ZFS: root pool considerations, multiple pools on the same disk

[Peter Jeremy]

On 2011-Dec-20 12:53:59 +0000, krad <kraduk at gmail.com> wrote:
>even easier option might just be to boot off a flash drive with a minimal
>installation on. then mount all the writable parts of the system off the
>pool (/tmp. var. home etc.) along with any meatier bits if the installation
>etc databases.

If you have the flash drive and spare ports, this may be an option but
I would not recommend relying on USB.  And note that, unless you use
noatime or explicitly mount R/O, just accessing files will trigger
writes.

>As you can see I create a new root fs every time I make world so rolling
>back is fairly easy

Until you get the dreaded "ZFS: i/o error - all block copies unavailable"
error from the bootloader.  That appears to occur at the pool level so
multiple BEs within the pool may not help.

That said, your approach looks interesting - have you written up what
you do and have tried booting from different roots?

-- 
Peter Jeremy
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