ZFS on HDD

So you already installed the system on eMMC or SD? You might want to use ZFS on the hard disk(s)!

Note: This wiki does not cover root-on-zfs. (Althrough it should be also possible.) We assume rootfs is already on eMMC (or SD) and you want to keep your data on HDDs in ZFS pool.

Important: Focal is required. Do not use Buster.

Step 1 - Install Focal on eMMC

See necessary steps here.

Step 2 - Install ZFS

sudo armbian-config

Go to Software and install headers.

sudo apt install zfs-dkms zfsutils-linux

Optional:

sudo apt install zfs-auto-snapshot

Reboot.

Step 3 - Prepare partitions

Use fdisk of gdisk to create necessary partitions on your hard drive. This is beyond scope of this wiki. When ready look for assigned uuids:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-partuuid/

Step 4 - Create ZFS pool

sudo zpool create -o ashift=12 -m /mypool mypool mirror /dev/disk/by-partuuid/abc123 /dev/disk/by-partuuid/xyz789
sudo zfs set atime=off mypool
sudo zfs set compression=on mypool

Of course you may use more disks and create raidz instead of mirror. Your choice. :-)

Note: Do not use /dev/sdXY names. Use uuids only. This way your system will still work when you remove a disk or change order of disks.

If your disks are SSDs, enable trim support:

sudo zpool set autotrim=on mypool

Step 5 - Reboot

After reboot make sure the pool was imported automatically:

zpool status

You should now have working system with root on eMMC and ZFS pool on HDD.

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