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/ _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
