No ZFS on PVE Install Over Debian

[Frozen Pizza]

Hi, I'm a new, ignorant user evaluating Proxmox 5.3 over a full Debian Stretch install. Most things seem fine and I think I have cleared the hurdles but I don't have ZFS.

In the GUI when I click on ZFS I get an error saying that zfsutils-linux is not installed. From the command line there are no ZFS commands.

Is it normal for the PVE ZFS packages to not be installed in this scenario? I know that on a normal headless install, ZFS works fine.

I tried to install zfs-dkms from the Debian repos after getting the pve headers but that ultimately failed and it seems like the wrong solution.

How can I install the Proxmox-supplied ZFS? Thank You.

 

[alexskysilk]

easiest way is to install proxmox from its own installer (https://www.proxmox.com/en/downloads/category/iso-images-pve). otherwise yes, you'll be responsible to get zfs installed on your system (https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/wiki/Debian)

 

[Frozen Pizza]

Is it not possible to install the Proxmox ZFS onto Debian? I'm aware that this is seamless when installing Proxmox from its own installer.

 

[LnxBil]

Is it not possible to install the Proxmox ZFS onto Debian?

Sure it is, but you have to install it manually. Unfortunately, the PVE on Debian differes to the PVE installer in not installing any ZFS packages. If you install it afterwards, it works fine. The only problem is that you will not have an easy way to use ZFS as a root fs. If you want this, please have a look at https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/wiki/Debian-Stretch-Root-on-ZFS

 

[Frozen Pizza]

I'm still interested in learning how to install the Proxmox ZFS manually onto Debian. It won't be necessary for the root fs to be ZFS.

 

[LnxBil]

I'm still interested in learning how to install the Proxmox ZFS manually onto Debian. It won't be necessary for the root fs to be ZFS.

If you don't want to boot from it, it's easy. Just install the zfs-utils package.