[Users] OpenVZ and ZFS excellent experience

[Dietmar Maurer]

> Unless I misunderstood, they also say there that ZFS code can be merged into
> the Linux source tree... but that distributing a binary built from it would be
> a no-no.  

They claim distributing as binary module is no problem! They have split the code
into spl (Solaris porting Layer), and a separate zfs module which use the SPL
interface. That make it really hard to claim that zfs is derived work from
Linux.

>They can say a lot of things but what really matters is how the distros behave.
> So far almost no distros include ZFS kernel modules and related support
>packages... and (I believe) the reason is that they want to mitigate risk.
> Quite a few ship the fuse-based ZFS stuff.  I believe the small handful of
>distros that do include ZFS support via kernel modules are located outside of
>the US. 

see:
http://warpmech.com/?news=myth-busting-series-zfs-on-linux-has-license-problems

That article claims that Lawrence Livermore National Lab already ships binary
zfs modules to customers.

> With regards to OpenVZ it mostly matters what Red Hat does and clones.
> 
> I know Proxmox is a huge Debian fan... does Debian offer ZFS kernel modules
> and if not, why not?  How about Proxmox VE?

Proxmox is working on that.

> > You can link to libzfs. As example, see grub code. Grub is GPL and they link
> > with libzfs. Do I miss something?
> 
> Again, are distros shipping grub2 with or without ZFS support?  

Proxmox VE will ship grub with zfs support. But I think further distros will
follow soon.