What napp-it can do
A complete overview of all functions. Many high-end features of expensive systems are available here for free.
ZFS — Enterprise storage for all
Always consistent*
Copy-on-Write prevents inconsistent states even on crash. No fsck required.
Encryption*
AES-256-GCM native in the filesystem. Keyserver integration for central key management.
Snapshots*
Instant read-only snapshots without space usage. Unlimited. Schedule-controlled.
Checksums*
End-to-end checksums on data and metadata. Silent corruption is detected and repaired.
Deduplication*
Real-time deduplication optionally enabled. Saves space with similar data.
Hybrid Pools*
HD + SSD + NVMe with Special Vdev (ZFS) or tiering (Storage Spaces). Metadata, small files or all data on flash.
RAIDZ*
RAIDZ1/2/3. More flexible than classic hardware RAID with no controller dependency.
Cache*
ZFS uses RAM for writecache and as readcache. You can extend readcache with an SD/NVMe L2ARC.
Quotas*
Quotas limit the size of a filesystem that can be used (per dataset or user).
Reservation*
Reservations ensure a capacity for a filesystem or user. Free pool space is reduced by reservations.
dRAID*
RAID for a pool with very many disks, say more than 50. Main advantage is an ultra low rebuild time after a disk failure.
AnyRAID*
Disks are split into tiles to allow RAID-1 and RAID-Z vdevs from disks of different size with the option to shrink and expand. (Under development — future of RAID)
Sharing for all platforms
Kernel-SMB*
High-performance multithreaded SMB server. Windows ACL, AD integration, snapshots as Previous Versions.
NFS*
NFS v3/v4 with NFSv4 ACL support incl. inheritance. Case-insensitive mode selectable.
S3 Object Storage*
S3-compatible endpoint. Compatible with Nextcloud, rclone, backup tools, MinIO clients.
iSCSI / FC*
Block storage via iSCSI and Fibre Channel. MPIO support. Comstar Framework (Illumos, Solaris).
Cluster & Key Management
ZFS Replikation*
Block-based high-speed replication via zfs send. Wire performance. Includes all filesystem properties: shares, ACLs, Windows SIDs. Incremental based on snapshots — near real-time possible.
- Local or over network (zstream encrypted / SSH)
- Any-to-Any (CS) or Pull (SE)
- Schedule-controlled or manual
- Transferable encrypted
Cluster & Key Management*
High availability with automatic failover for critical S3 backups (beta). SMB Storage LAN Mirror and block devices on Windows. Key management with 2/3 key split.
- S3 cluster and site replication (beta)
- SMB Storage LAN Mirror (Windows)
- Key management with 2/3 key split
- Enclosure Maps for JBOD systems
cs tools — the napp-it CS tool family
cs-sync
Keeps two ZFS folders in real-time, event-driven bidirectional sync — including rename detection, conflict handling and automatic ACL bootstrap. Reacts instantly to filesystem events instead of polling periodically like classic rsync/robocopy.
GitHub ↗cs-stream
Replaces netcat in ZFS send/receive replication pipelines and encrypts the stream with authenticated AES-256-GCM. Delivers confidentiality and tamper protection without any TLS certificate management, at virtually no performance cost thanks to AES-NI.
GitHub ↗cs-sleeper
Monitors per-disk I/O activity and spins disks into standby via smartctl after a configurable idle period, controlled by activity windows. Actively refuses to sleep/export while a zfs send/receive is running and always protects boot/SLOG/L2ARC devices.
GitHub ↗cs-send
Sends mail and chat alerts (Discord, Slack, ntfy, Gotify, Telegram) from report and alert jobs through a single binary with centrally managed credentials. Never writes passwords to disk and automatically truncates chat messages per provider instead of rejecting them.
GitHub ↗cs-freeze4snap
Freezes every VM/LXC guest on a Proxmox dataset in parallel before a ZFS snapshot (QGA → QMP → cgroup) and thaws them afterward. Minimizes the risk of inconsistent guest filesystems without ever blocking the snapshot — even if a guest can't be frozen.
GitHub ↗Concept Proposal: S3 Object Storage
RustFS / MinIO · restic · rclone
ZFS is the best thing you can do for your data locally — crash-safe, bit-rot protection, snapshots, RAID and flexible SMB ACLs. For access, backup and replication over the internet, Amazon developed S3 and documented it very well.
- Copy-on-Write, crash-safe
- Bit-rot protection with checksums
- Snapshot versioning
- Quotas & reservations
- SMB multi-user with ACLs
- HTTPS upload/download after login
- Backup/restore over the internet
- Replication between servers
- HA RAID across multiple servers
- Autonomous site replication
- ZFS server (local)
- RustFS / MinIO (S3 server)
- restic (backup repository)
- rclone (sync & migration)
Detailed concept study as PDF:
↓ Concept Study EN ↓ Konzeptstudie DE All documents →* can depend on the OS and napp-it version