This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
A pool is the disks. A dataset is the filesystem inside it. The calculator does arithmetic on numbers you type. The command builder drafts zpool and zfs lines. Neither tool runs them on a host.
The disks are empty, or the note says you have not checked. Do not create a pool on the disk that holds the root filesystem. A snapshot is not a backup that has left the machine. Scrub is a later read, not this hour's first command.
Write the names. A pool you cannot say is a pool you will fear. 192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the disks and confirm they are empty, or mark them unchecked.
- Name the pool and one dataset.
- Draft the create commands.
- Leave destroy out.
- Do not run them during the reading.
- Stop.
Mistakes that outlive the command
ZFS Guide for Admins goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A pool on a disk that has data.
- zpool destroy in the draft.
- The only copy left as a snapshot on the same pool.
- The commands run on the wrong host.
- Names you cannot say.
Decisions to write down
One decision for ZFS Guide for Admins: The disks are the empty ones, or unchecked. No destroy is in the draft. A snapshot is not called a backup. Nothing was run yet. And the names are written.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The pool name is written. The dataset is written. The disks are identified. No destroy is present. And nothing was run. If one of those fails, stop.
# Empty disks only.
# No zpool destroy.
# A snapshot on the same pool is not an offsite backup.Before you leave the host
ZFS Guide for Admins ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.
Tools for this guide
These tools run in the browser on this site. They do not log into your machines.
Related pillar guides
More in this cluster
The pillar for this page, and the next published pages filed with it.