ZFS root on single SSD?

Tue May 23 18:03:13 UTC 2017

I have a similar situation. I have a nice ssd i am using through a usb 
port. I can't install this ssd internally because there are no free sata 
ports nor mounting slots. I would like to use ZFS on it, but I can't get 
it to boot using the  ZFS options from the installer. I'm trying to use 
version 11 memstick image of the FreeBSD installer.

Now if I leave the install media (on a usb flash drive) connected I can 
boot the drive setup as ZFS no problem. If i remove the install media 
and try to boot I get an error telling me it can't mount root. Power the 
system on and off and the problem is still the same.

If I do the same installation and select UFS everything works fine every 
time no matter what usb devices I'm using or have connected.

I've tried this on several machines but always with the same result. 
I've also had the same result using usb external hard drives.

I've been through the handbook time and time again. I also get the same 
problem if I install TrueOS which is using 12-Current. As long as the 
install media is still connected it will boot the other drive setup for 
ZFS. If I disconnect the install flash drive it will not boot.

Is there a manual installation process documented that would allow me to 
boot ZFS from a usb drive or am I missing something using the standard 
installer?

Thanks in advance,

Jim

On 5/22/2017 2:26 AM, Aaron wrote:
 > Yea, pretty much this. Don't need the same level of availability. Worst
 > case, I'm a bit annoyed and rebuild the OS and restore the configs from
 > backup. Now I just need to figure out jails and bhyve for the services
 > since I haven't worked with either before    There's a couple of bhyve
 > front ends I've been looking at, sorta on the fence for which one. 
Really I
 > just need to pick one and run with it.
 >
 > --Aaron
 >
 > On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 5:05 AM, krad <kraduk at gmail.com> wrote:
 >
 >> The big question is what availability do you need on this server? As 
its a
 >> home system I guess not as much as say an enterprise one. Therefore 
I would
 >> imagine all the benefits of manageability that come with zfs will 
out weigh
 >> the downside, even if running on a single volume. Boot environments 
are a
 >> really big thing to safe guard yourself during upgrade time. Although in
 >> theory you could do something with ufs its never going to be as good as
 >> with zfs. Also remember mirroring isnt backup, mirroring is about
 >> availability. Therefore live with a single drive, but backup the 
contents
 >> regularly.
 >>
 >> On 16 May 2017 at 06:45, Aaron <drizzt321 at gmail.com> wrote:
 >>
 >>> So, I've been running ZFS root mirror across 2 spinning disks, and I'm
 >>> upgrading my home server/nas and planning on running root on a 
spare SSD.
 >>> However, I'm unsure if it'd be better to run UFS as a single drive root
 >>> instead of ZFS, although I do love all of the ZFS features (snapshots,
 >>> COW,
 >>> scrubbing, etc) and would still like to keep that for my root 
drive, even
 >>> if I'm not mirroring at all. I do notice that FreeBSD has TRIM 
support for
 >>> ZFS (see http://open-zfs.org/wiki/Features#TRIM_Support).
 >>>
 >>> So is there a good reason NOT to run ZFS root on a single drive SSD?
 >>>
 >>> --Aaron
 >>> _______________________________________________
 >>> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
 >>> https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
 >>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe
 >>> @freebsd.org"
 >>>
 >>
 > _______________________________________________
 > freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
 > https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
 > To unsubscribe, send any mail to 
"freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"

On 5/22/2017 4:55 PM, krad wrote:
> stay with jails as much as you can, as they will be more stable and far
> more lightwieght
>
> On 22 May 2017 at 07:26, Aaron <drizzt321 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Yea, pretty much this. Don't need the same level of availability. Worst
>> case, I'm a bit annoyed and rebuild the OS and restore the configs from
>> backup. Now I just need to figure out jails and bhyve for the services
>> since I haven't worked with either before :)   There's a couple of bhyve
>> front ends I've been looking at, sorta on the fence for which one. Really I
>> just need to pick one and run with it.
>>
>> --Aaron
>>
>> On Thu, May 18, 2017 at 5:05 AM, krad <kraduk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> The big question is what availability do you need on this server? As its
>> a
>>> home system I guess not as much as say an enterprise one. Therefore I
>> would
>>> imagine all the benefits of manageability that come with zfs will out
>> weigh
>>> the downside, even if running on a single volume. Boot environments are a
>>> really big thing to safe guard yourself during upgrade time. Although in
>>> theory you could do something with ufs its never going to be as good as
>>> with zfs. Also remember mirroring isnt backup, mirroring is about
>>> availability. Therefore live with a single drive, but backup the contents
>>> regularly.
>>>
>>> On 16 May 2017 at 06:45, Aaron <drizzt321 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> So, I've been running ZFS root mirror across 2 spinning disks, and I'm
>>>> upgrading my home server/nas and planning on running root on a spare
>> SSD.
>>>> However, I'm unsure if it'd be better to run UFS as a single drive root
>>>> instead of ZFS, although I do love all of the ZFS features (snapshots,
>>>> COW,
>>>> scrubbing, etc) and would still like to keep that for my root drive,
>> even
>>>> if I'm not mirroring at all. I do notice that FreeBSD has TRIM support
>> for
>>>> ZFS (see http://open-zfs.org/wiki/Features#TRIM_Support).
>>>>
>>>> So is there a good reason NOT to run ZFS root on a single drive SSD?
>>>>
>>>> --Aaron
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
>>>> https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
>>>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe
>>>> @freebsd.org"
>>>>
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
>> https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-
>> unsubscribe at freebsd.org"
>>
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe at freebsd.org"