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1.1       wiki        1: # Root On ZFS
                      2: 
                      3: NetBSD-9 gained much improved ZFS support.
1.2       roy         4: However, one feature it's still missing is the ability to have your system
                      5: root on ZFS.
                      6: For that, we need to teach our boot loader about ZFS,xi
                      7: but until then we can work around this limitation by using a FFS boot
                      8: partition and a ZFS root ramdisk.
                      9: You'll also need to use NetBSD-9.99.48 or newer.
                     10: 
                     11: The idea is simple - the boot loader loads the NetBSD kernel and the
                     12: required modules *(solaris and zfs)* from FFS and the ZFS root ramdisk.
                     13: The ramdisk then imports the ZFS root pool called `rpool`,
                     14: mounts `rpool/ROOT` to `/altroot` and finally instructs the kernel to
                     15: chroot to it.
                     16: Because the initial root is on a ramdisk,
                     17: we can then load the boot partition from inside the ZFS chroot to maintain it;
                     18: for example to update the kernel and modules.
1.1       wiki       19: 
                     20: ## Assumptions
                     21: 
1.2       roy        22: The ramdisk does make some assumptions as there is no way to pass variables
                     23: from boot.cfg:
1.1       wiki       24: 
1.2       roy        25:   *  The kernel has matching modules installed in the same partition; you only need `solaris` and `zfs`.
1.1       wiki       26:   *  The ZFS root pool is called `rpool` and the root filesystem is called `ROOT`.
                     27: 
1.2       roy        28: Once inside the chroot the kernel will load modules from the ZFS filesystem
                     29: because there is a symlink to it from the ramdisk.
                     30: The same is true for any firmware needed after boot.
                     31: 
1.1       wiki       32: ## Generic setup
                     33: 
                     34: Until the NetBSD installer can be updated, here are the manual steps from fresh:
                     35: 
                     36:   *  Build the ramdisk (`cd src/distrib/amd64/ramdisks/ramdisk-zfsroot; nbmake-amd64`)
                     37:   *  Boot the NetBSD installer
                     38:   *  Create a small (I used 2G) FFS partition and a normal swap partition
                     39:   *  Create a partition for ZFS
                     40:   *  Finish the NetBSD installation - install the etc, base and maybe rescue sets
                     41:   *  Reboot into your minimal NetBSD install
                     42: 
                     43: ## ZFS Setup
                     44: 
                     45: So far, so good. Now we need to make the needed adjustments to change root:
                     46: 
                     47:   *  Create a ZFS pool called `rpool` on your ZFS partition
                     48:   *  Create a ZFS filesystem called `ROOT` in `rpool`
                     49:   *  Set the mountpoint of `rpool/ROOT` to legacy so that the mount command can deal with it
                     50:   *  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
                     51:   *  `zfs umount rpool/ROOT`
                     52:   *  Add `rpool/ROOT /altroot zfs rw` to /etc/fstab
                     53:   *  `mount /altroot`
                     54:   *  Extract the sets you need to `/altroot`. At a minimum you will need etc and base.
1.3     ! wiki       55:   *  `cd /altroot/dev; ./MAKEDEV all`
        !            56:   *  `cd /altroot; mkdir kern proc`
1.1       wiki       57:   *  Copy `/etc/wscons.conf`, `/etc/fstab` and any other config files sysinst might have created to `/etc/rc.conf` to `/altroot/etc`
                     58:   *  Set `zfs=YES` in `/altroot/etc/rc.conf`
                     59:   *  Remove `rpool/ROOT` from `/altroot/etc/fstab`
                     60:   *  Add `name=boot /altroot ffs rw,noauto` to `/altroot/etc/fstab` along with any ZFS filesytems you created in '/usr' and '/var'
                     61:   *  Add the filesystems as well to `critical_filesystems_local` in `/altroot/etc/rc.conf` - such as `critical_filesystems_local="/usr /var /var/log"`
                     62:   *  Copy the `ramdisk-zfsroot.fs` to `/`
1.2       roy        63:   *  Edit `/boot.cfg` and add `menu=Boot ZFS Root:load solaris;load zfs;fs /ramdisk-zfsroot.fs;boot`
1.1       wiki       64: 
1.2       roy        65: And done!
                     66: You can now reboot and enjoy your root on ZFS and all the benefits it brings.
                     67: When updating the kernel, remember to `mount /altroot` and update it there as
                     68: well as the modules.
1.1       wiki       69: 
                     70: ## Future work
                     71: 
                     72: All these steps could be done in the installer.
1.2       roy        73: This is probably an easier task than adding ZFS support to the bootloader.
                     74: But don't let that stop you if you are stuck for something to do!