Debian Bookworm Root on ZFS
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Debian Bookworm Root on ZFS
Table of Contents
- Overview
- Step 1: Prepare The Install Environment
- Step 2: Disk Formatting
- Step 3: System Installation
- Step 4: System Configuration
- Step 5: GRUB Installation
- Step 6: First Boot
- Step 7: Optional: Configure Swap
- Step 8: Full Software Installation
- Step 9: Final Cleanup
- Troubleshooting
Overview
Caution
- This HOWTO uses a whole physical disk.
- Do not use these instructions for dual-booting.
- Backup your data. Any existing data will be lost.
System Requirements
- 64-bit Debian GNU/Linux Bookworm Live CD w/ GUI (e.g. gnome iso)
- A 64-bit kernel is strongly encouraged.
- Installing on a drive which presents 4 KiB logical sectors (a “4Kn” drive) only works with UEFI booting. This is not unique to ZFS. GRUB does not and will not work on 4Kn with legacy (BIOS) booting.
Computers that have less than 2 GiB of memory run ZFS slowly. 4 GiB of memory is recommended for normal performance in basic workloads. If you wish to use deduplication, you will need massive amounts of RAM. Enabling deduplication is a permanent change that cannot be easily reverted.
Support
If you need help, reach out to the community using the Mailing Lists or IRC at #zfsonlinux on Libera Chat. If you have a bug report or feature request related to this HOWTO, please file a new issue and mention @rlaager.
Contributing
- Fork and clone: https://github.com/openzfs/openzfs-docs
-
Install the tools:
sudo apt install python3-pip pip3 install -r docs/requirements.txt # Add ~/.local/bin to your $PATH, e.g. by adding this to ~/.bashrc: PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH
- Make your changes.
- Test:
cd docs make html sensible-browser _build/html/index.html
<span class="pre">git</span><span> </span><span class="pre">commit</span><span> </span><span class="pre">--signoff</span>
to a branch,<span class="pre">git</span><span> </span><span class="pre">push</span>
, and create a pull request. Mention @rlaager.
Encryption
This guide supports three different encryption options: unencrypted, ZFS native encryption, and LUKS. With any option, all ZFS features are fully available.
Unencrypted does not encrypt anything, of course. With no encryption happening, this option naturally has the best performance.
ZFS native encryption encrypts the data and most metadata in the root pool. It does not encrypt dataset or snapshot names or properties. The boot pool is not encrypted at all, but it only contains the bootloader, kernel, and initrd. (Unless you put a password in <span class="pre">/etc/fstab</span>
, the initrd is unlikely to contain sensitive data.) The system cannot boot without the passphrase being entered at the console. Performance is good. As the encryption happens in ZFS, even if multiple disks (mirror or raidz topologies) are used, the data only has to be encrypted once.
LUKS encrypts almost everything. The only unencrypted data is the bootloader, kernel, and initrd. The system cannot boot without the passphrase being entered at the console. Performance is good, but LUKS sits underneath ZFS, so if multiple disks (mirror or raidz topologies) are used, the data has to be encrypted once per disk.
Step 1: Prepare The Install Environment
- Boot the Debian GNU/Linux Live CD. If prompted, login with the username
<span class="pre">user</span>
and password<span class="pre">live</span>
. Connect your system to the Internet as appropriate (e.g. join your WiFi network). Open a terminal. -
Setup and update the repositories:
sudo vi /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free-firmware
sudo apt update
-
Optional: Install and start the OpenSSH server in the Live CD environment:
If you have a second system, using SSH to access the target system can be convenient:sudo apt install --yes openssh-server sudo systemctl restart ssh
Hint: You can find your IP address with
<span class="pre">ip</span><span> </span><span class="pre">addr</span><span> </span><span class="pre">show</span><span> </span><span class="pre">scope</span><span> </span><span class="pre">global</span><span> </span><span class="pre">|</span><span> </span><span class="pre">grep</span><span> </span><span class="pre">inet</span>
. Then, from your main machine, connect with<span class="pre">ssh</span><span> </span><span class="pre">user@IP</span>
. -
Disable automounting:
If the disk has been used before (with partitions at the same offsets), previous filesystems (e.g. the ESP) will automount if not disabled:gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.media-handling automount false
-
Become root:
sudo -i
-
Install ZFS in the Live CD environment:
apt install --yes debootstrap gdisk zfsutils-linux
Step 2: Disk Formatting
-
Set a variable with the disk name:
DISK=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk1
Always use the long
<span class="pre">/dev/disk/by-id/*</span>
aliases with ZFS. Using the<span class="pre">/dev/sd*</span>
device nodes directly can cause sporadic import failures, especially on systems that have more than one storage pool.
