8/16/2016

CurrentZFSPoolCapacityRecommendations(LifeintheZFSLane)

O racle

BlogsHome
Products&Services
Downloads
Support
Partners
Communities
About
Login
OracleBlog
LifeintheZFSLane
ScenesfromSolarisLand

OracleSolarisTech...|Main

CurrentZFSPoolCapacityRecommendations
ByCindysOracleonAug12,2016

HappySummer,ZFSFans!
WewerediscussingtherecommendedZFSstoragepoolcapacityrecentlysoitseemslikeagoodtimetoreviewthis
informationexternallyaswell.
Therecommendedpoolcapacitywaschangedfrom80%to90%startingintheOracleSolaris11andOracleSolaris10
1/13releases,whichisreflectedinZFSfilesystemversion5.However,therearesomenuancestoreview.
OracleSolarisZFSisdesignedwitharedirectonwritearchitecturesoitneedssomeheadroomforfindingspaceto
writenewdata.ThisisthereasonwhyweprovideageneralrecommendationofkeepingZFSstoragepoolsbelow90%
capacity,buttherealityisthatthepercentagewhereperformanceisimpacteddependsgreatlyontheworkload:
Ifdataismostlyadded(writeonce,removenever),thenit'sveryeasyforaredirectonwritearchitecturesuchas
ZFStofindnewblocks.Herethepercentagefullwhenperformanceisimpactedwouldbemorethanthe
providedgenericruleofthumb,say95%.
Similarly,ifdataismadeoflargefiles/largeblocks(128Kor1MB)wheredataisremovedinbulkoperations,
thentheruleofthumbcanalsoberelaxed.
Theotherendofthespectrumiswherealargepercentageofthepool(say50%ormore)ismadeof8Kchunks
(DBfiles,iSCSILUNs,ormanysmallfiles)withconstantrewrites(dynamicdata),thenthe90%ruleofthumb
needstobefollowedstrictly.
If100%ofthedataissmallblocksofdynamicdata,thenyoushouldmonitoryourpoolclosely.Possiblystarting
asearlyas80%.ThesigntowatchforisincreaseddiskIOPStoachievethesamelevelofclientIOPS.

https://blogs.oracle.com/zfs/entry/current_zfs_pool_capacity_recommendations

1/4

8/16/2016

CurrentZFSPoolCapacityRecommendations(LifeintheZFSLane)

OtherstoragevendorswithROWbasedfilesystemsoftenreportreducedoverallstoragecapacityinordertomaintain
thisheadroom(andhidetheneedfortheheadroom).Ourpositionisthatitisuptoyoutodeterminehowyourpool
spaceisutilized.
Category:Oracle
Tags:solariszfs
Permanentlinktothisentry
OracleSolarisTech...|Main
Comments:
PostaComment:
Name: guest
EMail:
URL:
Notifymebyemailofnewcomments
RememberInformation?

YourComment:
HTMLSyntax:NOTallowed
Pleaseanswerthissimplemathquestion
2+5=
Preview

Post

About

LikeAmeliaPondwhowaitedfortheraggedyDoctorintheblueboxtofixthescarycrackinherwall,Iamthegirlwho
waitedforanewkindoffilesystemtosavemefromthedrudgeryoftraditionalfilesystemmanagementthatincludedfile
systems,volumes,disks,slices,resolvingfullfilesystems,sometimesevenreinstallingtheOS.ZFSisthesolutiontodata
managementproblemsbecauseithasapowerfulyetsimpleinterfacetomanagebothfilesystemsandunderlyingstorage.
Systemadministratorswhohavewrestledwithtraditionalfilesystems(likeme)mustalsogetZFSonaspirituallevel
becauseZFShasbeenembracedaroundtheworld.Inthisblog,IdescribeZFSfeaturesforSolarisadministrators.
Search

Entersearchterm:

https://blogs.oracle.com/zfs/entry/current_zfs_pool_capacity_recommendations

2/4

8/16/2016

CurrentZFSPoolCapacityRecommendations(LifeintheZFSLane)

Searchonlythisblog
RecentPosts

CurrentZFSPoolCapacityRecommendations
OracleSolarisTechDayinNYC
OpenStackinSolarisLand
ZFSDataandPoolRecovery
RecommendedZFSConfigurationsandPractices
Happy10thBirthday,ZFS!
TodayisAboutGratitude...theOracleSolarisBrandisStrong
ReducingStorageCostswithZFSCompression
WelcometoOracleSolaris11.3ZFS
ZFSAcrosstheDataCenter
TopTags

cloud
data
devops
lifecycle
openstack
oracle
recover
recovery
security
solaris
storage
technical
virtualization
zfs
Categories

Oracle
Personal
Archives

August2016
SunMonTue WedThuFriSat
1
2 3
4 5 6
7 8
9 10 11 12 13
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
21 22 23 24 25 26 27
28 29 30 31

https://blogs.oracle.com/zfs/entry/current_zfs_pool_capacity_recommendations

3/4

8/16/2016

CurrentZFSPoolCapacityRecommendations(LifeintheZFSLane)

Today
Bookmarks

Events
OracleTechnologyNetwork
OracleTechnologyNetworkBlog
RecentArticles
TechnologyNewsletters
Menu

BlogsHome
Weblog
Login
Feeds

RSS
All
/Oracle
/Personal
Comments
Atom
All
/Oracle
/Personal
Comments
TheviewsexpressedonthisblogarethoseoftheauthoranddonotnecessarilyreflecttheviewsofOracle.Termsof
Use|YourPrivacyRights|CookiePreferences

https://blogs.oracle.com/zfs/entry/current_zfs_pool_capacity_recommendations

4/4