zfs discuss - Dec 2009 - Moving a pool from FreeBSD 8.0 to opensolaris

I was wondering what the best method of moving a pool from FreeBSD 8.0 to
OpenSolaris is.

When i originally built my system, it was using hardware which wouldn''t
work
in opensolairs, but i''m about to do an upgrade so i should be able to
use
Opensolaris when i''m done.

My current system uses a Highpoint RocketRaid 2340.  It has 12 1TB hard
drives an intel core2 quad Q9550 and 8gb of ddr2 800 desktop ram.

I''m going to buy 8 more 1TB drives, a Supermicro MBD-X7SBE motherboard
2
Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 raid cards and 8 gb of ddr2 800 registered ecc
memory

I know i probably can''t import my current pool into opensolaris, but i
was
thinking i could use the 8 drives and create a pool which i COULD import,
using that to back up my data.

I''m not sure how to go about it.  Basically, how should i format my
drives
in FreeBSD, create a ZPOOL which can be imported into OpenSolaris.

Once i can do that, i''d like to create create a new pool in opensolaris
using the old drives copy the data back, then destory the pool i used to
migrate the data, so i can add those drives to my new opensolaris pool


Also, is it possible to install opensolaris to compact flash cards?  The
reason i ask is that i know the root pool can''t be raidz.

My FreeBSD install is on 2 compact flash cards which i used to boot the
system.  I used 2 sata to compact flash adapters.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812186051&cm_re=sata_to_compact_flash-_-12-186-051-_-Product

I would like to use these 2 cards as my root pool if possible.  They are 8
gb each.

Thanks for any help/suggestions
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On Thu 24/12/09 10:31 , "Thomas Burgess" wonslung at gmail.com
sent:
> I was wondering what the best method of moving a pool from FreeBSD 8.0 to
> OpenSolaris is.
> 
> When i originally built my system, it was using hardware which
wouldn''t
> work in opensolairs, but i''m about to do an upgrade so i should be
able to
> use Opensolaris when i''m done.
> 
> I know i probably can''t import my current pool into opensolaris,
but i was
> thinking i could use the 8 drives and create a pool which i COULD import,
> using that to back up my data.
 Is the pool on slices or whole drives?  If the latter, you should be able to
import the pool (unless BSD introduces any incompatibilities).
> I''m not sure how to go about it.? Basically, how should i format
my
> drives in FreeBSD, create a ZPOOL which can be imported into OpenSolaris.
I''m not sure about BSD, but Solaris ZFS works with whole devices.  So
there isn''t any OS specific formatting involved.  I assume BSD does the
same.
> Also, is it possible to install opensolaris to compact flash cards?? The
> reason i ask is that i know the root pool can''t be raidz.
Yes, I had a system booting of CD cards (in an IDE/CF adapter).
 
-- 

Ian.

On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 6:07 PM, Ian Collins <ian at ianshome.com> wrote:
>
>
>  Is the pool on slices or whole drives?  If the latter, you should be able
> to import the pool (unless BSD introduces any incompatibilities).

It''s on whole disks but if i remember right those disks are tied to the
highpoint raid card.  I didn''t know about passthrough at the time.

This is why i''m asking about making a NEW pool.   I figure i can make a
new
pool connected as passthrough devices.  What i don''t know is how i
should
partition the drives, or if i should at all.  FreeBSD has it''s own type
of
partitions, then it has internal slices.  On the current pool, the drives
showed up as /dev/da0  /dev/da1  /dev/da2, so on and so forth.  The only
thing i did was use glabel to make sure the zpool always used the same drive
incase the letters changed.  so my current pool is actually created using
the glabel names and not the /dev/da0 /dev/da1 devices, but i''m fairly
sure
it''s about the same.

What i''m thinking is, if i add the drives to the current 8 slots i have
free
(i have 4 sata ports on the current motherboard and 4 more left on the raid
card)  and set the 4 on the raidcard as passthrough devices, then create a
new zpool and copy the important stuff over, then i should be able to import
that into opensolaris.

What i DONT know is....will opensolaris recognized the drives....do i need
to use some sort of partioning scheme (Geom, GPT, whatever)  or should i
just try to use raw drives.

I do not want to lose my data....i figured this is the best place to ask.

I''m not sure about BSD, but Solaris ZFS works with whole devices.  So
there
> isn''t any OS specific formatting involved.  I assume BSD does the
same.
>
> > Also, is it possible to install opensolaris to compact flash cards? 
The
> > reason i ask is that i know the root pool can''t be raidz.
>
> Yes, I had a system booting of CD cards (in an IDE/CF adapter).
>
> --
>
> Ian.
>
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>> I''m not sure how to go about it.? Basically, how should i
format my
>> drives in FreeBSD, create a ZPOOL which can be imported into
OpenSolaris.
>
> I''m not sure about BSD, but Solaris ZFS works with whole devices.
?So there isn''t any OS specific formatting involved. ?I assume BSD does
the same.
That is not true. ZFS will use a EFI partition table with one
partition if you give it the whole disk.