Hints:<span class="pre">ls</span><span> </span><span class="pre">-la</span><span> </span><span class="pre">/dev/disk/by-id</span>
will list the aliases.- Are you doing this in a virtual machine? If your virtual disk is missing from
<span class="pre">/dev/disk/by-id</span>
, use<span class="pre">/dev/vda</span>
if you are using KVM with virtio. Also when using /dev/vda, the partitions used later will be named differently. Otherwise, read the troubleshooting section. - For a mirror or raidz topology, use
<span class="pre">DISK1</span>
,<span class="pre">DISK2</span>
, etc. - When choosing a boot pool size, consider how you will use the space. A kernel and initrd may consume around 100M. If you have multiple kernels and take snapshots, you may find yourself low on boot pool space, especially if you need to regenerate your initramfs images, which may be around 85M each. Size your boot pool appropriately for your needs.
-
If you are re-using a disk, clear it as necessary:
Ensure swap partitions are not in use:swapoff --all
If the disk was previously used in an MD array:
apt install --yes mdadm # See if one or more MD arrays are active: cat /proc/mdstat # If so, stop them (replace ``md0`` as required): mdadm --stop /dev/md0 # For an array using the whole disk: mdadm --zero-superblock --force $DISK # For an array using a partition: mdadm --zero-superblock --force ${DISK}-part2
If the disk was previously used with zfs:
wipefs -a $DISK
For flash-based storage, if the disk was previously used, you may wish to do a full-disk discard (TRIM/UNMAP), which can improve performance:
blkdiscard -f $DISK
Clear the partition table:
sgdisk --zap-all $DISK
If you get a message about the kernel still using the old partition table, reboot and start over (except that you can skip this step).
-
Partition your disk(s):
Run this if you need legacy (BIOS) booting:sgdisk -a1 -n1:24K:+1000K -t1:EF02 $DISK
Run this for UEFI booting (for use now or in the future):
sgdisk -n2:1M:+512M -t2:EF00 $DISK
Run this for the boot pool:
sgdisk -n3:0:+1G -t3:BF01 $DISK
Choose one of the following options:
- Unencrypted or ZFS native encryption:
sgdisk -n4:0:0 -t4:BF00 $DISK
- LUKS:
sgdisk -n4:0:0 -t4:8309 $DISK
If you are creating a mirror or raidz topology, repeat the partitioning commands for all the disks which will be part of the pool.
- Unencrypted or ZFS native encryption:
-
Create the boot pool:
zpool create \ -o ashift=12 \ -o autotrim=on \ -o compatibility=grub2 \ -o cachefile=/etc/zfs/zpool.cache \ -O devices=off \ -O acltype=posixacl -O xattr=sa \ -O compression=lz4 \ -O normalization=formD \ -O relatime=on \ -O canmount=off -O mountpoint=/boot -R /mnt \ bpool ${DISK}-part3
Note: GRUB does not support all zpool features (see
<span class="pre">spa_feature_names</span>
in grub-core/fs/zfs/zfs.c). We create a separate zpool for<span class="pre">/boot</span>
here, specifying the<span class="pre">-o</span><span> </span><span class="pre">compatibility=grub2</span>
property which restricts the pool to only those features that GRUB supports, allowing the root pool to use any/all features.
See the section on<span class="pre">Compatibility</span><span> </span><span class="pre">feature</span><span> </span><span class="pre">sets</span>
in the<span class="pre">zpool-features</span>
man page for more information.
Hints:- If you are creating a mirror topology, create the pool using:
zpool create \ ... \ bpool mirror \ /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk1-part3 \ /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk2-part3
- For raidz topologies, replace
<span class="pre">mirror</span>
in the above command with<span class="pre">raidz</span>
,<span class="pre">raidz2</span>
, or<span class="pre">raidz3</span>
and list the partitions from the additional disks. - The pool name is arbitrary. If changed, the new name must be used consistently. The
<span class="pre">bpool</span>
convention originated in this HOWTO.
