Creating a RAID-Z Storage Pool

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 shorthand device names or their full device names. Both /dev/dsk/c5t0d0 and c5t0d0 refer to the same disk.

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

# zpool create tank raidz2 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
          raidz2-0  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

# zpool create tank raidz3 c0t0d0 c1t0d0 c2t0d0 c3t0d0 c4t0d0 c5t0d0 c6t0d0 c7t0d0
# 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
            c0t0d0  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
            c6t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c7t0d0  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

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

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

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

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

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

• Detaching a disk from a RAID-Z configuration, except when you are detaching a disk that is replaced by a spare disk.

• You cannot outright remove a device that is not a log or a cache 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.