# Installing on ZFS via remote ssh



## wonslung (May 23, 2009)

I am getting a dedicated server with freebsd.  I want to install freebsd to zfs with the standard mount points but i'm not sure how to handle this over ssh.  I can tell the hosting company how to partition the drive and they will install freebsd on one of the partitions but how do i handle converting it to ZFS if they won't do it for me. 

also, they only offer 7.1 and i'd like to upgrade to 7.2. would it be easier to do that AFTER i get ZFS installed?

i'm sorry for the newbish questions..my last hosting company handled it for me.


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## graudeejs (May 23, 2009)

I suggest you better wait for FreeBSD-8
zfs on 7.2 isn't stable (my system lasted 15min without crash under small load.)


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## wonslung (May 24, 2009)

killasmurf86 said:
			
		

> I suggest you better wait for FreeBSD-8
> zfs on 7.2 isn't stable (my system lasted 15min without crash under small load.)



I've had no problems what so ever on another server running freebsd 7.2 and ZFS
intel core 2 quad with 8gb ram, 3 500gb hard drives 

and with ZFS i've got VERY low load (it's a busy file/ftp http server)

and it's been up for months 

so....

My question stands.


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## venomous (May 24, 2009)

I've been doing remote installation (ssh) using ZFS root since FreeBSD-7.0.

Just follow carefully this how-to.

If things goes wrong, you can request your hosting provider to give KVM over IP to fix it.

Hope this help


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## wonslung (May 24, 2009)

Thank you much.
so basically i just explain that i want a minimal install on the 1024 mb partition and follow the guide from there?


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## mfaridi (May 24, 2009)

but I hear when someone want install PCBSD , if he or she has 1GB of ram , installer can install PCBSD with ZFS partition and it work good


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## wonslung (May 28, 2009)

question, that guide says to go into single user mode.
will it still work if you can't go into single user mode?


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## DutchDaemon (May 28, 2009)

What's preventing you from dropping or booting into single user mode? Loneliness?


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## wonslung (May 28, 2009)

maybe i'm stupid....that's probably the case, but it's a remote machine and my only access is via ssh.

I was under the impression to ssh in you had to be in multiuser mode


which brings me to my next problem...i followed the guide, just didn't go into single user mode because i didnt' think i could...but now i'm installing 7.2 (it was a 7.1 system)  every guide i find says i need to be in single user mode to do mergemaster....

so how do i handle that?


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## wonslung (May 28, 2009)

ok, i just noticed you said "dropping"

i didn't know it was possible to drop down to single user mode from multiuser mode while you're logged in....
is this how i do it?
shutdown now
init 1


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## DutchDaemon (May 28, 2009)

Sorry, should've looked at the topic title. You can't drop into single-user mode on an active network connection. Well, you can, but you're locked out, because the network gets dropped. You'll need to be at the console, or on a console server attached to a serial connection. If there's some magical way of unmounting all but the root filesystem on the fly (which would be the equivalent of starting in single-user mode and mounting a writeable /) someone will probably come along and tell you about it, but it does sound impossible to me.


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