- If you are creating a mirror topology, create the pool using:
-
Create the root pool:
Choose one of the following options:- Unencrypted:
zpool create \ -o ashift=12 \ -o autotrim=on \ -O acltype=posixacl -O xattr=sa -O dnodesize=auto \ -O compression=lz4 \ -O normalization=formD \ -O relatime=on \ -O canmount=off -O mountpoint=/ -R /mnt \ rpool ${DISK}-part4
- ZFS native encryption:
zpool create \ -o ashift=12 \ -o autotrim=on \ -O encryption=on -O keylocation=prompt -O keyformat=passphrase \ -O acltype=posixacl -O xattr=sa -O dnodesize=auto \ -O compression=lz4 \ -O normalization=formD \ -O relatime=on \ -O canmount=off -O mountpoint=/ -R /mnt \ rpool ${DISK}-part4
-
LUKS:
apt install --yes cryptsetup cryptsetup luksFormat -c aes-xts-plain64 -s 512 -h sha256 ${DISK}-part4 cryptsetup luksOpen ${DISK}-part4 luks1 zpool create \ -o ashift=12 \ -o autotrim=on \ -O acltype=posixacl -O xattr=sa -O dnodesize=auto \ -O compression=lz4 \ -O normalization=formD \ -O relatime=on \ -O canmount=off -O mountpoint=/ -R /mnt \ rpool /dev/mapper/luks1
Notes:
- The use of
<span class="pre">ashift=12</span>
is recommended here because many drives today have 4 KiB (or larger) physical sectors, even though they present 512 B logical sectors. Also, a future replacement drive may have 4 KiB physical sectors (in which case<span class="pre">ashift=12</span>
is desirable) or 4 KiB logical sectors (in which case<span class="pre">ashift=12</span>
is required). - Setting
<span class="pre">-O</span><span> </span><span class="pre">acltype=posixacl</span>
enables POSIX ACLs globally. If you do not want this, remove that option, but later add<span class="pre">-o</span><span> </span><span class="pre">acltype=posixacl</span>
(note: lowercase “o”) to the<span class="pre">zfs</span><span> </span><span class="pre">create</span>
for<span class="pre">/var/log</span>
, as journald requires ACLs - Setting
<span class="pre">xattr=sa</span>
vastly improves the performance of extended attributes. Inside ZFS, extended attributes are used to implement POSIX ACLs. Extended attributes can also be used by user-space applications. They are used by some desktop GUI applications. They can be used by Samba to store Windows ACLs and DOS attributes; they are required for a Samba Active Directory domain controller. Note that<span class="pre">xattr=sa</span>
is Linux-specific. If you move your<span class="pre">xattr=sa</span>
pool to another OpenZFS implementation besides ZFS-on-Linux, extended attributes will not be readable (though your data will be). If portability of extended attributes is important to you, omit the<span class="pre">-O</span><span> </span><span class="pre">xattr=sa</span>
above. Even if you do not want<span class="pre">xattr=sa</span>
for the whole pool, it is probably fine to use it for<span class="pre">/var/log</span>
. - Setting
<span class="pre">normalization=formD</span>
eliminates some corner cases relating to UTF-8 filename normalization. It also implies<span class="pre">utf8only=on</span>
, which means that only UTF-8 filenames are allowed. If you care to support non-UTF-8 filenames, do not use this option. For a discussion of why requiring UTF-8 filenames may be a bad idea, see The problems with enforced UTF-8 only filenames. <span class="pre">recordsize</span>
is unset (leaving it at the default of 128 KiB). If you want to tune it (e.g.<span class="pre">-O</span><span> </span><span class="pre">recordsize=1M</span>
), see these various blog posts.- Setting
<span class="pre">relatime=on</span>
is a middle ground between classic POSIX<span class="pre">atime</span>
behavior (with its significant performance impact) and<span class="pre">atime=off</span>
(which provides the best performance by completely disabling atime updates). Since Linux 2.6.30,<span class="pre">relatime</span>
has been the default for other filesystems. See RedHat’s documentation for further information. - Make sure to include the
<span class="pre">-part4</span>
portion of the drive path. If you forget that, you are specifying the whole disk, which ZFS will then re-partition, and you will lose the bootloader partition(s). - ZFS native encryption now defaults to
<span class="pre">aes-256-gcm</span>
. - For LUKS, the key size chosen is 512 bits. However, XTS mode requires two keys, so the LUKS key is split in half. Thus,
<span class="pre">-s</span><span> </span><span class="pre">512</span>
means AES-256. - Your passphrase will likely be the weakest link. Choose wisely. See section 5 of the cryptsetup FAQ for guidance.
Hints:
- If you are creating a mirror topology, create the pool using:
zpool create \ ... \ rpool mirror \ /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk1-part4 \ /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk2-part4
- For raidz topologies, replace
<span class="pre">mirror</span>
in the above command with<span class="pre">raidz</span>
,<span class="pre">raidz2</span>
, or<span class="pre">raidz3</span>
and list the partitions from the additional disks. - When using LUKS with mirror or raidz topologies, use
<span class="pre">/dev/mapper/luks1</span>
,<span class="pre">/dev/mapper/luks2</span>
, etc., which you will have to create using<span class="pre">cryptsetup</span>
. - The pool name is arbitrary. If changed, the new name must be used consistently. On systems that can automatically install to ZFS, the root pool is named
<span class="pre">rpool</span>
by default.
