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Show HN: Zectl – ZFS Boot Environment Manager for Linux

ramsdenj.com

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Re: Show HN: Zectl – ZFS Boot Environment Manager for Linux

#3

Post by johnramsden »

_jal wrote: post #2

This looks nice. Going to have to give it a try. I'd love to see automated ZFS-on-root setup, but suspect that'll have to come from Canonical if we ever get it.

In 20.04 they will have ZFS on root with BEs as an install option, looking forward to seeing the first major Linux distro making it available as a default.

Re: Show HN: Zectl – ZFS Boot Environment Manager for Linux

#4

Post by vbezhenar »

_jal wrote: post #2

This looks nice. Going to have to give it a try. I'd love to see automated ZFS-on-root setup, but suspect that'll have to come from Canonical if we ever get it.

I'm surprised that they did not do that yet. While ZFS license status is questionable, Canonical seems to be sure that everything's OK, so they should embrace its technical superiority. Something like full system rollback after bad update is trivial with snapshots and it's extremely useful feature.

Re: Show HN: Zectl – ZFS Boot Environment Manager for Linux

#7

Post by pmarreck »

johnramsden wrote: post #3
_jal wrote: post #2

This looks nice. Going to have to give it a try. I'd love to see automated ZFS-on-root setup, but suspect that'll have to come from Canonical if we ever get it.

In 20.04 they will have ZFS on root with BEs as an install option, looking forward to seeing the first major Linux distro making it available as a default.

Currently running that exact setup, it’s sweet

Re: Show HN: Zectl – ZFS Boot Environment Manager for Linux

#8

Post by johnramsden »

vbezhenar wrote: post #4
_jal wrote: post #2

This looks nice. Going to have to give it a try. I'd love to see automated ZFS-on-root setup, but suspect that'll have to come from Canonical if we ever get it.

I'm surprised that they did not do that yet. While ZFS license status is questionable, Canonical seems to be sure that everything's OK, so they should embrace its technical superiority. Something like full system rollback after bad update is trivial with snapshots and it's extremely useful feature.

Looks to be that's what they have done. They've developed a new tool called `zsys` https://github.com/ubuntu/zsys which will help with system administration, rollbacks, auto snapshots before and after package changes. I believe it will also support boot environments.

Re: Show HN: Zectl – ZFS Boot Environment Manager for Linux

#9

Post by kitotik »

johnramsden wrote: post #6
unixhero wrote: post #5

With encryption support?

I haven't tried it myself with encryption, but I can't see it making a difference. The bootloader, and initial ZFS setup will be what needs to be changed to facilitate encryption.

Hmm, how/when/where would the ‘zfs load-key’ happen?

I only know how to use the systemd-ask-password hack to decrypt non-root datasets, but can’t get my head around how that would work with fully encrypted root dataset.

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