# ZFS-as-root stories?



## estrabd (Feb 10, 2012)

I am about to dive into setting up an all ZFS system using FreeBSD 9.0 REL.  I have a Dell Poweredge 1750 with 3 identical 73 GB SCSI disks - so I plan on using all 3 as a single disk. :stud


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## gkontos (Feb 10, 2012)

estrabd said:
			
		

> I am about to dive into setting up an all ZFS system using FreeBSD 9.0 REL.  I have a Dell Poweredge 1750 with 3 identical 73 GB SCSI disks - so I plan on using all 3 as a single disk. :stud



raidz1 or 3-way mirror?

You can install root on ZFS with the traditional way or the 4K optimized.

I have never done a raidz1 installation but most of my production servers run root on ZFS with a mirror setup.

I began experimenting with 8.0-RELEASE.  If this is not a critical production server, I would highly recommend that you follow 9-STABLE.

Regards


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## estrabd (Feb 10, 2012)

Well,

I just tried to do an all-root ZFS RAIDZ1 (3 identical SCSIs) set up (http://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/GPTZFSBoot/9.0-RELEASE), and I am not sure if mileage varies here, but after I got throught the installation part, I was unable to carry on the instructions beyond modifying /etc/rc.conf and /boot/loader.conf due to zfs/zpool failing. I am not sure why this is since they worked fine during the partitioning phase.

Now I am installing plain old UFS on da0 and plan to do a 2-disk mirror using da1 and da2.  I wish it would have worked out - I am still open to the 3-way RAIDZ1 if there are better instructions or if there is a workaround to the zfs/zpool issue I was seeing.


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## gkontos (Feb 11, 2012)

estrabd said:
			
		

> Well,
> 
> I just tried to do an all-root ZFS RAIDZ1 (3 identical SCSIs) set up (http://wiki.freebsd.org/RootOnZFS/GPTZFSBoot/9.0-RELEASE), and I am not sure if mileage varies here, but after I got throught the installation part, I was unable to carry on the instructions beyond modifying /etc/rc.conf and /boot/loader.conf due to zfs/zpool failing. I am not sure why this is since they worked fine during the partitioning phase.



I haven't tried this but I see some points which indicate why this might fail. 

If you want to set up root on ZFS using bsdinstaller then you can use the following which is also tested! 

LINK: http://daemon-notes.com/articles/install/install-zfs/begin



			
				estrabd said:
			
		

> Now I am installing plain old UFS on da0 and plan to do a 2-disk mirror using da1 and da2.  I wish it would have worked out - I am still open to the 3-way RAIDZ1 if there are better instructions or if there is a workaround to the zfs/zpool issue I was seeing.



You can always do it using full command line. All the links that I have provided you with are tested. 

Good luck


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