- Unencrypted:
Step 3: System Installation
-
Create filesystem datasets to act as containers:
zfs create -o canmount=off -o mountpoint=none rpool/ROOT zfs create -o canmount=off -o mountpoint=none bpool/BOOT
On Solaris systems, the root filesystem is cloned and the suffix is incremented for major system changes through
<span class="pre">pkg</span><span> </span><span class="pre">image-update</span>
or<span class="pre">beadm</span>
. Similar functionality was implemented in Ubuntu with the<span class="pre">zsys</span>
tool, though its dataset layout is more complicated, and<span class="pre">zsys</span>
is on life support. Even without such a tool, the rpool/ROOT and bpool/BOOT containers can still be used for manually created clones. That said, this HOWTO assumes a single filesystem for<span class="pre">/boot</span>
for simplicity. -
Create filesystem datasets for the root and boot filesystems:
zfs create -o canmount=noauto -o mountpoint=/ rpool/ROOT/debian zfs mount rpool/ROOT/debian zfs create -o mountpoint=/boot bpool/BOOT/debian
With ZFS, it is not normally necessary to use a mount command (either
<span class="pre">mount</span>
or<span class="pre">zfs</span><span> </span><span class="pre">mount</span>
). This situation is an exception because of<span class="pre">canmount=noauto</span>
. -
Create datasets:
zfs create rpool/home zfs create -o mountpoint=/root rpool/home/root chmod 700 /mnt/root zfs create -o canmount=off rpool/var zfs create -o canmount=off rpool/var/lib zfs create rpool/var/log zfs create rpool/var/spool
The datasets below are optional, depending on your preferences and/or software choices.
If you wish to separate these to exclude them from snapshots:zfs create -o com.sun:auto-snapshot=false rpool/var/cache zfs create -o com.sun:auto-snapshot=false rpool/var/lib/nfs zfs create -o com.sun:auto-snapshot=false rpool/var/tmp chmod 1777 /mnt/var/tmp
If you use /srv on this system:
zfs create rpool/srv
If you use /usr/local on this system:
zfs create -o canmount=off rpool/usr zfs create rpool/usr/local
If this system will have games installed:
zfs create rpool/var/games
If this system will have a GUI:
zfs create rpool/var/lib/AccountsService zfs create rpool/var/lib/NetworkManager
If this system will use Docker (which manages its own datasets & snapshots):
zfs create -o com.sun:auto-snapshot=false rpool/var/lib/docker
If this system will store local email in /var/mail:
zfs create rpool/var/mail
If this system will use Snap packages:
zfs create rpool/var/snap
If you use /var/www on this system:
zfs create rpool/var/www
A tmpfs is recommended later, but if you want a separate dataset for
<span class="pre">/tmp</span>
:zfs create -o com.sun:auto-snapshot=false rpool/tmp chmod 1777 /mnt/tmp
The primary goal of this dataset layout is to separate the OS from user data. This allows the root filesystem to be rolled back without rolling back user data.
If you do nothing extra,<span class="pre">/tmp</span>
will be stored as part of the root filesystem. Alternatively, you can create a separate dataset for<span class="pre">/tmp</span>
, as shown above. This keeps the<span class="pre">/tmp</span>
data out of snapshots of your root filesystem. It also allows you to set a quota on<span class="pre">rpool/tmp</span>
, if you want to limit the maximum space used. Otherwise, you can use a tmpfs (RAM filesystem) later.
Note: If you separate a directory required for booting (e.g.<span class="pre">/etc</span>
) into its own dataset, you must add it to<span class="pre">ZFS_INITRD_ADDITIONAL_DATASETS</span>
in<span class="pre">/etc/default/zfs</span>
. Datasets with<span class="pre">canmount=off</span>
(like<span class="pre">rpool/usr</span>
above) do not matter for this. -
Mount a tmpfs at /run:
mkdir /mnt/run mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /mnt/run mkdir /mnt/run/lock
-
Install the minimal system:
debootstrap bookworm /mnt
The
<span class="pre">debootstrap</span>
command leaves the new system in an unconfigured state. An alternative to using<span class="pre">debootstrap</span>
is to copy the entirety of a working system into the new ZFS root. -
Copy in zpool.cache:
mkdir /mnt/etc/zfs cp /etc/zfs/zpool.cache /mnt/etc/zfs/
Step 4: System Configuration
-
Configure the hostname:
Replace<span class="pre">HOSTNAME</span>
with the desired hostname:hostname HOSTNAME hostname > /mnt/etc/hostname vi /mnt/etc/hosts
Add a line: 127.0.1.1 HOSTNAME or if the system has a real name in DNS: 127.0.1.1 FQDN HOSTNAME
Hint: Use
<span class="pre">nano</span>
if you find<span class="pre">vi</span>
confusing. -
Configure the network interface:
Find the interface name:ip addr show
Adjust
<span class="pre">NAME</span>
below to match your interface name:vi /mnt/etc/network/interfaces.d/NAME
auto NAME iface NAME inet dhcp
Customize this file if the system is not a DHCP client.
