Creating RAID-Z Storage Pools

Creating a single-parity RAID-Z pool is identical to creating a mirrored pool, except that the raidz or raidz1 keyword is used instead of mirror. The following example shows how to create a pool with a single RAID-Z device that consists of five disks:

# zpool create tank raidz c1t0d0 c2t0d0 c3t0d0 c4t0d0 /dev/dsk/c5t0d0

This example illustrates that disks can be specified by using their full paths, if desired. The /dev/dsk/c5t0d0 device is identical to the c5t0d0 device.

A similar configuration could be created with disk slices. For example:

# zpool create tank raidz c1t0d0s0 c2t0d0s0 c3t0d0s0 c4t0d0s0 c5t0d0s0

However, the disks must be preformatted to have an appropriately sized slice zero.

You can create a double-parity RAID-Z configuration by using the raidz2 keyword when the pool is created. For example:

You can create a double-parity or triple-parity RAID-Z configuration by using the raidz2 or raidz3 keyword when the pool is created. For example:

# zpool create tank raidz2 c1t0d0 c2t0d0 c3t0d0
# zpool status -v tank
  pool: tank
 state: ONLINE
 scrub: none requested
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        tank        ONLINE       0     0     0
          raidz2-0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c1t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c2t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c3t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

# zpool create tank raidz3 c1t0d0 c2t0d0 c3t0d0 c4t0d0 c5t0d0
# zpool status -v tank
  pool: tank
 state: ONLINE
 scrub: none requested
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        tank        ONLINE       0     0     0
          raidz3-0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c1t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c2t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c3t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c4t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c5t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

Currently, the following operations are supported on a ZFS RAID-Z configuration:

• Add another set of disks for an additional top-level vdev to an existing RAID-Z configuration. For more information, see Adding Devices to a Storage Pool.

• Replace a disk or disks in an existing RAID-Z configuration as long as the replacement disks are greater than or equal to the device to be replaced. For more information, see Replacing Devices in a Storage Pool.

Currently, the following operations are not supported on a RAID-Z configuration:

• Attach an additional disk to an existing RAID-Z configuration.

• Detach a disk from a RAID-Z configuration.

• You cannot outright remove a device from a RAID-Z configuration. An RFE is filed for this feature.

For more information about a RAID-Z configuration, see RAID-Z Storage Pool Configuration.