ZFS Few Questions

[Freddie Cash]

On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 11:51 AM, Mark Felder <feld at feld.me> wrote:

> On Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:58:32 -0600, Freddie Cash <fjwcash at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Question 2:
>>>
>>> FreeBSD 9.0 installable on ZFS root?
>>>
>>>  Yes.
>>
>
>  This is now an option in the installer? It wasn't last time I checked,
> but that was a while ago and last I heard it wasn't going to make it in...
>  I'll have to fire up the latest RC and look.
>

I don't know if it's an option in the installer's disk formatter or not (I
don't use ZFS-on-root).

But the install CD can be used to create a ZFS-on-root installation (or any
other disk setup you want).  You just drop to the shell in the disk
formatter, create the pool, create the filesystems, mount them to where the
installer tells you (there's a message at the top when you drop to the
shell), then exit the shell and carry on.  Or something along those lines.

I've never done a ZFS-on-root install; I prefer to keep the / and /usr
filesystems on separate gmirror'd disks.  Then put the user data (/home,
/usr/local and a few other things like /usr/obj, /usr/ports) onto the
storage pool.  I find that setup gives your better tools for diagnosing
problems with the pool and booting and whatnot.

Once Boot Environment-type support is added to ZFS on FreeBSD, that may
change.  :)

-- 
Freddie Cash
fjwcash at gmail.com