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ZFS Quick Tutorial

Tuesday, 03 May 2011

1. Configure ZFS to start at boot

Add in /etc/rc.conf the following line:

zfs_enable="YES"

This will make ZFS kernel module (and opensolaris module) to be loaded at boot, and in that way your ZFS drive will be mounted automatically at boot.

2. Create GPT partition on all drives with the same size

This is useful if we use raidz.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da0 bs=1k count=4
gpart create -s GPT da0
gpart show da0
gpart add -b 34 -s 3600M -t freebsd-zfs da0
gpart show da0

3600MB is the size we want for our test usb stick pool.

3. Creating zpool

And now we create the raidz pool of 4 usb sticks:

zpool create tank raidz da0p1 da1p1 da2p1 da3p1

Then we check the status of the pool:

zpool status -v

We will get:

zpool status -v

pool: tank
state: ONLINE
scrub: none requested
config:

NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
tank ONLINE 0 0 0
raidz1 ONLINE 0 0 0
da0p1 ONLINE 0 0 0
da1p1 ONLINE 0 0 0
da2p1 ONLINE 0 0 0
da3p1 ONLINE 0 0 0

errors: No known data errors

To see the pool we use:

zpool list

We will get:

pool list

NAME SIZE USED AVAIL CAP HEALTH ALTROOT
tank 14G 138K 14.0G 0% ONLINE -

To remove/delete the pool we use:

zpool destroy tank

The first create pool example will build a raidz pool. To create a mirrored drive pool with two drives in it we use:

zpool create tank mirror da0p1 da1p1

4. Doing backup on a mirrored pool

To backup a mirrored pool we can add another drive to the pool, then we can wait for all three drives to sync and then we will remove the third drive from the pool.

Let's say you've created your mirrored pool with the following command:

zpool create tank mirror ada1 ada2

Then to add a third drive to the mirrored pool we will run:

zpool attach tank ada2 ada3

Then we do a scrub on the pool:

zpool scrub tank

To see the resilvering process and status of the pool we will run:

zpool status -v

Then after the sync process is complete we will split the third drive to a new pool called tank2:

zpool split tank tank2

Then you can physically remove ada3 from your machine and move it to other location. Repeat this process from time to time so you would keep an almost up to date offsite backup.

If you want to access data on tank2 you must import tank2 pool (ada3).

5. Replacing a failed drive

If a drived fail we will see the pool as DEGRADED:

zpool status -v # on a degraded pool

zpool status -v
pool: tank
state: DEGRADED
scrub: none requested
config:

NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
tank DEGRADED 0 0 0
raidz1 DEGRADED 0 0 0
da1p1 ONLINE 0 0 0
da2p1 REMOVED 0 0 0
da3p1 ONLINE 0 0 0

errors: No known data errors

We add a new drive that will be da0 (and we create partition on it using gpart (see create GPT partition section), then we replace old drive with the new one:

zpool replace tank da2p1 da0p1

Then we will wait for the pool to resync the new drive (to put data on it), operation that is called resilvering:

zpool status -v

zpool status -v
pool: tank
state: DEGRADED
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.
scrub: resilver in progress for 0h4m, 74.93% done, 0h1m to go
config:

NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
tank DEGRADED 0 0 0
raidz1 DEGRADED 0 0 0
da1p1 ONLINE 0 0 0
replacing DEGRADED 0 0 0
da2p1 REMOVED 0 0 0
da0p1 ONLINE 0 0 0 802M resilvered
da3p1 ONLINE 0 0 0

6. Checking/repairing pool errors

zpool scrub tank

Some checks are done during resilvering process but real data check is done via scrub.

To clear error messages that appear when running zpool status -v run:

zpool clear tank

7. Saving a snapshot of the file system

To make a snapshot of the pool run:

zfs snapshot -r tank/home/first@backup

To list all snapshots run:

zfs list -t snapshot

If we want to also display creation date we will run:

zfs list -t snapshot -o name,creation

If later we want to roll back to a snapshot version we will run:

zfs rollback tank/home/first@backup

If there are newer snapshots than first@backup you will get a notice that if you do the rollback you will lose those newer snapshots and the rollback would not be performed. In order to perform the rollback anyway run:

zfs rollback -r tank/home/first@backup

Snapshots also can be renamed. In order to rename a snapshot run:

zfs rename tank/home/first@backup tank/home/today@backup

We can also send snapshots to other machine.

To send our snapshot to other machine we will run (10.0.0.10 is the IP of the destination machine):

zfs send tank/home/first@backup | ssh This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it zfs recv -u tank/home/first

Note: If you get an error when sending snapshots that you do not have permisions the quickest way to solve that (might not be the safest) is prior to that to run the following command on destination machine:

zfs allow everyone mount,create,receive tank/home/

If you want to replace a device on the destination run:

zfs send tank/home_first@backup | ssh This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it zfs recv -Fdv tank

This asume your ZFS pool on destination is tank, and then after the command is complete you will have on destination tank/home_first device.

