Solved ZFS: pool <pool name> vdev raidz1-0 using stale label from 0x<hex>, referred by 0x<hex>

takeda · 2026-03-22T06:24:05+0000

I see this message when booting up the server, right before the "boot:" prompt.

The system boots successfully, and operates like normal, but this worries me that if something happens maybe it will bite me in the behind.

Any idea what does it mean and how to correct it? For the first time, I have hard time finding anybody getting a similar message.

I have a simple RAIDZ1 set up with 3 drives for the root disk, the disks are referenced by ZFS via GPT labels (perhaps that's what it is referring to?)

Alain De Vos · 2026-03-22T06:48:08+0000

There was an old pool on the drive with the exact same name, labels are still on disk, so that import fails. I would do absolutely nothing. It's a small annoyance. Maybe once you deleted a partition without "zpool destroy" before.

Alain De Vos · 2026-03-22T06:50:28+0000

you can check if everything works fine now with
zpool status -x
zpool status -v

takeda · 2026-03-22T19:36:12+0000

Thank you Alain for explaining this. It has been a while ago but it's possible that I might have done what you said when setting it up, though would that information survive resilvering with new drives?

Anyway, I see this warning was added in FreeBSD 15.0 (https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/commit/a1572e202a1840c26c950ed728358965f535ec7a) that would explain why it started showing up now.

The zpool status -x and -v return no errors, other that this message, I did not observe any issues.

AlfredoLlaquet · 2026-03-22T19:57:27+0000

takeda said:
Thank you Alain for explaining this. It has been a while ago but it's possible that I might have done what you said when setting it up, though would that information survive resilvering with new drives?

Anyway, I see this warning was added in FreeBSD 15.0 (https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-src/commit/a1572e202a1840c26c950ed728358965f535ec7a) that would explain why it started showing up now.

The zpool status -x and -v return no errors, other that this message, I did not observe any issues.

Please click "thanks" on Alain De Vos's post. It's Forum etiquette. It's explained somewhere in the rules.

Alain De Vos · 2026-03-22T20:04:21+0000

I see i have a "fan". Sorry just close the thread as solved. Flowers are for my funeral

AlfredoLlaquet · 2026-03-22T20:28:00+0000

Alain De Vos said:
I see i have a "fan". Sorry just close the thread as solved. Flowers are for my funeral

It's the rules, man. I'm a follower of rules (not really, but I try in here).

takeda · 2026-03-22T20:54:46+0000

AlfredoLlaquet said:
Please click "thanks" on Alain De Vos's post. It's Forum etiquette. It's explained somewhere in the rules.

Sorry, I didn't know.

Alain De Vos · 2026-03-22T20:55:44+0000

Just one note, you can do "zpool labelclear" on drives which have no known freebsd-zfs partitions.
"zdb -l /dev/drive | grep "name:" can show show more deep level info.

takeda · 2026-03-22T21:00:45+0000

What do you mean by "no known partitions"? You mean like the drive is currently not attached to any pool? My assumption was that labelclear could mess up the pool if I used it on active drive.

Alain De Vos · 2026-03-22T21:31:55+0000

Rule of thumb as i understand , only do zpool labelclear only on drives where gpart does not show any freebsd-zfs partitions. That is safe.