Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sun, 4 Jun 2017 23:33:14 +0200
From:      Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
To:        tyler@tysdomain.com
Cc:        FreeBSD Questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: various questions about booting and recovery
Message-ID:  <20170604233314.508eff47.freebsd@edvax.de>
In-Reply-To: <f0356112-4331-2dbe-845f-66bedcb203a0@tysdomain.com>
References:  <f0356112-4331-2dbe-845f-66bedcb203a0@tysdomain.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Sun, 4 Jun 2017 13:02:59 -0400, Littlefield, Tyler wrote:
> My biggest problem is that I always end up somehow breaking things and
> then need to get eyeballs (I'm totally blind) to help me
> recover/reinstall. Both systems are using zfs. I've tried to figure out
> the multiboot environment, but not having much luck. I can force my
> systme to reboot, but I'm curious if there's an easy way to set up
> multiboot environments so I can boot configurations to test. If so, are
> there some clear instructions somewhere on how to do so?

Given that you're already using ZFS, Boot Environments (BEs)
seems to be what you are looking for. There is a tool to
easily do the "housekeeping", like creating snapshots, editing
the boot attribues, and switching what to boot: beadm.

Here are a few resources that will help you discover BEs:

Manual page for beadm:

https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?beadm

HOWTO for beadm:

https://github.com/vermaden/beadm/blob/master/HOWTO.htm

How To Use beadm to Upgrade FreeBSD installed in a ZFS Boot Environment,
with minimal downtime:

https://www.dweimer.net/?Content=03~help_files&Page=02~beadm_and_FreeBSD_on_ZFS



> Finally, can I have it boot to an environment once and if it reboots
> swap back to the old one?

Yes, that's the exact purpose of ZFS+BEs in a nutshell. ;-)


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20170604233314.508eff47.freebsd>