9.2 KiB
ZFS
Update / Upgrade
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Enable the contrib repository
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 13.3.0 _Trixie_ - Official amd64 NETINST with firmware 20260110-10:59]/ trixie contrib main non-free-firmware
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie main contrib non-free-firmware
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie main contrib non-free-firmware
deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security trixie-security main contrib non-free-firmware
deb-src http://security.debian.org/debian-security trixie-security main contrib non-free-firmware
# trixie-updates, to get updates before a point release is made;
# see https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.en.html#_updates_and_backports
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie-updates main contrib non-free-firmware
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian/ trixie-updates main contrib non-free-firmware
# This system was installed using removable media other than
# CD/DVD/BD (e.g. USB stick, SD card, ISO image file).
# The matching "deb cdrom" entries were disabled at the end
# of the installation process.
# For information about how to configure apt package sources,
# see the sources.list(5) manual.
Refresh package index and install ZFS
sudo apt update && sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r) zfsutils-linux -y
sudo modprobe zfs
sudo reboot
Verify ZFS Installation
lsmod | grep zfs
zfs --version
zpool --version
Creating and Using a ZFS Pool & Datasets
Once ZFS is installed, you can create pools (zpools) and datasets. Below is a typical example.
Identify disks / partitions
List available block devices:
lsblk
sudo blkid
Create a mirrored pool named tank using /dev/sda and /dev/sdb:
sudo zpool create \
-o ashift=12 \
-o autotrim=on \
tank mirror /dev/sda /dev/sdb
Explanation:
ashift=12 sets a 4KiB sector alignment (useful for modern drives/SSDs).
autotrim=on enables automatic trimming (on SSDs).
mirror defines redundancy — you could also use raidz, raidz2, etc.
You can also check pool properties:
sudo zpool get all tank
Within the pool, create datasets:
sudo zfs create tank/cloud
# sudo zfs create tank/data
# sudo zfs create tank/data/projects
# sudo zfs create tank/data/backups
Datasets behave like sub-filesystems; you can set properties on each.
Example: enable compression and disable atime:
sudo zfs set compression=lz4 tank/data
sudo zfs set atime=off tank/data
Mountpoints
By default, datasets are mounted under /tank/..., but you can set mountpoint property:
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/cloud
sudo zfs set mountpoint=/mnt/cloud tank/cloud
To list datasets and their mountpoints:
zfs list
Using snapshots & rollbacks
sudo zfs snapshot tank/data@before-update
Roll back:
sudo zfs rollback tank/data@before-update
Send/receive snapshots for backups:
sudo zfs send tank/data@before-update | ssh user@backuphost "zfs receive backup/data"
Mounting, Autostart, and Integration
ZFS datasets are managed by ZFS itself; the mount/unmount is handled automatically by the ZFS service at boot (once ZFS is loaded). Ensure that ZFS mounting is enabled via systemd or init scripts:
sudo systemctl enable zfs-zed
sudo systemctl enable zfs-mount
sudo systemctl enable zfs-import-cache
PS : on Debian, the installation of zfs-zed may already set up the necessary services.
You can configure /etc/zfs/zfs-list.cache (automatically generated) for faster mounting.
Querying ZFS File System Information
The zfs list command provides an extensible mechanism for viewing and querying dataset information. Both basic and complex queries are explained in this section.
Listing Basic ZFS Information
You can list basic dataset information by using the zfs list command with no options. This command displays the names of all datasets on the system and the values of their used, available, referenced, and mountpoint properties. For more information about these properties, see Introducing ZFS Properties.
For example:
# <b>zfs list</b>
NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
pool 476K 16.5G 21K /pool
pool/clone 18K 16.5G 18K /pool/clone
pool/home 296K 16.5G 19K /pool/home
pool/home/marks 277K 16.5G 277K /pool/home/marks
pool/home/marks@snap 0 - 277K -
pool/test 18K 16.5G 18K /test
You can also use this command to display specific datasets by providing the dataset name on the command line. Additionally, use the -r option to recursively display all descendents of that dataset. For example:
# <b>zfs list -r pool/home/marks</b>
NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
pool/home/marks 277K 16.5G 277K /pool/home/marks
pool/home/marks@snap 0 - 277K -
You can use the zfs list command with the mount point of a file system. For example:
# <b>zfs list /pool/home/marks</b>
NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
pool/home/marks 277K 16.5G 277K /pool/home/marks
The following example shows how to display basic information about tank/home/chua and all of its descendent datasets:
# <b>zfs list -r tank/home/chua</b>
NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT
tank/home/chua 26.0K 4.81G 10.0K /tank/home/chua
tank/home/chua/projects 16K 4.81G 9.0K /tank/home/chua/projects
tank/home/chua/projects/fs1 8K 4.81G 8K /tank/home/chua/projects/fs1
tank/home/chua/projects/fs2 8K 4.81G 8K /tank/home/chua/projects/fs2
For additional information about the zfs list command, see zfs(1M).
Creating Complex ZFS Queries
The zfs list output can be customized by using the -o, -t, and -H options.
You can customize property value output by using the -o option and a comma-separated list of desired properties. You can supply any dataset property as a valid argument. For a list of all supported dataset properties, see Introducing ZFS Properties. In addition to the properties defined, the -o option list can also contain the literal name to indicate that the output should include the name of the dataset.
The following example uses zfs list to display the dataset name, along with the sharenfs and mountpoint property values.
# <b>zfs list -o name,sharenfs,mountpoint</b>
NAME SHARENFS MOUNTPOINT
tank off /tank
tank/home on /tank/home
tank/home/ahrens on /tank/home/ahrens
tank/home/bonwick on /tank/home/bonwick
tank/home/chua on /tank/home/chua
tank/home/eschrock on legacy
tank/home/moore on /tank/home/moore
tank/home/tabriz ro /tank/home/tabriz
You can use the -t option to specify the types of datasets to display. The valid types are described in the following table.
Table 6-2 Types of ZFS Datasets
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The -t options takes a comma-separated list of the types of datasets to be displayed. The following example uses the -t and -o options simultaneously to show the name and used property for all file systems:
# <b>zfs list -t filesystem -o name,used</b>
NAME USED
pool 476K
pool/clone 18K
pool/home 296K
pool/home/marks 277K
pool/test 18K
You can use the -H option to omit the zfs list header from the generated output. With the -H option, all white space is replaced by the Tab character. This option can be useful when you need parseable output, for example, when scripting. The following example shows the output generated from using the zfs list command with the -H option:
# <b>zfs list -H -o name</b>
pool
pool/clone
pool/home
pool/home/marks
pool/home/marks@snap
pool/test