filesystemszfs128-bit

What does 128-bit file system mean?


In the introduction to ZFS file system, I saw one statement:

ZFS file system is quite scalable, 128 bit filesystem

What does 128-bit filesystem mean? What makes it scalable?


Solution

  • ZFS is a “128 bit” file system, which means 128 bits is the largest size address for any unit within it. This size allows capacities and sizes not likely to become confining anytime in the foreseeable future. For instance, the theoretical limits it imposes include 2^48 entries per directory, a maximum file size of 16 EB (2^64 or ~16 * 2^18 bytes), and a maximum of 2^64 devices per “zpool”. Source: File System Char.

    The ZFS 128-bit addressing scheme and can store 256 quadrillion zettabytes, which translates into a scalable file system that exceeds 1000s of PB (petabytes) of storage capacity, while allowing to be managed in single or multiple ZFS’s Z-RAID arrays. Source: zfs-unlimited-scalability