zfs discuss - Jun 2008 - new install - when is zfs root offered? (snv_90)

I''m trying a new install, creating a solaris partition in free space
(p3) which follows Windows XP (p1) and Ubuntu Linux (p2).
I want ZFS root, but the "interactive" installer (choice 1) on the
snv_90 DVD does not offer me ZFS root. Anyone know why?
or how to work-around the issue?

When I did a netinstall using the same DVD (exported
from a server I had nearby) on a machine where I let
Solaris have the whole disk, it offered ZFS root.

I''d really like to know: What are the conditions
under which the installer will offer ZFS root?

Thanks,
Gordon
 
 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

On Tue, 3 Jun 2008, Gordon Ross wrote:
> I''d really like to know: What are the conditions under which the 
> installer will offer ZFS root?
Only the text-based installer will offer it - not the GUI.


Regards,
markm

On Tue, 3 Jun 2008, Mark J Musante wrote:
> On Tue, 3 Jun 2008, Gordon Ross wrote:
> 
> > I''d really like to know: What are the conditions under which
the
> > installer will offer ZFS root?
> 
> Only the text-based installer will offer it - not the GUI.
Hmm, why''s that?  Also, is there an ETA for when ZFS root will be
offered in the GUI installer?  (I recently installed Build 89 and
was surprised by the lack of ZFS pools after installation using
the GUI installer.)

-- 
Rich Teer, SCSA, SCNA, SCSECA

CEO,
My Online Home Inventory

URLs: http://www.rite-group.com/rich
      http://www.linkedin.com/in/richteer
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On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 9:38 AM, Rich Teer <rich.teer at rite-group.com>
wrote:
> Hmm, why''s that?  Also, is there an ETA for when ZFS root will be
> offered in the GUI installer?  (I recently installed Build 89 and
> was surprised by the lack of ZFS pools after installation using
> the GUI installer.)
There was some discussion about it recently, I think the reason is
that the GUI for SXDE is not open sourced so it was more
difficult/political to add. The 2008.05 installer should be able to do
it when they sync up to b90 or beyond.

-B

-- 
Brandon High bhigh at freaks.com
"The good is the enemy of the best." - Nietzsche

How about SPARC - can it do zfs install+root yet, or if not, when?
Just got a couple of nice 1TB SAS drives, and I think I''d prefer to
have a mirrored pool where zfs owns the entire drives, if possible.
(I''d also eventually like to have multiple bootable zfs filesystems in
that pool, corresponding to multiple versions.)

Is/will all that be possible?  Would it be ok to pre-create the pool,
and if so, any particular requirements?

Currently running snv_81 on a Sun Blade 2000; SAS/SATA controller
is an LSI Logic SAS 3800X 8-port, in the 66MHz slot.  I chose SAS drives
for the first two (of 8) trusting SCSI support to probably be more mature
and functional than SATA support, but the rest (as I''m willing to part
with the $$)
will probably be SATA for price.  The current two SAS drives are Seagate
ST31000640SS (which I just used smartctl to confirm have SMART support
including temperature reporting).  Enclosure is an Enhance E8-ML (no
enclosure services support).
 
 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

On Tue, Jun 03, 2008 at 05:56:44PM -0700, Richard L. Hamilton
wrote:
> How about SPARC - can it do zfs install+root yet, or if not, when?
> Just got a couple of nice 1TB SAS drives, and I think I''d prefer
to
> have a mirrored pool where zfs owns the entire drives, if possible.
> (I''d also eventually like to have multiple bootable zfs
filesystems in
> that pool, corresponding to multiple versions.)
Is they just under 1TB?  I don''t believe there''s any boot
support in
Solaris for EFI labels, which would be required for 1TB+.

