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How to Resize ZFS

If you’ve been experimenting with ZFS, as we have, you’ve been struck by some of its limitations. One of the most common complaints is that it’s not flexible in terms of sizing – you have to add a whole new “vdev” (analogous to a RAID set) in order to expand, rather than simply adding new disks one at a time.

But there is one other way to expand a zpool – by iteratively swapping out every disk in the pool with a larger one and letting ZFS heal the pool. This is the technique demonstrated by Harry D in a two-part blog post:

  1. How to resize ZFS
  2. How to resize ZFS – Part 2 (the real world)

You still can’t shrink a zpool. Let’s hope that comes along soon, along with more flexibility in general. Otherwise, ZFS will be much less interesting in the desktop/workstation/small server space!

About the author

Stephen Foskett

Stephen Foskett is an active participant in the world of enterprise information technology, currently focusing on enterprise storage, server virtualization, networking, and cloud computing. He organizes the popular Tech Field Day event series for Gestalt IT and runs Foskett Services. A long-time voice in the storage industry, Stephen has authored numerous articles for industry publications, and is a popular presenter at industry events. He can be found online at TechFieldDay.com, blog.FoskettS.net, and on Twitter at @SFoskett.

2 Comments

  • Thanks for the linkt to my blog! I would also highly appreciate more flexibility of ZFS (especially changing the geometry of a zpool would be great!)

    Regards,

    harryd

  • Thanks for the linkt to my blog! I would also highly appreciate more flexibility of ZFS (especially changing the geometry of a zpool would be great!)

    Regards,

    harryd

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