Canonical confirms support for ZFS as root filesystem in Ubuntu 19.10

Ubuntu has supported the file system ZFS since October 2015, which coincides with the release of Ubuntu 15.10. But what it did not allow was using it as the main or root filesystem, and that is something that will begin to change this October, when Ubuntu 19.10 Eoan Ermine be officially released. Already has been confirmed that the next version of Ubuntu will include support, but it will not do it as we all would like.

Support for ZFS as the primary file system for Eoan Ermine will arrive in experimental phase. They said months ago that they would improve this support in future versions and the first of those versions will be Ubuntu 19.10. At first, the option will be available when installing the operating system in its desktop version, but later it will also be added for the Server version. Canonical insists that, although the novelty will come, we have to bear in mind that they use the "experimental" label, so it is not recommended for use in work teams.

Eoan Ermine's ZFS support will be experimental

When we talk about software in an experimental phase, we expose ourselves to experiencing (forgive the redundancy) crashes and unexpected shutdowns, which can result in us losing the work we are doing. When we talk about file systems, guess what can happen? Exact: if something fails, we could lose all the data stored on the drive.

What will come to Eoan Ermine is:

• ZFS On Linux version 0.8.1, including features such as:
  • Native encryption
  • Trim support.
  • Checkpoints.
  • Raw encrypted ZFS streams.
  • Project accounting and quotas and many performance improvements.
• Canonical has (and will continue to) backport some post-launch fixes, as appropriate, to provide the best user experience and reliability.
• They have added a new support to GRUB, as you can see in the following video.

All of the above will be benefits that we will obtain immediately after installation, but taking into account that it is in the experimental phase and something could go wrong. Maybe Ubuntu 20.04 is a good time to move to ZFS. You have more information about Canonical's plans regarding ZFS at this link.