On Tue, Jun 12, 2007 at 02:33:28PM -0400, Bill Sommerfeld wrote: > > am I correct in assuming that this would permit full operation of ZFS > (in some "custom scenarios" -- clearly startup scripts would need a > workover) without ever needing /etc/zfs/zpool.cache to exist or be > writeable? >
Almost, but not quite. With this change, it is possible for arbitrary consumers to maintain their own copies of the pool configuration (as some for of nvlist). This will work for simple scenarios, but for complex configuration where asynchronous changes are made to the config (such as replacing disks, hot spares, etc), it would be difficult for such a consumer to remain in sync. One of the features we have talked about is the ability to expressly set a particular cache file location on a per-pool basis. This would both allow consumers to control when and how such a pool is loaded, as well as keep the kernel state in sync with the on-disk state. Such a feature was not included with this proposal because there are some non-trivial implementation issues to sort out, there is little current demand for it, and it is a logical follow-on once this case has been approved and integrated. - Eric -- Eric Schrock, Solaris Kernel Development http://blogs.sun.com/eschrock
