ZFS Cheat Sheet

Pool Management

Command	Description	Example
`zpool create`	Create a new ZFS pool	`zpool create mypool /dev/sda`
`zpool destroy`	Destroy a ZFS pool (irreversible)	`zpool destroy mypool`
`zpool status`	Check the status of pools and devices	`zpool status`
`zpool list`	List all active pools	`zpool list`
`zpool add`	Add a device to an existing pool	`zpool add mypool /dev/sdb`
`zpool remove`	Remove a device from the pool	`zpool remove mypool /dev/sdb`
`zpool scrub`	Start a scrub for data integrity	`zpool scrub mypool`

Command	Description	Example
`zfs create`	Create a new dataset	`zfs create mypool/mydataset`
`zfs destroy`	Destroy a dataset	`zfs destroy mypool/mydataset`
`zfs list`	List all datasets	`zfs list`
`zfs set`	Set a property on a dataset	`zfs set compression=lz4 mypool/mydataset`
`zfs get`	Get properties of a dataset	`zfs get all mypool/mydataset`
`zfs rename`	Rename a dataset	`zfs rename mypool/oldname mypool/newname`

Command	Description	Example
`zfs snapshot`	Create a snapshot	`zfs snapshot mypool/mydataset@snap1`
`zfs destroy`	Destroy a snapshot	`zfs destroy mypool/mydataset@snap1`
`zfs rollback`	Roll back to a snapshot	`zfs rollback mypool/mydataset@snap1`
`zfs list -t snapshot`	List all snapshots	`zfs list -t snapshot`

Command	Description	Example
`zfs send`	Send a snapshot	`zfs send mypool/mydataset@snap1 > /backup/snap1`
`zfs receive`	Receive a snapshot	`zfs receive mypool < /backup/snap1`
`zfs send -i`	Send an incremental snapshot	`zfs send -i snap1 snap2 > /backup/incr`

Command	Description	Example
`zfs set atime=off`	Disable access time updates	`zfs set atime=off mypool/mydataset`
`zfs set recordsize`	Set the record size for a dataset	`zfs set recordsize=128K mypool/mydataset`
`zfs set compression`	Enable compression	`zfs set compression=lz4 mypool/mydataset`

Command	Description	Example
`zpool status`	Check pool status for errors	`zpool status`
`zpool clear`	Clear errors from a pool	`zpool clear mypool`
`zpool scrub`	Scrub the pool to repair errors	`zpool scrub mypool`
`zpool iostat`	Show I/O stats for the pool	`zpool iostat mypool`
`zdb`	ZFS debugger for advanced troubleshooting	`zdb -e mypool`

Property	Description	Example
`compression`	Enables compression (e.g., lz4, gzip)	`zfs set compression=lz4 mypool`
`dedup`	Enables deduplication	`zfs set dedup=on mypool`
`sync`	Configures sync behavior	`zfs set sync=disabled mypool/mydataset`
`atime`	Controls access time updates	`zfs set atime=off mypool/mydataset`
`quota`	Sets a dataset quota	`zfs set quota=10G mypool/mydataset`

Regular Scrubbing: Scrub your pools regularly to ensure data integrity:

zpool scrub mypool

Snapshots for Backup: Take regular snapshots for backups:

zfs snapshot mypool/mydataset@snap1

Compression: Enable compression to save space with minimal performance impact:

zfs set compression=lz4 mypool/mydataset