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Linux Distributions

As discussed here, the version and compile time configuration of a Linux® kernel enable support for zoned block devices and the features supported. Different Linux distributions are configured differently, leading to varying levels of support for zoned storage out of the box.

Recent versions of the following Linux distributions provide very good support for zoned storage. The support provided by the precompiled binary kernels shipped is complete, and zoned storage related binary packages are available. Their use is recommended to facilitate development and testing of applications.

Other Linux Distributions​

All major Linux distributions provide some level of zoned storage support. Use the following links to learn more.

Checking a Linux Distribution​

The zbd-tools project hosted on GitHub provides the zbd-check utility to facilitate determining the zoned storage related features, libraries and applications that a Linux distribution supports.

zbd-tools Overview​

zbd-tools provides the zbd-check utility. This command line tool checks the following:

  • Kernel features enabled: zoned block device types supported (SMR, NVMe ZNS, nullblk, etc.), file systems and device mapper targets.
  • Presence of the kernel zone management API header file.
  • User libraries installed.
  • User applications installed.

All checks are performed for the system where zbd-check is executed.

To learn more about how to install and use zbd-check, see the project README file.

Example​

The following shows an example of the information provided by zbd-check when executed on a Fedora 37 system with all zoned storage related packages installed.

$ zbd-check
------------------------------------------------------------------------
System Information:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Distribution: Fedora Linux 37 (Workstation Edition)
- Kernel Version: 6.0

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kernel features:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Zoned block devices: supported
- Devices types:
    - SAS and SATA SMR hard-disks: supported
    - NVMe ZNS devices: supported
    - SCSI debug device ZBC emulation: supported
    - null_blk device zoned mode: supported
- file systems:
    - zonefs: supported
    - f2fs zoned mode: supported
    - btrfs zoned mode: supported
- Device mapper targets:
    - dm-linear: supported
    - dm-flakey: supported
    - dm-crypt: supported
    - dm-zoned: supported

------------------------------------------------------------------------
User Kernel zone management API:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Zone management kernel API header file: installed

------------------------------------------------------------------------
User Libraries:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- libzbc:
    - Dynamic library installed, version 5.13.0
    - Static library installed
    - Development header files installed
- libzbd:
    - Dynamic library installed, version 2.0.2
    - Static library installed
    - Development header files installed
- libnvme:
    - Dynamic library installed, version 1.2
    - Static library not installed
    - Development header files installed

------------------------------------------------------------------------
User Applications:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
- fio: installed, version fio-3.29-7-g01686
- nvme-cli: installed, version 2.2.1
- dm-zoned-tools: installed, version 2.2.1
- zonefs-tools: installed, version 1.5.2