-
Configure the package sources:
vi /mnt/etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free-firmware deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free-firmware deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free-firmware deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free-firmware deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free-firmware deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free-firmware
-
Bind the virtual filesystems from the LiveCD environment to the new system and
<span class="pre">chroot</span>
into it:mount --make-private --rbind /dev /mnt/dev mount --make-private --rbind /proc /mnt/proc mount --make-private --rbind /sys /mnt/sys chroot /mnt /usr/bin/env DISK=$DISK bash --login
Note: This is using
<span class="pre">--rbind</span>
, not<span class="pre">--bind</span>
. -
Configure a basic system environment:
apt update apt install --yes console-setup locales
Even if you prefer a non-English system language, always ensure that
<span class="pre">en_US.UTF-8</span>
is available:dpkg-reconfigure locales tzdata keyboard-configuration console-setup
-
Install ZFS in the chroot environment for the new system:
apt install --yes dpkg-dev linux-headers-generic linux-image-generic apt install --yes zfs-initramfs echo REMAKE_INITRD=yes > /etc/dkms/zfs.conf
Note: Ignore any error messages saying
<span class="pre">ERROR:</span><span> </span><span class="pre">Couldn't</span><span> </span><span class="pre">resolve</span><span> </span><span class="pre">device</span>
and<span class="pre">WARNING:</span><span> </span><span class="pre">Couldn't</span><span> </span><span class="pre">determine</span><span> </span><span class="pre">root</span><span> </span><span class="pre">device</span>
. cryptsetup does not support ZFS. -
For LUKS installs only, setup
<span class="pre">/etc/crypttab</span>
:apt install --yes cryptsetup cryptsetup-initramfs echo luks1 /dev/disk/by-uuid/$(blkid -s UUID -o value ${DISK}-part4) \ none luks,discard,initramfs > /etc/crypttab
The use of
<span class="pre">initramfs</span>
is a work-around for cryptsetup does not support ZFS.
Hint: If you are creating a mirror or raidz topology, repeat the<span class="pre">/etc/crypttab</span>
entries for<span class="pre">luks2</span>
, etc. adjusting for each disk. -
Install an NTP service to synchronize time. This step is specific to Bookworm which does not install the package during bootstrap. Although this step is not necessary for ZFS, it is useful for internet browsing where local clock drift can cause login failures:
apt install systemd-timesyncd
-
Install GRUB
Choose one of the following options:-
Install GRUB for legacy (BIOS) booting:
apt install --yes grub-pc
-
Install GRUB for UEFI booting:
apt install dosfstools mkdosfs -F 32 -s 1 -n EFI ${DISK}-part2 mkdir /boot/efi echo /dev/disk/by-uuid/$(blkid -s UUID -o value ${DISK}-part2) \ /boot/efi vfat defaults 0 0 >> /etc/fstab mount /boot/efi apt install --yes grub-efi-amd64 shim-signed
Notes:
- The
<span class="pre">-s</span><span> </span><span class="pre">1</span>
for<span class="pre">mkdosfs</span>
is only necessary for drives which present 4 KiB logical sectors (“4Kn” drives) to meet the minimum cluster size (given the partition size of 512 MiB) for FAT32. It also works fine on drives which present 512 B sectors. - For a mirror or raidz topology, this step only installs GRUB on the first disk. The other disk(s) will be handled later.
- The
-
-
Optional: Remove os-prober:
apt purge --yes os-prober
This avoids error messages from update-grub. os-prober is only necessary in dual-boot configurations.
-
Set a root password:
passwd
-
Enable importing bpool
This ensures that<span class="pre">bpool</span>
is always imported, regardless of whether<span class="pre">/etc/zfs/zpool.cache</span>
exists, whether it is in the cachefile or not, or whether<span class="pre">zfs-import-scan.service</span>
is enabled.vi /etc/systemd/system/zfs-import-bpool.service
[Unit] DefaultDependencies=no Before=zfs-import-scan.service Before=zfs-import-cache.service [Service] Type=oneshot RemainAfterExit=yes ExecStart=/sbin/zpool import -N -o cachefile=none bpool # Work-around to preserve zpool cache: ExecStartPre=-/bin/mv /etc/zfs/zpool.cache /etc/zfs/preboot_zpool.cache ExecStartPost=-/bin/mv /etc/zfs/preboot_zpool.cache /etc/zfs/zpool.cache [Install] WantedBy=zfs-import.target
systemctl enable zfs-import-bpool.service
Note: For some disk configurations (NVMe?), this service may fail with an error indicating that the
<span class="pre">bpool</span>
cannot be found. If this happens, add<span class="pre">-d</span><span> </span><span class="pre">DISK-part3</span>
(replace<span class="pre">DISK</span>
with the correct device path) to the<span class="pre">zpool</span><span> </span><span class="pre">import</span>
command. -
Optional (but recommended): Mount a tmpfs to
<span class="pre">/tmp</span>
If you chose to create a<span class="pre">/tmp</span>
dataset above, skip this step, as they are mutually exclusive choices. Otherwise, you can put<span class="pre">/tmp</span>
on a tmpfs (RAM filesystem) by enabling the<span class="pre">tmp.mount</span>
unit.cp /usr/share/systemd/tmp.mount /etc/systemd/system/ systemctl enable tmp.mount
-
Optional: Install SSH:
apt install --yes openssh-server vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config # Set: PermitRootLogin yes
-
Optional: For ZFS native encryption or LUKS, configure Dropbear for remote unlocking:
