FreeBSD 9, GPT and gmirror

[perryh at pluto.rain.com]

Janos Dohanics <web at 3dresearch.com> wrote:

> 1. The Guided partitioning doesn't suggest any more to
> create /var, /tmp, /usr, etc. file systems. Is it really
> the recommendation to go with just / ?

Depends on who you ask :) and on your intended usage.

> 2. Is there a way to use the old sysinstall to install FreeBSD 9? 

Not using the standard distribution IIUC.  You might want to look
at http://druidbsd.sf.net/

> 3. It seems that setting up gmirror is more involved with GPT
> (http://blather.michaelwlucas.com/archives/1071); now I have a
> mirror for each of the filesystems /, /var, /tmp, etc. Is it
> OK to use gmirror in this way at all?

Yes, indeed it is the only way to combine GPT and gmirror without
getting into trouble of one sort or another.  (The conflict between
GPT and a full-disk gmirror is actually not new.)

> 4. Also, with GPT, one has to be in single user mode to synchronize
> disks - correct?

Dunno about this one.

> 3. Assuming one has enough RAM, is zfs mirror or raidz recommended
> over gmirror?

Same situation as with #1.