Oracle Solaris ZFS Administration Guide

Displaying ZFS Storage Pool Command History

ZFS automatically logs successful zfs and zpool commands that modify pool state information. This information can be displayed by using the zpool history command.

For example, the following syntax displays the command output for the root pool:

# zpool history
History for 'rpool':
2010-05-11.10:18:54 zpool create -f -o failmode=continue -R /a -m legacy -o 
cachefile=/tmp/root/etc/zfs/zpool.cache rpool mirror c1t0d0s0 c1t1d0s0
2010-05-11.10:18:55 zfs set canmount=noauto rpool
2010-05-11.10:18:55 zfs set mountpoint=/rpool rpool
2010-05-11.10:18:56 zfs create -o mountpoint=legacy rpool/ROOT
2010-05-11.10:18:57 zfs create -b 8192 -V 2048m rpool/swap
2010-05-11.10:18:58 zfs create -b 131072 -V 1536m rpool/dump
2010-05-11.10:19:01 zfs create -o canmount=noauto rpool/ROOT/zfsBE
2010-05-11.10:19:02 zpool set bootfs=rpool/ROOT/zfsBE rpool
2010-05-11.10:19:02 zfs set mountpoint=/ rpool/ROOT/zfsBE
2010-05-11.10:19:03 zfs set canmount=on rpool
2010-05-11.10:19:04 zfs create -o mountpoint=/export rpool/export
2010-05-11.10:19:05 zfs create rpool/export/home
2010-05-11.11:11:10 zpool set bootfs=rpool rpool
2010-05-11.11:11:10 zpool set bootfs=rpool/ROOT/zfsBE rpool

You can use similar output on your system to identify the actual ZFS commands that were executed to troubleshoot an error condition.

The features of the history log are as follows:

The log cannot be disabled.
The log is saved persistently on disk, which means that the log is saved across system reboots.
The log is implemented as a ring buffer. The minimum size is 128 KB. The maximum size is 32 MB.
For smaller pools, the maximum size is capped at 1 percent of the pool size, where the size is determined at pool creation time.
The log requires no administration, which means that tuning the size of the log or changing the location of the log is unnecessary.

To identify the command history of a specific storage pool, use syntax similar to the following:

# zpool history tank
History for 'tank':
2010-05-13.14:13:15 zpool create tank mirror c1t2d0 c1t3d0
2010-05-13.14:21:19 zfs create tank/snaps
2010-05-14.08:10:29 zfs create tank/ws01
2010-05-14.08:10:54 zfs snapshot tank/ws01@now
2010-05-14.08:11:05 zfs clone tank/ws01@now tank/ws01bugfix

Use the -l option to display a long format that includes the user name, the host name, and the zone in which the operation was performed. For example:

# zpool history -l tank
History for 'tank':
2010-05-13.14:13:15 zpool create tank mirror c1t2d0 c1t3d0 [user root on neo]
2010-05-13.14:21:19 zfs create tank/snaps [user root on neo]
2010-05-14.08:10:29 zfs create tank/ws01 [user root on neo]
2010-05-14.08:10:54 zfs snapshot tank/ws01@now [user root on neo]
2010-05-14.08:11:05 zfs clone tank/ws01@now tank/ws01bugfix [user root on neo]

Use the -i option to display internal event information that can be used for diagnostic purposes. For example:

# zpool history -i tank
2010-05-13.14:13:15 zpool create -f tank mirror c1t2d0 c1t23d0
2010-05-13.14:13:45 [internal pool create txg:6] pool spa 19; zfs spa 19; zpl 4;...
2010-05-13.14:21:19 zfs create tank/snaps
2010-05-13.14:22:02 [internal replay_inc_sync txg:20451] dataset = 41
2010-05-13.14:25:25 [internal snapshot txg:20480] dataset = 52
2010-05-13.14:25:25 [internal destroy_begin_sync txg:20481] dataset = 41
2010-05-13.14:25:26 [internal destroy txg:20488] dataset = 41
2010-05-13.14:25:26 [internal reservation set txg:20488] 0 dataset = 0
2010-05-14.08:10:29 zfs create tank/ws01
2010-05-14.08:10:54 [internal snapshot txg:53992] dataset = 42
2010-05-14.08:10:54 zfs snapshot tank/ws01@now
2010-05-14.08:11:04 [internal create txg:53994] dataset = 58
2010-05-14.08:11:05 zfs clone tank/ws01@now tank/ws01bugfix