There are number of issues that can lead to this error when trying to boot a FreeBSD server with ZFS as root / zroot: ZFS failed to read pad2 area of primary vdev There can be a few reasons for this error, but check these in order: “Phantom” Pool: Make sure you haven’t added any… Read more »
SOLVED: linker_load_file: /boot/modules/openzfs.ko – unsupported file type
Tuesday, June 15, 2021
While trying to recover and upgrade a FreeBSD install we ran into an issue where the kernel loader would hang when loading openzfs.ko: linker_load_file: /boot/modules/openzfs.ko – unsupported file type In this case /boot/loader.conf had auto-importing enabled via this: vfs.zfs.autoimport_disable=0 The default is 1, or disable auto import, since at least 2014 according to this commit.… Read more »
SOLVED: FreeBSD 12.2 ZFS: can only boot from disk, mirror, raidz1, raidz2, and raidz3 vdevs
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
After upgrading a file server to FreeBSD 12.2 this last week we ran into an interesting issue where the boot loader immediately errored with the following message: ZFS: can only boot from disk, mirror, raidz1, raidz2, and raidz3 vdevs vdev_init_from-nvlist: 5 It seemed to be a similar issue to this: https://reviews.freebsd.org/D20319 but not quite the… Read more »
Expand ZFS To Use Larger Disks / Free Space
Monday, June 11, 2018
One of the great features of ZFS is to be able to expand it using new, larger disks — even while it is online. To do this you’ll replace each disk, one by one with a larger disk. After each replacement you’ll rebuild the zpool, and then move on to the next disk. Once all… Read more »
HOW TO: Windows 10 Under Bhyve /w FreeBSD 11
Thursday, October 27, 2016
With FreeBSD 11 comes a new version of Bhyve with a feature that makes installing Windows 10 a snap: a VNC accessible framebuffer driver! This lets any GUI OS, such as Windows, boot into graphics mode on the console. Previously getting Windows working was possible but required a lot of effort to create a custom… Read more »
FreeBSD Hangs on “Trying to mount root from zfs:zroot”
Friday, April 8, 2016
There are many reasons this can happen, but this one I believe is unique in terms of searching the internet for the error. We’d see a newly imaged (or restored from backup) ZFS-based server boot fine then hang here: Trying to mount root from zfs:zroot After banging my head into it for some time thinking… Read more »
FreeBSD Hardware RAID vs. GMIRROR vs. ZFS
Thursday, September 3, 2015
The ultimate storage shootout! With years of building and testing servers in various configurations we have always suspected hardware RAID was not all that it’s cracked up to be. FreeBSD’s GMIRROR and ZFS are great, but up until now it’s been a gut feeling combined with anecdotal evidence. Today, we change that. The Test Setup… Read more »
A-Team Secure Off-Site Backup Storage
Monday, September 8, 2014
Secure, smart and easy: How off-site backups should be! Off-site backups are a critical part of properly managing colocated or locally hosted servers. Any kind of backup makes good business sense for many reasons — for example, they keep you running after accidentally deleting a file or a server compromise. However, off-site backups are key… Read more »