Re: [zfs-discuss] Practical Application of ZFS

2009-01-07 Thread JZ
long live the king

- Original Message - 
From: "Jason King" 
To: 
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 5:33 PM
Subject: Re: [zfs-discuss] Practical Application of ZFS


> On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 3:51 PM, Kees Nuyt  wrote:
>> On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 21:41:32 -0500, David Magda
>>  wrote:
>>
>>>On Jan 6, 2009, at 14:21, Rob wrote:
>>>
>>>> Obviously ZFS is ideal for large databases served out via
>>>> application level or web servers. But what other practical ways are
>>>> there to integrate the use of ZFS into existing setups to experience
>>>> it's benefits.
>>>
>>>Remember that ZFS is made up of the ZPL and the DMU (amongst other
>>>things). The ZPL is the POSIX compatibility layer that most of us use.
>>>The DMU is the actual transactional object model that stores the
>>>actual data objects (e.g. files).
>>>
>>>It would technically be possible for (say) MySQL to create a database
>>>engine on top of that transactional store.
>>
>> I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen,
>> given that:
>>
>> - InnoDB used to be the only transactional
>>  storage engine in MySQL
>>
>> - Innobase, the creator of InnoDB, has been
>>  acquired by Oracle
>>
>> - MySQL desparately needs a replacement
>>  for the InnoDB storage engine
>>
>> - MySQL has been acquired by SUN
>>
>> - ZFS (ZPL,DMU) is by SUN.
>>
>> - performance of the MySQL/InnoDB/ZFS stack is sub-optimal.
>>
>> No, I don't have any inside information.
> 
> Well if you look at some of the diagrams from
> http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/docs/zfs_last.pdf  it's
> obvious that it's been thought of already.
> 
> I actually thought a neat project would be to create a transactional
> API that was more or less a thin layer on top of ZFS, and then create
> a database using the hotspot jvm (so probably in java, but not
> necessairly so) to handle the query parsing, optimization, etc.  The
> thought was the query could be compiled to java bytecode (and possibly
> to native machine language all without having to write a native
> machine language compiler).  Of course it looks like derby does the
> 'compile to bytecode' stuff already.  But the backend userland
> transactional api using ZFS might still be an interesting project if
> anyone was interested.
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Re: [zfs-discuss] Practical Application of ZFS

2009-01-07 Thread Jason King
On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 3:51 PM, Kees Nuyt  wrote:
> On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 21:41:32 -0500, David Magda
>  wrote:
>
>>On Jan 6, 2009, at 14:21, Rob wrote:
>>
>>> Obviously ZFS is ideal for large databases served out via
>>> application level or web servers. But what other practical ways are
>>> there to integrate the use of ZFS into existing setups to experience
>>> it's benefits.
>>
>>Remember that ZFS is made up of the ZPL and the DMU (amongst other
>>things). The ZPL is the POSIX compatibility layer that most of us use.
>>The DMU is the actual transactional object model that stores the
>>actual data objects (e.g. files).
>>
>>It would technically be possible for (say) MySQL to create a database
>>engine on top of that transactional store.
>
> I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen,
> given that:
>
> - InnoDB used to be the only transactional
>  storage engine in MySQL
>
> - Innobase, the creator of InnoDB, has been
>  acquired by Oracle
>
> - MySQL desparately needs a replacement
>  for the InnoDB storage engine
>
> - MySQL has been acquired by SUN
>
> - ZFS (ZPL,DMU) is by SUN.
>
> - performance of the MySQL/InnoDB/ZFS stack is sub-optimal.
>
> No, I don't have any inside information.

Well if you look at some of the diagrams from
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/docs/zfs_last.pdf  it's
obvious that it's been thought of already.

