ZFS FOR MAINSTREAM LINUX FINALLY!

[darshin]

As we all know, ZFS is by far the best file system and so far was only usable over Solaris.

People have workarounds and solutions which are kind of 2nd tone replacements, but either ways, all these solutions are not really good replacements as they either are not stable enough or lack some of the salient features of ZFS.

We at KQ, have finally succeeded in porting ZFS to Linux ! No hidden surprises, we have indeed ported ZFS on Linux (the main one, not any workaround modes here!!!

We are releasing the closed beta in last week of August/first week of september and are looking for closed beta customers who can test it for free on some environments.

Feel free to put forward any questions as well.

Kind Regards,
Darshin
Manager (ZFS on Linux)
KQ Infotech

 

[Mercutio]

I've lived without zfs on Linux so far, and I don't think I really want to bother with a commercial product just because it would make storage management for my porn collection any easier.

It has a drool worthy feature set, but if I really needed it, I'd be willing to put up with OpenSolaris in the first place.

 

[Chewy509]

I would just like to know how they did it?

The only method to avoid a license violation is to use FUSE? All ZFS source code is released under the CDDL, which is incompatible with the GPL which all kernel mode drivers must be... (Even nVidia and ATI kernel mode parts are opensource and under the GPL - it's the x.org driver and libGL.so that is closed source).

Also which version of ZFS? Is it the current mainline version as implemented in OpenSolaris nv134b, or an older version?

PS. For those haven't caught the news, the community based OpenSolaris project is dead (due to Oracle takeover of Sun). OpenSolaris has been brought back as an in-house project, and will now be called Oracle Solaris 11 Express (which can get some source code for), and is obtainable with a non-commercial license at no cost. The full commercial/enterprise version will be called Oracle Solaris 11, and is expected for release sometime next year. While not confirmed, it is expected the Express version will be missing some of the stuff that will be shipped with the non-Express version. (But someone did mention the missing stuff will be closed-source components, like motif, etc).

Releases for Solaris 11 Express are expected quarterly, but no timeline or release dates have been released.

 

[timwhit]

I think I would switch to Linux rather than screw around with Oracle.

 

[Chewy509]

I think I would switch to Linux rather than screw around with Oracle.

I often wonder how they say in business due to the way they handle their smaller or prospective clients. A lot of smaller Sun customers have struggled with the transition. (Mainly for having support contracts voided, and having a very hard time getting new support agreements in place).

I wonder if Oracle is still charging per-core pricing, or have finally realised that they rest of the industry only charges on a per-socket tier level.

Under their old scheme, a dual socket with single core CPUs was cheaper than a quad core single socket box, in regards to software licenses for their DB and business systems.

 

[timwhit]

It's still per core as far as I know.

 

[Mercutio]

One of my customers is a Primavera (Project Management software) consultant, another recent victim of an Oracle takeover. He's talking about abandoning his business because he's essentially lost all his ties to the software or its developers, and now Oracle is demanding that he obtain an assload of unrelated Oracle credentials before they'll certify him for whatever business partnership he had with the old company.

I know we all like to bitch about Microsoft but at least they're easy to deal with, both as a professional and on a business to business level.

 

[DrunkenBastard]

I know we all like to bitch about Microsoft but at least they're easy to deal with, both as a professional and on a business to business level.

Having worked at a company that "partnered" with Microsoft for a multi year high visibility deal, only for
MS to pull the plug about 1 year in, I would have to disagree. Now in this case it was actually failure in our management, failure to deliver on fairy tale promises, that caused the project to come to an abrupt end.

 

[sechs]

It seems to me that going with BSD would be a better choice. Who knows where Solaris is going.

 

[Howell]

I know we all like to bitch about Microsoft but at least they're easy to deal with, both as a professional and on a business to business level.

Having worked at a company that "partnered" with Microsoft for a multi year high visibility deal, only for
MS to pull the plug about 1 year in, I would have to disagree. Now in this case it was actually failure in our management, failure to deliver on fairy tale promises, that caused the project to come to an abrupt end.

I fail to see how your company breaking the contract should somehow reflect negatively on MS. I mean, MS is no saint but I don't think you've made your case.

 

[Chewy509]

Who knows where Solaris is going.

Speaking as a Solaris user, I would have to agree. As much as Oracle says it fully supports Solaris and will continue to develop Solaris technologies, Oracle is always very tight lipped about it's future plans, etc.

It has been leaked that Solaris 11 will be released 2011 sometime, and will be able to be purchased through Dell and HP (as OEM partners), but for the hobbyists or small business users, and this is highly dependent on Oracle and their Sales department, but it may end up as being as relevant to the market as AIX and HP-UX.

 

[time]

I've spent the last hour checking up on these guys, and yes, it does appear to be an elaborate scam.

They also appear to offer a "mentoring" program for Indian grads, that is in fact the opportunity to work for nothing for six months, with the possibility of remuneration for a further six months. Real cute.

 

[darshin]

@time, who in this world gives you an authority to even call us an elaborate scam. Do you even have the slightest of the ideas who we are and our credibility in the arena of file systems ! The owners of the company are veterans from Veritas, pioneers of cluster file system and have huge respect in their respective fields. Plus, our clients, due to the NDA policy, cant disclose them, but are the biggest storage product companies.

We are in the course of changing our website.

The mentoring program is for Indian students. You dont know how it works here in India and whats the culture, so better dont comment on working for nothing for six months.
Its been highly offensive of you to call a 100 people company a scam and is utterly intolerable.

Please, spending an hour on web and coming to a conclusion that we are an elaborate scam is kiddish and shows your level of maturity and thinking capabilities. I can easily make out that if you were a programmer, you would have a shitty logic. Sorry for being harsh and offensive @time, but you've asked for it.

I dont have anything against the rest of the members, but please before offensively terming us a scam, before hurting our image and posting such replies, be careful.

 

[DrunkenBastard]

I fail to see how your company breaking the contract should somehow reflect negatively on MS. I mean, MS is no saint but I don't think you've made your case.

Here's the thing. MS failed to perform due diligence in verifying vendor claims of performance.

1. Vendor claims X throughput per day/week/month. Tech has already been evaluated by competitors in the field, and found "wanting".
2. MS uses that pie in the sky number to create multi million dollar deals, including large higher education institutions.
3. Production becomes impossibly backlogged as true rate of production is small fraction of promised figures. Partners strung on for months.
4. Multi year deals are terminated, sites closed, higher education "partners" left going "wtf?" These higher eds will likely never partner with MS again in such a manner.
5. Mass sackings at vendor, which has scaled up workforce for the big contract.
6. Top man at the vendor (responsible for porky pies) is fired by its board of directors.
7. Vendor circles the drain as orders dwindle.

I got out of there prior to step 1.

Now the whole disaster could be the fault of vendor management, but I would attribute much of the blame to MS who didn't see past the smoke and mirrors. Of course they tend to do that themselves so perhaps they were outplayed?

In terms of the wider market, this is seen as an MS failure (no one not in the know would imagine that a single vendor could topple the whole thing like a house of cards).

 

[Handruin]

We only need one forum thread on this subject, closing this post.