Deleting snapshots. If you want to delete a snapshot run:

zfs destroy tank/home/first@backup

where: tank/home/first@backup is your snapshot name.

NOTE! Be carefull not to destroy your pool. If one snapshot is dependent on other you might want to use -R parameter which will also delete dependent snapshot.

8. Creating a file system in a storage pool

Let's say we have tank storage pool. To create a file system we use:

zfs create tank/fs

or if you create a volume which is 100GB in size:

zfs create -V 100G tankfs/volume2

Note that by using previous command you will not able to mount it unless you create a file system on it.

To display all volumes created on a ZFS pool use:

zfs list
NAME          USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
tankfs       2.77T   151G 46.5K legacy
tankfs/fs    2.66T   151G 2.66T legacy
tankfs/volume2 103G   254G    16K -

We can delete/remove a volume with destroy command too:

zfs destroy tankfs/volume2

9. Usefull commands when testing ZFS on USB sticks

camcontrol rescan all
camcontrol devlist

10. Manually mount a ZFS pool

To manually mount a ZFS pool we use:

mkdir /mnt/tank
mount -t zfs tank /mnt/tank

If you want a file system to be mounted at boot time first see if it has any mount point configured:

zfs get mountpoint tank/home

To set the mount point run:

zfs set mountpoint=/home /tank/home

11. Enabling ZFS Deduplication

To enable deduplication on ZFS which will store identical file once, saving disk space run:

zfs set dedup=on tank

12. Configuring ZFS cache

If you do not have lot of RAM memory available, you can speed up ZFS by adding a separate drive for cache. You can do that with the following command:

zpool add tank cache ad7

In this example /dev/ad7 will be used only for ZFS cache.

To remove cache drive use:

zpool remove tank ad7

where of course ad7 is your cache device.

Note! Be carefull when adding cache drive because if you forget to specify cache keyword you might add the device to the pool as strip device.

13. ZFS Benchmark

dd if=/dev/urandom of=/tank/test_file bs=1M count=1024

zpool iostat 5

14. ZFS Monitor

You can use zfs-stats utility from ports in order to get a status of ZFS:

cd /usr/ports/sysutils/zfs-stats
make install clean; rehash
zfs-stats -a

15. Errors you might get

cannot replace da2p1 with da3p1: cannot replace a replacing device

16. Enabling compression

zfs set compression=lzjb tank

17. Checking for errors

To check for errors use:

zpool scrub tank

To stop scrub process:

zpool scrub -s tank

18. Dealing with errors

If you get an error like:

zfs error

# zpool status -v
pool: tank
state: ONLINE
status: One or more devices has experienced an error resulting in data
corruption. Applications may be affected.
action: Restore the file in question if possible. Otherwise restore the
entire pool from backup.
see: http://www.sun.com/msg/ZFS-8000-8A
scan: scrub repaired 12K in 7h51m with 1 errors on Fri Nov 18 03:30:30 2011
config:

NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
tank ONLINE 0 0 0
ada1p1 ONLINE 0 0 0

errors: Permanent errors have been detected in the following files:

<metadata>:<0x24>

You can find where the error is using:

find -x /mnt/tank -inum 24

asuming that your zfs pool is mounted in /mnt/tank.

Notes

- to find ZFS version on your FreeBSD system:   zpool upgrade -v
- for a filesystem inside a pool we will use the term dataset (some will use volume but that might be confiusing because of zvol, it is also called file system)
(You will get something like this:   This system is currently running ZFS pool version 15.)
- when you test ZFS with USB sticks if you test replacing a drive do a complete dd to the old stick, otherwise you might get an error that the device is already used in that pool.
- after you've upgraded the raidz pool with bigger drives in order to appear the new size you must upgrade all drives and and then you must export and import the pool.
- if you remove all or some drives and then you want to destroy the pool it is possible that the command zpool destroy pool_name to freeze the terminal and then the pool is not destroyed. So is better to first destroy the pools and then remove the drives.

- if you want to use your zfs pool with Samba then run:
zfs set sharesmb=on tankfs/fs

- if your scrub performance is slow try to add following value to /boot/loader.conf (lower ATA queue size):
vfs.zfs.vdev.max_pending="4"

- to find all options for your pool run: zfs get all

- if you get the following error when you try to destroy a ZFS GELI pool (using geli detach /dev/gpt/local0 command for example where local0 is our pool):

geli: Cannot destroy device (error=16).

that is because the pool is still in use. To fix this, first export the pool with command:

zpool export tank

then issue the detach command and it will work.

If you've upgraded your drives to a bigger size ones and your pool size did not increase run the following command:

zpool online -e tank ada1 ada2 ada3 ada5           # where tank is your pool and ada1 ada2 ada3 ada5 are your drives
                                                                                   # from the pool

To remove a drive from a mirrored pool:

zpool offline tank ada4

zpool detach tank ada4

Last Updated ( Monday, 08 December 2014 )

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