From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Feb 19 00:18:49 2011 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 8C6DD106566C for ; Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:18:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from DStaal@usa.net) Received: from mail.magehandbook.com (173-8-4-45-WashingtonDC.hfc.comcastbusiness.net [173.8.4.45]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3497D8FC0C for ; Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:18:48 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [192.168.1.50] (Mac-Pro.magehandbook.com [192.168.1.50]) by powercell.magehandbook.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0D67129E9A for ; Fri, 18 Feb 2011 18:38:46 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2011 18:38:45 -0500 From: Daniel Staal To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Message-ID: X-Mailer: Mulberry/4.0.8 (Mac OS X) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: ZFS-only booting on FreeBSD 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: Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:18:49 -0000 I've been reading over the ZFS-only-boot instructions linked here: (and further linked from there) and have one worry: Let's say I install a FreeBSD system using a ZFS-only filesystem into a box with hotswapable hard drives, configured with some redundancy. Time passes, one of the drives fails, and it is replaced and rebuilt using the ZFS tools. (Possibly on auto, or possibly by just doing a 'zpool replace'.) Is that box still bootable? (It's still running, but could it *boot*?) Extend further: If *all* the original drives are replaced (not at the same time, obviously) and rebuilt/resilvered using the ZFS utilities, is the box still bootable? If not, what's the minimum needed to support booting from another disk, and using the ZFS filesystem for everything else? Daniel T. Staal --------------------------------------------------------------- This email copyright the author. Unless otherwise noted, you are expressly allowed to retransmit, quote, or otherwise use the contents for non-commercial purposes. This copyright will expire 5 years after the author's death, or in 30 years, whichever is longer, unless such a period is in excess of local copyright law. ---------------------------------------------------------------