[CFT] Patch to bsdinstall to support root-on-ZFS and GELI
Teske, Devin
Devin.Teske at fisglobal.com
Thu Oct 10 17:21:37 UTC 2013
On Oct 10, 2013, at 10:18 AM, Allan Jude wrote:
> On 2013-10-10 11:30, Teske, Devin wrote:
>> On Oct 10, 2013, at 4:55 AM, Nathan Whitehorn wrote:
>>
>>> On 10/10/13 09:20, Allan Jude wrote:
>>>> On 2013-10-10 03:00, Nathan Whitehorn wrote:
>>>>> On 10/09/13 18:55, Teske, Devin wrote:
>>>>>> On Oct 8, 2013, at 11:19 PM, Nathan Whitehorn wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 10/09/13 01:13, Allan Jude wrote:
>>>>>>>> On 2013-10-08 16:17, Nathan Whitehorn wrote:
>>>>>>>>> On 10/07/13 21:59, Allan Jude wrote:
>>>>>>>>>> Devin Teske and I have been working on a big patch to bsdinstall to
>>>>>>>>>> implement installing on a ZFS pool. It supports both GPT and MBR, the 4k
>>>>>>>>>> sector gnop trick, and optional GELI encryption. We would like to commit
>>>>>>>>>> this in time for 10.0-BETA1 so it needs some testing to work out any
>>>>>>>>>> obvious bugs before we send it off to re@ to get it committed.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> It includes a single configuration menu that allows you to select all of
>>>>>>>>>> the required details, including which drives to use (gets details from
>>>>>>>>>> camcontrol, also includes an inspection utility that presents the
>>>>>>>>>> detailed output of camcontrol inquiry/identify, and gpart show), what
>>>>>>>>>> ZFS RAID level to use (taking in to consideration the selected number of
>>>>>>>>>> drives), GPT/mbr, 4k YES/no, GELI yes/NO, pool name, etc.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Additional, it includes some other changes to bsdinstall:
>>>>>>>>>> 1. Change the default to the 'non-standard keyboard mapping' prompt to no
>>>>>>>>>> 2. Replace the 3 separate dialogs to configure an ipv4 address with just 1
>>>>>>>>>> 3. Remove the dialog asking if you wish to enable crash dumps, this
>>>>>>>>>> feature has been combined into the regular 'services to enable' dialog
>>>>>>>>>> and enabled by default
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> You can browse the patches here:
>>>>>>>>>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://druidbsd.cvs.sf.net/viewvc/druidbsd/bsdinstall_zfs/&k=%2FbkpAUdJWZuiTILCq%2FFnQg%3D%3D%0A&r=LTzUWWrRnz2iN3PtHDubWRSAh9itVJ%2BMUcNBCQ4tyeo%3D%0A&m=ckXs2H5TEcKdiN%2F9l%2FClInsMys9LmTwEbElzzrBchMU%3D%0A&s=6361ad5ccc04a6d8401158a3ee1b3d8df9fcd2ef47ff6ad6365a57b907cceaec
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I've built a bootonly.iso (10.0-ALPHA4) to make testing easier,
>>>>>>>>>> available compressed (48 MB) or uncompressed (211 MB):
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://www.allanjude.com/bsd/zfsbootonly_2013-10-06.iso.xz&k=%2FbkpAUdJWZuiTILCq%2FFnQg%3D%3D%0A&r=LTzUWWrRnz2iN3PtHDubWRSAh9itVJ%2BMUcNBCQ4tyeo%3D%0A&m=ckXs2H5TEcKdiN%2F9l%2FClInsMys9LmTwEbElzzrBchMU%3D%0A&s=570daea25d9e629788c76c2b5a6eae19d32050363986a1004a6434c3466965c2
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://www.allanjude.com/bsd/zfsbootonly_2013-10-06.iso&k=%2FbkpAUdJWZuiTILCq%2FFnQg%3D%3D%0A&r=LTzUWWrRnz2iN3PtHDubWRSAh9itVJ%2BMUcNBCQ4tyeo%3D%0A&m=ckXs2H5TEcKdiN%2F9l%2FClInsMys9LmTwEbElzzrBchMU%3D%0A&s=f52d604a2503a48b409f92f8376bb773de4dbc469d1e74b16d051a20ad894820
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> We look forward to your feedback
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Thanks for doing this! I had a few comments:
>>>>>>>>> 1. ZFS is not bootable on all architectures. Could you adjust that menu
>>>>>>>>> item to only display for i386, amd64, and (I think?) sparc64. Use uname
>>>>>>>>> -m, not -p, for this.