My guess is that you should put it in an EFI partition. But a normal
partition should work.

I would test this in virtualbox or vmware if I where you.

Mattias Pantzare wrote:
>>> I''m not sure how to go about it.  Basically, how should i
format my
>>> drives in FreeBSD, create a ZPOOL which can be imported into
OpenSolaris.
>>>       
>> I''m not sure about BSD, but Solaris ZFS works with whole
devices.  So there isn''t any OS specific formatting involved.  I assume
BSD does the same.
>>     
>
> That is not true. ZFS will use a EFI partition table with one
> partition if you give it the whole disk.
>
>   
An EFI label isn''t "OS specific formatting"!

> My guess is that you should put it in an EFI partition. But a normal
> partition should work.
>
>   
ZFS will write one if you add whole drives to a pool.
> I would test this in virtualbox or vmware if I where you.
>
>   
Sensible idea.

-- 
Ian.

On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 10:36 PM, Ian Collins <ian at ianshome.com> wrote:
>
>>
>
> An EFI label isn''t "OS specific formatting"!
>
>
>
at the risk of sounding really stupid....is an EFI label the same as using
guid partions? I think i remember reading about setting GUID partioned disks
in FreeBSD.  If so, i could try to use these for the new pool if it would
help in migration.
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On Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 04:36, Ian Collins <ian at ianshome.com>
wrote:
> Mattias Pantzare wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I''m not sure how to go about it. ?Basically, how
should i format my
>>>> drives in FreeBSD, create a ZPOOL which can be imported into
>>>> OpenSolaris.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I''m not sure about BSD, but Solaris ZFS works with whole
devices. ?So
>>> there isn''t any OS specific formatting involved. ?I assume
BSD does the
>>> same.
>>>
>>
>> That is not true. ZFS will use a EFI partition table with one
>> partition if you give it the whole disk.
>>
>>
>
> An EFI label isn''t "OS specific formatting"!
It is. Not all OS will read an EFI label.

Whole device on BSD is really the whole device. No partition table.

On 24 Dec 2009, at 10:33, Mattias Pantzare <pantzer at ludd.ltu.se> wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 04:36, Ian Collins <ian at ianshome.com>
wrote:
>>
>>
>> An EFI label isn''t "OS specific formatting"!
>
> It is. Not all OS will read an EFI label.
You misunderstood the concept of OS specific, I feel. EFI is indeed OS  
independent; however, that doesn''t necesssarily imply that all OSs can
read EFI disks. My Commodore 128D could boot CP/M but couldn''t  
understand FAT32 - that doesn''t mean that therefore FAT32
isn''t OS
independent either.

Alex

>>> An EFI label isn''t "OS specific formatting"!
>>
>> It is. Not all OS will read an EFI label.
>
> You misunderstood the concept of OS specific, I feel. EFI is indeed OS
> independent; however, that doesn''t necesssarily imply that all OSs
can read
> EFI disks. My Commodore 128D could boot CP/M but couldn''t
understand FAT32 -
> that doesn''t mean that therefore FAT32 isn''t OS
independent either.
PC partition table is also not OS specific and is OS independent. Most
partition tables are OS independent, they ar often specified by how
you boot the platform.

On a PC EFI is very OS specific as most OS on that platform does not
support EFI.

EFI is platform independent for solaris. Solaris on sparc and solaris
on PC uses different partition tables unless you use EFI as EFI is
supported by Solaris on sparc and x86. This is manly a Solaris problem
as there is no reason for Solaris on sparc to not read a pc partition
table.

The reason that EFI is used by default for zfs is that it is platform
independent (and that it can handle bigger disks on sparc). Unless you
have to boot from it, then it is very platform dependent...

But the point was that ZFS on solaris have to have a partition table,
so you must make a partition table on FreeBSD that solaris can read.
It does not mater if the format is OS specific or not.

On 24 Dec 2009, at 21:27, Mattias Pantzare <pantzer at ludd.ltu.se> wrote:
>>>> An EFI label isn''t "OS specific formatting"!
>>>
>>> It is. Not all OS will read an EFI label.
>>
>> You misunderstood the concept of OS specific, I feel. EFI is indeed  
>> OS
>> independent; however, that doesn''t necesssarily imply that all
OSs
>> can read
>> EFI disks. My Commodore 128D could boot CP/M but couldn''t  
>> understand FAT32 -
>> that doesn''t mean that therefore FAT32 isn''t OS
independent either.
>
> On a PC EFI is very OS specific as most OS on that platform does not
> support EFI.
>
Still false, I''m afraid. There is nothing OS specific about EFI,  
regardless of whether any given OS supports EFI or not. Nor does it  
need to be a "PC" - I have several Mac PPCs that can read EFI  
partitioned disks (as well as some Intel ones). These can also be read  
by other systems that understand EFI partitioned disks.