apt install --yes --no-install-recommends dropbear-initramfs mkdir -p /etc/dropbear/initramfs # Optional: Convert OpenSSH server keys for Dropbear for type in ecdsa ed25519 rsa ; do cp /etc/ssh/ssh_host_${type}_key /tmp/openssh.key ssh-keygen -p -N "" -m PEM -f /tmp/openssh.key dropbearconvert openssh dropbear \ /tmp/openssh.key \ /etc/dropbear/initramfs/dropbear_${type}_host_key done rm /tmp/openssh.key # Add user keys in the same format as ~/.ssh/authorized_keys vi /etc/dropbear/initramfs/authorized_keys # If using a static IP, set it for the initramfs environment: vi /etc/initramfs-tools/initramfs.conf # The syntax is: IP=ADDRESS::GATEWAY:MASK:HOSTNAME:NIC # For example: # IP=192.168.1.100::192.168.1.1:255.255.255.0:myhostname:ens3 # HOSTNAME and NIC are optional. # Rebuild the initramfs (required when changing any of the above): update-initramfs -u -k all
Notes:
- Converting the server keys makes Dropbear use the same keys as OpenSSH, avoiding host key mismatch warnings. Currently, dropbearconvert doesn’t understand the new OpenSSH private key format, so the keys need to be converted to the old PEM format first using
<span class="pre">ssh-keygen</span>
. The downside of using the same keys for both OpenSSH and Dropbear is that the OpenSSH keys are then available on-disk, unencrypted in the initramfs. - Later, to use this functionality, SSH to the system (as root) while it is prompting for the passphrase during the boot process. For ZFS native encryption, run
<span class="pre">zfsunlock</span>
. For LUKS, run<span class="pre">cryptroot-unlock</span>
. - You can optionally add
<span class="pre">command="/usr/bin/zfsunlock"</span>
or<span class="pre">command="/bin/cryptroot-unlock"</span>
in front of the<span class="pre">authorized_keys</span>
line to force the unlock command. This way, the unlock command runs automatically and is all that can be run.
- Converting the server keys makes Dropbear use the same keys as OpenSSH, avoiding host key mismatch warnings. Currently, dropbearconvert doesn’t understand the new OpenSSH private key format, so the keys need to be converted to the old PEM format first using
-
Optional (but kindly requested): Install popcon
The<span class="pre">popularity-contest</span>
package reports the list of packages install on your system. Showing that ZFS is popular may be helpful in terms of long-term attention from the distro.apt install --yes popularity-contest
Choose Yes at the prompt.
Step 5: GRUB Installation
-
Verify that the ZFS boot filesystem is recognized:
grub-probe /boot
-
Refresh the initrd files:
update-initramfs -c -k all
Note: Ignore any error messages saying
<span class="pre">ERROR:</span><span> </span><span class="pre">Couldn't</span><span> </span><span class="pre">resolve</span><span> </span><span class="pre">device</span>
and<span class="pre">WARNING:</span><span> </span><span class="pre">Couldn't</span><span> </span><span class="pre">determine</span><span> </span><span class="pre">root</span><span> </span><span class="pre">device</span>
. cryptsetup does not support ZFS. -
Workaround GRUB’s missing zpool-features support:
vi /etc/default/grub # Set: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="root=ZFS=rpool/ROOT/debian"
-
Optional (but highly recommended): Make debugging GRUB easier:
vi /etc/default/grub # Remove quiet from: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT # Uncomment: GRUB_TERMINAL=console # Save and quit.
Later, once the system has rebooted twice and you are sure everything is working, you can undo these changes, if desired.
-
Update the boot configuration:
update-grub
Note: Ignore errors from
<span class="pre">osprober</span>
, if present. -
Install the boot loader:
Choose one of the following options:-
For legacy (BIOS) booting, install GRUB to the MBR:
grub-install $DISK
Note that you are installing GRUB to the whole disk, not a partition.
If you are creating a mirror or raidz topology, repeat the<span class="pre">grub-install</span>
command for each disk in the pool. -
For UEFI booting, install GRUB to the ESP:
grub-install --target=x86_64-efi --efi-directory=/boot/efi \ --bootloader-id=debian --recheck --no-floppy It is not necessary to specify the disk here. If you are creating a mirror or raidz topology, the additional disks will be handled later.
-
-
Fix filesystem mount ordering:
We need to activate<span class="pre">zfs-mount-generator</span>
. This makes systemd aware of the separate mountpoints, which is important for things like<span class="pre">/var/log</span>
and<span class="pre">/var/tmp</span>
. In turn,<span class="pre">rsyslog.service</span>
depends on<span class="pre">var-log.mount</span>
by way of<span class="pre">local-fs.target</span>
and services using the<span class="pre">PrivateTmp</span>
feature of systemd automatically use<span class="pre">After=var-tmp.mount</span>
.mkdir /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache touch /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache/bpool touch /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache/rpool zed -F &
Verify that
<span class="pre">zed</span>
updated the cache by making sure these are not empty:cat /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache/bpool cat /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache/rpool
If either is empty, force a cache update and check again:
zfs set canmount=on bpool/BOOT/debian zfs set canmount=noauto rpool/ROOT/debian
If they are still empty, stop zed (as below), start zed (as above) and try again.
