[solved] format a zfs drive to what, with what

Im going to rebuild my zfs array, and im not sure i did it right the first time. Can somebody please point out to me what command line tool to use, and what filesystem i need to be putting on there? I once thought it was a zfs file system, but is this just a layer on top of another filesystem? I clearly remember not having to format the drives last time i build an array, and they had been ext3 if i remember correctly, not sure if i wiped them agan after that. Is this normal, wrong, or what am i missing?
note, my drives have GPT partition tables.
Edit: a thought, since ZFS can use GPT partition table, and if i created the Partition to use the entire disk using gdisk, then is that all that is needed? shoudl i have stopped there, or do i need to do some kind for formatting?
Last edited by wolfdogg (2013-09-30 20:58:39)

wolfdogg wrote:so can someone clarify if i use gdisk to zap the partition table, then recreate a new GPT, then create a partition(the whole drive), is that it? then i can create the zpools no problem? So doesnt itjust use the disk as is? i dont ever remember the drive going through a long format process when setting up zpools, they are just available for use right away.
Zfs uses the disk as is, that means there is no need to create a partition, or filesystem. Just clean the drives with dd and use zpool create afterwards.
Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ZF … orage_pool
EDIT: Remember to add all you drives to the command, for example like this:
RaidZ1:
zpool create tank raidz1 /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sdd /dev/sde
There are lots of examples on the manpage of zpool.
Last edited by teateawhy (2013-09-30 12:26:04)

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[solved] format a zfs drive to what, with what

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