Learning More About Red Hat's Stratis Project To Offer Btrfs/ZFS-Like Functionality

With Red Hat deprecating Btrfs in RHEL7 with that "next-gen" Linux file-system not having panned out like many had hoped for or expected, Red Hat has been investing in their new "Stratis" storage project. More details on Stratis have now come to light.

Since last summer a lot of progress has been made on Stratis and it's being prepared for testing on Fedora. Stratis is a volume-managing file-system (VMF) that relies upon the Linux kernel's DM subsystem and is paired with the XFS file-system rather than being a new Linux file-system from scratch.

Longtime Linux developer Andy Grover of Red Hat who has been involved in this storage initiative has written a set of posts detailing the project's focus. His posts can be found on OpenSource.com with currently part one and part two being published today. Highlights include:

- The purpose of Stratis is to "bring storage advances to all Linux users, from the simple laptop single SSD to a hundred-disk array. Linux has the capabilities, but its lack of an easy-to-use solution has hindered widespread adoption. Stratis's goal is to make Linux's advanced storage features accessible."

- The pillars of Stratis are on easier storage configuration, allowing later changes to said configuration, and using advanced storage features from snapshots to tiering.

- In comparing to ZFS/Btrfs, Andy says Stratis is focused on being "easy and safe to use."

- Red Hat didn't pursue ZFS on Linux due to its CDDL code license.

- They also didn't opt for Btrfs since "it just hasn't yet gotten to where it needs to be in terms of stability and features."

- Stratis offers automation and a "first-class API" for interacting with it.

Red Hat hosts the project on GitHub.