Once the files have data, stop<span class="pre">zed</span>
:fg Press Ctrl-C.
Fix the paths to eliminate
<span class="pre">/mnt</span>
:sed -Ei "s|/mnt/?|/|" /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache/*
Step 6: First Boot
-
Optional: Snapshot the initial installation:
zfs snapshot bpool/BOOT/debian@install zfs snapshot rpool/ROOT/debian@install
In the future, you will likely want to take snapshots before each upgrade, and remove old snapshots (including this one) at some point to save space.
-
Exit from the
<span class="pre">chroot</span>
environment back to the LiveCD environment:exit
-
Run these commands in the LiveCD environment to unmount all filesystems:
mount | grep -v zfs | tac | awk '/\/mnt/ {print $3}' | \ xargs -i{} umount -lf {} zpool export -a
- If this fails for rpool, mounting it on boot will fail and you will need to
<span class="pre">zpool</span><span> </span><span class="pre">import</span><span> </span><span class="pre">-f</span><span> </span><span class="pre">rpool</span>
, then<span class="pre">exit</span>
in the initramfs prompt. -
Reboot:
reboot
Wait for the newly installed system to boot normally. Login as root.
-
Create a user account:
Replace<span class="pre">YOUR_USERNAME</span>
with your desired username:username=YOUR_USERNAME zfs create rpool/home/$username adduser $username cp -a /etc/skel/. /home/$username chown -R $username:$username /home/$username usermod -a -G audio,cdrom,dip,floppy,netdev,plugdev,sudo,video $username
-
Mirror GRUB
If you installed to multiple disks, install GRUB on the additional disks.-
For legacy (BIOS) booting:
dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc
Hit enter until you get to the device selection screen. Select (using the space bar) all of the disks (not partitions) in your pool.
-
For UEFI booting:
umount /boot/efi
For the second and subsequent disks (increment debian-2 to -3, etc.):
dd if=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk1-part2 \ of=/dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk2-part2 efibootmgr -c -g -d /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk2 \ -p 2 -L "debian-2" -l '\EFI\debian\grubx64.efi' mount /boot/efi
-
Step 7: Optional: Configure Swap
Caution: On systems with extremely high memory pressure, using a zvol for swap can result in lockup, regardless of how much swap is still available. There is a bug report upstream.
-
Create a volume dataset (zvol) for use as a swap device:
zfs create -V 4G -b $(getconf PAGESIZE) -o compression=zle \ -o logbias=throughput -o sync=always \ -o primarycache=metadata -o secondarycache=none \ -o com.sun:auto-snapshot=false rpool/swap
You can adjust the size (the
<span class="pre">4G</span>
part) to your needs.
The compression algorithm is set to<span class="pre">zle</span>
because it is the cheapest available algorithm. As this guide recommends<span class="pre">ashift=12</span>
(4 kiB blocks on disk), the common case of a 4 kiB page size means that no compression algorithm can reduce I/O. The exception is all-zero pages, which are dropped by ZFS; but some form of compression has to be enabled to get this behavior. -
Configure the swap device:
Caution: Always use long<span class="pre">/dev/zvol</span>
aliases in configuration files. Never use a short<span class="pre">/dev/zdX</span>
device name.mkswap -f /dev/zvol/rpool/swap echo /dev/zvol/rpool/swap none swap discard 0 0 >> /etc/fstab echo RESUME=none > /etc/initramfs-tools/conf.d/resume
The
<span class="pre">RESUME=none</span>
is necessary to disable resuming from hibernation. This does not work, as the zvol is not present (because the pool has not yet been imported) at the time the resume script runs. If it is not disabled, the boot process hangs for 30 seconds waiting for the swap zvol to appear. -
Enable the swap device:
swapon -av
Step 8: Full Software Installation
-
Upgrade the minimal system:
apt dist-upgrade --yes
-
Install a regular set of software:
tasksel --new-install
Note: This will check “Debian desktop environment” and “print server” by default. If you want a server installation, unselect those.
-
Optional: Disable log compression:
As<span class="pre">/var/log</span>
is already compressed by ZFS, logrotate’s compression is going to burn CPU and disk I/O for (in most cases) very little gain. Also, if you are making snapshots of<span class="pre">/var/log</span>
, logrotate’s compression will actually waste space, as the uncompressed data will live on in the snapshot. You can edit the files in<span class="pre">/etc/logrotate.d</span>
by hand to comment out<span class="pre">compress</span>
, or use this loop (copy-and-paste highly recommended):for file in /etc/logrotate.d/* ; do if grep -Eq "(^|[^#y])compress" "$file" ; then sed -i -r "s/(^|[^#y])(compress)/\1#\2/" "$file" fi done
-
Reboot:
reboot
Step 9: Final Cleanup
- Wait for the system to boot normally. Login using the account you created. Ensure the system (including networking) works normally.