>>>>>>>> I had not considered that, I'll make that change
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> 1a. The script is broken on sparc64 in any case, which uses VTOC8
>>>>>>>>> instead of GPT.
>>>>>>>> I'll disable sparc64 as well
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> 2. Why are you using camcontrol? That is guaranteed not to work on
>>>>>>>>> non-CAM systems. You should use the GEOM ident string if you need an ID.
>>>>>>>> The GEOM ident string doesn't do enough to help the user identify which
>>>>>>>> drive is which.
>>>>>>>> More data is not exposed anywhere that I could find
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> What we really need, is dev.ada.0.desc% like we have for network
>>>>>>>> interfaces and a slew of other devices. GEOM data is great, but it is
>>>>>>>> not exposed in a shell friendly way any place that I could find, other
>>>>>>>> than the sysctl with DOT and XML data.
>>>>>>> This is one of the reasons the partition editor is written in C. There
>>>>>>> are a few other odd corner-cases where C is much more powerful than the
>>>>>>> command-line for the GEOM operations that partedit needs to do. I'm not
>>>>>>> sure how to usefully get it just from the shell. You can see how to do
>>>>>>> it in C in the boot_disk() routine of partedit/auto_part.c.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> 3. Any plans to integrate this into the regular partition editor? ZFS
>>>>>>>>> support is important enough that I will definitely not get in the way,
>>>>>>>>> even as a bolt-on, but it would be a shame for it to stay that way. The
>>>>>>>>> editor is also designed for ZFS to be added.
>>>>>>>> I am a sysadmin, not a programmer. I can't write C. Most people
>>>>>>>> deploying servers can't write C. I agree with Devin Teske, if everything
>>>>>>>> was in shell it would be a lot more usable for non-developers, who
>>>>>>>> probably make up the majority of people who deploy FreeBSD.
>>>>>>> There are some cases the other way too. Devin is probably the most
>>>>>>> shell-proficient FreeBSD committer.
>>>>>> Well, there's jilles ;D (he writes/maintains the sh(1) implementation itself).
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I certainly can't write shell
>>>>>>> scripts at that level, which means that for me bsdconfig, for example,
>>>>>>> is effectively read-only (and quite hard to read as well).
>>>>>> In the past few days of working on the bsdinstall_zfs patch-set with Allan
>>>>>> Jude, I learned something new actually.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It seems that sh(1) doesn't suffer so much from this "read only" concept.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Imagine you're starting a new C project on an operating system that has
>>>>>> all new syscalls and all new APIs that you've never seen. Would be pretty
>>>>>> hard, no doubt. Now imagine that you're thrown a life-line called POSIX
>>>>>> and hey, now you're slinging code in MinGW on Windows when you don't
>>>>>> know a lick of M$ syscalls or APIs.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> In a similar manner, I've witnessed functionality be added that is truly
>>>>>> functional *without* using any of the API calls. Then I come in and do
>>>>>> a round of optimizations to leverage the existing API.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Shell is kinda like that...
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I'm noticing Allan Jude doesn't know all the API calls yet (who could? other
>>>>>> than me of course -- and even I have trouble remembering them _all_) yet
>>>>>> this doesn't phase him (or others) from jumping in and lending a hand.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> No different than C, but the read-only aspect is lessened significantly I
>>>>>> believe because there are so many people out there that know enough
>>>>>> good shell syntax and are just a stone's throw away from *great* shell
>>>>>> syntax (which I must admit jilles helped me cross that boundary).
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I think in C, the read-only aspect is greater because its harder to parcel-out
>>>>>> the functions for a unit-test; harder to inject new code; and harder to get
>>>>>> to a functioning end-state.