Alex

On Fri, Dec 25, 2009 at 6:27 AM, Mattias Pantzare <pantzer at ludd.ltu.se>
wrote:
> On a PC EFI is very OS specific as most OS on that platform does not
> support EFI.
What you mean by "most OS on PC does not support EFI" and what is
"PC
platform" anyway? There is some crappy i386 hardware that does not
supports EFI booting ? this part is true, but so what? ? e.g. ACPI is
also often screwed (remembering 0.5 year ago shouting on a Slashdot
how one dude was trying to boot FreeBSD and it rendered that hardware
was designed only for Windows and remembering that OpenSolaris
pretends to be Windows in this case).

EFI is a label, that differs from the VTOC mainly by supporting larger
than 2GB disks (exceptions are SCSI and SSD drives), no information
about cylinders, head or sectors is stored there and it is supported
on x86 as well. The label is created by default when you format your
drive in Solaris, using entire disk.

Label is not any OS dependent. The only thing that if it comes to
Linux, you have to enable GPT/EFI support in the kernel, because in
x86 and amd64 kernels usually it is disabled by default. As of FreeBSD
I have no idea about the status (because it is chronical challenge to
FreeBSD community when nobody has any idea when things is gonna be
done/released there anyway), but you might contact Rui Paulo (rpaulo@)
on this topic.

Although I don''t know how things are moving forward in order to
support ZFS on Windows. :-)

Take care.

--
Kind regards, BM

Things, that are stupid at the beginning, rarely ends up wisely.

On Fri, Dec 25, 2009 at 9:24 AM, BM wrote:
> EFI is a label, that differs from the VTOC mainly by supporting larger
> than 2GB disks (exceptions are SCSI and SSD drives)
I mean, TB. :-)

-- 
Kind regards, BM

Things, that are stupid at the beginning, rarely ends up wisely.

guys!  it''s alllllll good.

We don''t need to argue about whether or not EFI is or isn''t
platform
independent....what would be nice, is if someone can explain the best way to
create a zpool in freebsd that i can import into solaris so i can move my
data.

I''ve still got a week or two before i have to do this, so any info is
likely
to be helpful.

On Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 7:28 PM, BM <bogdan.maryniuk at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 25, 2009 at 9:24 AM, BM wrote:
> > EFI is a label, that differs from the VTOC mainly by supporting larger
> > than 2GB disks (exceptions are SCSI and SSD drives)
>
> I mean, TB. :-)
>
> --
> Kind regards, BM
>
> Things, that are stupid at the beginning, rarely ends up wisely.
> _______________________________________________
> zfs-discuss mailing list
> zfs-discuss at opensolaris.org
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
>
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I don''t know how much progress has been made on this, but back when I
moved from FreeBSD (an older version, maybe the first to have stable ZFS) to
Solaris, this couldn''t be done since they were not quite compatible
yet. I got some new drives since the ones I had were dated, copied the data to
the new Solaris system with a network connection, and then tried to import the
old drives to see if it could be done. If I remember correctly (which I might
not), they imported, but the data wasn''t there. I know it
didn''t work.
-- 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

This isn''t an option for me.  The current machine is going to be
totally
upgraded,

New motherboard, new ram (ecc) new controller cards  and 9 new hard drives.


Current pool is 3 raidz1 vdevs with 4 drives each (all 1 tb)

It''s about 65% full.

If i have to use some other filesystem that is an option, but i need to be
able to use the 9 new disks to somehow backup the data on the FreeBSD 8.0
system, then destory the old pool, create a new pool using the same drives
in Opensolaris with the new motherboard/controillers/memory and copy the
data to the new pool
Afterward i intend to create more vdevs (i haven''t decided which way to
go
yet....i could either do 5  4 disk raidz vdevs, 4 5 disk raidz vdevs or
maybe something weird like 2 7 disk raidz vdevs with 1 6 disk raidz
vdev....i don''t know yet....but that''s beside the point)


On Sun, Dec 27, 2009 at 2:07 PM, Austin <ShyGuy91284 at atwelm.com> wrote:
> I don''t know how much progress has been made on this, but back
when I moved
> from FreeBSD (an older version, maybe the first to have stable ZFS) to
> Solaris, this couldn''t be done since they were not quite
compatible yet. I
> got some new drives since the ones I had were dated, copied the data to the
> new Solaris system with a network connection, and then tried to import the
> old drives to see if it could be done. If I remember correctly (which I
> might not), they imported, but the data wasn''t there. I know it
didn''t work.
> --
> This message posted from opensolaris.org
> _______________________________________________
> zfs-discuss mailing list
> zfs-discuss at opensolaris.org
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
>
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