Install boot and efs to usb stick and rootfs to zfs pool?

[haohaolee]

Hi hivemind,

I have a ZFS pool (raidz1) which I used for many years from FreeBSD. Now I want to install proxmox, but I don't want to rebuild and repartition my pool.
Here is my idea, use a usb stick to store the boot and efs partition, which contains the kernel and efi boot manager, and rootfs installed in a zfs subvolume.

Is this doable or a good idea for my situation? I know it is not a good idea to install proxmox on usb stick, but here I only store kernel and boot manager there.

Thanks

 

[LnxBil]

I wrote an article about using UEFI on mirrored zpool, which was not possible back-in-the-day directly. The article lines out what you need to do for a USB UEFI-based boot setup. In my case, I had a zpool without UEFI that I migrated to a new mainboard that could only do UEFI. It can also be adapted to a grub/syslinux version if you like.

 

[haohaolee]

Thank you very much.

I found myself have already read that article as well and I am now trying another approach.

What I have done so far:
I use VirtualBox (or other hypervisor) to install proxmox 6.1 into a virtual disk (UEFI mode), it will format that disk into 3 partitions:
1. BIOS boot
2. EFI
3. ZFS pool which contains the rootfs
Then I just copy the first 2 partitions to my usb stick (using dd or whatever works)
Then I use zfs send for the rootfs to a file, and zfs receive that into my real zpool

Next step I will modify the boot config to point to rootfs of the real zpool

I am not finished still and we will see.....


ps: I think we don't have to worry about the updating stuff, because I find there is a kernel hook there to sync the new kernel and initrd to EFS partition after kernel update.

 

[LnxBil]

your usb stick will fail in the long run. The OS is very write-intensive. If you want to consider going with an USB stick, but an industrial grade one with high write endurance. You'll need it.

 

[haohaolee]

your usb stick will fail in the long run. The OS is very write-intensive. If you want to consider going with an USB stick, but an industrial grade one with high write endurance. You'll need it.

Hi, I don't understand. If I only use usb stick for kernel and bootloader, I suppose it will be OK for a relatively long time, right?

 

[LnxBil]

Hmm, I don't understand why I wrote this, must have seen only your reply and not my own before that. Sorry.

 

[haohaolee]

Hmm, I don't understand why I wrote this, must have seen only your reply and not my own before that. Sorry.

No worries, but guess what, my usb stick actually was broken recently since I posted this question half year ago.

So I meant I really don't understand why in last reply.

My observation is if I boot from a usb stick with only bootloader(grub) and kernel, after entering system, this usb stick would not get mounted at all. When I am doing some kernel upgrading, a hook script will try to mount this usb stick and sync all the latest kernels. This is the only time I think the OS will try to write to the USB stick.