taken from https://pthree.org/2012/12/04/zfs-administration-part-i-vdevs/
There are seven types of VDEVs in ZFS:
- disk
(default)- The physical hard drives in your system.
- file
The absolute path of pre-allocated files/images.
- mirror
Standard software RAID-1 mirror.
- raidz1/2/3
Non-standard distributed parity-based software RAID levels.
- spare
Hard drives marked as a "hot spare" for ZFS software RAID.
- cache
Device used for a level 2 adaptive read cache (L2ARC).
- log
A separate log (SLOG) called the "ZFS Intent Log" or ZIL.
# zpool create tank mirror /tmp/file1 /tmp/file2 mirror /tmp/file3 /tmp/file4 log mirror sde sdf cache sdg sdh
# zpool status tank
pool: tank
state: ONLINE
scan: none requested
config:
NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
tank ONLINE 0 0 0
mirror-0 ONLINE 0 0 0
/tmp/file1 ONLINE 0 0 0
/tmp/file2 ONLINE 0 0 0
mirror-1 ONLINE 0 0 0
/tmp/file3 ONLINE 0 0 0
/tmp/file4 ONLINE 0 0 0
logs
mirror-2 ONLINE 0 0 0
sde ONLINE 0 0 0
sdf ONLINE 0 0 0
cache
sdg ONLINE 0 0 0
sdh ONLINE 0 0 0
errors: No known data errors