From 735481ef6b8be1ef884a6c4b0a4b80264216a379 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: nicoo Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2023 15:57:18 +0000 Subject: nixos/doc: Add chapter “necessary system state” MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Suggested in the discussion of #268995. --- nixos/doc/manual/administration/zfs-state.section.md | 16 ++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 16 insertions(+) create mode 100644 nixos/doc/manual/administration/zfs-state.section.md (limited to 'nixos/doc/manual/administration/zfs-state.section.md') diff --git a/nixos/doc/manual/administration/zfs-state.section.md b/nixos/doc/manual/administration/zfs-state.section.md new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..11ad5badea7e --- /dev/null +++ b/nixos/doc/manual/administration/zfs-state.section.md @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ +# ZFS {#sec-zfs-state} + +When using ZFS, `/etc/zfs/zpool.cache` should be persistent (or a symlink to a persistent +location) as it is the default value for the `cachefile` [property](man:zpoolprops(7)). + +This cachefile is used on system startup to discover ZFS pools, so ZFS pools +holding the `rootfs` and/or early-boot datasets such as `/nix` can be set to +`cachefile=none`. + +In principle, if there are no other pools attached to the system, `zpool.cache` +does not need to be persisted; it is however *strongly recommended* to persist +it, in case additional pools are added later on, temporarily or permanently: + +While mishandling the cachefile does not lead to data loss by itself, it may +cause zpools not to be imported during boot, and services may then write to a +location where a dataset was expected to be mounted. -- cgit 1.4.1