From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Aug 2 19:34:04 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B180B1065670 for ; Mon, 2 Aug 2010 19:34:04 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jrisom@gmail.com) Received: from mail-gw0-f54.google.com (mail-gw0-f54.google.com [74.125.83.54]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6B7EB8FC08 for ; Mon, 2 Aug 2010 19:34:03 +0000 (UTC) Received: by gwj23 with SMTP id 23so1736109gwj.13 for ; Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:34:02 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:mime-version :content-transfer-encoding:message-id:content-type:to:from:subject :date:x-mailer; bh=mnsGFSTGXU6minU2tf9olkiIqWJavYz4KZZSOMSWnbY=; b=LeBcvt27mef5aRB5ynTHotAVhdpR3yNmMBFGQXQnHb0Xox53cfkveV7YvhGm/WA6CO bhL6q6vmNEAkYuUoYiD8LRYwaPKjSMgfpslLqwfWHLWZyt/HOQwury+isJ7yIOnr2ew8 PRiBht4gvNzPn6Lsl/irisODSABUQjj9WWdhc= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:content-transfer-encoding:message-id:content-type:to :from:subject:date:x-mailer; b=elBlvoE1gLe6qZZM8yrUmgE6j7S5j7dxQOkrPntjZPVaDcTz/BQwzYGXcnPYuj4w18 9k38hPkch7zk5SOsABUPJ9YyM57oHPg5UlhiQyQ4AGtdjKeaAClwQE/YXpfivbeSbyay P13/m8yHqgUkRy+twBEtmlj1mP9uuqVI8gWYY= Received: by 10.151.62.36 with SMTP id p36mr7225842ybk.130.1280776021173; Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:07:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [192.168.1.4] (c-24-14-170-47.hsd1.il.comcast.net [24.14.170.47]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id c2sm4326123ybi.21.2010.08.02.12.07.00 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=RC4-MD5); Mon, 02 Aug 2010 12:07:00 -0700 (PDT) Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v624) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-Id: <594535bccc011ccc8d2cabb2dc7fecb9@gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed To: FreeBSD Questions From: Joshua Isom Date: Mon, 2 Aug 2010 14:06:56 -0500 X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.624) Subject: ZFS boot with two disks X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:34:04 -0000 I'm wanting to set up a simple home file server and basic dev box with FreeBSD. I have two 500GB disks that I want to put in it, one of which is empty after cleaning up. I hope to use gpt and zfs for the disks, but I'm unsure about some parts. A lot of the stuff referring to booting doesn't mention concating disks(I'll take my risks) for root. I do want the second disk bootable as a fixit disk. For a fixit disk, is it better to use UFS or use ZFS for consistency? If I use two pools, one for booting and the other for data, how much of the system needs to be on the booting pool? I'm hoping to set up the disks before putting into the new computer, so will adding the second disk's space to the pool cause any problems? Everything I've looked at talks about single disk booting or using a raid just for data storage, so this seems to be a lesser used approach. And finally, would it just be better to stick with tried and true UFS with the MBR or are the benefits good enough?