Does FreeNAS use the same branch of ZFS as FreeBSD?

[typoknig]

I know the future of ZFS is currently in flux, and that at v28 I have the ability to upgrade my pools to any ZFS branch (Oracle, Illumos, etc.). At this point I think I'll just stick with whatever FreeBSD does so I wanted to make sure that FreeNAS uses the exact same ZFS branch as FreeBSD, unmodified.

 

[dlavigne]

With open-zfs.org, open source ZFS isn't in flux anymore. FreeNAS 9.2.1 is on par with the latest version of OpenZFS/Illumos wrt to features and bug fixes (some recent feature imports were listed in http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/What's_New_in_9.2.1). Ditto for FreeBSD, though one would have to check if recents changes that went into HEAD were MFC'd back to any earlier releases.

 

[typoknig]

With open-zfs.org, open source ZFS isn't in flux anymore. FreeNAS 9.2.1 is on par with the latest version of OpenZFS/Illumos wrt to features and bug fixes (some recent feature imports were listed in http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/What's_New_in_9.2.1). Ditto for FreeBSD, though one would have to check if recents changes that went into HEAD were MFC'd back to any earlier releases.

Thanks for your reply. For clarification, if I upgraded from FreeNAS 8.3.1 to 9.2.1 and upgraded my pools at the same time will I later be able to use those pools in FreeBSD without issue if I decide to switch my OS?

 

[dlavigne]

Always do your research before upgrading a pool to make sure that the version of FreeBSD you may plan on going to supports the same feature flags. e.g. if the latest flags went into CURRENT and haven't been MFC'd, you would need to either go to CURRENT or wait for the next FreeBSD RELEASE.

You don't have to upgrade your pool when you upgrade FreeNAS. Upgrading the pool means that you can't use an OS that is not at least that feature flag version. So, if the new features aren't that important to you, there is no hurry to pool upgrade. If they are, make sure you know which other OS versions support those flags.