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| 2 | date = 2024-02-06 | |
| 3 | title = "How to Create a ZFS Pool on Ubuntu Linux" | |
| 4 | description = "Learn how to create a simple ZFS pool on Ubuntu Linux." | |
| 5 | +++ | |
| 6 | ||
| 7 | This post details the process I used to create ZFS pools, datasets, and | |
| 8 | snapshots on Ubuntu Server. | |
| 9 | ||
| 10 | I found the following pages very helpful while going through this process: | |
| 11 | ||
| 12 | - [Setup a ZFS storage pool](https://ubuntu.com/tutorials/setup-zfs-storage-pool) | |
| 13 | - [Kernel/Reference/ZFS](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Reference/ZFS) | |
| 14 | - [ZFS for Dummies](https://blog.victormendonca.com/2020/11/03/zfs-for-dummies/) | |
| 15 | ||
| 16 | ## Installation | |
| 17 | ||
| 18 | To start, I installed the ZFS package with the following command: | |
| 19 | ||
| 20 | ```sh | |
| 21 | sudo apt install zfsutils-linux | |
| 22 | ``` | |
| 23 | ||
| 24 | Once installed, you can check the version to see if it installed correctly. | |
| 25 | ||
| 26 | ```sh | |
| 27 | > zsf --version | |
| 28 | ||
| 29 | zfs-2.1.5-1ubuntu6~22.04.2 | |
| 30 | zfs-kmod-2.1.5-1ubuntu6~22.04.1 | |
| 31 | ``` | |
| 32 | ||
| 33 | ## ZFS Configuration | |
| 34 | ||
| 35 | Now that ZFS is installed, we can create and configure the pool. | |
| 36 | ||
| 37 | You have various options for configuring ZFS pools that all come different pros | |
| 38 | and cons. | |
| 39 | ||
| 40 | - Striped VDEVs (Raid0) | |
| 41 | - Mirrored VDEVs (Raid1) | |
| 42 | - Striped Mirrored VDEVs (Raid10) | |
| 43 | - RAIDz (Raid5) | |
| 44 | - RAIDz2 (Raidd6) | |
| 45 | - RAIDz3 | |
| 46 | - Nested RAIDz (Raid50, Raid60) | |
| 47 | ||
| 48 | I will be using Raid10 in this guide. However, the majority of the steps are the | |
| 49 | same regardless of your chosen pool configuration. | |
| 50 | ||
| 51 | ### Creating the Pool | |
| 52 | ||
| 53 | To start, let's list the disks available to use. You can use `fdisk` command to | |
| 54 | see all available disks. | |
| 55 | ||
| 56 | ```sh | |
| 57 | sudo fdisk -l | |
| 58 | ``` | |
| 59 | ||
| 60 | Or, if you currently have them mounted, you can use the `df` command to view | |
| 61 | your disks. | |
| 62 | ||
| 63 | ```sh | |
| 64 | > sudo df -h | |
| 65 | ||
| 66 | Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on | |
| 67 | ... | |
| 68 | /dev/sda1 7.3T 28K 6.9T 1% /mnt/red-01 | |
| 69 | /dev/sdb1 7.3T 144G 6.8T 3% /mnt/red-02 | |
| 70 | /dev/sdc1 7.3T 5.5T 1.9T 75% /mnt/white-02 | |
| 71 | /dev/sdd1 9.1T 8.7T 435G 96% /mnt/white-01 | |
| 72 | ``` | |
| 73 | ||
| 74 | If you're going to use mounted disks, make sure to umount them before creating | |
| 75 | the pool. | |
| 76 | ||
| 77 | ```sh | |
| 78 | sudo umount /dev/sda1 | |
| 79 | sudo umount /dev/sdb1 | |
| 80 | ``` | |
| 81 | ||
| 82 | Now that I've identified the disks I want to use and have them unmounted, let's | |
| 83 | create the pool. For this example, I will call it `tank`. | |
| 84 | ||
| 85 | ```sh | |
| 86 | sudo zpool create -f -m /mnt/pool tank mirror /dev/sda /dev/sdb | |
| 87 | ``` | |
| 88 | ||
| 89 | See below for the results of the new ZFS pool named `tank`, with a vdev | |
| 90 | automatically named `mirror-0`. | |
| 91 | ||
| 92 | ```sh | |
| 93 | > zfs list | |
| 94 | ||
| 95 | NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT | |
| 96 | tank 396K 7.14T 96K /tank | |
| 97 | ``` | |
| 98 | ||
| 99 | ```sh | |
| 100 | > zpool status | |
| 101 | ||
| 102 | pool: tank | |
| 103 | state: ONLINE | |
| 104 | config: | |
| 105 | ||
| 106 | NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM | |
| 107 | tank ONLINE 0 0 0 | |
| 108 | mirror-0 ONLINE 0 0 0 | |
| 109 | sda ONLINE 0 0 0 | |
| 110 | sdb ONLINE 0 0 0 | |
| 111 | ||
| 112 | errors: No known data errors | |
| 113 | ``` | |
| 114 | ||
| 115 | We can also look at the mounted filesystem to see where the pool is mounted and | |
| 116 | some quick stats. | |
