Annotation of wikisrc/wiki/RootOnZFS.mdwn, revision 1.1
1.1 ! wiki 1: # Root On ZFS
! 2:
! 3: NetBSD-9 gained much improved ZFS support.
! 4: However, one feature it's still missing is the ability to have your system root on ZFS.
! 5: For that, we need to teach our boot loader about ZFS, but until then we can work around this limitation by using a FFS boot partition and a ZFS root ramdisk.
! 6: You'll also need to use NetBSD-9.99.47 or newer.
! 7:
! 8: The idea is simple - the boot loader loads the NetBSD kernel from FFS and the ZFS root ramdisk.
! 9: The ramdisk then mounts the boot partition and copies the requires ZFS modules from it into the ramdisk.
! 10: ZFS is then initialised to load the modules and then umounts the boot partition.
! 11: This step saves you from having to load the modules in boot.cfg.
! 12: Because the initial root is on a ramdisk, we can then load the boot partition from inside the ZFS root to maintain it.
! 13:
! 14: Once ZFS is initialised, the ZFS root is then mounted and sysctl then instructs init to chroot to it and the normal boot procedure then starts.
! 15: Once started, the kernel and modules can updated by mounting the boot partition to /altroot.
! 16:
! 17: ## Assumptions
! 18:
! 19: The ramdisk does make some assumptions as there is no way to pass variables from boot.cfg:
! 20:
! 21: * The boot partition can be referenced as `NAME=boot` - for GPT this is as simple as giving it a label.
! 22: * The ZFS root pool is called `rpool` and the root filesystem is called `ROOT`.
! 23:
! 24: ## Generic setup
! 25:
! 26: Until the NetBSD installer can be updated, here are the manual steps from fresh:
! 27:
! 28: * Build the ramdisk (`cd src/distrib/amd64/ramdisks/ramdisk-zfsroot; nbmake-amd64`)
! 29: * Boot the NetBSD installer
! 30: * Create a small (I used 2G) FFS partition and a normal swap partition
! 31: * Create a partition for ZFS
! 32: * Finish the NetBSD installation - install the etc, base and maybe rescue sets
! 33: * Reboot into your minimal NetBSD install
! 34: * Label the boot partition boot - if you don't do this then the ramdisk will moan it can't load modules
! 35:
! 36: ## ZFS Setup
! 37:
! 38: So far, so good. Now we need to make the needed adjustments to change root:
! 39:
! 40: * Create a ZFS pool called `rpool` on your ZFS partition
! 41: * Create a ZFS filesystem called `ROOT` in `rpool`
! 42: * Set the mountpoint of `rpool/ROOT` to legacy so that the mount command can deal with it
! 43: * Create any other ZFS filesystems you want to - if you create `/usr` or `/var` or anything in these they **must** to be legacy mount points as well
! 44: * `zfs umount rpool/ROOT`
! 45: * Add `rpool/ROOT /altroot zfs rw` to /etc/fstab
! 46: * `mount /altroot`
! 47: * Extract the sets you need to `/altroot`. At a minimum you will need etc and base.
! 48: * Copy `/etc/wscons.conf`, `/etc/fstab` and any other config files sysinst might have created to `/etc/rc.conf` to `/altroot/etc`
! 49: * Set `zfs=YES` in `/altroot/etc/rc.conf`
! 50: * Remove `rpool/ROOT` from `/altroot/etc/fstab`
! 51: * Add `name=boot /altroot ffs rw,noauto` to `/altroot/etc/fstab` along with any ZFS filesytems you created in '/usr' and '/var'
! 52: * Add the filesystems as well to `critical_filesystems_local` in `/altroot/etc/rc.conf` - such as `critical_filesystems_local="/usr /var /var/log"`
! 53: * Copy the `ramdisk-zfsroot.fs` to `/`
! 54: * Edit `/boot.cfg` and add `menu=Boot ZFS Root:fs /ramdisk-zfsroot.fs;boot`
! 55:
! 56: And done! You can now reboot and enjoy your root on ZFS and all the benefits it brings.
! 57: When updating the kernel, remember to `mount /altroot` and update it there as well as the modules.
! 58:
! 59: ## Future work
! 60:
! 61: All these steps could be done in the installer.
! 62: This is probably an easier task than adding ZFS support to the bootloader. But don't let that stop you if you are stuck for something to do!
! 63:
! 64: # DANGER NETBSD ROOT ON ZFS USER, DANGER!
! 65:
! 66: There seems to be an issue accessing `/dev` nodes on ZFS.
! 67: While -current has enough fixes to work somewhat, accessing the boot partition whilst while root is on ZFS will hang, panic and maybe even corrupt your boot partition.
! 68: As such, you'll have to reboot into single user. From here you can mount the ZFS partition to `/altroot` and copy the updated kernel and modules from there to the boot partition.
! 69: Ironically, this is what the ramdisk approach was designed to actively avoid. Hopefully we can get it resolved soon.
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