Yesterday, Sun released build 27 OpenSolaris out into the wild for all to download. This release brings another world first, and a change in the way sysadmins manage their storage, for this release now includes ZFS - the filesystem that WILL change the world. Say "Good-bye" to the days of fsck, silent data corruption and pain-in-the-arse over-complicated storage admin (ala Veritas Volume Manager) and say "Hello mama" to the start of easy-to-admin, quick, fault tolerant storage using an awesome filesystem - welcome ZFS.

I could go in to the details of how ZFS is soooo much better and easier, but others have already done all the work for me - Bryan Cantrill (a key Solaris developer) has a great blog entry linking to tons of other blogs detailing all the features and functions of ZFS.

As this is now part of OpenSolaris, you can even view the source code, if you feel so inclined. Check out the docs to see the technical details, and be sure to check out the flash demo showing how simple it is to administer. For all those GUI addicts (Windows admins stuck in a Unix world?), you can even administer ZFS via a web browser. How cool is that?

ZFS is due to be integrated into Solaris sometime next year, so don't expect it to be available for production use anytime soon, but as soon as it is, keep your eyes peeled for "Thumper" - a stonking new system Sun is scheduled to release next year sometime.

Sorry to the non-techie folks, this is probably of no interest to you, but for techies like me, this is exciting news. It'll make my like sooo much easier.