Table of Contents

Move root to ZFS

Based on Debian Buster Root on ZFS

Additional references:

Prepare system

apt install --yes zfs-initramfs zfs-dkms

Prepare new disk

DISK=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk1
sgdisk --zap-all $DISK
sgdisk -a8 -n1:24K:+1000K -t1:EF02 $DISK  # grub bios
sgdisk     -n2:1M:+256M   -t2:EF00 $DISK  # EFI
sgdisk     -n3:0:+512M    -t3:BF01 $DISK  # /boot
sgdisk     -n4:0:0        -t4:BF00 $DISK  # rpool

Create boot pool

zpool create \
    -o ashift=13 -d \
    -o feature@async_destroy=enabled \
    -o feature@bookmarks=enabled \
    -o feature@embedded_data=enabled \
    -o feature@empty_bpobj=enabled \rapidly and thoroughly than you'd think.
    -o feature@enabled_txg=enabled \
    -o feature@extensible_dataset=enabled \
    -o feature@filesystem_limits=enabled \
    -o feature@hole_birth=enabled \
    -o feature@large_blocks=enabled \
    -o feature@lz4_compress=enabled \
    -o feature@spacemap_histogram=enabled \
    -o feature@zpool_checkpoint=enabled \
    -O acltype=posixacl -O canmount=off -O compression=lz4 \
    -O devices=off -O normalization=formD -O relatime=on -O xattr=sa \
    -O mountpoint=/boot -R /bpool \
    bpool ${DISK}-part3

Create root pool

zpool create \
    -o ashift=13 \
    -O acltype=posixacl -O canmount=off -O compression=lz4 \
    -O dnodesize=auto -O normalization=formD -O relatime=on \
    -O xattr=sa -O mountpoint=/ -R /rpool \
    rpool ${DISK}-part4

prepare filesystem

zfs create -o canmount=off -o mountpoint=none rpool/ROOT
zfs create -o canmount=off -o mountpoint=none bpool/BOOT
mkdir -p /rpool
zfs create -o canmount=noauto -o mountpoint=/rpool rpool/ROOT/debian
zfs set mountpoint=/rpool rpool
zfs set mountpoint=/rpool rpool/ROOT/debian
zfs mount rpool/ROOT/debian
 
zfs create -o mountpoint=/boot bpool/BOOT/debian
mkdir -p /bpool
zfs set mountpoint=/bpool bpool
zfs create rpool/home
zfs create rpool/root
chmod 700 /rpool/root
 
zfs create -o canmount=off -o setuid=off -o exec=off rpool/var
zfs create -o acltype=posixacl -o xattr=sa rpool/var/log
zfs create -o com.sun:auto-snapshot=false  rpool/var/cache
zfs create                                 rpool/var/spool
zfs create -o com.sun:auto-snapshot=false -o exec=on rpool/var/tmp
chmod 1777 /rpool/var/tmp
 
zfs create -o canmount=off                 rpool/var/lib
zfs create -o com.sun:auto-snapshot=false  rpool/var/lib/docker
 
zfs create                                 rpool/opt
 
zfs create -o canmount=off                 rpool/usr
zfs create                                 rpool/usr/local
 
zfs create                                 rpool/var/snap
 
zfs inherit exec rpool/var

Move filesystem

mkdir /oldroot
mount .... /oldroot
 
echo REMAKE_INITRD=yes > /oldroot/etc/dkms/zfs.conf
 
rsync -arAXHvW --filter='-x btrfs.compression' /oldroot/ /rpool/

update filesystem

mount --rbind /dev  /rpool/dev
mount --rbind /proc /rpool/proc
mount --rbind /sys  /rpool/sys
chroot /rpool /bin/bash --login
ln -s /proc/self/mounts /etc/mtab
mv /boot /boot.org
zfs set mountpoint=/boot bpool
zfs set mountpoint=/boot bpool/BOOT/debian
zfs mount bpool/BOOT/debian
rsync -av /boot.org/ /boot/
zfs set mountpoint=/ rpool
zfs set mountpoint=/ rpool/ROOT/debian
zfs set readonly=off rpool/ROOT/debian

Enable importing bpool

[Unit]
DefaultDependencies=no
Before=zfs-import-scan.service
Before=zfs-import-cache.service
 
[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/sbin/zpool import -N -o cachefile=none bpool
# Work-around to preserve zpool cache:
ExecStartPre=-/bin/mv /etc/zfs/zpool.cache /etc/zfs/preboot_zpool.cache
ExecStartPost=-/bin/mv /etc/zfs/preboot_zpool.cache /etc/zfs/zpool.cache
 
[Install]
WantedBy=zfs-import.target
systemctl enable zfs-import-bpool.service

fstab

Remove all old fstab entries related to prebvious setup!

