ZFS basics: Installing ZFS on Ubuntu

For those who don’t want to use Solaris or FreeBSD as their ZFS platform Ubuntu now seems a valid option; installation is now relatively straightforward. Please note, though, that you should be running a 64-bit system – ZFS on Ubuntu is not stable on a 32-bit system. Open up a terminal and enter the following:

 

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:zfs-native/stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-zfs

…and that’s it! From here you can begin to use the filesystem by creating a pool or importing an existing pool. Many people find Ubuntu an easier system to manage compared to Solaris or FreeBSD so it’s good news that it now appears to be a stable implementation, despite being technically a release candidate.