freebsd stable - Mar 2021 - Vinum deprecation for FreeBSD 14 - are there any remaining Vinum users?

Vinum is a Logical Volume Manager that was introduced in FreeBSD 3.0,
and for FreeBSD 5 was ported to geom(4) as gvinum. gvinum has had no
specific development at least as far back as 2010 and it is not clear
how well it works today. There are open PRs with reports of panics
upon removing disks, etc. And, it also imposes an ongoing cost as it
must be updated when other work is done (such as the recent MAXPHYS
work). I suspect that by now all users have migrated to either
graid(8) or ZFS.

I plan to add a deprecation notice after a short discussion period,
assuming no reasonable justification is made to retain it. The notice
would suggest graid and ZFS as alternatives, and would be merged in
advance of FreeBSD 13.1. Then, gvinum would be removed in advance of
FreeBSD 14.0.

Please follow up if you have experience or input on vinum in FreeBSD,
including past use but especially if you are still using it today and
expect to continue doing so.

On 2021-03-25 10:25, Ed Maste wrote:
> Vinum is a Logical Volume Manager that was introduced in FreeBSD 3.0,
> and for FreeBSD 5 was ported to geom(4) as gvinum. gvinum has had no
> specific development at least as far back as 2010 and it is not clear
> how well it works today. There are open PRs with reports of panics
> upon removing disks, etc. And, it also imposes an ongoing cost as it
> must be updated when other work is done (such as the recent MAXPHYS
> work). I suspect that by now all users have migrated to either
> graid(8) or ZFS.
> 
> I plan to add a deprecation notice after a short discussion period,
> assuming no reasonable justification is made to retain it. The notice
> would suggest graid and ZFS as alternatives, and would be merged in
> advance of FreeBSD 13.1. Then, gvinum would be removed in advance of
> FreeBSD 14.0.
> 
> Please follow up if you have experience or input on vinum in FreeBSD,
> including past use but especially if you are still using it today and
> expect to continue doing so.
I can only state that I use it only occasionally, and that when I do. I
have had no problems with it. I'm glad that it's there when I need it.
Further; I find it easier to setup and use, as compared to the
alternatives. It is also "lighter" than the alternatives.
While it wouldn't be "the end of the world" if it disappeared.
I'm
really glad it's there.

--Chris
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