2 .\" Copyright (c) 2012, Martin Matuska <mm@FreeBSD.org>.
3 .\" All Rights Reserved.
5 .\" The contents of this file are subject to the terms of the
6 .\" Common Development and Distribution License (the "License").
7 .\" You may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
9 .\" You can obtain a copy of the license at usr/src/OPENSOLARIS.LICENSE
10 .\" or http://www.opensolaris.org/os/licensing.
11 .\" See the License for the specific language governing permissions
12 .\" and limitations under the License.
14 .\" When distributing Covered Code, include this CDDL HEADER in each
15 .\" file and include the License file at usr/src/OPENSOLARIS.LICENSE.
16 .\" If applicable, add the following below this CDDL HEADER, with the
17 .\" fields enclosed by brackets "[]" replaced with your own identifying
18 .\" information: Portions Copyright [yyyy] [name of copyright owner]
20 .\" Copyright (c) 2012, 2017 by Delphix. All rights reserved.
21 .\" Copyright (c) 2013 by Saso Kiselkov. All rights reserved.
22 .\" Copyright (c) 2013, Joyent, Inc. All rights reserved.
31 .Nd ZFS pool feature descriptions
33 ZFS pool on\-disk format versions are specified via "features" which replace
34 the old on\-disk format numbers (the last supported on\-disk format number is
36 To enable a feature on a pool use the
41 .Sy feature@feature_name
45 The pool format does not affect file system version compatibility or the ability
46 to send file systems between pools.
48 Since most features can be enabled independently of each other the on\-disk
49 format of the pool is specified by the set of all features marked as
52 If the pool was created by another software version this set may
53 include unsupported features.
54 .Ss Identifying features
55 Every feature has a guid of the form
56 .Sy com.example:feature_name .
57 The reverse DNS name ensures that the feature's guid is unique across all ZFS
59 When unsupported features are encountered on a pool they will
60 be identified by their guids.
61 Refer to the documentation for the ZFS implementation that created the pool
62 for information about those features.
64 Each supported feature also has a short name.
65 By convention a feature's short name is the portion of its guid which follows
67 .Sy com.example:feature_name
68 would have the short name
70 however a feature's short name may differ across ZFS implementations if
71 following the convention would result in name conflicts.
73 Features can be in one of three states:
74 .Bl -tag -width "XXXXXXXX"
76 This feature's on\-disk format changes are in effect on the pool.
77 Support for this feature is required to import the pool in read\-write mode.
78 If this feature is not read-only compatible, support is also required to
79 import the pool in read\-only mode (see "Read\-only compatibility").
81 An administrator has marked this feature as enabled on the pool, but the
82 feature's on\-disk format changes have not been made yet.
83 The pool can still be imported by software that does not support this feature,
84 but changes may be made to the on\-disk format at any time which will move
88 Some features may support returning to the
92 See feature\-specific documentation for details.
94 This feature's on\-disk format changes have not been made and will not be made
95 unless an administrator moves the feature to the
98 Features cannot be disabled once they have been enabled.
101 The state of supported features is exposed through pool properties of the form
102 .Sy feature@short_name .
103 .Ss Read\-only compatibility
104 Some features may make on\-disk format changes that do not interfere with other
105 software's ability to read from the pool.
106 These features are referred to as "read\-only compatible".
107 If all unsupported features on a pool are read\-only compatible, the pool can
108 be imported in read\-only mode by setting the
110 property during import (see
112 for details on importing pools).
113 .Ss Unsupported features
114 For each unsupported feature enabled on an imported pool a pool property
116 .Sy unsupported@feature_guid
117 will indicate why the import was allowed despite the unsupported feature.
118 Possible values for this property are:
119 .Bl -tag -width "XXXXXXXX"
121 The feature is in the
123 state and therefore the pool's on\-disk format is still compatible with
124 software that does not support this feature.