Workaround GRUB’s missing zpool-features support

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="root=ZFS=rpool/ROOT/debian boot=zfs"
update-initramfs -c -k 

Update GRUB

EFI boot

mkdosfs -F 32 -s 1 -n EFI ${DISK}-part2
mkdir /boot/efi
echo /dev/disk/by-uuid/$(blkid -s UUID -o value ${DISK}-part2) \
   /boot/efi vfat noatime,nofail,x-systemd.device-timeout=1 0 0 >> /etc/fstab
mount /boot/efi
apt install --yes grub-efi-amd64 shim-signed   
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi \
    --bootloader-id=debian --recheck --no-floppy

legacy boot

grup-probe /boot
# should return zfs
 
 
update-grub
 
grub-install $DISK

Fix filesystem mount ordering

mkdir /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache
touch /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache/bpool
touch /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache/rpool
ln -s /usr/lib/zfs-linux/zed.d/history_event-zfs-list-cacher.sh /etc/zfs/zed.d
zed -F &

Verify that zed updated the cache by making sure these are not empty:

cat /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache/bpool
cat /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache/rpool

Fix the paths to eliminate mount prefix /rpool:

sed -Ei "s|/rpool/?|/|" /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache/*

Exit chroot:

exit

Unmount zfs

mount | grep -v zfs | tac | awk '/\/mnt/ {print $3}' | \
    xargs -i{} umount -lf {}

DON'T FORGET TO EXPORT BEFORE REBOOT!

zpool export -a

reboot

Reboot. Choose recovery boot to verify.

Add 2nd disk for mirror

DISK=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk2
sgdisk --zap-all $DISK
sgdisk -a8 -n1:24K:+1000K -t1:EF02 $DISK  # grub bios
sgdisk     -n2:1M:+256M   -t2:EF00 $DISK  # EFI
sgdisk     -n3:0:+512M    -t3:BF01 $DISK  # /boot
sgdisk     -n4:0:0        -t4:BF00 $DISK  # rpool

Attach boot partitiona to bpool:

zpool list -v
zpool attach bpool ata-WDC_WD1003FZEX-00MK2A0_WD-WCC3F5HSP1N1-part3 $DISK-part3
zpool list -v

Attach pool partition to rpool:

zpool list -v
zpool attach rpool ata-WDC_WD1003FZEX-00MK2A0_WD-WCC3F5HSP1N1-part4 $DISK-part4
zpool list -v

Check mirror build progresS:

zpool status

  pool: bpool
 state: ONLINE
  scan: resilvered 263M in 0 days 00:00:06 with 0 errors on Sun Feb 14 18:26:12 2021

  pool: rpool
 state: ONLINE
status: One or more devices is currently being resilvered.  The pool will
	continue to function, possibly in a degraded state.
action: Wait for the resilver to complete.
  scan: resilver in progress since Sun Feb 14 18:27:09 2021
	68,9G scanned at 860M/s, 504K issued at 6,15K/s, 326G total
	0B resilvered, 0,00% done, no estimated completion time

Install grub on 2nd disk

legacy

dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc

Hit enter until you get to the device selection screen. Select (using the space bar) all of the disks (not partitions) in your pool.

or

grub-install $DISK

For UEFI booting

umount /boot/efi
dd if=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk1-part2 \
   of=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk2-part2
 
efibootmgr -c -g -d /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk2 \
    -p 2 -L "debian-2" -l '\EFI\debian\grubx64.efi'
 
mount /boot/efi

add ZIL and L2ARC

zpool add rpool log c2980761-ed99-4af3-8519-f03ed43fbefe
zpool add rpool cache 3b42df2e-2923-464c-92d6-8d629252727d

issue: No pool imported

No pool imported. Manually import the root pool
at the command prompt and then exit.
Hint: Try:  zpool import -R /root -N

Initramfs stuck because no /root found:

zpool import -R /root -N rpool
zfs mount rpool/ROOT/debian
exit

Solution:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="root=ZFS=rpool/ROOT/debian boot=zfs"
update-initramfs -c -k all

issue ?

Now in recovery mode fix /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache/* content (see above).

update-initramfs -c -k all

TEMP

DONT FORGET TO ADD NEXT MIRROR DEVICE DRIVE TO ZFS POOLS:

grub-install $DISK

/dev/sda1 1MB BIOS boot /dev/sda2 512MB EFI System vfat /dev/sda3 rest zfs_member

rpool 136G 314G 104K /rpool rpool/ROOT 5,79G 314G 96K /rpool/ROOT rpool/ROOT/pve-1 5,79G 314G 5,79G /