I actually thought a neat project would be to create a transactional
API that was more or less a thin layer on top of ZFS, and then create
a database using the hotspot jvm (so probably in java, but not
necessairly so) to handle the query parsing, optimization, etc.  The
thought was the query could be compiled to java bytecode (and possibly
to native machine language all without having to write a native
machine language compiler).  Of course it looks like derby does the
'compile to bytecode' stuff already.  But the backend userland
transactional api using ZFS might still be an interesting project if
anyone was interested.
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Re: [zfs-discuss] Practical Application of ZFS

2009-01-07 Thread JZ
For SuperUsers, and the little envionments, the JAVA embedded thing does 
all...

http://java-source.net/open-source/database-engines

;-)
z

- Original Message - 
From: "Kees Nuyt" 
To: 
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 4:51 PM
Subject: Re: [zfs-discuss] Practical Application of ZFS


> On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 21:41:32 -0500, David Magda
>  wrote:
>
>>On Jan 6, 2009, at 14:21, Rob wrote:
>>
>>> Obviously ZFS is ideal for large databases served out via
>>> application level or web servers. But what other practical ways are
>>> there to integrate the use of ZFS into existing setups to experience
>>> it's benefits.
>>
>>Remember that ZFS is made up of the ZPL and the DMU (amongst other
>>things). The ZPL is the POSIX compatibility layer that most of us use.
>>The DMU is the actual transactional object model that stores the
>>actual data objects (e.g. files).
>>
>>It would technically be possible for (say) MySQL to create a database
>>engine on top of that transactional store.
>
> I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen,
> given that:
>
> - InnoDB used to be the only transactional
>  storage engine in MySQL
>
> - Innobase, the creator of InnoDB, has been
>  acquired by Oracle
>
> - MySQL desparately needs a replacement
>  for the InnoDB storage engine
>
> - MySQL has been acquired by SUN
>
> - ZFS (ZPL,DMU) is by SUN.
>
> - performance of the MySQL/InnoDB/ZFS stack is sub-optimal.
>
> No, I don't have any inside information.
> -- 
>  (  Kees Nuyt
>  )
> c[_]
> ___
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Re: [zfs-discuss] Practical Application of ZFS

2009-01-07 Thread Kees Nuyt
On Tue, 6 Jan 2009 21:41:32 -0500, David Magda
 wrote:

>On Jan 6, 2009, at 14:21, Rob wrote:
>
>> Obviously ZFS is ideal for large databases served out via  
>> application level or web servers. But what other practical ways are  
>> there to integrate the use of ZFS into existing setups to experience  
>> it's benefits.
>
>Remember that ZFS is made up of the ZPL and the DMU (amongst other  
>things). The ZPL is the POSIX compatibility layer that most of us use.  
>The DMU is the actual transactional object model that stores the  
>actual data objects (e.g. files).
>
>It would technically be possible for (say) MySQL to create a database  
>engine on top of that transactional store. 

I wouldn't be surprised to see that happen, 
given that:

- InnoDB used to be the only transactional 
  storage engine in MySQL

- Innobase, the creator of InnoDB, has been 
  acquired by Oracle

- MySQL desparately needs a replacement
  for the InnoDB storage engine

- MySQL has been acquired by SUN

- ZFS (ZPL,DMU) is by SUN.

- performance of the MySQL/InnoDB/ZFS stack is sub-optimal.

No, I don't have any inside information.
-- 
  (  Kees Nuyt
  )
c[_]
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Re: [zfs-discuss] Practical Application of ZFS

2009-01-06 Thread David Magda
On Jan 6, 2009, at 14:21, Rob wrote:

> Obviously ZFS is ideal for large databases served out via  
> application level or web servers. But what other practical ways are  
> there to integrate the use of ZFS into existing setups to experience  
> it's benefits.

Remember that ZFS is made up of the ZPL and the DMU (amongst other  
things). The ZPL is the POSIX compatibility layer that most of us use.  
The DMU is the actual transactional object model that stores the  
actual data objects (e.g. files).

It would technically be possible for (say) MySQL to create a database  
engine on top of that transactional store. I believe that the Lustre  
people are using the DMU for their future data store back end. The DMU  
runs in userland so anyone can use it for any object store system.

People keep talking about ZFS in the context of replacing UFS/FFS,  
ext3, WAFL, etc., but few are utilizing (or realize the availability  
of) the transactional store.

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Re: [zfs-discuss] Practical Application of ZFS

2009-01-06 Thread Tim
On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 2:58 PM, Rob  wrote:

> Wow. I will read further into this. That seems like it could have great
> applications. I assume the same is true of FCoE?
> --
>

Yes, iSCSI, FC, FCOE all present out a LUN to Windows.  For the layman, from
the windows system the disk will look identical to a SCSI disk plugged
directly into the motherboard.  That's not entirely accurate, but close
enough for you to get an idea.