126 The feature is read\-only compatible and the pool has been imported in
129 .Ss Feature dependencies
130 Some features depend on other features being enabled in order to function
132 Enabling a feature will automatically enable any features it depends on.
134 The following features are supported on this system:
135 .Bl -tag -width "XXXXXXXX"
137 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.delphix:async_destroy"
138 .It GUID Ta com.delphix:async_destroy
139 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta yes
140 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta none
143 Destroying a file system requires traversing all of its data in order to
144 return its used space to the pool.
147 the file system is not fully removed until all space has been reclaimed.
148 If the destroy operation is interrupted by a reboot or power outage the next
149 attempt to open the pool will need to complete the destroy operation
154 is enabled the file system's data will be reclaimed by a background process,
155 allowing the destroy operation to complete without traversing the entire file
157 The background process is able to resume interrupted destroys after the pool
158 has been opened, eliminating the need to finish interrupted destroys as part
159 of the open operation.
160 The amount of space remaining to be reclaimed by the background process is
161 available through the
171 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.delphix:empty_bpobj"
172 .It GUID Ta com.delphix:empty_bpobj
173 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta yes
174 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta none
177 This feature increases the performance of creating and using a large number
178 of snapshots of a single filesystem or volume, and also reduces the disk
181 When there are many snapshots, each snapshot uses many Block Pointer Objects
183 to track blocks associated with that snapshot.
184 However, in common use cases, most of these bpobj's are empty.
185 This feature allows us to create each bpobj on-demand, thus eliminating the
190 while there are any filesystems, volumes, or snapshots which were created
191 after enabling this feature.
192 .It Sy filesystem_limits
193 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.joyent:filesystem_limits"
194 .It GUID Ta com.joyent:filesystem_limits
195 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta yes
196 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta extensible_dataset
199 This feature enables filesystem and snapshot limits.
200 These limits can be used
201 to control how many filesystems and/or snapshots can be created at the point in
202 the tree on which the limits are set.
206 once either of the limit properties has been
208 Once activated the feature is never deactivated.
210 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "org.illumos:lz4_compress"
211 .It GUID Ta org.illumos:lz4_compress
212 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta no
213 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta none
217 is a high-performance real-time compression algorithm that
218 features significantly faster compression and decompression as well as a
219 higher compression ratio than the older
224 compression is approximately 50% faster on
225 compressible data and 200% faster on incompressible data than
227 It is also approximately 80% faster on decompression, while
228 giving approximately 10% better compression ratio.
235 administrator can turn on
237 compression on any dataset on the
241 Also, all newly written metadata
242 will be compressed with
245 Since this feature is not read-only compatible, this
246 operation will render the pool unimportable on systems without support
252 -compressed root pools is supported.
256 as soon as it is enabled and will
257 never return to being
259 .It Sy multi_vdev_crash_dump
260 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.joyent:multi_vdev_crash_dump"
261 .It GUID Ta com.joyent:multi_vdev_crash_dump
262 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta no
263 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta none
266 This feature allows a dump device to be configured with a pool comprised
268 Those vdevs may be arranged in any mirrored or raidz
270 .\" TODO: this is not yet supported on FreeBSD.
273 .\" .Sy multi_vdev_crash_dump
274 .\" feature is set to
276 .\" the administrator can use the
278 .\" command to configure a
279 .\" dump device on a pool comprised of multiple vdevs.
280 .It Sy spacemap_histogram
281 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.delphix:spacemap_histogram"
282 .It GUID Ta com.delphix:spacemap_histogram
283 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta yes
284 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta none
287 This feature allows ZFS to maintain more information about how free space
288 is organized within the pool.
294 when a new space map object is created or
295 an existing space map is upgraded to the new format.
298 it will remain in that state until the pool is destroyed.
299 .It Sy extensible_dataset
300 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.delphix:extensible_dataset"
301 .It GUID Ta com.delphix:extensible_dataset
302 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta no
303 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta none
306 This feature allows more flexible use of internal ZFS data structures,
307 and exists for other features to depend on.