-
Optional: Delete the snapshots of the initial installation:
sudo zfs destroy bpool/BOOT/debian@install sudo zfs destroy rpool/ROOT/debian@install
-
Optional: Disable the root password:
sudo usermod -p '*' root
-
Optional (but highly recommended): Disable root SSH logins:
If you installed SSH earlier, revert the temporary change:sudo vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config # Remove: PermitRootLogin yes sudo systemctl restart ssh
-
Optional: Re-enable the graphical boot process:
If you prefer the graphical boot process, you can re-enable it now. If you are using LUKS, it makes the prompt look nicer.sudo vi /etc/default/grub # Add quiet to GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT # Comment out GRUB_TERMINAL=console # Save and quit. sudo update-grub
Note: Ignore errors from
<span class="pre">osprober</span>
, if present. -
Optional: For LUKS installs only, backup the LUKS header:
sudo cryptsetup luksHeaderBackup /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk1-part4 \ --header-backup-file luks1-header.dat
Store that backup somewhere safe (e.g. cloud storage). It is protected by your LUKS passphrase, but you may wish to use additional encryption.
Hint: If you created a mirror or raidz topology, repeat this for each LUKS volume (<span class="pre">luks2</span>
, etc.).
Troubleshooting
Rescuing using a Live CD
Go through Step 1: Prepare The Install Environment.
For LUKS, first unlock the disk(s):
apt install --yes cryptsetup
cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/disk/by-id/scsi-SATA_disk1-part4 luks1
# Repeat for additional disks, if this is a mirror or raidz topology.
Mount everything correctly:
zpool export -a
zpool import -N -R /mnt rpool
zpool import -N -R /mnt bpool
zfs load-key -a
zfs mount rpool/ROOT/debian
zfs mount -a
If needed, you can chroot into your installed environment:
mount --make-private --rbind /dev /mnt/dev
mount --make-private --rbind /proc /mnt/proc
mount --make-private --rbind /sys /mnt/sys
mount -t tmpfs tmpfs /mnt/run
mkdir /mnt/run/lock
chroot /mnt /bin/bash --login
mount /boot/efi
mount -a
Do whatever you need to do to fix your system.
When done, cleanup:
exit
mount | grep -v zfs | tac | awk '/\/mnt/ {print $3}' | \
xargs -i{} umount -lf {}
zpool export -a
reboot
Areca
Systems that require the <span class="pre">arcsas</span>
blob driver should add it to the <span class="pre">/etc/initramfs-tools/modules</span>
file and run <span class="pre">update-initramfs</span><span> </span><span class="pre">-c</span><span> </span><span class="pre">-k</span><span> </span><span class="pre">all</span>
.
Upgrade or downgrade the Areca driver if something like <span class="pre">RIP:</span><span> </span><span class="pre">0010:[<ffffffff8101b316>]</span> <span> </span><span class="pre">[<ffffffff8101b316>]</span><span> </span><span class="pre">native_read_tsc+0x6/0x20</span>
appears anywhere in kernel log. ZoL is unstable on systems that emit this error message.
MPT2SAS
Most problem reports for this tutorial involve <span class="pre">mpt2sas</span>
hardware that does slow asynchronous drive initialization, like some IBM M1015 or OEM-branded cards that have been flashed to the reference LSI firmware.
The basic problem is that disks on these controllers are not visible to the Linux kernel until after the regular system is started, and ZoL does not hotplug pool members. See https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/issues/330.
Most LSI cards are perfectly compatible with ZoL. If your card has this glitch, try setting <span class="pre">ZFS_INITRD_PRE_MOUNTROOT_SLEEP=X</span>
in <span class="pre">/etc/default/zfs</span>
. The system will wait <span class="pre">X</span>
seconds for all drives to appear before importing the pool.
QEMU/KVM/XEN
Set a unique serial number on each virtual disk using libvirt or qemu (e.g. <span class="pre">-drive</span><span> </span><span class="pre">if=none,id=disk1,file=disk1.qcow2,serial=1234567890</span>
).
To be able to use UEFI in guests (instead of only BIOS booting), run this on the host:
sudo apt install ovmf
sudo vi /etc/libvirt/qemu.conf
Uncomment these lines:
nvram = [
"/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE.fd:/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_VARS.fd",
"/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_CODE.secboot.fd:/usr/share/OVMF/OVMF_VARS.fd",
"/usr/share/AAVMF/AAVMF_CODE.fd:/usr/share/AAVMF/AAVMF_VARS.fd",
"/usr/share/AAVMF/AAVMF32_CODE.fd:/usr/share/AAVMF/AAVMF32_VARS.fd"
]
sudo systemctl restart libvirtd.service
VMware
- Set
<span class="pre">disk.EnableUUID</span><span> </span><span class="pre">=</span><span> </span><span class="pre">"TRUE"</span>
in the vmx file or vsphere configuration. Doing this ensures that<span class="pre">/dev/disk</span>
aliases are created in the guest.