About this article

After using OpenZFS for almost 2 years on my personal computer, I decided to make this small list of good and bad things I experienced while using it. When reading this, please keep the following things in mind:

  • I use ZFS on Linux (specifically Arch Linux). If you use another operating system like FreeBSD your experiences will be different.
  • I will write about things I personally experienced. This isn’t a full list of everything ZFS does well or badly (there are already enough of these online).
  • I write from the view of a person who uses ZFS on his personal laptop. Please don’t use this article for enterprise decisions.
  • I may update this article in the future.

Now let’s start with the list!

The Cons

Outside the kernel

Contrary to ext4 or Btrfs, ZFS isn’t part of the Linux kernel due to license incompatibilities. While most of the time you aren’t affected by it, it might put you into problems when updating your kernel, since ZFS might not be updated to the new kernel version yet. You’ll run into this problem especially when using a cutting-edge distro like Arch Linux.

What to do about it

Luckily, this problem can be fixed easily in two steps:

  • Use the DKMS version of ZFS, since it isn’t (in 99% of cases) reliant an a specific version of the Linux kernel so you don’t have to worry about small version changes (e.g. from version 6.6.10 to 6.6.11). Also, it should be more compatible with other kernels like the libre kernel (although I haven’t tested that).
  • Use the LTS version of the kernel, since by the time the LTS kernel will be updated, ZFS will most likely be updated too (although I’d still check when updating to a new major version, e.g. from 6.1 to 6.6).

Bootloader compatibility

Sadly, ZFS isn’t very compatible with most bootloaders, e.g. the support GRUB has for ZFS is rudimentary and in my experience very breakable, sometimes just by updating the system.

What to do about it

However, this problem can be fixed easily by choosing the right bootloader. Personally, I recommend ZFSBootMenu, as it makes use of many ZFS features like snapshots.

The Pros

Advanced File system

ZFS is a very advanced file system with many features other file systems lack. They include:

  • Snapshots (Attention: They don’t replace backups!)
  • Encryption out of the box
  • Compression out of the box
  • Easy administration of storage devices
  • etc. etc.

All those features make ZFS the best file system I’ve used so far.

Learning Effect

Not part of ZFS, however I’d still like to mention this. Since ZFS isn’t shipped out of the box by most distros, you have to install it yourself. While this might seem like a bad thing, I’d argue that you’ll learn a lot by installing it yourself (unless you already know everything, in which case the installation process shouldn’t be that much of a hassle).

Further reading

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