From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Tue Apr 18 04:55:28 2017 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 106B2D43C33 for ; Tue, 18 Apr 2017 04:55:28 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dpchrist@holgerdanske.com) Received: from holgerdanske.com (holgerdanske.com [184.105.128.27]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "holgerdanske.com", Issuer "holgerdanske.com" (not verified)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E8CE81113 for ; Tue, 18 Apr 2017 04:55:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dpchrist@holgerdanske.com) Received: from 99.100.19.101 ([99.100.19.101]) by holgerdanske.com with ESMTPSA (ECDHE-RSA-AES128-GCM-SHA256:TLSv1.2:Kx=ECDH:Au=RSA:Enc=AESGCM(128):Mac=AEAD) (SMTP-AUTH username dpchrist@holgerdanske.com, mechanism PLAIN) for ; Mon, 17 Apr 2017 21:55:25 -0700 Subject: Re: Is it possible to create ZFS tank on USB media ? To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: From: David Christensen Message-ID: <7070c1c3-c7a6-e46b-6b00-008a368e2760@holgerdanske.com> Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2017 21:56:23 -0700 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Icedove/45.6.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2017 04:55:28 -0000 On 04/17/2017 12:34 PM, Manish Jain wrote: > Being new to ZFS, I wonder if is possible to create ZFS root on > removable media like a USB pen drive ? One of my favorite tricks is to use the Debian GNU/Linux installer to install to a (BIOS, MBR) 16 GB USB 3.0 flash drive -- for use as a poor-man's SSD for low-end machines, as a "portable" desktop, as a "rescue/repair/test" live image, etc. I have a couple USB flash drives with Debian 7; I need to try it with Debian 8. It's been a couple of years since I tried installing FreeBSD onto a USB flash drive using the FreeBSD installer. The last time I tried, apparently such was not supported. Various readers of this mailing list suggested various techniques for installing by hand, but I was then, and still would be now, looking for an OOTB KISS solution. > Logically, it sounds pretty cool - and a convenient way of migrating > with just a single MBR slice available : > > a) create a ZFS tank on USB > b) rsync your installation to ztank > c) boot from USB > d) create a second tank : this time on the slice that originally was UFS > e) rsync ztank to ztank2 > > Is that too weird ? Impossible ? Thanks for shedding any light. I don't know enough FreeBSD or ZFS to comment. > (As already mentioned in a post I just made to f-q, my MBR slice index > corruption has been taken care of - by - of all people - Microsoft, : - ) > > I used Windows to create a new slice, a Windows reshuffled the slice > indexes to pack them in the normal order). I still prefer and recommend one OS per system disk. The USB flash drive trick is ideal for computers with space for only one drive, such as laptops. David