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Date:      Tue, 08 Oct 2013 22:56:37 +0200
From:      Nathan Whitehorn <nwhitehorn@freebsd.org>
To:        "Teske, Devin" <Devin.Teske@fisglobal.com>
Cc:        "<freebsd-current@freebsd.org>" <freebsd-current@freebsd.org>, Allan Jude <freebsd@allanjude.com>
Subject:   Re: [CFT] Patch to bsdinstall to support root-on-ZFS and GELI
Message-ID:  <52547185.2000009@freebsd.org>
In-Reply-To: <13CA24D6AB415D428143D44749F57D720FC46255@LTCFISWMSGMB21.FNFIS.com>
References:  <52531295.7090700@allanjude.com> <52546844.2010608@freebsd.org> <13CA24D6AB415D428143D44749F57D720FC46255@LTCFISWMSGMB21.FNFIS.com>

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On 10/08/13 22:50, Teske, Devin wrote:
> On Oct 8, 2013, at 1:17 PM, Nathan Whitehorn wrote:
>
>> On 10/07/13 21:59, Allan Jude wrote:
>>> Devin Teske and I have been working on a big patch to bsdinstall to
>>> implement installing on a ZFS pool. It supports both GPT and MBR, the 4k
>>> sector gnop trick, and optional GELI encryption. We would like to commit
>>> this in time for 10.0-BETA1 so it needs some testing to work out any
>>> obvious bugs before we send it off to re@ to get it committed.
>>>
>>> It includes a single configuration menu that allows you to select all of
>>> the required details, including which drives to use (gets details from
>>> camcontrol, also includes an inspection utility that presents the
>>> detailed output of camcontrol inquiry/identify, and gpart show), what
>>> ZFS RAID level to use (taking in to consideration the selected number of
>>> drives), GPT/mbr, 4k YES/no, GELI yes/NO, pool name, etc.
>>>
>>>
>>> Additional, it includes some other changes to bsdinstall:
>>> 1. Change the default to the 'non-standard keyboard mapping' prompt to no
>>> 2. Replace the 3 separate dialogs to configure an ipv4 address with just 1
>>> 3. Remove the dialog asking if you wish to enable crash dumps, this
>>> feature has been combined into the regular 'services to enable' dialog
>>> and enabled by default
>>>
>>>
>>> You can browse the patches here:
>>> http://druidbsd.cvs.sf.net/viewvc/druidbsd/bsdinstall_zfs/
>>>
>>> I've built a bootonly.iso (10.0-ALPHA4) to make testing easier,
>>> available compressed (48 MB) or uncompressed (211 MB):
>>>
>>> http://www.allanjude.com/bsd/zfsbootonly_2013-10-06.iso.xz
>>>
>>> http://www.allanjude.com/bsd/zfsbootonly_2013-10-06.iso
>>>
>>>
>>> We look forward to your feedback
>>>
>> Thanks for doing this! I had a few comments:
>> 1. ZFS is not bootable on all architectures. Could you adjust that menu
>> item to only display for i386, amd64, and (I think?) sparc64. Use uname
>> -m, not -p, for this.
> I think we can do that no problem.
>
>
>> 1a. The script is broken on sparc64 in any case, which uses VTOC8
>> instead of GPT.
> *nods* we'll have to purloin your VTOC8 code before we offer it to
> sparc64.
>
>
>
>> 2. Why are you using camcontrol? That is guaranteed not to work on
>> non-CAM systems. You should use the GEOM ident string if you need an ID.
> I imagine we could get the info from many places, and to be honest, I never
> knew about "diskinfo" until last week (but apparently it's been around since
> 5.x days).
>
> The one place where I suspect camcontrol(8) usage is appropriate is the
> mini "disk inspector" dialog. The camcontrol inquiry output is specifically
> helpful if/when you're doing multipathing (and you need to identify which
> da# devices are duplicates of the same device -- given Serial#).
>
> But I gather you mean for "disk description" in the device menu (for picking
> text to go along with the device name).
>
> I'm open to using a different tool... or multiple tools. Do you think it would be
> better to just stick to one tool? or to query a few? (which ones win-out?)

Absolutely all information you could possibly want is inside GEOM,
including disk serial numbers. It the Correct Place (tm) for whatever
information you want to get.

>
>> 3. Any plans to integrate this into the regular partition editor? ZFS
>> support is important enough that I will definitely not get in the way,
>> even as a bolt-on, but it would be a shame for it to stay that way. The
>> editor is also designed for ZFS to be added.
> Yes and yes. (and didn't know the editor was designed for ZFS too)

Great!
>> 4. What is this gnop stuff for?
> Thanks goes to Freddie Cash for his excellent explanation (I had to
> admit, I didn't understand it at that level)
>
>
>> 5. I think some substantial part of the MBR code will blow up if you are
>> reinitalizing a previously formatted disk (the bsdlabel will be retasted
>> and come back from the dead).
> Will not some combination of "gpart destroy -F" and (insert suggestion) work?

Yes, that will work just fine.
-Nathan



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