>>>>> Look, I have no doubt that in the right hands shell can do amazing
>>>>> things and C can be badly written. That isn't the issue though. My
>>>>> statement was purely that most FreeBSD developers (me included) are more
>>>>> comfortable with C than shell when used at the kind of level involved
>>>>> here. This is not a value judgment but a statement of fact. Whether or
>>>>> not, at some platonic level, shell or C or python or whatever are more
>>>>> or less read-only is not the point here. The point is that I, and I
>>>>> suspect many other developers, cannot write (or read) very advanced
>>>>> levels of shell scripting but can read and write the equivalent programs
>>>>> when written in C in many cases. It's what the rest of the system is
>>>>> written in and what we spend most of our time using. Whether this should
>>>>> be the case or not is immaterial; the fact remains that shell scripting
>>>>> at any but a very basic level does introduce a very large barrier to
>>>>> entry for probably a large majority of committers.
>>>>>
>>>>> This is not always a problem -- especially if using something more
>>>>> obscure allows very active development by the set of people working on
>>>>> it -- but does reduce the set of people who can make modifications
>>>>> substantially. I have no ability to change, or understand, most of
>>>>> bsdconfig, for example. This isn't a problem since you are doing all the
>>>>> work and there is no reason I would need to or want to make changes to
>>>>> it. But it could become a problem in a part of the system to which
>>>>> multiple people needed to contribute. It's about other people's comfort
>>>>> zones and knowledge in the end.
>>>>> -Nathan
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> freebsd-current at freebsd.org mailing list
>>>>> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current&k=%2FbkpAUdJWZuiTILCq%2FFnQg%3D%3D%0A&r=LTzUWWrRnz2iN3PtHDubWRSAh9itVJ%2BMUcNBCQ4tyeo%3D%0A&m=ckXs2H5TEcKdiN%2F9l%2FClInsMys9LmTwEbElzzrBchMU%3D%0A&s=229c04e0b0ce43bcdc88819dc4a9cba8ffa47ef43ec9ad5352019bd7c850feff
>>>>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-current-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>>>> I definately see your point, but the code going in to the zfsboot part
>>>> in particular, is not that advanced. I started this project two weeks
>>>> ago with a well below average knowledge of shell script, a minor bit of
>>>> experience in php, and no real programming experience to speak of.
>>>>
>>>> I wrote most of the code that actually does things, Devin just cleaned
>>>> it up (I didn't know anything about shstyle or the rules) and pointed me
>>>> at some handy subroutines he had written to avoid writing out 20 lines
>>>> of code every time I wanted to display a dialog box
>>>>
>>>> I wouldn't say any of what is in the proposed patches to bsdinstall is
>>>> unmaintainable, and it definately makes it much more approachable for
>>>> sysadmins who are the ones that actually need to be able to script
>>>> bsdinstall, and generate various methods of automated deployment. This
>>>> is a very important feature if we want FreeBSD to be taken seriously for
>>>> deployment in mass virtualization environments (do not make my say
>>>> cloud. we saw a great sign in Malta at some street festival "what is
>>>> cloud?")
>>> Sorry, I think you misunderstood me. I really appreciate your work, and
>>> the ZFS stuff, as I said, is not that complex so there's no problem
>>> there. Aside from a couple of issues I mentioned (with sparc, etc.), it
>>> seems like a very good step forward. What I *was* trying to do was
>>> discourage you from rewriting partedit as a shell script and to
>>> encourage unifying the ZFS backend into partedit at some point in the
>>> future significantly different from now.
>>>
>>> I also wanted to mention that bsdinstall is completely scriptable
>>> (although not the new ZFS code, I guess...)
>> Oh, but it is.
>>
>> The following variables have sensible defaults and are designed
>> to be exported in a bsdinstall script to customize the actions
>> performed by the zfsboot script:
>>
>> dteske at scribe9.vicor.com scripts $ grep '^: ' zfsboot
>> : ${ZFSBOOT_POOL_NAME:=zroot}
>> : ${ZFSBOOT_BEROOT_NAME:=bootenv}
>> : ${ZFSBOOT_BOOTFS_NAME:=default}
>> : ${ZFSBOOT_VDEV_TYPE:=stripe}
>> : ${ZFSBOOT_GNOP_4K_FORCE_ALIGN:=1}
>> : ${ZFSBOOT_GELI_ENCRYPTION:=}
>> : ${ZFSBOOT_GELI_POOL_NAME:=bootpool}
>> : ${ZFSBOOT_GELI_BOOT_SIZE:=2g}
>> : ${ZFSBOOT_GELI_KEY_file:///=/boot/encryption.key}
>> : ${ZFSBOOT_DISKS:=}
>> : ${ZFSBOOT_PARTITION_SCHEME:=GPT}
>> : ${ZFSBOOT_SWAP_SIZE:=2g}
>>
>> Notice the ZFSBOOT_ prefix matching the script name.
