I have thought for some time that it would be interesting & potentially useful to expose the DMU and ZAP interfaces directly to userland. There are some applications that are primarily interested in managing object sets on their storage, and don't need any file or filesystem access interfaces.
It could also be an useful jumping off point for improving the existing dataset-objset abstraction & relationship. --Will. On Tue, Nov 19, 2013 at 8:24 AM, Karl Wagner <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi All > > I have a suggestion for a future development of ZFS: as the subject, > exposing a "Storage API" for ZFS. > > The idea is fairly straight forward. We expose the functionality to store > objects in a ZPool. Currently (AFAIK) the only ways to do this are via a > ZFS filesystem tree or a ZVol. Neither are optimal in all situations, so > offering access to a layer below this could encourage developers to use ZFS > in a targetted way to enhance their projects. > > The main things I am thinking of are, of course, databases. With a lower > level of access than is currently accessibly, a database could allocate the > correct sized "blocks", and generally optimised it's use of the pool. > > Another area which could be of use if filesystem development. A different > filesystem could be hooked in optimally. For example, a modified Ext4 with > access to the underlying pool could, in some circumstances, work better > than ZFS itself. I'm not saying it would, but in some circumstances it may > be a preferable option. > > This could also be a good opportunity to "separate" the projects, so that > the ZPool, ZFS and ZVol can be worked on independently, communicating > through this API. Going a stage further, the VDevs could be separated out, > too. It would be good to be able to develop new VDev drivers, knowing there > is a stable API to work within, and develop, build and distribute them > independently of ZFS. > > Let me know your thoughts. This has been at the back of my mind for a > while now, and I just thought I'd throw it out there for feedback. > > Regards > Karl > *illumos-zfs* | Archives<https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/182191/=now> > <https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/182191/22812380-5ee856a2> | > Modify<https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=22812380&id_secret=22812380-ce106d1b>Your > Subscription > <http://www.listbox.com> >
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