Phoronix reports that OpenZFS has recently added a new feature called RAIDZ expansion. This feature allows for the incremental addition of disks to a RAID-Z group, enabling users to expand the capacity of their RAID arrays one disk at a time. This feature is particularly useful for small pools.

The development of RAIDZ expansion has been in progress for several years, with the FreeBSD Foundation sponsoring the initial work in 2017. iXsystems and vStack have also provided sponsorship to complete this feature.

Source: Phoronix.

ADATA has unveiled the ADATA SE920, a compact and high-speed external solid-state drive (SSD) that claims to be the first to support 40 Gbps USB4 connections. The SE920 offers read/write speeds of up to 3,800MB/s and 3,700MB/s respectively. However, due to its high speeds, the SSD generates more heat than most, necessitating active cooling. To address this, ADATA has incorporated a proprietary patented active dissipation design and a built-in micro fan. The SSD also features a telescoping case that expands when in use, allowing for better airflow circulation when the fan is active. By pressing down on the case, users can activate the fan, and retract it when not needed to save space.

Measuring 105 x 64.2 x 15.9mm when closed, or 122.56 x 64.2 x 15.9mm when extended, the portable SSD weighs 182 grams. The ADATA SE920 is backward-compatible with USB 3.2 and USB 2.0, although slower speeds should be expected when using these ports. ADATA will offer 1TB and 2TB versions of the SSD, and it is expected to be compatible with devices running Windows 10 or later, macOS 13 or later, Linux kernel 6 or later, or Android 13 or later. Pricing details have not been announced yet. See the press release for more information.

Source: Liliputing.

Bcachefs, an open-source file system, has been surprisingly merged into Linux 6.7, less than 24 hours after its submission. This quick approval by Linus Torvalds comes as a surprise, considering the previous challenges in getting Bcachefs integrated. The file system spent the entire 6.6 cycle within Linux-Next before being merged. It was developed by Kent Overstreet and is initially regarded as an experimental file system.

Source: Phoronix.

Phoronix reports that Btrfs, the file system for Linux, will be introducing three new features in version 6.7. These features include a RAID stripe tree, simple quota accounting, and temporary file-system ID (FSID) support. The FSID support is particularly notable as it was a feature requested by Valve for their Steam Deck. The Btrfs feature work was carried out by Igalia on behalf of Valve.

The Btrfs pull request for Linux 6.7 provides more details on these features:

• RAID stripe tree: This new tree is used for logical file extent mapping, especially in zoned mode to implement RAID0 and RAID1 profiles. It can also be used in non-zoned mode. Support for RAID56 is currently being developed. Enabling this feature requires configuring it at the time of creating the file system.
• Simple quota accounting (squota): This feature provides a simplified mode of qgroup that accounts for all space on the initial extent owners (subvolumes). It makes creating and deleting snapshots more efficient, particularly for container use cases. Enabling this feature is backward incompatible but can be done on an existing file system.
• Temporary filesystem FSID (temp_fsid): The FSID is a unique identifier for a filesystem and is hard-coded in the structures, which prevents mounting the same FSID on different devices. With this feature, a new temporary FSID can be generated on mount, allowing for root partition A/B testing or for use with VM root images.

The article also mentions performance improvements in Btrfs for Linux 6.7. One improvement is the reduction of reservations for checksum deletions, resulting in a 12% decrease in deletion time for files with many extents. Additionally, work has been done to make extent state merges more efficient during insertions, reducing the runtime of critical functions by 5%.

It is worth noting that Btrfs in Linux 6.7 removes its integrity check functionality and includes various other low-level code improvements.

Source: Phoronix.

Longhorn has released version v1.4.4, a distributed block storage system for Kubernetes. This release includes various enhancements, improvements, bug fixes, and stability and resilience updates. Some of the notable improvements include the addition of disk status Prometheus metrics, improved log levels for resource update failures, and support for both NFS hard and soft with custom timeo and retrans options for RWX volumes. Bugs related to volume synchronization, attaching/detaching loops, and volume mounting have also been addressed. This release is aimed at providing a more stable and reliable storage solution for Kubernetes environments. For more information, you can visit the Longhorn v1.4.4 release page.

TrueNAS has announced the release of TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 “Cobia,” the third major release of TrueNAS SCALE. This release brings improvements in quality, functionality, security, and performance.

One of the key highlights of the TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 release is the improvement in Server Message Block (SMB) features. SMB is the most common file sharing protocol and is widely supported on various platforms. The new features in this release include SMB and NFSv4 compatibility, SMB share import from other systems, SMB file sync with 3rd party servers, and fast file copy with ZFS block cloning.

In addition to the SMB features, TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 brings several other enhancements. The infrastructure has been improved with Linux Kernel 6.1 and better hardware support, NVIDIA driver updates, and Netdata backend stats collection. The web interface has also been enhanced with improved Apps and Storage Pool UI, as well as simplified feedback and bug reporting.

TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 also includes updates to ZFS and performance improvements. It features OpenZFS 2.2 with contributions from iXsystems, ZFS block cloning for faster file copies, ZFS dRAID pool layouts, and improved ZFS scrub controls. The release also brings updates to protocols and services such as Samba security and speed improvements, simplified SMB cluster expansion via TrueCommand 3.0 (coming soon), and iSCSI improvements.

TrueNAS 13.1, which is planned for release in early 2024, will inherit some of the improvements from TrueNAS SCALE Cobia. This update will include the SMB and ZFS enhancements implemented and tested in Cobia. Nightly versions of TrueNAS 13.1 are available for testing and contribution to the development process.

TrueNAS SCALE 22.12.4.2 is the final version of Bluefin, and going forward, TrueNAS SCALE 23.10 Cobia will gradually become the recommended version. No further versions of Bluefin are planned. TrueNAS provides options for migrating storage services and VMs from CORE to SCALE, and plugins and jails can be manually replaced with Apps.

The TrueNAS installer can be downloaded from the TrueNAS website or the system update feature within an existing TrueNAS installation.