>> These may not be the final names used as an overall
>> effort is made (given time) to conflate the scripting variables
>> and general namespace.
>>
>>
>>
>>> and has been for some time.
>> The type of scripting set forth by bsdinstall is not the same kind of
>> scripting set forth by bsdconfig.
>>
>> That being said, I've not yet made an effort to close the gap on
>> bsdinstall scripting (to make it like bsdconfig scripting).
>>
>> In bsdconfig, we can literally load a sysinstall "install.cfg" file and
>> there is no need to for a complicated embedding system such as
>> bsdinstall has (wherein the "script" is actually a multi-part file).
>>
>> A lot of people have scoffed at backward compatibility because it
>> would not be easy. However, I see a pretty big carrot dangling in
>> front of the backward compatibility effort...
>>
>> It's not the act of implementing the individual reswords that's going
>> to bring the biggest value-add, but instead the bringing back of the
>> process-flow to deployment that will see the greatest gain in
>> functionality. By this, I mean that currently you invoke bsdinstall
>> and it runs through a UX given a set of values set in variables.
>> This is sub-optimal if you don't like the UX choices -- better to
>> instead allow the script to take the reigns and do things by way
>> of having the script drive (in sysinstall, this amounts to the fact that
>> if "install.cfg" doesn't call diskPartitionWrite or doesn't call
>> distExtractAll, then those steps are not performed). In bsdinstall, a
>> change in focus to allow the script to drive *could* be done by
>> requiring the user to fork-exec to a bunch of scripts -- and in-turn
>> then requiring each/every custom setting to be *export*ed... but
>> ultimately the best bang-for-your-buck is going to come from
>> (I'll say it again) namespace conflation (writing the functionality
>> as a series of includable functions that are run in the same
>> namespace as the script that is driving). Naturally, a bunch of
>> functions can be lost if you don't know where to look for them, and
>> that comes back full-circle to `script.subr' and `variable.subr' as the
>> "points of discovery" (besides a man-page; which is where sys-
>> install documented its own reswords).
>>
>>
>>
>>> Only the initial release that shipped with 9.0 was not. There's a
>>> lengthy discussion of how this works in the man page.
>> *nods*
>>
>>
>>
>>> The scripting
>>> support is extremely flexible (you can run an arbitrary shell script in
>>> addition to the usual installation steps) and lets installations from
>>> PXE or media operate completely unattended.
>> Yes, but I've been taking to simply creating /etc/installerconf and
>> completely bypassing the scripting that's documented in the man-page
>> *because* I abhor multi-part file which requires a split-architecture
>> approach to installation (no like).
>>
>> Sysinstall often required me to do the same thing. Whereas in
>> sysinstall the problem was that you couldn't speak native shell in the
>> install.cfg file (requiring you to call out to a "system" resword to
>> execute a script which generates a side "install.cfg" later brought
>> back in with the "loadConfig" resword, bsdinstall instead requires me
>> to have -- in the multi-part script it loads -- a preamble and a setup
>> script and this causes a similar dichotomy in passing information
>> between the stages).
>>
>> In bsdconfig, I worked extremely hard to solve that issue. The end-
>> result is that both problems are solved. The problem of sysinstall
>> is gone because the "install.cfg" file becomes a shell script so you
>> can then start speaking native shell in it. The multi-part problem is
>> gone when you provide all the reswords in the native language
>> (conflated namespace).
> Devin, we should make a note to talk to Rick Miller (Verisign, host of
> vBSDCon) while we are there. They still use sysinstall, and having
> bsdinstall understand their sysinstall configs may be of great value to
> them.
That's the plan ;D
Been working with ol' Rick for years now on that journey. We keep in-
touch and I keep apprising him of how things are going.
Also, I've been sharing with him recipes for /etc/installerconf that used
the legacy reswords but branch out to the couple parts of bsdinstall that
are needed to do the disk management and dist extraction.
--
Devin
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