I think that @dcarosone is asking about creating a file in the pool to force zfs to write to most of the pool (not dd-ing to the raw disk). That could work but the `zpool initialize` approach has a few advantages:
- You don't need to figure out how big to make the file. The file size can't be determined in advance (because you'll be filling the pool with "real" data while this is happening - that's the whole point), so you'll have to monitor the pool fullness and adjust the amount of data to write. Since this would be a userland process, it would be more error prone and less portable. - You'll be sure that all the parts of the LUNs are initialized. With the file approach, you'll have to leave some free space, which won't be initialized. - When adding a device to an existing pool, you'll only initialize the new device. With the file approach, ZFS would also (re-)write to the free space in the existing devices. -- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: https://github.com/openzfs/openzfs/pull/586#issuecomment-372034386 ------------------------------------------ openzfs: openzfs-developer Permalink: https://openzfs.topicbox.com/groups/developer/discussions/T6777d2c2033b2134-M2dac0e1add33ea3a36ffe089 Delivery options: https://openzfs.topicbox.com/groups
