1. Managing ZFS File Systems in Oracle Solaris 11.4
  2. Managing the ZFS Root Pool
  3. Requirements for Configuring the ZFS Root Pool
  4. ZFS Root Pool Configuration Recommendations

ZFS Root Pool Configuration Recommendations

Follow these guidelines when configuring the ZFS root pool:

  • If you are using EFI (GPT) labeled disks, create the root pool on mirrored whole disks. If you are using SMI (VTOC) labeled disks, create the root pool on mirrored slices.

    In most cases, x86 systems and SPARC systems with GPT aware firmware have EFI (GPT) labeled disks. Otherwise, SPARC systems have SMI (VTOC) labeled disks.

  • Do not rename the root pool that is created after an initial installation because the system might become unbootable. Also, as best practice, do not change any default settings, such as the mountpoint, of the root pool. Otherwise, errors might occur in subsequent operations on the boot environment.

  • Do not use a thinly provisioned VMware device for a root pool device.

Root pools have the following limitations:

  • RAID-Z or striped configurations are not supported for root pools.

  • Root pools cannot have a separate log device.

  • You cannot configure multiple top-level virtual devices on root pools. However, you can expand a mirrored root pool by attaching additional devices.

  • The gzip and lz4 compression algorithms are not supported on root pools.