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Here I'm trying to succinctly introduce the concept, the basics of its construction, how its different to dedup, how to use it, and where its limitations lie, in four paragraphs and with enough searchable terms to help the reader find more information both within OpenZFS and elsewhere. Phew. Sponsored-By: Klara, Inc. Reviewed-by: Brian Behlendorf <behlendorf1@llnl.gov> Signed-off-by: Rob Norris <rob.norris@klarasystems.com> Closes #15362
246 lines
8.4 KiB
Groff
246 lines
8.4 KiB
Groff
.\"
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.\" CDDL HEADER START
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.\" The contents of this file are subject to the terms of the
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.\" Common Development and Distribution License (the "License").
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.\" information: Portions Copyright [yyyy] [name of copyright owner]
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.\"
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.\" CDDL HEADER END
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.\"
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.\" Copyright (c) 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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.\" Copyright 2011 Joshua M. Clulow <josh@sysmgr.org>
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.\" Copyright (c) 2011, 2019 by Delphix. All rights reserved.
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.\" Copyright (c) 2013 by Saso Kiselkov. All rights reserved.
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.\" Copyright (c) 2014, Joyent, Inc. All rights reserved.
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.\" Copyright (c) 2014 by Adam Stevko. All rights reserved.
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.\" Copyright (c) 2014 Integros [integros.com]
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.\" Copyright 2019 Richard Laager. All rights reserved.
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.\" Copyright 2018 Nexenta Systems, Inc.
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.\" Copyright 2019 Joyent, Inc.
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.\" Copyright 2023 Klara, Inc.
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.\"
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.Dd October 6, 2023
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.Dt ZFSCONCEPTS 7
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.Os
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.
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.Sh NAME
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.Nm zfsconcepts
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.Nd overview of ZFS concepts
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.
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.Sh DESCRIPTION
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.Ss ZFS File System Hierarchy
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A ZFS storage pool is a logical collection of devices that provide space for
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datasets.
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A storage pool is also the root of the ZFS file system hierarchy.
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.Pp
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The root of the pool can be accessed as a file system, such as mounting and
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unmounting, taking snapshots, and setting properties.
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The physical storage characteristics, however, are managed by the
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.Xr zpool 8
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command.
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.Pp
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See
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.Xr zpool 8
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for more information on creating and administering pools.
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.Ss Snapshots
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A snapshot is a read-only copy of a file system or volume.
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Snapshots can be created extremely quickly, and initially consume no additional
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space within the pool.
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As data within the active dataset changes, the snapshot consumes more data than
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would otherwise be shared with the active dataset.
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.Pp
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Snapshots can have arbitrary names.
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Snapshots of volumes can be cloned or rolled back, visibility is determined
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by the
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.Sy snapdev
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property of the parent volume.
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.Pp
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File system snapshots can be accessed under the
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.Pa .zfs/snapshot
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directory in the root of the file system.
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Snapshots are automatically mounted on demand and may be unmounted at regular
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intervals.
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The visibility of the
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.Pa .zfs
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directory can be controlled by the
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.Sy snapdir
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property.
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.Ss Bookmarks
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A bookmark is like a snapshot, a read-only copy of a file system or volume.
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Bookmarks can be created extremely quickly, compared to snapshots, and they
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consume no additional space within the pool.
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Bookmarks can also have arbitrary names, much like snapshots.
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.Pp
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Unlike snapshots, bookmarks can not be accessed through the filesystem in any
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way.
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From a storage standpoint a bookmark just provides a way to reference
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when a snapshot was created as a distinct object.
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Bookmarks are initially tied to a snapshot, not the filesystem or volume,
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and they will survive if the snapshot itself is destroyed.
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Since they are very light weight there's little incentive to destroy them.
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.Ss Clones
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A clone is a writable volume or file system whose initial contents are the same
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as another dataset.
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As with snapshots, creating a clone is nearly instantaneous, and initially
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consumes no additional space.
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.Pp
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Clones can only be created from a snapshot.
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When a snapshot is cloned, it creates an implicit dependency between the parent
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and child.
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Even though the clone is created somewhere else in the dataset hierarchy, the
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original snapshot cannot be destroyed as long as a clone exists.
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The
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.Sy origin
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property exposes this dependency, and the
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.Cm destroy
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command lists any such dependencies, if they exist.
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.Pp
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The clone parent-child dependency relationship can be reversed by using the
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.Cm promote
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subcommand.
