Load the geom_stripe.ko module:

# kldload geom_stripe

Ensure that a suitable mount point exists. If this volume will become a root partition, then temporarily use another mount point such as /mnt.

Determine the device names for the disks which will be striped, and create the new stripe device. For example, to stripe two unused and unpartitioned ATA disks with device names of /dev/ad2 and /dev/ad3:

# gstripe label -v st0 /dev/ad2 /dev/ad3
Metadata value stored on /dev/ad2.
Metadata value stored on /dev/ad3.
Done.

Write a standard label, also known as a partition table, on the new volume and install the default bootstrap code:

# bsdlabel -wB /dev/stripe/st0

This process should create two other devices in /dev/stripe in addition to st0. Those include st0a and st0c. At this point, a UFS file system can be created on st0a using newfs:

# newfs -U /dev/stripe/st0a

Many numbers will glide across the screen, and after a few seconds, the process will be complete. The volume has been created and is ready to be mounted.

To manually mount the created disk stripe:

# mount /dev/stripe/st0a /mnt

To mount this striped file system automatically during the boot process, place the volume information in /etc/fstab. In this example, a permanent mount point, named stripe, is created:

# mkdir /stripe
# echo "/dev/stripe/st0a /stripe ufs rw 2 2" \
>> /etc/fstab

The geom_stripe.ko module must also be automatically loaded during system initialization, by adding a line to /boot/loader.conf:

# sysrc -f /boot/loader.conf geom_stripe_load=YES