Change ZFS device names

[Mrt12]

I created a zpool where I used the disk ID names from

/dev/disk/by-id

. This works fine, however I recently read about the vdev_id.conf file. I created my own

vdev_id.conf

where I could create disk aliases for the slots where the disks are in, so I have my disks now accessible through

/dev/disk/by-vdev/slot0

and so on. This is very convenient, because with the ID notation it can become difficult to find out in which slot a specific disk is, but with the vdev file it is much easier.
So I would like to change my zpool to use my own device names. I read that this is possible with

zpool export tank

followed by

zpool import tank -d /dev/disk/by-vdev

So I tried to do that. But when I exported my zpool called "tank", it appeared that Proxmox immediately re-imported it. Because when I tried to use "zpool import", the pool was already imported, still using the old disk names.
I have a few containers, having their disks as subvolumes in my tank, and I also have the VM images in a Proxmox storage, also on that tank. Of course I had the VMs and containers stopped before I did the export!

So what is the right way to export a zpool in such a configuration?

Do I need to stop some Proxmox services before I can proceed? It looks like someone automatically imports my pool after I have exported it, without my interaction. On one hand this is awesome, but in this particular situation it is not so handy.

 

[dcsapak]

So what is the right way to export a zpool in such a configuration?

you want to disable the storage to prevent an automatic import

 

[Mrt12]

you want to disable the storage to prevent an automatic import

can I temporarily do that without affecting my existing VMs?
I assume you are talking about the storage in the "Datacenter".

So the steps would be
a) disable storage
b) zpool export tank
c) zpool import tank -d /dev/disk/by-vdev
right?

I just tested following:

zpool export tank && zpool import tank -d /dev/disk/by-vdev/

and for just one second I saw the device names from my vdev_id.conf, but then it reverted to the old disk/by-id names. Why is that?

 

[dcsapak]

mhmm... works here without problems:

1. disabled storage in datacenter->storage
2. edited vdev_id.conf (in my example a single device with alias d1 /dev/disk/by-id/ww......)
3. zpool export mytestzfs && zpool import -d /dev/disk/by-vdev mytestzfs
4. zpool status shows:

...
mytestzfs ONLINE
  d1      ONLINE
...

5. reenabled storage

 

[Mrt12]

HA! temporarily disabling the storage helped a lot. With that it worked like a charm and stays permanent, even survives a reboot - as intended. Thanks!