-- 
Darren

> On Tue, Jun 03, 2008 at 05:56:44PM -0700, Richard L.
> Hamilton wrote:
> > How about SPARC - can it do zfs install+root yet,
> or if not, when?
> > Just got a couple of nice 1TB SAS drives, and I
> think I''d prefer to
> > have a mirrored pool where zfs owns the entire
> drives, if possible.
> > (I''d also eventually like to have multiple bootable
> zfs filesystems in
> > that pool, corresponding to multiple versions.)
> 
> Is they just under 1TB?  I don''t believe there''s any
> boot support in
> Solaris for EFI labels, which would be required for
> 1TB+.
Don''t know about Solaris or the on-disk bootloader (I would think they
ought to have that eventually if not already), but since it''s been
awhile
since I''ve seen a new firmware update for the SB2K, I doubt the
firmware
could handle EFI labels.

But "format" is perfectly happy putting either Sun or EFI labels
on these drives, so that shouldn''t be a problem.   SCSI "read
capacity"
shows 1953525168 (512-byte) sectors, which multiplied out is
1,000,204,886,016 bytes; more than 10^12 (1TB), but less than 2^40 (1TiB).
 
 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

P.S. the ST31000640SS drives, together with the LSI SAS 3800x
controller (in a 64-bit 66MHz slot) gave me, using dd with
a block size of either 1024k or 16384k (1MB or 16MB) and a count
of 1024, a sustained read rate that worked out to a shade over 119MB/s,
even better than the nominal "sustained transfer rate" of 116MB/s
documented
for the drives.  Even at a miserly 7200 RPM, that was better than 2 1/2 times
faster than the internal 10,000 RPM 73GB FC/AL (2GB/s) drives, which impressed
the heck out of me.
 
 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

A Darren Dunham <ddunham at taos.com> writes:
> On Tue, Jun 03, 2008 at 05:56:44PM -0700, Richard L. Hamilton wrote:
>> How about SPARC - can it do zfs install+root yet, or if not, when?
>> Just got a couple of nice 1TB SAS drives, and I think I''d
prefer to
>> have a mirrored pool where zfs owns the entire drives, if possible.
>> (I''d also eventually like to have multiple bootable zfs
filesystems in
>> that pool, corresponding to multiple versions.)
>
> Is they just under 1TB?  I don''t believe there''s any boot
support in
> Solaris for EFI labels, which would be required for 1TB+.
ISTR that I saw an ARC case go past about a week ago about extended SMI
labels to allow > 1TB disks, for exactly this reason.

Boyd

> A Darren Dunham <ddunham at taos.com> writes:
> 
> > On Tue, Jun 03, 2008 at 05:56:44PM -0700, Richard
> L. Hamilton wrote:
> >> How about SPARC - can it do zfs install+root yet,
> or if not, when?
> >> Just got a couple of nice 1TB SAS drives, and I
> think I''d prefer to
> >> have a mirrored pool where zfs owns the entire
> drives, if possible.
> >> (I''d also eventually like to have multiple
> bootable zfs filesystems in
> >> that pool, corresponding to multiple versions.)
> >
> > Is they just under 1TB?  I don''t believe there''s
> any boot support in
> > Solaris for EFI labels, which would be required for
> 1TB+.
> 
> ISTR that I saw an ARC case go past about a week ago
> about extended SMI
> labels to allow > 1TB disks, for exactly this reason.
> 
Thanks.  Just searched, that''s
http://www.opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?messageID=237603
(approved)

Since format didn''t choke, and since a close reading suggests the
actual older limit is 1TiB (or maybe 1TiB - 1 sector), I should be fine
on that score.  The LSI SAS 3800x is supposed to have fcode boot support.
And snv_90 is supposed to have zfs boot install working on both SPARC and x86.
So I guess I''ll just have to try it.  That only leaves me wondering
whether I should
attempt a live upgrade from SXCE snv_81, or just do the text install off a DVD
onto one of the new disks (hoping the installer takes care of setting up the
disk
however it needs to be to be bootable), and then adding identical partitioning
to the other disk, attaching a suitable partition on the 2nd disk to the zpool,
and
using LVM (Disk Suite) to mirror any non-zfs partitions the installation
created.

Never having used live upgrade myself (although read about it), I suppose it
would
be an educational experience either way.  Time was once, I''d have
looked forward
to that...must be getting tired...
 
 
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