--Tim
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Re: [zfs-discuss] Practical Application of ZFS

2009-01-06 Thread Rob
Wow. I will read further into this. That seems like it could have great 
applications. I assume the same is true of FCoE?
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Re: [zfs-discuss] Practical Application of ZFS

2009-01-06 Thread Bob Friesenhahn
On Tue, 6 Jan 2009, Rob wrote:

> Are you saying that a Windows Server can access a ZFS drive via 
> iSCSI and store NTFS files?

A volume is created under ZFS, similar to a large sequential file. 
The iSCSI protocol is used to export that volume as a LUN.  Windows 
can then format it and put NTFS on it.

Bob
==
Bob Friesenhahn
bfrie...@simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/

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Re: [zfs-discuss] Practical Application of ZFS

2009-01-06 Thread Rob
I am not experienced with iSCSI. I understand it's block level disk access via 
TCP/IP. However I don't see how using it eliminates the need for virtualization.

Are you saying that a Windows Server can access a ZFS drive via iSCSI and store 
NTFS files?
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Re: [zfs-discuss] Practical Application of ZFS

2009-01-06 Thread Bob Friesenhahn
On Tue, 6 Jan 2009, Rob wrote:

> The only way I can visualize doing so would be to virtualize the 
> windows server and store it's image in a ZFS pool. That would add 
> additional overhead but protect the data at the disk level. It would 
> also allow snapshots of the Windows Machine's virtual file. However 
> none of these benefits would protect Windows from hurting it's own 
> data, if you catch my meaning.

With OpenSolaris you can use its built in SMB/CIFS service so that 
files are stored natively in ZFS by the Windows client.  Since the 
files are stored natively, individual lost/damaged files can be 
retrieved from a ZFS snapshot if snapshots are configured to be taken 
periodically.

If you use iSCSI or the forthcoming COMSTAR project (iSCSI, FC target, 
FCOE) then you can create native Windows volumes and the whole volume 
could be "protected" via snapshots but without the ability to retrieve 
individual files.  As you say, Windows could still destroy its own 
volume.  Snapshots of iSCSI volumes will be similar to if the Windows 
system suddenly lost power at the time the snapshot was taken.

As far as ZFS portability goes, ZFS is also supported on FreeBSD, on 
Linux in an inferior mode, and soon on OS-X.  The main 
interoperability issues seem to be with the disk partitioning 
strategies used by the different operating systems.

Bob
==
Bob Friesenhahn
bfrie...@simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/

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Re: [zfs-discuss] Practical Application of ZFS

2009-01-06 Thread Marcelo Leal
Hello,
 - One way is virtualization, if you use a virtualization technology that uses 
NFS for example, you could add your virtual images on a ZFS filesystem.  NFS 
can be used without virtualization too, but as you said the machines are 
windows, i don't think the NFS client for windows is production ready. 
 Maybe somebody else on the list can say...
 - Virtualization inside solaris branded zones... IIRC, the idea is have 
branded zones to support another OS (like GNU/Linux/ MS Windows, etc).
 - Another option is iSCSI, and you would not need virtualization.

 Leal
[http://www.eall.com.br/blog]

> ZFS is the bomb. It's a great file system. What are
> it's real world applications besides solaris
> userspace? What I'd really like is to utilize the
> benefits of ZFS across all the platforms we use. For
> instance, we use Microsoft Windows Servers as our
> primary platform here. How might I utilize ZFS to
> protect that data? 
> 
> The only way I can visualize doing so would be to
> virtualize the windows server and store it's image in
> a ZFS pool. That would add additional overhead but
> protect the data at the disk level. It would also
> allow snapshots of the Windows Machine's virtual
> file. However none of these benefits would protect
> Windows from hurting it's own data, if you catch my
> meaning.
> 
> Obviously ZFS is ideal for large databases served out
> via application level or web servers. But what other
> practical ways are there to integrate the use of ZFS
> into existing setups to experience it's benefits.
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