| 117 | ||
| 118 | ```sh | |
| 119 | > df -h | |
| 120 | ||
| 121 | Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on | |
| 122 | ... | |
| 123 | tank 7.2T 128K 7.2T 1% /tank | |
| 124 | ``` | |
| 125 | ||
| 126 | ### Expanding the Pool | |
| 127 | ||
| 128 | If you want to expand this pool, you will need to add a new VDEV to the pool. | |
| 129 | Since I am using 2 disks per VDEV, I will need to add a new 2-disk VDEV to the | |
| 130 | existing `tank` pool. | |
| 131 | ||
| 132 | ```sh | |
| 133 | sudo zpool add tank mirror /dev/sdX /dev/sdY | |
| 134 | ``` | |
| 135 | ||
| 136 | I added two 8TB hard drives and this process took around 10 seconds to complete. | |
| 137 | ||
| 138 | When viewing the pool again, you can see that the pool has now doubled in size. | |
| 139 | We have 14.3 TB useable space and the same space used for mirroring. | |
| 140 | ||
| 141 | ```sh | |
| 142 | > zfs list | |
| 143 | ||
| 144 | NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT | |
| 145 | tank 145G 14.3T 104K /tank | |
| 146 | tank/cloud 145G 14.3T 145G /tank/cloud | |
| 147 | tank/media 96K 14.3T 96K /tank/media | |
| 148 | ``` | |
| 149 | ||
| 150 | ### Creating Datasets | |
| 151 | ||
| 152 | According to [ZFS | |
| 153 | Terminology](https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E18752_01/html/819-5461/ftyue.html), a | |
| 154 | `dataset` can refer to "clones, file systems, snapshots, and volumes. | |
| 155 | ||
| 156 | For this guide, I will use the `dataset` term to refer to file systems created | |
| 157 | under a pool. | |
| 158 | ||
| 159 | Within my `tank` pool, I am going to create some datasets to help organize my | |
| 160 | files. This will give me location to store data rather than simply dumping | |
| 161 | everything at the `/tank/` location. | |
| 162 | ||
| 163 | ```sh | |
| 164 | sudo zfs create tank/cloud | |
| 165 | sudo zfs create tank/media | |
| 166 | ``` | |
| 167 | ||
| 168 | Once created, you can see these datasets in the output of your pool list: | |
| 169 | ||
| 170 | ```sh | |
| 171 | > zfs list | |
| 172 | NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT | |
| 173 | tank 752K 7.14T 104K /tank | |
| 174 | tank/cloud 96K 7.14T 96K /tank/cloud | |
| 175 | tank/media 96K 7.14T 96K /tank/media | |
| 176 | ``` | |
| 177 | ||
| 178 | ### Creating Snapshots | |
| 179 | ||
| 180 | Next, let's create our first snapshot. We can do this by calling the `snapshot` | |
| 181 | command and give it an output name. I will be throwing the current date and time | |
| 182 | into my example. | |
| 183 | ||
| 184 | ```sh | |
| 185 | sudo zfs snapshot tank@$(date '+%Y-%m-%d_%H-%M') | |
| 186 | ``` | |
| 187 | ||
| 188 | We can list the snapshots in our pool with the following command: | |
| 189 | ||
| 190 | ```sh | |
| 191 | > zfs list -t snapshot | |
| 192 | NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT | |
| 193 | tank@2024-02-06_19-41 0B - 104K - | |
| 194 | ``` | |
| 195 | ||
| 196 | ### Destroy Snapshots | |
| 197 | ||
| 198 | You can always destroy snapshots that are no longer needed: | |
| 199 | ||
| 200 | ```sh | |
| 201 | sudo zfs destroy tank@2024-02-06_19-41 | |
| 202 | ``` | |
| 203 | ||
| 204 | Once deleted, they will no longer appear in the list: | |
| 205 | ||
| 206 | ```sh | |
| 207 | > zfs list -t snapshot | |
| 208 | no datasets available | |
| 209 | ``` | |
| 210 | ||
| 211 | ## My Thoughts on ZFS So Far | |
| 212 | ||
| 213 | - I sacrificed 25TB to be able to mirror my data, but I feel more comfortable | |
| 214 | with the potential to save my data by quickly replacing a disk if I need to. | |
| 215 | - The set-up was surprisingly easy and fast. | |
| 216 | - Disk I/O is fast as well. I was worried that the data transfer speeds would be | |
| 217 | slower due to the RAID configuration. | |
| 218 | - Media streaming and transcoding has seen no noticeable drop in performance. | |
| 219 | - My only limitation really is the number of HDD bays in my server HDD cage. | |