From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 13 04:24:36 2010 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 9BB61106566C for ; Mon, 13 Sep 2010 04:24:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: from agora.rdrop.com (agora.rdrop.com [IPv6:2607:f678:1010::34]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5BEF38FC0A for ; Mon, 13 Sep 2010 04:24:36 +0000 (UTC) Received: from agora.rdrop.com (66@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by agora.rdrop.com (8.13.1/8.12.7) with ESMTP id o8D4OYNj053993 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT); Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:24:34 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from perryh@pluto.rain.com) Received: (from uucp@localhost) by agora.rdrop.com (8.13.1/8.12.9/Submit) with UUCP id o8D4OYr1053992; Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:24:34 -0700 (PDT) Received: from fbsd61 by pluto.rain.com (4.1/SMI-4.1-pluto-M2060407) id AA22846; Sun, 12 Sep 10 21:14:51 PDT Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2010 21:14:53 -0700 From: perryh@pluto.rain.com To: m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk Message-Id: <4c8da53d.pPK/NzHAHPlQPOfh%perryh@pluto.rain.com> References: <4c83190a.SG+LIhPWaGtmaaeL%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <4C835474.7060707@infracaninophile.co.uk> <4c8487cc.Rh42YL91jTIv09e0%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <4c84ce46.sHyLaI+H+UzM+J/y%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <4c8c5260.+COCCpHgloxRSY2/%perryh@pluto.rain.com> <4C8CD2A4.3020203@infracaninophile.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <4C8CD2A4.3020203@infracaninophile.co.uk> User-Agent: nail 11.25 7/29/05 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: sysinstall vs gmirror 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, 13 Sep 2010 04:24:36 -0000 Matthew Seaman wrote: > On 12/09/2010 05:09:04, perryh@pluto.rain.com wrote: > > How do I get sysinstall to recognize a gmirror? > > ... > I don't think sysinstall will do what you want. It certainly has been less than totally cooperative so far :( > However, what is your ultimate goal? > To install a system with a gmirror root drive? No, to install a system with each of /, /usr, and /var mirrored and journalled, with each journal kept in the same (mirrored) partition as its FS -- diagram below. IIUC, to put the journal in the same partition with the FS I have to create the journal while the FS is empty, hence before installing. (This is all UFS -- 512MB seems a bit small for ZFS.) The plan after partitioning the mirror is to create the journals, then install onto the journalled FS's, and finally to insert the second half of the mirror after everything else is up and running. > ... you can boot into the Fixit system, set up mirroring etc. and > then work through the rest of the installation process by hand. > The install sets are just split up tarballs and it's pretty easy > to extract a copy of a system from them. The part I don't know how to do is partitioning gm0 by hand. (I suppose it would require some sort of arcane incantations involving bsdlabel.) For all its limitations, sysinstall seems at least to know how to translate a reasonably human- readable representation of the desired slice and partition layout into the necessary fdisk and bsdlabel commands. Someone suggested using the PC-BSD installer, which knows how to do stuff like this, but when I asked how to do that from a memstick (rather than from a CD or DVD) I didn't get an answer. ad0s2 FreeBSD ad2s2 FreeBSD ad0s2a <----- gm0 -----> ad2s2a | +-----------------+ | v gm0 gm0a gm0a.journal [gjournal label gm0a gm0a] rootFS gm0d gm0d.journal [gjournal label gm0a gm0a] /var gm0e gm0e.journal [gjournal label gm0a gm0a] /usr There's more to it than this, but I think I know how to do the rest. The current sticking point is getting the mirror partitioned.