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This causes the
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.Qq origin
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file system to become a clone of the specified file system, which makes it
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possible to destroy the file system that the clone was created from.
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.Ss "Mount Points"
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Creating a ZFS file system is a simple operation, so the number of file systems
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per system is likely to be numerous.
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To cope with this, ZFS automatically manages mounting and unmounting file
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systems without the need to edit the
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.Pa /etc/fstab
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file.
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All automatically managed file systems are mounted by ZFS at boot time.
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.Pp
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By default, file systems are mounted under
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.Pa /path ,
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where
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.Ar path
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is the name of the file system in the ZFS namespace.
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Directories are created and destroyed as needed.
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.Pp
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A file system can also have a mount point set in the
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.Sy mountpoint
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property.
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This directory is created as needed, and ZFS automatically mounts the file
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system when the
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.Nm zfs Cm mount Fl a
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command is invoked
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.Po without editing
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.Pa /etc/fstab
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.Pc .
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The
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.Sy mountpoint
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property can be inherited, so if
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.Em pool/home
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has a mount point of
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.Pa /export/stuff ,
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then
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.Em pool/home/user
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automatically inherits a mount point of
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.Pa /export/stuff/user .
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.Pp
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A file system
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.Sy mountpoint
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property of
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.Sy none
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prevents the file system from being mounted.
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.Pp
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If needed, ZFS file systems can also be managed with traditional tools
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.Po
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.Nm mount ,
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.Nm umount ,
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.Pa /etc/fstab
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.Pc .
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If a file system's mount point is set to
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.Sy legacy ,
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ZFS makes no attempt to manage the file system, and the administrator is
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responsible for mounting and unmounting the file system.
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Because pools must
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be imported before a legacy mount can succeed, administrators should ensure
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that legacy mounts are only attempted after the zpool import process
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finishes at boot time.
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For example, on machines using systemd, the mount option
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.Pp
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.Nm x-systemd.requires=zfs-import.target
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.Pp
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will ensure that the zfs-import completes before systemd attempts mounting
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the filesystem.
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See
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.Xr systemd.mount 5
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for details.
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.Ss Deduplication
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Deduplication is the process for removing redundant data at the block level,
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reducing the total amount of data stored.
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If a file system has the
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.Sy dedup
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property enabled, duplicate data blocks are removed synchronously.
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The result
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is that only unique data is stored and common components are shared among files.
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.Pp
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Deduplicating data is a very resource-intensive operation.
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It is generally recommended that you have at least 1.25 GiB of RAM
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per 1 TiB of storage when you enable deduplication.
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Calculating the exact requirement depends heavily
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on the type of data stored in the pool.
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.Pp
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Enabling deduplication on an improperly-designed system can result in
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performance issues (slow I/O and administrative operations).
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It can potentially lead to problems importing a pool due to memory exhaustion.
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Deduplication can consume significant processing power (CPU) and memory as well
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as generate additional disk I/O.
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.Pp
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Before creating a pool with deduplication enabled, ensure that you have planned
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your hardware requirements appropriately and implemented appropriate recovery
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practices, such as regular backups.
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Consider using the
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.Sy compression
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property as a less resource-intensive alternative.
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.Ss Block cloning
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Block cloning is a facility that allows a file (or parts of a file) to be
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.Qq cloned ,
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that is, a shallow copy made where the existing data blocks are referenced
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rather than copied.
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Later modifications to the data will cause a copy of the data block to be taken
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and that copy modified.
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This facility is used to implement
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.Qq reflinks
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or
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.Qq file-level copy-on-write .
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.Pp
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Cloned blocks are tracked in a special on-disk structure called the Block
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Reference Table
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.Po BRT
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.Pc .
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Unlike deduplication, this table has minimal overhead, so can be enabled at all
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times.
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.Pp
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Also unlike deduplication, cloning must be requested by a user program.
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Many common file copying programs, including newer versions of
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.Nm /bin/cp ,
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will try to create clones automatically.
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Look for
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.Qq clone ,
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.Qq dedupe
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or
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.Qq reflink
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in the documentation for more information.
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.Pp
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There are some limitations to block cloning.
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Only whole blocks can be cloned, and blocks can not be cloned if they are not
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yet written to disk, or if they are encrypted, or the source and destination
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.Sy recordsize
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properties differ.
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The OS may add additional restrictions;
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for example, most versions of Linux will not allow clones across datasets.
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