FreeBSD 9.0 installer - using ZFS on a partitioned disk

ikevinjp · Feb 4, 2012

Previously, with FreeBSD 8.2, I would perform an installation by leaving a large portion of the disk unused. For example:

With a 500 GB drive:

Code:

Disk: ad4    Partition name: ad4s1    Free: 0 blocks (0 MB)
Disk: ad4    Partition name: ad4s2     Free: 829973088 blocks (395GB)

ad4s1a /
ad4s1b swap
ad4s1c /var
ad4s1d /tmp
ad4s1e /usr

Notice that the partition by name of ad4s2 is unused and has an sized of 395 GB.

Then, after installation, I would execute the following command to use it as ZFS:

# zpool create zfs /dev/ad4s2

However, with FreeBSD 9.0, the installer is different and the ad4s2 no longer exists under /dev. Could anyone help me with how to find the missing partition, and possibly use it as ZFS? What commands should I use to search for the missing device, disk or partition?

wblock@ · Feb 4, 2012

The equivalent with FreeBSD 9 and the default GPT partitions would be /dev/ada0p4. But the partition number depends on how many partitions were created.

gkontos · Feb 4, 2012

Please read the Release Notes:

Link: http://www.freebsd.org/releases/9.0R/relnotes-detailed.html#AEN1308

ikevinjp · Feb 5, 2012

wblock@ said:
The equivalent with FreeBSD 9 and the default GPT partitions would be /dev/ada0p4. But the partition number depends on how many partitions were created.

Looks like it is not the case for my situation.
ada0p2 is used for /
ada0p4 is used for /var
ada0p5 is used for /tmp
ada0p6 is used for /usr

Though not displayed, I think ada0p2 is use for boot while ada0p3 is the swap partition.

There is no ada0p7 listed.

So where is my missing partition?

Would anyone point out for a simpler way to get the missing partition?

Thanks!

ikevinjp · Feb 5, 2012

gkontos said:
Please read the Release Notes:

Link: http://www.freebsd.org/releases/9.0R/relnotes-detailed.html#AEN1308

I read the release notes but still cannot figure it out. I suspect that the missing partition is not even loaded or linked. What disk tool I can use to edit or add the missing partition? (a safe way as I don't not want to destroy my drive schema ending up I have reformat and reinstall the OS.)

Thanks!

wblock@ · Feb 5, 2012

ikevinjp said:
Looks like it is not the case for my situation.
ada0p2 is used for /
ada0p4 is used for /var
ada0p5 is used for /tmp
ada0p6 is used for /usr

Though not displayed, I think ada0p2 is use for boot while ada0p3 is the swap partition.

Yes, p1 is normally a freebsd-boot partition. The default auto install of FreeBSD 9 only creates a single freebsd-ufs partition as p2, followed by the swap partition. What you show here is a custom setup.

gpart(8) is used to show or edit the partition table:
% gpart show ada0

If there is unused space at the end of the drive, add a partition to use it, for ZFS in this case:
# gpart add -t freebsd-zfs -l myzfspart ada0