Proxmox 8.1.4 ZFS Pool Upgrade - Boots ext4 first - any issues?

krysus

New Member
Mar 29, 2023
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Getting the ZFS upgrade message everyone gets it seems and wondering like many... should I do it? Well, after research I did it. Figured since after searching I couldn't find a direct answer, I'd share my experience with a GRUB to ext and separate ZFS pool. Links for info are at end... If you are booting directly to ZFS, this is a difference situation! Head over to understanding the proxmox-boot-tool command and all that jazz. The below is just to help share some info on my experience as I know how stressful the idea of spending hours rebuilding a system & backups or worse lossing data.

Situation: I got the ZFS status of, "Some supported and requested features are not enabled on the pool." and action statement of "Enable all features using 'zpool upgrade'.". Seemed like a lot of forum posts of people saying to be really careful on ZFS upgrade and some folks saying they couldn't get to data and other stories. Some from FreeBSD, but some on the proxmox also.

Goal: Do the upgrade and not mess up everything...?

Research: What I discovered what was, the ZFS upgrade issues dealt more if your booting from ZFS. I was not. I had installed Proxmox 8.x on a drive using EXT4. Separately added additional drives creating a single ZFS Pool. Since promox was mounting the ZFS pool *after* booting (via GRUB on my system), I didn't have much worry about my system not booting. I did issue the ZFS upgrade and it took less then 30 seconds (on 20+tb).


First find out how Proxmox is booting:
* You can issue a "findmnt /" command. In my case I am booting from GRUB to EXT and it shows this below. If you are booting directly to ZFS, this is a big difference. Head over to understanding the proxmox-boot-tool command.

TARGET SOURCE FSTYPE OPTIONS
/ /dev/mapper/pve-root ext4 rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro



Prep:
* Everyone will say it - make a backup of data. I always have 2, because, I'm old and paranoid.
* Make a ZFS checkpoint before you do.
* And get a 'boot' disk ready in case you have jump in and mount the ZFS pool and so some troubleshooting.

Actions:
* Reboot once. Why? In case you had some patches or something that might cause issues. This way you know - you're good to reboot before the ZFS update.
* Create a ZFS checkpoint (
* Update the ZFS pool
* Reboot again.



Link to ZFS Checkpoints: https://zedfs.com/zpool-checkpoints/





INFORMATION ON MY SYSTEM AND COMMANDS I USED TO CHECK BOOT CONFIGs

Here's how I have Proxmox Setup:
Installed to SSD drive from ext4 file system. If I issue a "findmnt /" command, I get this.
TARGET SOURCE FSTYPE OPTIONS
/ /dev/mapper/pve-root ext4 rw,relatime,errors=remount-ro


Looking at /etc/fstab, it shows:
/dev/pve/root / ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1

I do have a single ZFS pool on 4 other drives (not boot partition).

Issuing the "proxmox-boot-tool status" command gives me this:
Re-executing '/usr/sbin/proxmox-boot-tool' in new private mount namespace..
E: /etc/kernel/proxmox-boot-uuids does not exist.

Issuing the "efibootmgr -v" command gives me this:
BootCurrent: 0000
BootOrder: 0000,0005,0001,0002,0003
Boot0000* proxmox HD(2,GPT,05a28980-3548-4788-a8af-d145fa197c4b,0x800,0x200000)/File(\EFI\PROXMOX\GRUBX64.EFI)
Boot0001* UEFI:CD/DVD Drive BBS(129,,0x0)
Boot0002* UEFI:Removable Device BBS(130,,0x0)
Boot0003* UEFI:Network Device BBS(131,,0x0)
Boot0005* UEFI OS HD(2,GPT,05a28980-3548-4788-a8af-d145fa197c4b,0x800,0x200000)/File(\EFI\BOOT\BOOTX64.EFI)..BO
 
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