nixos-zfs-setup.sh

Hello, world!

This is a script that sets up new zfs storage pools on your disk(s), for use with NixOS. It zaps the partition table(s), creates new partitions, sets up two storage pools (named bpool and rpool by default), and prepares them for NixOS installation.

This is a proof of concept and not for beginners. You are free to modify the commands. The shell code shouldn't be too hard to understand.

This script is based on the instructions from the NixOS Root on ZFS website, with a few deviations and exceptions:

• It creates the partitions in a different (more sane) order;
• It names the partitions in the GPT table it creates;
• It uses /dev/disk/by-partname rather than /dev/disk/by-id/* or /dev/disk/by-path/*;
• It (currently) does not support disk encryption;
• It supports impermanence. Read: Erase Your Darlings;
• It always allocates one or more swap partitions.

How to use this script

1. Boot the NixOS liveCD
2. If not using DHCP, set up networking inside the live environment.
3. Open a terminal and login as root: sudo login -f root
4. Set a password: passwd
5. Restart sshd: systemctl restart sshd.service
6. ssh into the shell as root: ssh [email protected]
7. git clone this repository
8. Edit the variables in nixos-zfs-setup.sh
9. Optional: wipe existing partitions from the disk with wipefs -af /dev/...
10. Run the script: bash ./nixos-zfs-setup.sh and....
11. Hope for the best!

When the script has finished, it will tell you some commands to run next. Do this by hand. It's best to open another shell and run those commands in there, because the first command will output a lot of text and you might lose the other commands. Eventually I'll get around to improve this.

Tested with:

Qemu and vmware guests. I plan to test it on hardware when I have a chance to. This may take a long time because I have plenty of other NixOS related stuff to figure out first.

Todo

• Add encryption.

Feedback

Feedback is thankfully welcomed on the github issue tracker.

Blurb

^{_{Copyright © Mark van Dijk, 2022, The Netherlands. This product is licensed under the GPLv3. It comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; see the LICENSE file for more information.}}