Installing OpenZFS on Debian 11

Installing OpenZFS

Install the repository management system:

root@server:~# apt-get install -y software-properties-common

Enable contrib repositories:

root@server:~# apt-add-repository contrib
'contrib' distribution component enabled for all sources.
root@db2:~#

Upgrade system:

root@server:~# apt update
...
root@dserver:~# apt -y upgrade

Reboot system to boot with the new kernel:

root@server:~# reboot

Ssh back in to the host, and install the needed packages:

root@server:~# apt install -y linux-headers-$(uname -r) linux-image-amd64 spl kmod zfsutils-linux zfs-dkms zfs-zed

Say “OK” to imkompatability warning, and load the newly build kernel module:

root@server:~# modprobe zfs

Creating ZFS pools and datasets

Get a quick overview over the block devices in the system:

root@server:~# lsblk
NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
vda     254:0    0   160G  0 disk
├─vda1  254:1    0    59G  0 part /
├─vda2  254:2    0 100.9G  0 part
├─vda14 254:14   0     3M  0 part
└─vda15 254:15   0   124M  0 part /boot/efi
vdb     254:16   0   472K  1 disk

Creating the pool “storage”:

root@server:~# zpool create -f storage /dev/vda2
root@server:~# zpool list
NAME      SIZE  ALLOC   FREE  CKPOINT  EXPANDSZ   FRAG    CAP  DEDUP    HEALTH  ALTROOT
storage   100G   129K   100G        -         -     0%     0%  1.00x    ONLINE  -

Create the dataset “mysql” in the “storage” pool:

root@server:~# zfs create storage/mysql
root@server:~# df -h |grep storage
storage          97G  128K   97G   1% /storage
storage/mysql    97G  128K   97G   1% /storage/mysql