ZFS import fails, drops to initramfs

[FlexibleToast]

Let me start with my goal so you know what I'm trying to accomplish. I have two SSDs connected to my motherboard I'm trying to install Proxmox to for root and VM storage. I have a LSI 9201-16i installed and want to PCI pass through that controller to a NAS VM.

The obvious choice for the two SSDs is to install ZFS RAID1. However, no matter what configuration of ZFS or even BTRFS, the installation fails to boot if the LSI controller is installed. If I remove the LSI controller the system boots as expected. If I use ext4 or xfs the system boots without issue but obviously doesn't have raid. Any idea what is causing the initram to fail to import the zpool?

 

[FlexibleToast]

If I manually run

zpool import rpool

at the initramfs prompt, it imports right away. Why would it fail at boot, but can manually import without issue?

 

[leesteken]

If I manually run

zpool import rpool

at the initramfs prompt, it imports right away. Why would it fail at boot, but can manually import without issue?

In that case, try adding rootdelay=10 (or higher) to the kernel command line as mentioned here. That Wiki page assumed GRUB but you are probably using systemd-boot, in which case you need to update /etc/kernel/cmdline.

 

[FlexibleToast]

In that case, try adding rootdelay=10 (or higher) to the kernel command line as mentioned here. That Wiki page assumed GRUB but you are probably using systemd-boot, in which case you need to update /etc/kernel/cmdline.

Thank you so much. This appears to have fixed my issue. It kind of makes sense because the root drives were sdi and sdj I think. Obviously getting initialized after the LSI controller. Adding that delay must give it enough time to fully initialize.

 

[Dunuin]

There was also a thread some weeks ago where booting with 6 disks on the HBA worked but not as soon as there were 7 or 8 drives. Here a delay worked too because booting got somehow a timeout because it took too long for the bios to initialize all the drives.

 

[FlexibleToast]

The weirder thing was it didn't matter if the LSI card had any HDDs attached to it at all. I assume it's just the controller itself was "too slow."