>
> 1. How does it go about finding the zpools? Does it scan all disks? All
> partitions? The first hard disk?
>
> "zpool import", see below.
>

Makes sense.


> If it can't find the "zones" pool it will run the setup script unless
>>> you've booted in a way that indicated that you don't want to (see the
>>> menu.lst file shipped on the ISO)
>>>
>>
> I will look at it. Not documented anywhere?
>
>
Looking at the menu.lst file, I see options for console=, console-mode=
(those make sense), root_shadow= (not a clue), smartos=true,
standalone=true (for noinstall/recovery), and noimport=true.

I assume that noimport=true means don't run zpool import, but then what
does it boot into? Oh, wait. If this really is a live distro, then / is
read only from the iso (or other boot media). I get it.


> Sure. The short answer from the zpool man page is that under illumos (and
> SmartOS) "zpool import" scans all devices under /dev/dsk to see if they are
> part of a zpool or not. There will be device nodes in there for both whole
> drives and for partitions.
>

Ah, so zpool import scans for all the zpools on all dsk it can find. Got
it. Sounded vaguely familiar, but I think the last time I did real work
with ZFS was when it was first released under Sun. Senior moment.


> Let me clarify, it mounts up ZFS filesystems from within the "zones" pool
> that store critical configuration.
>
> The short answer is that it's mostly hard-coded.
>
> When you import a ZFS pool, most filesystems get mounted automatically.
> There are a few that SmartOS mounts differently, and the code that does it
> is here:
>
> https://github.com/joyent/smartos-live/blob/master/overlay/generic/lib/svc/method/fs-joyent#L124-L126
>


And those three - zones/var zones/config zones/opt - are the ones that
contain the critical configuration info?

I have a few suggestions:
>
> 1. Learn more about ZFS and get comfortable with ZFS pools and filesystems.
> 2. Boot your system in noinstall/rescue mode (replace "smartos=true" with
> "standalone=true,noimport=true") and run "zpool import" just to see what it
> returns.
> 3. If your system has other zpools you don't want SmartOS to touch, the
> safest thing to do is change "smartos=true" to "smartos=true,zpools=zones"
> so that you can be confident that SmartOS won't touch your other zpools.
>

Good idea. I will do that.

Thanks again, great help. I do wish this were all on a wiki page. Now that
I can, do you want me to create it? It will be incomplete, but a start...

Avi


-- 
Avi Deitcher
Follow me http://twitter.com/avideitcher
Read me http://blog.atomicinc.com



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