Is there an I have heard ZFS is the file system to use. I am interested in running a vm in windows to make use of it. Any idea where to start?
I’ve not heard of a ZFS build for Windows. Why would you specifically want to use Windows for this? There are several ways you can present ZFS-backed storage to a Windows system as opposed to running ZFS directly on Windows.
I try linux and give up on it over and over. Windows is what I like and am used to. I just have heard that zfs is better for media servers, which is what I want to do.
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Have you tried a more purpose-built solution like FreeNAS? FreeNAS can use ZFS for storage backing and it has a more user-friendly interface.
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So I have a 3950x system that I run windows on and plex inside my os install. I have 48tb of storage on it I just want the most reliable file system possible. I don’t have more than one gpu that I can use for vm passthrough. I have another gpu it just happens to be in another system as a secondary system for friends when they come over. So I ideally want it to natively or virtually (just without a secondary gpu). I would like windows to perform as good as possible. I still game on windows and it would be ideal if I just used windows.
Thanks for this!
Could I run freenas in a vm on windows?
I found that you can. I might try it.
Well, this is heresy in the Linux world, but you might want to look at Storage Spaces on Windows to manage your storage pool. I don’t have any personal experience, but it’s definitely a more native solution than running a VM on Windows just to manage the drives. I feel like I should also mention that you should have a backup of this data on a different physical system if it’s anything you care about.
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I have many external hdds in different households. I take backups seriously I just am new to the plex server area. I will look at storage spaces.
That ZFSin port is not ready for production IMO. I’ve played with it and contributed to it, and it’s just not there for every day main system use.
Not a good idea probably.
Most of the benefits of ZFS are only fully realized or are only applicable if you are letting ZFS access the raw disks. Putting the disks in RAID on a RAID card is a no-go for ZFS. The only way to use ZFS effectively in a VM is to give it raw acess to the drives, which can be done by PCIe passthrough of a HBA card, but windows 10 does not support that, although windows server does.
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Windows Server with HyperV for hosting your stuff but you will need to pass through the entire drives otherwise your data will be butchered because ZFS expects 100% to the drives.
So yeah as @TheCakeIsNaOH said. If you’re really committed to using windows as the host OS it will cost you the use of windows server license which is going to set you back $501.
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Dude, I luv ya man, but I think this might be a bit Too ambitious for you…
#HappyToBeProvedWrong
#DataLossMightOccurAgain
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[edit:outdated misunderstanding] [I was] Pretty sure jurgen only have ZFS working with files as partitions providers still?
Zfs running with BSD is better, but is it better if you duct tape it to windows? I think you’re trying to do something that no longer lets ZFS be ZFS.
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What do you mean by this? I don’t understand the question.
Technically, it is still best to run it with Solaris. 
But filesystems in the unix world are not really married to the OS like how NTFS is with Windows. ZFS won’t care if its running on Windows. The rest is just implementation details.
I had not kept up with the project and didn’t realise they got it working on physical disks.
I should have read through first.
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Look at it this way. As big as the windows community is, if it were a viable option, there would be 20 ways to do it. Good luck though.
I am going to stick to single drive use and have backblaze running + physical backups in different locations. It is more hands on with having to manually do stuff but it is more convenient for me. Since I am a pleb and get headache when trying bsd or linux stuff.
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Hey, one has to push boundaries, but maybe walk before running is all I’m saying.
What would you actually like to do?
Play with, and get experience with a system? Then go ahead.
If you want stability, probably look for a native solution.
It’s not headache free, but less of a niche-of-niche
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