# Need Help Installing With ZFS



## JakkFrosted (Aug 1, 2013)

In these instructions I get lost at: 





> Choose Fixit option in sysinstall



I boot from the install disc and see no "sysinstall" nor "Fixit". This is for FreeBSD 9.1.


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## ShelLuser (Aug 1, 2013)

With so many things in FreeBSD (basically Unix in general) it's all in the details. If you check the header of that page you're reading you'll come across this one:



> *WARNING!* these directions will not work with bsdinstall based media (9.0-BETA1+) due to changes in distfile layout, pathing, and version numbering.


Which basically should explain it all.

Now, it heavily depends on your goal here. If you aim to add ZFS to a setup which mostly uses UFS then you can simply continue with the installation and create a slice which the freebsd-zfs type set. You can use that in a ZFS pool after installation.

If, however, you're aiming to go for a full ZFS setup then I can highly recommend this thread (including my own addition).

I've been using this approach for all my servers so far (9.1-RELEASE) and all of them are still going strong.


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## Sebulon (Aug 2, 2013)

@ShelLuser,

Why still be advocating old partitioning styles without optimization for 4K disks and using top-level vdev as root, which has never been considered good practice?

How about trying instead to usher new users into a smarter way of going about your business?
HOWTO: FreeBSD ZFS Madness

But taking care of partitioning and IO-sizing like:
http://forums.freebsd.org/showpost.php?p=171821&postcount=2

/Sebulon


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## ShelLuser (Aug 2, 2013)

Sebulon said:
			
		

> Why still be advocating old partitioning styles without optimization for 4K disks and using top-level vdev as root, which has never been considered good practice?


Because this method works very well, and I don't make assumptions as to what disks are being used.

Besides; if someone is dealing with such disks than a mere read of the gpart(8) manualpage will point this option out as well; with a directly usable command in the examples section.



			
				Sebulon said:
			
		

> How about trying instead to usher new users into a smarter way of going about your business?
> HOWTO: FreeBSD ZFS Madness


I don't consider this approach smarter myself because beadm isn't part of the base system. When it comes to installation procedures I always prefer using the tools directly available and focusing on becoming familiar with those.


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