If I didn’t have to spend a bunch of time moving virtual machines around, this probably wouldn’t matter very much. But, alas, I did find myself building zfs raid arrays a few times and couldn’t seem to remember what I wanted where. 🧂 Take with a conservative grain of salt. RAID Type Min Disks Usable Capacity Fault Tolerance Performance Notes Notes Striped 1+ 100% of total None Fastest read/write, no redundancy Equivalent to RAID0 Mirror 2+ 50% of total 1 disk per mirror vdev Excellent read, good write, fast recovery Equivalent to RAID1 in traditional RAID RAIDZ1 3+ N - 1 1 disk failure Slower write, decent read Similar to RAID5 RAIDZ2 4+ N - 2 2 disk failures Slower write, decent read Similar to RAID6 RAIDZ3 5+ N - 3 3 disk failures Slowest write, decent read For high fault tolerance ZFS RAID10 4+ (even) 50% of total 1 disk per mirror vdev Best balance of performance + redundancy Stripe of mirrors (manual mirror vdevs) dRAID 3+ Varies (RAIDZ-like) Parity-based (configurable) Improved resilver vs.

Starting fresh with a new team—whether it’s stepping into the net as a goalie or joining a company as a Site Reliability Engineer—comes with a rush of excitement, uncertainty, and the need to quickly adapt. In both worlds, you’re expected to understand the system, earn trust fast, and make the right decisions under pressure. This piece explores the parallels between guarding the crease in ice hockey and taking on infrastructure responsibilities in a new engineering org: the importance of communication, learning team dynamics, managing risk, and building confidence through early wins.

I remember the moment vividly—a hard shot struck the lower side of my mask. The impact was sharp, a bolt of pain radiating through my face. I dropped my head to the ice, letting the sting settle before pushing myself up onto my knees. It wasn’t until I stretched my neck, looking around, that the blood started flowing. When I glanced down, the realization hit—red pooling rapidly beneath me. Instinct took over.