[OpenIndiana-discuss] Does OI compress the zpool by default?

[Chris]

On 2021-03-02 18:54, cretin1997 wrote:
> ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
> On Tuesday, March 2, 2021 11:15 PM, Chris <oidev at sunos.info> wrote:
> 
>> On 2021-02-28 07:38, cretin1997 via openindiana-discuss wrote:
>> 
>> The reason is or should be, because of its potential cost. That is;
>> compression can consume a great deal more CPU cycles. So if the host has
>> limited resources, either outright or because of work load. Then 
>> compression
>> will not be an advantage, and may swamp the system. Further, in several
>> implementations several of the settings are somewhat dynamic, and can be
>> "tuned".
>> Compression being one of them.
>> 
>> Apologies in advance if this question has already been answered. I'm in the
>> process of getting caught up on my mail. :-)
>> 
>> --Chris
>> 
>> >
>> 
>> --
>> ~10yrs a FreeBSD maintainer of ~160 ports
>> ~40yrs of UNIX
> 
> Except this easy to easy to change from not compressed to compressed. 
> Setting the
> attribute alone not work. If you think have to do send/recv everything to 
> get it
> compressed is a pleasure task, especially you have to do this every time 
> after you
> installed a new system, I have nothing to say anymore. Why don't it just the 
> thing
> already set to be compressed from the beginning? It will save much time and 
> space
> for the user!
> 
> BTW, FreeBSD seemed to turn on lz4 compression by default. Nowadays with 
> modern
> hardware, it's sane to turn it on by default. Your arguments about an old 
> system
> should be dismissed completely. None of the Illumos is for old and weak 
> system.
> Illumos is a resource hog.
 From a "server" perspective, I *completely* agree. OTOH a "server" OS that 
presents
itself as a live desktop with the option to install, attracts "desktop" 
users. So...
Further; ZFS compression isn't as simple as "throwing a switch"; there's a 
reasonable
amount of "tuning" that compression involved. On one hand, if you've not got 
that much
in your pool(s). _immidiate_ compression if of little value. ZFS send/reveive 
is
another matter, and so on...
Seems to me, the best solution might be setting a "default" level/algo, and 
provide
an option in the installer to enable it.

That's _my_ take on it. :-)

--Chris

-- 
~10yrs a FreeBSD maintainer of ~160 ports
~40yrs of UNIX