From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 30 02:30:58 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E52A51065679 for ; Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:30:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from ryallsd@gmail.com) Received: from qw-out-2122.google.com (qw-out-2122.google.com [74.125.92.24]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9FB358FC13 for ; Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:30:58 +0000 (UTC) Received: by qw-out-2122.google.com with SMTP id 9so746908qwb.7 for ; Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:30:57 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:date:message-id:subject :from:to:content-type; bh=48H1ZFndMhnLFQNPzBOhnpQc2+JNWuKnphukS6zgQ4A=; b=dOmWHLYLcu2uFc7NqcS2HG7Ohh4PLALREjNODkGrDQnetNnq59qGVBrHijW608bTx9 h/2zNjIH88Id/H9l+P3RPGJLAuTH79rV0rTzjth0wHs8YKptotlXYL1wftXEM4BHk46I Pbz5Ha3FX+3jcEznzM2uwdWn8fLEg8GsiOl3E= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:date:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; b=UXxm59QZFWuOGXPRYLq+n8eeYSDcleUt6GBfKkB5bbuANWeJdCa4OthxNXoLaGQDCU 9vZYIDeFXzlh9w3LQ9qCq7698NzfdV/cd9OA9K/Uz6KnlixBE1xQbXqcPsHRVZiO5SGv LIE9mOI8H4Bp3r5SfJg9gtbP6gtsL8iV2iNhM= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.229.118.6 with SMTP id t6mr452383qcq.39.1259548257711; Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:30:57 -0800 (PST) Date: Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:30:57 -0800 Message-ID: From: Derrick Ryalls To: FreeBSD Questions Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Subject: FreeBSD 8.0 system setup with ZFS steps X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 02:30:59 -0000 Greetings, I created the following guide when I was trying out ZFS in VirtualBox on my windows machine. I created 5 hard drives: 1 to represent a flash drive to boot off of, 4 to represent the large hard drives I would be using in raid. It seemed to work to get a running system, but wanted to make sure I wasn't doing anything stupid or missing a good step. FreeBSD 8.0 with ZFS *Setup Use a 2gig Flash device. 1 gig is enough space though. 512M will be tight. Collect the 4 other SATA drives. *Start FreeBSD normal install. Select the flash device as the device to install to. Use the entire device Install the bootMgr Create a single slice taking up the entire device, mount to / Select distribution minimal Run install Normal post install answers Reboot *Activate ZFS (http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en/books/handbook/filesystems-zfs.html) Follow instructions for RaidZ Be sure to add the instructions for daily raid mails *Create mount points in pool home local obj ports src var share tmp *One at a time, copy existing data from / to new mount points. Instructions are in the link above *Reboot (make sure nothing is broken) *Swap zfs create -V 4g storage/swap geli onetime -s 4096 /dev/zvol/storage/swap (encryption, might not be needed) swapon /dev/zvol/storage/swap.eli *pkg_add -r bash *Add users *Normal setup at this point. My goal is to not burn out the flash drive with a bunch of writes, so it should primarily be read only, with the occasional edit to a config file or installworld. I tried putting /etc in a ZFS pool to take advantage of snapshots and such, but the machine couldn't find the boot drive as that information is stored in /etc and ZFS is not loaded at that point. Am I doing something stupid that may burn out the flash drive or cause the system to be rather slow? Thanks, Derrick