems.

Note –

This Solaris release supports systems that use the SPARC and x86 families of processor architectures: UltraSPARC®, SPARC64, AMD64, Pentium, and Xeon EM64T. The supported systems appear in the Solaris 10 Hardware Compatibility List at http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hcl. This document cites any implementation differences between the platform types.

In this document these x86 terms mean the following:

“x86” refers to the larger family of 64-bit and 32-bit x86 compatible products.
“x64” points out specific 64-bit information about AMD64 or EM64T systems.
“32-bit x86” points out specific 32-bit information about x86 based systems.

For supported systems, see the Solaris 10 Hardware Compatibility List.

Who Should Use This Book

This guide is intended for anyone who is interested in setting up and managing Solaris ZFS file systems. Experience using the Solaris Operating System (OS) or another UNIX® version is recommended.

How This Book Is Organized

The following table describes the chapters in this book.

Chapter	Description
Chapter 1, ZFS File System (Introduction)	Provides an overview of ZFS and its features and benefits. It also covers some basic concepts and terminology.
Chapter 2, Getting Started With ZFS	Provides step-by-step instructions on setting up simple ZFS configurations with simple pools and file systems. This chapter also provides the hardware and software required to create ZFS file systems.
Chapter 3, ZFS and Traditional File System Differences	Identifies important features that make ZFS significantly different from traditional file systems. Understanding these key differences will help reduce confusion when using traditional tools to interact with ZFS.
Chapter 4, Managing ZFS Storage Pools	Provides a detailed description of how to create and administer storage pools.
Chapter 5, Installing and Booting a ZFS Root File System	Describes how to install and boot a ZFS file system. Migrating a UFS root file system to a ZFS root file system by using Solaris Live Upgrade is also covered.
Chapter 6, Managing ZFS File Systems	Provides detailed information about managing ZFS file systems. Included are such concepts as hierarchical file system layout, property inheritance, and automatic mount point management and share interactions.
Chapter 7, Working With ZFS Snapshots and Clones	Describes how to create and administer ZFS snapshots and clones.
Chapter 8, Using ACLs and Attributes to Protect ZFS Files	Describes how to use access control lists (ACLs) to protect your ZFS files by providing more granular permissions then the standard UNIX permissions.
Chapter 9, ZFS Delegated Administration	Describes how to use ZFS delegated administration to allow non-privileged users to perform ZFS administration tasks.
Chapter 10, ZFS Advanced Topics	Provides information on using ZFS volumes, using ZFS on a Solaris system with zones installed, and alternate root pools.
Chapter 11, ZFS Troubleshooting and Pool Recovery	Describes how to identify ZFS failure modes and how to recover from them. Steps for preventing failures are covered as well.

Related Books

Related information about general Solaris system administration topics can be found in the following books:

Solaris System Administration: Basic Administration
Solaris System Administration: Advanced Administration
Solaris System Administration: Devices and File Systems
Solaris System Administration: Security Services
Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide

Documentation, Support, and Training

The Sun web site provides information about the following additional resources:

Sun Welcomes Your Comments

Sun is interested in improving its documentation and welcomes your comments and suggestions. To share your comments, go to http://docs.sun.com and click Feedback.

Typographic Conventions

The following table describes the typographic conventions that are used in this book.

Table P–1 Typographic Conventions


Typeface	Meaning	Example
`AaBbCc123`	The names of commands, files, and directories, and onscreen computer output	Edit your `.login` file. Use `ls -a` to list all files. `machine_name% you have mail.`
`AaBbCc123`	What you type, contrasted with onscreen computer output	`machine_name%` `su` `Password:`
`aabbcc123`	Placeholder: replace with a real name or value	The command to remove a file is `rm` `filename`.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new terms, and terms to be emphasized	Read Chapter 6 in the User's Guide. A cache is a copy that is stored locally. Do not save the file. Note: Some emphasized items appear bold online.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default UNIX system prompt and superuser prompt for the C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

Table P–2 Shell Prompts


Shell	Prompt
C shell	`machine_name%`
C shell for superuser	`machine_name#`
Bourne shell and Korn shell	`$`
Bourne shell and Korn shell for superuser	`#`