ZFS Installation and Basic Configuration Guide for Ubuntu 24.04

1. Introduction

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for installing ZFS on Ubuntu 24.04. It also shows how to create a custom directory for configuration files at /opt/calypso/conf/zfs.

Disclaimer: ZFS is a powerful and complex filesystem. This guide provides a basic installation and a simple example. For production environments, it is crucial to consult the official OpenZFS documentation.

2. Installation

First, update your package lists and install the zfsutils-linux package.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y zfsutils-linux

3. Configuration Directory

ZFS configuration is typically stored in /etc/zfs/. We will create a custom directory for ZFS-related scripts or non-standard configuration files.

sudo mkdir -p /opt/calypso/conf/zfs

Important: The primary ZFS configuration is managed through zpool and zfs commands and is stored within the ZFS pools themselves. The /etc/zfs/ directory mainly contains host-specific pool cache information and other configuration files. Manually moving or modifying these files without a deep understanding of ZFS can lead to data loss.

For any advanced configuration that requires modifying ZFS services or configuration files, please refer to the official OpenZFS documentation.

4. Creating a ZFS Pool (Example)

This example demonstrates how to create a simple, file-based ZFS pool for testing purposes. This is not recommended for production use.

Create a file to use as a virtual disk:
```
sudo fallocate -l 4G /zfs-disk
```
Create a ZFS pool named my-pool using the file:
```
sudo zpool create my-pool /zfs-disk
```
Check the status of the new pool:
```
sudo zpool status my-pool
```
Create a ZFS filesystem in the pool:
```
sudo zfs create my-pool/my-filesystem
```
Mount the new filesystem and check its properties:
```
sudo zfs list
```

You should now have a ZFS pool and filesystem ready for use.

5. ZFS Services

ZFS uses several systemd services to manage pools and filesystems. You can list them with:

systemctl list-units --type=service | grep zfs

If you need to customize the behavior of these services, it is recommended to use systemd override files rather than editing the main service files directly.

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