Ian Collins wrote:
> Ben Rockwood writes:
>>
>> Upgrades get even easier if you put filesystems like /opt or
>> /usr/local on the zpool.  Post-install just mount /opt and /usr/local
>> from the zpool (zfs set mountpoint=/usr/local pool/local && zfs mount
>> -a).  I frequently upgrade my Nevada boxes (read: reinstall) and ZFS
>> makes like a lot simpler.
>>  
> /usr/local ??
> Do you move every thing from /opt?  I tend to keep the directories
> that came with the install in the BE (so they get upgraded) and ZFS
> mount anything I install (csw, studio 12 etc.).

I personally don't like LiveUpgrade, so I opt for a system with 2 or
more disks.  The OS gets installed on one disk, and the second is a
ZPOOL (preferably a RAIDZ if you have additional disks).  You create,
for instance, pool/local, pool/home, and pool/opt, and set the
mountpoints appropriately (zfs set mountpoint=/home pool/home, etc.).

The advantage is that when you want to "upgrade", you just install a
fresh OS on the box, re-create your users and any special tuning, then
import the zpool and your back in business.   I run a heavily customized
environment at home, such as the Enlightenment Window Manager, several
database servers, etc... using this method above I can go from a fresh
install to full expected use in less than 5 minutes.  Furthermore, if
your doing a lot of experimental stuff and afraid of turning your box
into a brick, so what?  Just reinstall, import the pool and your back in
business.

This is my general philosophy... the OS is irrelevant, your apps and
data are not.  ZFS fits this philosophy perfect.  The key is to allow
yourself to think of the zpool mounts and the traditional OS mountpoints
overlapping.

In case your wondering, ZFS boot in no way changes my thinking on this
and in fact isn't a big draw for me.  If the boot is on UFS, so what,
everything that has any value to me is already on ZFS.  In that way its
like the olden days of Linux where many of us used a 15MB ext2 boot
partition and put everything else on JFS or XFS.  Thus, the only really
nifty thing about ZFS Boot is that you can snapshot and roll back if you
really jack up /etc or /usr.... but with SX:CE thats fine, I'd rather
re-install.  As we move toward a more dynamic OS with IPS network
upgrades where you don't ever do "big" upgrades, but rather lots of
little micro-updates all the time ZFS boot will be more and more important.

benr.
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