failure to create zfs storage pool

[Darrel]

>> After getting a couple of Hitachi 1T 7200 rpm drives, it seemed
>> like time for ZFS on FreeBSD82, having not had Z file system
>> subsequent to retiring whatever OpenSolaris was around.
>>
>> Basically, I followed this article:
>>
>> /doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/remote-install/installation.html
>>
>> Previous to this, I had been using sysinstall.
>>
>> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad4 count=2
>> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad6 count=2
>>
>> fdisk -BI ad4
>> fdisk -BI ad6
>>
>> bsdlabel -wB /dev/ad4s1
>> bsdlabel -wB /dev/ad6s1
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------
>> bsdlabel -e /dev/ad4s1
>>
>>  a:  1G        16      4.2BSD  1024    8192    0
>>  b:  5G        *       swap
>>  c:  blah,blah
>>  d:  20G       *       4.2BSD  2048    16384   0
>>  e:  20G       *       4.2BSD  2048    16384   0
>>  f:  *         *       unused  0       0
>> -------------------------------------------------
>>
>> bsdlabel /dev/ad4s1 > /tmp/bsdlabel.txt && bsdlabel -R \
>>        /dev/ad6s1 /tmp/bsdlabel.txt
>>
>> Now it was way past midnight, I cannot recall but might have run
>> this:
>>
>> gmirror label -nb round-robin gm0 ad4s1 ad6s1
>>
>> I ran these:
>>
>> gmirror label root ad4s1a ad6s1a
>> gmirror label var ad4s1d ad6s1d
>> gmirror label usr ad4s1e ad6s1e
>> gmirror label -F swap ad4s1b ad6s1b
>> gmirror load
>>
>> newfs -b 8192 -f 1024 /dev/mirror/root
>> newfs /dev/mirror/var
>> newfs /dev/mirror/usr
>>
>> mount /dev/mirror/root /mnt
>> mkdir /mnt/var /mnt/usr
>> mount /dev/mirror/var /mnt/var
>> mount /dev/mirror/usr /mnt/usr
>>
>> So I got the files with 'ftp passive' and followed the article all
>> to the 'reboot' command.  Seemed okay.
>>
>> Now at the next page of the article:
>>
>> /doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/remote-install/zfs.html
>>
>> Having read several articles and the zpool manual page, I still
>> have failed to create any kind of ZFS storage pool.
>>
>
>
> are you trying to do zfs root or just have a freebsd system with a zpool?
>
> You could take the real easy way of getting zfsroot, and install freebsd via
> pc-bsd install cd and that would do all the hard work
>

Having mirrored SATA disks with a simple zpool on FreeBSD was the
original goal.  Thank you for the idea.  I can not think of any
reason not to have zfs root.

What is a drag is that I have already built a new kernel and just
this morning already ran portsnap fetch and extract.

Perhaps this might also be an opportunity to learn gpart and geom
as well, limiting usage of fdisk, bsdlabel, and sysinstall moving
forward.

Darrel