These instructions are for Ubuntu. The procedure for Debian, Mint, or other distributions in the DEB family is similar but not identical.
- 64-bit Ubuntu Live CD. (Not the alternate installer, and not the 32-bit installer!)
- AMD64 or EM64T compatible computer. (ie: x86-64)
- 8GB disk storage available.
- 2GB memory minimum.
Computers that have less than 2GB of memory run ZFS slowly. 4GB of memory is recommended for normal performance in basic workloads. 16GB of memory is the recommended minimum for deduplication. Enabling deduplication is a permanent change that cannot be easily reverted.