Adding a new post on the Ubuntu ZFS installation
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posts/misc/a_quick_zfs_overview.rst
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posts/misc/a_quick_zfs_overview.rst
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.. title: A quick ZFS overview on Linux
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.. date: 2020-01-27
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.. slug: a-quick-zfs-overview-on-linux
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.. updated: 2020-01-27
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.. status: published
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.. tags: misc, zfs, file system
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.. category: misc
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.. authors: Elia El Lazkani
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.. description: A overview of Linux on ZFS root
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.. type: text
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I have, for years, been interested in *file systems*. Specifically a *file system* to run my personal systems on.
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For most people **Ext4** is good enough and that is totally fine. But, as a power user, I like to have more control, more features and more options out of my file system.
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I have played with most of file sytsems on Linux, and have been using **Btrfs** for a few years now. I have worked with NAS systems running on **ZFS** and have been very impressed by it.
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The only problem is that **ZFS** wasn't been well suppored on Linux at the time. **Btrfs** promissed to be the **ZFS** replacement for Linux nativetly, especially that it was backed up by a bunch of the giants like Oracle and RedHat.
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My decision at that point was made, and yes that was before RedHat's support for **XFS** which is impressive on its own.
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Recently though, a new project gave everyone hope. `OpenZFS <http://www.open-zfs.org/wiki/Main_Page>`_ came to life and so did `ZFS on Linux <https://zfsonlinux.org/>`_.
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.. TEASER_END
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Linux has had **ZFS** support for a while now but mostly to manage a **ZFS** *file system*, so I kept watching until I saw a blog post by **Ubuntu** entitled `Enhancing our ZFS support on Ubuntu 19.10 – an introduction <https://ubuntu.com/blog/enhancing-our-zfs-support-on-ubuntu-19-10-an-introduction>`_.
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In the blog post above, I read the following:
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We want to support ZFS on root as an experimental installer option, initially for desktop,
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but keeping the layout extensible for server later on. The desktop will be the first
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beneficiary in Ubuntu 19.10. Note the use of the term ‘experimental’ though!
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My eyes widened at this point. I know that **Ubuntu** has had native **ZFS** support since 2016 but now I could install it with one click. At that point I was all in, and I went back to **Ubuntu**.
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Ubuntu on root ZFS
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==================
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You heard me right, the **Ubuntu** installer offers an 'experimental' install on **ZFS**. I made the decision based on the well tested stability of **ZFS** in production environments and its ability to offer me the flexibility and the ability to backup and recover my data easily.
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In other words, if **Ubuntu** doesn't work, **ZFS** is there and I can install whatever I like on top and if you are familiar with **ZFS** you know exactly what I mean and I have barely scratched the ice on its capabilities.
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So here I was with **Ubuntu** installed on my laptop on root **ZFS**. So I had to do it.
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.. code:: text
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# zpool status -v
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pool: bpool
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state: ONLINE
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status: The pool is formatted using a legacy on-disk format. The pool can
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still be used, but some features are unavailable.
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action: Upgrade the pool using 'zpool upgrade'. Once this is done, the
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pool will no longer be accessible on software that does not support
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feature flags.
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scan: none requested
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config:
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NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
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bpool ONLINE 0 0 0
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nvme0n1p4 ONLINE 0 0 0
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errors: No known data errors
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pool: rpool
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state: ONLINE
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scan: none requested
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config:
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NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
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rpool ONLINE 0 0 0
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nvme0n1p5 ONLINE 0 0 0
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errors: No known data errors
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.. note::
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I have read somewhere in a blog about **Ubuntu** that I should not run an upgrade on the boot pool.
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and it's running on...
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.. code:: text
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# uname -s -v -i -o
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Linux #28-Ubuntu SMP Wed Dec 18 05:37:46 UTC 2019 x86_64 GNU/Linux
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Well that was pretty easy.
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ZFS Pools
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=========
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Let's take a look at how the installer has configured the *pools*.
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.. code:: text
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# zpool list zo 23:21
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NAME SIZE ALLOC FREE CKPOINT EXPANDSZ FRAG CAP DEDUP HEALTH ALTROOT
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bpool 1,88G 158M 1,72G - - - 8% 1.00x ONLINE -
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rpool 472G 7,91G 464G - - 0% 1% 1.00x ONLINE -
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So it creates a *boot* pool and a *root* pool. Maybe looking at the **datasets** would give us a better idea.
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ZFS Datasets
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============
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Let's look at the sanitized version of the datasets.
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.. code:: text
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# zfs list
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NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
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bpool 158M 1,60G 176K /boot
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bpool/BOOT 157M 1,60G 176K none
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bpool/BOOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx 157M 1,60G 157M /boot
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rpool 7,92G 449G 96K /
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rpool/ROOT 4,53G 449G 96K none
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx 4,53G 449G 3,37G /
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/srv 96K 449G 96K /srv
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/usr 208K 449G 96K /usr
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/usr/local 112K 449G 112K /usr/local
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/var 1,16G 449G 96K /var
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/var/games 96K 449G 96K /var/games
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/var/lib 1,15G 449G 1,04G /var/lib
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/var/lib/AccountServices 96K 449G 96K /var/lib/AccountServices
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/var/lib/NetworkManager 152K 449G 152K /var/lib/NetworkManager
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/var/lib/apt 75,2M 449G 75,2M /var/lib/apt
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/var/lib/dpkg 36,5M 449G 36,5M /var/lib/dpkg
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/var/log 11,0M 449G 11,0M /var/log
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/var/mail 96K 449G 96K /var/mail
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/var/snap 128K 449G 128K /var/snap
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/var/spool 112K 449G 112K /var/spool
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rpool/ROOT/ubuntu_xxxxxx/var/www 96K 449G 96K /var/www
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rpool/USERDATA 3,38G 449G 96K /
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rpool/USERDATA/user_yyyyyy 3,37G 449G 3,37G /home/user
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rpool/USERDATA/root_yyyyyy 7,52M 449G 7,52M /root
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.. note::
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The installer have created some random IDs that I have not figured out if they are totally random or mapped to something so I have sanitized them.
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I also sanitized the user, of course. ;)
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It looks like the installer created a bunch of datasets with their respective mountpoints.
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ZFS Properties
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==============
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**ZFS** has a list of features and they are tunable in different ways, one of them is through the properties, let's have a look.
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.. code:: text
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# zfs get all rpool
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NAME PROPERTY VALUE SOURCE
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rpool type filesystem -
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rpool creation vr jan 24 23:04 2020 -
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rpool used 7,91G -
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rpool available 449G -
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rpool referenced 96K -
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rpool compressratio 1.43x -
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rpool mounted no -
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rpool quota none default
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rpool reservation none default
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rpool recordsize 128K default
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rpool mountpoint / local
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...
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This gives us an idea on properties set on the dataset specified, in this case, the *rpool* root dataset.
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Conclusion
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==========
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I read in a blog post that the **Ubuntu** team responsible for the **ZFS** support has followed all the **ZFS** best practices in the installer.
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I have no way of verifying that as I am not a **ZFS** expert but I'll be happy to take their word for it until I learn more.
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What is certain for now is that I am running on **ZFS**, and I will be enjoying its features to the fullest.
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