ZFS Datasets?

[tmacka88]

Ok. Im thinking of tweaking my setup to make it faster. Would using a ZFS dataset help with this.
What exactly is it used for? I cannot find much info on it.
Also I have my disk spinning down after 5min and am wondering if there is anyway i can speed up the time they take to respond when i try to access a share. It usually takes somewhere between 10-30sec for the share to become responsive. I like the spin down to save power if i forget to turn the system off but would like if i could to access a share quicker. Prob pushing my luck but worth a try.

thanks

[louisk]

You can think of the dataset as somewhat similar to a partition (but you can grow/shink it on the fly).

Other vendors may have disks that spin up faster, I don't know. In general, when you spin something down, it will take a while to come back online. That's why high(er) performance is achieved by leaving it online all the time. You don't have to wait for it. If you must spin things down, I'd probably spin it down after 30m. That will give you more time to copy things, take a little break, copy more w/o having to wait all the time.