Install ZFS on a new PVE 6 deployment

[jarz]

My server is old (PVE installer lacking the network driver needed) so I had to install debian 10 first then install PVE on top of it manually. Which means no ZFS packages ( or at least so it seems). I tried installing zfs-dkms and zfsutils-linux. Come to find out those have package conflicts with already installed content.

I also noticed from searching through the forums zfs should already be installed? Or is that just using the PVE installer?

Regardless. I am looking for some documentation or direction on installing ZFS after a manual proxmox install on Debian 10 Buster.

Some of the errors seen...
```
dpkg: error processing archive /tmp/apt-dpkg-install-3rK5NR/16-zfsutils-linux_0.8.1-pve1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/usr/share/man/man5/spl-module-parameters.5.gz', which is also in package spl-dkms 0.7.12-2
```

```
Unpacking zfsutils-linux (0.8.1-pve1) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/zfsutils-linux_0.8.1-pve1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/usr/share/man/man5/spl-module-parameters.5.gz', which is also in package spl-dkms 0.7.12-2
dpkg-deb: error: paste subprocess was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
/var/cache/apt/archives/zfsutils-linux_0.8.1-pve1_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
```

 

[LnxBil]

You cannot install Debian with the Debian installer with ZFS, only with PVE. Debian ZFS and PVE ZFS are totally different in their installation and a mess if you want to migrate (easy if you're familiar with low level Debian stuff).

If the default PVE does not support your network card, it'll also not work if you install Debian first and PVE afterwards. Best way is to buy a new one. What network card is this anyway?

 

[jarz]

Yeah I kinda of assumed at this point that was the case. I removed anything zfs I was trying to install.

Sorry I should have said I was able to install run PVE 6 fine on LVM, I resolved the network card issue by grabbing the driver .deb file from the Debian site. I was just curious if there was a way to get zfs working.

In short I don't think the network driver thing was PVE as much as it is Debian 10. It was a non-free driver I had to get. So that problem is solved. The card was a brodcomm something or another. Whatever is stock in an r710 Dell.

Keeping in mind I installed PVE manually on a base Debian 10 install; Should I just be trying to install zfs out of the PVE repo? Or is there something simple going on such as I just don't have them in my path?

 

[LnxBil]

Keeping in mind I installed PVE manually on a base Debian 10 install; Should I just be trying to install zfs out of the PVE repo? Or is there something simple going on such as I just don't have them in my path?

ZFS is integrated in the PVE kernel, so the kernel package is the way to go.

Sorry I should have said I was able to install run PVE 6 fine on LVM,

So what was the problem with ZFS exactly? Maybe post images of error message.

 

[jarz]

Looks like I get the same error when installing out of the pve repo...

dpkg: error processing archive /tmp/apt-dpkg-install-MD48xe/4-zfsutils-linux_0.8.1-pve1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
trying to overwrite '/usr/share/man/man5/spl-module-parameters.5.gz', which is also in package spl-dkms 0.7.12-2

I went ahead and removed everything I could related to zfs, removed any repo's but pve and installed zfsutils-linux and other required dependencies. It looks like zfs-dkms may be a little messed up as far as apt is concerned but zfs seems to be working.

Before:
zfs-dkms/now 0.7.12-2+deb10u1 all [installed,local]
OpenZFS filesystem kernel modules for Linux

After:
zfs-dkms/now 0.7.12-2+deb10u1 all [residual-config]
(none)

However the PVE GUI and 'zpool list' seem to function. I had to manually load '/sbin/modprobe zfs'.

I think this whole thing could be avoided if the PVE 6 installer did some check/remove/install for zfsutils-linux and depdencies. I think I broke it when I tried to install it, or possibly deb 10 default install has a conflicting package components preinstalled. Either way it appears that an install of PVE on a base debian install may not have zfs functional out of the box.

Now that is out of the way, back to the initial install question. Apologies I went back and checked my notes. The driver issue was with the debian 10 install, it could also be a problem with the PVE installer I just never got that far. The PVE installer bombs out because it looks like it boots from USB fine but then tries to find a CD drive, not sure why. Either way its unable to actually kick of the install.

The Debian 10 driver that was missing: bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw debian

The PVE installer error:

 

[LnxBil]

Either way it appears that an install of PVE on a base debian install may not have zfs functional out of the box.

At least this was true for older releases, I haven't checked in never ones.

The Debian 10 driver that was missing: bnx2-mips-09-6.2.1b.fw debian

Oh, yeah. It is non-free and therefore not supplied by Debian. You can, however, load firmware from the installer to get it to work.

 

[udo]

My server is old (PVE installer lacking the network driver needed) so I had to install debian 10 first then install PVE on top of it manually.

Hi,
what do you mean with old?! What kind of server is it?
I install pve on many old systems without any trouble (with the installer).

If only the nic makes trouble, it's perhaps easier to install an intel-nic?

But if the server are very old, you are perhaps not satisfied with the zfs-performance...


Udo