311 when the first dependent feature uses it,
312 and will be returned to the
314 state when all datasets that use
315 this feature are destroyed.
317 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.delphix:bookmarks"
318 .It GUID Ta com.delphix:bookmarks
319 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta yes
320 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta extensible_dataset
323 This feature enables use of the
330 while any bookmarks exist in the pool.
331 All bookmarks in the pool can be listed by running
334 .Fl t No bookmark Fl r Ar poolname .
336 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.delphix:enabled_txg"
337 .It GUID Ta com.delphix:enabled_txg
338 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta yes
339 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta none
342 Once this feature is enabled ZFS records the transaction group number
343 in which new features are enabled.
344 This has no user-visible impact,
345 but other features may depend on this feature.
349 as soon as it is enabled and will
350 never return to being
353 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.delphix:hole_birth"
354 .It GUID Ta com.delphix:hole_birth
355 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta no
356 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta enabled_txg
359 This feature improves performance of incremental sends
361 and receives for objects with many holes.
362 The most common case of
363 hole-filled objects is zvols.
365 An incremental send stream from snapshot
369 contains information about every block that changed between
373 Blocks which did not change between those snapshots can be
374 identified and omitted from the stream using a piece of metadata called
375 the 'block birth time', but birth times are not recorded for holes
376 .Pq blocks filled only with zeroes .
377 Since holes created after
380 distinguished from holes created before
382 information about every
383 hole in the entire filesystem or zvol is included in the send stream.
385 For workloads where holes are rare this is not a problem.
387 incrementally replicating filesystems or zvols with many holes
388 .Pq for example a zvol formatted with another filesystem
390 be spent sending and receiving unnecessary information about holes that
391 already exist on the receiving side.
395 feature has been enabled the block birth times
396 of all new holes will be recorded.
397 Incremental sends between snapshots
398 created after this feature is enabled will use this new metadata to avoid
399 sending information about holes that already exist on the receiving side.
403 as soon as it is enabled and will
404 never return to being
407 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.delphix:embedded_data"
408 .It GUID Ta com.delphix:embedded_data
409 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta no
410 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta none
413 This feature improves the performance and compression ratio of
414 highly-compressible blocks.
415 Blocks whose contents can compress to 112 bytes
416 or smaller can take advantage of this feature.
418 When this feature is enabled, the contents of highly-compressible blocks are
419 stored in the block "pointer" itself
420 .Po a misnomer in this case, as it contains
421 the compressed data, rather than a pointer to its location on disk
424 the space of the block
425 .Pq one sector, typically 512 bytes or 4KB
427 and no additional i/o is needed to read and write the data block.
431 as soon as it is enabled and will
432 never return to being
434 .It Sy zpool_checkpoint
435 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.delphix:zpool_checkpoint"
436 .It GUID Ta com.delphix:zpool_checkpoint
437 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta yes
438 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta none
441 This feature enables the "zpool checkpoint" subcommand that can
442 checkpoint the state of the pool at the time it was issued and later
443 rewind back to it or discard it.
447 when the "zpool checkpoint" command is used to checkpoint the pool.
448 The feature will only return back to being
450 when the pool is rewound or the checkpoint has been discarded.
451 .It Sy device_removal
452 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.delphix:device_removal"
453 .It GUID Ta com.delphix:device_removal
454 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta no
455 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta none
458 This feature enables the "zpool remove" subcommand to remove top-level
459 vdevs, evacuating them to reduce the total size of the pool.
463 when the "zpool remove" command is used
464 on a top-level vdev, and will never return to being
466 .It Sy obsolete_counts
467 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.delphix:obsolete_counts"
468 .It GUID Ta com.delphix:obsolete_counts
469 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta yes
470 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta device_removal
473 This feature is an enhancement of device_removal, which will over time
474 reduce the memory used to track removed devices. When indirect blocks
475 are freed or remapped, we note that their part of the indirect mapping
476 is "obsolete", i.e. no longer needed. See also the "zfs remap"
482 when the "zpool remove" command is
483 used on a top-level vdev, and will never return to being
486 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.delphix:spacemap_v2"
487 .It GUID Ta com.delphix:spacemap_v2
488 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta yes
489 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta none
492 This feature enables the use of the new space map encoding which
493 consists of two words (instead of one) whenever it is advantageous.
