ufs to zfs conversion in a freebsd guest

[Warner Losh]

On Sun, Mar 24, 2019, 3:58 PM tech-lists <tech-lists at zyxst.net> wrote:

> Hi
>
> [context is freebsd-12R-p3]
>
> Is it possible to convert a running freebsd guest from UFS to ZFS?
> It would need to be done in-situ, in the guest as there is no access to
> the host.
>
> The guest filesystem is:
>
> /dev/gpt/rootfs   /       ufs     rw      1       1
> /dev/gpt/swapfs  none    swap    sw      0       0
>

I'd create a custom image. First, disable swapping. Change the part type to
UFS. Put the image on the swap partition. It can be booted using the next
boot feature.  It would do a dump of rootfs to the cloud. Once dumped,
delete rootfs partition. Then add it back as a freebsd-zfs partition. The
image would then create and mount the zfs pool. Fetch the dump image and
use restore to put all the files back in place. Reboot. You are done...

Warner

thanks,
> --
> J.
>