Can I choose a sparse file as vdev for a zfs pool?

Posted by Karl Richter on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Karl Richter
Published on 2014-08-19T20:02:23Z Indexed on 2014/08/21 10:22 UTC
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sparse-files

man zpool states that a vdev for a zfs pool can be a "regular file". Can I specify a sparse file (the warning about the integrity of the file being determined by the underlying filesystem should apply with the same relevance for a sparse file)?

The ZFS administration guide on https://pthree.org/2012/12/04/zfs-administration-part-i-vdevs/ states that file vdevs "must be preallocated, and not sparse files or thin provisioned" (thanks to @jlliagre).

On https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Experimenting_with_ZFS sparse files are used without any comment.

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