Zettabyte File System(ZFS) From Sun Microsystems

This is a relatively new filesystem created by Sun microsystems.Now before you say "Oh no!!!Not another File System,we already have plenty" . This new filesystem is pretty cool with some really good and useful features.Some of which are : -

• Pooled storage — The filesystem enables storage space from multiple disks to be “pooled” and allocated to specific mount points on an as-needed basis. This feature effectively combines volume-resizing and Logical Volume Management (LVM) features, but at the filesystem level. With ZFS, you don’t need to worry about how to size your partitions, since the filesystem adjusts itself automatically!
• RAID-Z — This feature is similar to Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) level 5 support, but with less overhead.
• Always-consistent disk space — The disk space is kept consistent at all times through copy-on-write operations. Thus, there’s no need to perform disk checks after a system crash or power outage.
• Disk scrubbing — This feature is similar to the Error Correcting Code (ECC) feature of certain computer memory modules; it permits the computer to detect and correct on-disk errors.
• Snapshots and clones — A snapshot is a read-only copy of a filesystem, and a clone is a read/write copy of a filesystem. You can use snapshots and clones to preserve a fixed version of a filesystem or to make backups of a filesystem.
• Built-in compression — ZFS supports compression at the filesystem level, which is particularly handy if you’re low on disk space or if you store highly compressible data.

Now many of these features dont come in other filesystems.To know more about ZFS and how to implement it on a disk using linux CLICK HERE