Re: [CFT] Patch to bsdinstall to support root-on-ZFS and GELI

From: Teske, Devin <Devin.Teske_at_fisglobal.com>
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 18:06:57 +0000
On Oct 10, 2013, at 10:54 AM, Allan Jude wrote:

> On 2013-10-10 13:21, Warren Block wrote:
>> [off-list reply]
>> 
>> I have not tested the new version yet.  Is there any chance it
>> supports setting up a gmirror?
>> 
>> Something I've been meaning to discuss with Devin is the concept of
>> presets.  The user would be able to choose from a list of presets:
>> 
>>  Filesystem Layout
>>  -----------------
>>  Merged / filesystem
>>  Split /, /var, /tmp, /usr filesystems
>> 
>> then
>> 
>>  Filesystem Type
>>  ---------------
>>  UFS
>>  ZFS
>> 
>> then
>> 
>>  Disk Layout
>>  -----------
>>  Plain disk
>>  Mirror
>>  RAID
>> 
>> Those choices might change depending on earlier ones, like if they had
>> chosen ZFS earlier they would get a choice of Mirror, RAID-Z1,
>> RAID-Z2, and so on.
>> 
>> All this would build up a configuration, and at the end the user can
>> edit it (filesystem sizes, for instance), then pick Go and walk away.
> 
> All of the UFS stuff is in C, so is read-only for me.
> 
> It is something I'd like to do, but it is really iffy if that can be
> done in time for 10.0
> 
> In general, gmirror support could be added to the ZFS section (renamed
> to something else). So in our current 'zfs' menu, would become the 'new
> partition manager' menu. Add an extra option for ZFS or UFS, and then
> the vdev menu would context switch between zfs vdevs and ufs options
> like gmirror and gstripe or something
> 
> Adding an extra option for / or / /var /tmp /usr is not a bad idea
> either, maybe even for ZFS, offering a simpler set of datasets that
> might be some people's preference (especially if I can't do the
> following in time:)
> 
> In a future revision of the zfsboot stuff, I'd like to offer a dialog
> where users can actually adjust the ZFS datasets. provide a menu listing
> the created dataset, with option to add more, and when you select a
> dataset, you can adjust its options or delete it (some really scary
> validation needs to happen here so you can't delete /usr if you have
> /usr/local)
> 
> If the UFS stuff took the form of the current ZFS stuff (give me the
> entire disk, and i'll run with it), it would be fairly easy to
> implement, and could probably be done between 10.0-BETA1 and 10.0-BETA2
> 
> The more powerful features of the current partedit code, where it
> actually shows what is on your disk already, and allows you to just
> adjust it, and in general manage dual booting etc, that is a lot more
> complicated.
> 

But the API exists (and we get a taste of the API in zfsboot). Specifically, a script
would mangle a disk and then call f_device_rescan to get the menus to populate
new entries.

That aside, one of my plans for diskmgmt was to essentially let the user perform
free-wheeling adhoc configurations.

Here's an extreme example of what I mean**:

1. Boot a box with naked disks
2. Create some gmultipath labels
3. Put a GPT scheme on the disk with one BSD partition
4. Put some UFS labels in the partition
5. Build a zpool out of a secondary label of each multipath'd disk

** Because afterall, FreeBSD shouldn't prevent you from doing something like that.

I think that if we try to tackle scenarios like that, then we'll really come up with a
winning diskmgmt module (because right now I can't go do some UFS setup and
then shove the products into a zpool).

_When_ the ZFS management stuff is all integrated (which I plan on integrating
bits from pjd's zfsconf too), I think it should be agnostic about what you give it as
a device *and* allow you to configure many types of things without being forced
into an "either-or" situation (because often it can be a "I want both" situation).

(tuppence)
-- 
Devin

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Received on Thu Oct 10 2013 - 16:07:07 UTC

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