494 The new encoding allows space maps to represent large regions of
495 space more efficiently on-disk while also increasing their maximum
500 as soon as it is enabled and will
501 never return to being
504 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "org.open-zfs:large_block"
505 .It GUID Ta org.open-zfs:large_block
506 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta no
507 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta extensible_dataset
512 feature allows the record size on a dataset to be
513 set larger than 128KB.
519 property has been set larger than 128KB, and will return to being
521 once all filesystems that have ever had their recordsize larger than 128KB
524 Please note that booting from datasets that have recordsize greater than
531 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "org.zfsonlinux:large_dnode"
532 .It GUID Ta org.zfsonlinux:large_dnode
533 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta no
534 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta extensible_dataset
539 feature allows the size of dnodes in a dataset to be set larger than 512B.
543 once a dataset contains an object with a dnode larger than 512B,
544 which occurs as a result of setting the
546 dataset property to a value other than
548 The feature will return to being
550 once all filesystems that have ever contained a dnode larger than 512B are
552 Large dnodes allow more data to be stored in the bonus buffer, thus potentially
553 improving performance by avoiding the use of spill blocks.
555 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "org.illumos:sha512"
556 .It GUID Ta org.illumos:sha512
557 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta no
558 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta extensible_dataset
563 feature enables the use of the SHA-512/256 truncated hash algorithm
565 for checksum and dedup.
566 The native 64-bit arithmetic of SHA-512 provides an approximate 50%
567 performance boost over SHA-256 on 64-bit hardware and is thus a good
568 minimum-change replacement candidate for systems where hash performance is
569 important, but these systems cannot for whatever reason utilize the faster
577 the administrator can turn on the
579 checksum on any dataset using the
580 .Dl # zfs set checksum=sha512 Ar dataset
586 property has been set to
588 and will return to being
590 once all filesystems that have ever had their checksum set to
594 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "org.illumos:skein"
595 .It GUID Ta org.illumos:skein
596 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta no
597 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta extensible_dataset
602 feature enables the use of the Skein hash algorithm for checksum and dedup.
603 Skein is a high-performance secure hash algorithm that was a finalist in the
604 NIST SHA-3 competition.
605 It provides a very high security margin and high performance on 64-bit hardware
606 .Pq 80% faster than SHA-256 .
607 This implementation also utilizes the new salted checksumming functionality in
608 ZFS, which means that the checksum is pre-seeded with a secret 256-bit random
610 .Pq stored on the pool
611 before being fed the data block to be checksummed.
612 Thus the produced checksums are unique to a given pool, preventing hash
613 collision attacks on systems with dedup.
619 the administrator can turn on the
621 checksum on any dataset using the
622 .Dl # zfs set checksum=skein Ar dataset
628 property has been set to
630 and will return to being
632 once all filesystems that have ever had their checksum set to
635 .It Sy allocation_classes
636 .Bl -column "READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE" "com.intel:allocation_classes"
637 .It GUID Ta com.intel:allocation_classes
638 .It READ\-ONLY COMPATIBLE Ta yes
639 .It DEPENDENCIES Ta none
642 This feature enables support for separate allocation classes.
646 when a dedicated allocation class vdev
647 (dedup or special) is created with
651 With device removal, it can be returned to the
653 state if all the top-level vdevs from an allocation class are removed.
658 This manual page is a
660 reimplementation of the
663 .Em zpool-features(5) ,
664 modified and customized for
666 and licensed under the Common Development and Distribution License
671 implementation of this manual page was initially written by
672 .An Martin Matuska Aq mm@FreeBSD.org .