storage revision 1.1.10.1 
1$NetBSD: storage,v 1.1.10.1 2008/09/18 04:40:19 wrstuden Exp $
2
3NetBSD Storage Roadmap
4======================
5
6This is a small roadmap document, and deals with the storage and file
7systems side of the operating system.
8
9NetBSD 5.0 will ship with the following storage elements in place:
10
111. puffs/putter
122. ReFUSE
133. rump
144. RAIDframe
155. iSCSI target
166. iSCSI initiator
177. cgd
188. fss
19
20The following elements and projects are pencilled in for 5.0, but
21please do not rely on them being there.
22
239. pud
2410. devfs
2511. journalling functionality for ffs
2612. logical volume management
2713. a native port of Sun's ZFS
2814. ReFUSE-lowlevel
2915. web-based management tools for storage subsystems
3016. support for flash devices - NAND and MMC/SD
3117. read/write support for UDF file systems
32
33We are working on the following elements, and expect them to be in 6.0:
34
3518. OSD (object storage device)
3619. basic FCIP support
37
38We expect to branch for the 5.0 release in April or May 2008, which would
39put a NetBSD 5.0 Release date in Q4 2008. An annual release cycle would
40thus mean that 6.0 would be branched in April or May 2009.
41
42Pictorially, this looks like:
43
44 2008                                        2009
45 Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
46|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|===|
47
48                | ------- 5.0 --------- |                       | ------- 6.0
49              branch                  release                 branch
50
51 1-8  11,16  9,10,12,13,14,17  15            18      19
52
53We'll continue to update this roadmap as features and dates get firmed up.
54
55
56Some explanations
57=================
58
5910. devfs
60---------
61
62Devfs will allow device special files (the files used to access
63devices) to be created dynamically as and when they are attached to
64the system.  This will greatly reduce the number of files in a /dev
65directory and removes the need to run the MAKEDEV script when support
66for new devices is added to the NetBSD kernel.  NetBSD's devfs
67implementation will also allow multiple instances of the file system
68to be mounted simultaneously, which is very useful for chroot jails.
69
70Responsible: mjf
71
7211. Journalling Functionality for FFS
73-------------------------------------
74
75Contributed by Wasabi Systems, Inc, technical review on tech-kern
76in March 2008, merged to HEAD in July 2008, will be in NetBSD 5.0.
77
7812. Logical Volume Management
79-----------------------------
80
81Based on the Linux lvm2 and devmapper software, with a new kernel component
82for NetBSD written.
83
84Responsible: haad, martin
85
8613. Native port of Sun's ZFS
87----------------------------
88
89Mostly completed by ad@, this is the FreeBSD port of Sun's ZFS, with
90modifications to make it compile on NetBSD 5.0 by ad@, and based on
91the original Sun code for the block layer, rather than the GEOM-based
92layer.
93
94Responsible: oster, agc
95
9614. ReFUSE-lowlevel
97-------------------
98
99FUSE has two interfaces, the normal high-level one, and a lower-level
100interface which is closer to the way standard file systems operate. This
101adds the low-level functionality in the same way that ReFUSE adds the
102high-level functionality
103
104Responsible: pooka, agc
105
10615. Web-based Management tools for Storage Subsystems
107-----------------------------------------------------
108
109Standard tools for managing the storage subsystems that NetBSD provides,
110using a standard web-server as the basic user interface on the storage
111device, allowing remote management by a standard web browser.
112
113Responsible: agc
114
11516. OSD
116-------
117
118Based on the T10 specification, and the Intel reference code. An Object
119Storage Device, where some of the functionality of a file system is placed
120in the storage device.
121
122Responsible: agc
123
124
125Alistair Crooks
126Sun Mar  2 23:31:03 GMT 2008
127