Name/label/id metadata: how do I make it go away

[Paul Kraus]

On Sep 23, 2015, at 16:53, Chris Stankevitz <chris at stankevitz.com> wrote:

> I feel the same way about my data.  Like you, I am paranoid and I want to understand exactly what is going on.  How can I guarantee that my data is safe when I'm at a loss to explain why my "zpool status" is such a mess?
> 
> Can you tell me how you go about "preferring and using diskids" when you import a zpool?  Do you always import on the command line using "zpool import -d”?

I create the zpool using the /dev/diskid/nnn device names. If I build the zpool using those device names I have not had ZFS use any others on import.

When I have a zpool that does not use the diskid device names I usually (and very carefully) replace the device with one using the diskid name. You clearly can’t do that “in-place” with RAIDz vdevs, but for mirrors I take the small risk by removing one of the mirror components and then attach it using the diskid name.

If you have even one “spare” drive you can do a walking replacement of one device at a time to the new naming scheme.

I have not run into the exact case you have with device names but no idea (really) where they came from.

If your zpool started under FreeNAS, then you need to be looking at how 9.x handles device names to figure out where they came from. As far as I know, FreeNAS is still 9.x based.

NOTE: I am running 10.0 and 10.1, I have not gone to 10.2 yet.

--
Paul Kraus
paul at kraus-haus.org