% zpool create tank /dev/da2 /dev/da3 /dev/da4 /dev/da5

But, what happens when you reboot without /dev/da2 plugged in? /dev/da3 becomes /dev/da2 and your pool is confused and weird and all that junk.

A simple tip is to create a GPT on each disk you plan to add to a pool and rather than using the device node of /dev/da#p#, use the GPT partition ID device node that’s automatically created under /dev/gptid.

First, wipe the partition table on each of your disks, using:


% dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da2 bs=512 count=1
% dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da3 bs=512 count=1
% dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da4 bs=512 count=1
% dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da5 bs=512 count=1


Now create a new GPT on each disk, using:


% gpart create -s gpt da2
% gpart create -s gpt da3
% gpart create -s gpt da4
% gpart create -s gpt da5


Now create a FreeBSD ZFS partition on each disk. This is easy because we’re only making one partition per disk.


% gpart add -t freebsd-zfs da2
% gpart add -t freebsd-zfs da3
% gpart add -t freebsd-zfs da4
% gpart add -t freebsd-zfs da5


You should now see the gptids listed in /dev/gptid/


# ls -l /dev/gptid
total 0
crw-r----- 1 root operator 0, 126 Jan 23 15:44 1bcdc07f-4603-11e1-bd02-003048bb1b96
crw-r----- 1 root operator 0, 135 Jan 23 15:44 1cf8bda4-4603-11e1-bd02-003048bb1b96
crw-r----- 1 root operator 0, 143 Jan 23 15:44 1da00324-4603-11e1-bd02-003048bb1b96
crw-r----- 1 root operator 0, 151 Jan 23 15:45 1e83229b-4603-11e1-bd02-003048bb1b96


Now simply create your zpool however you like, using the gptid device node instead of the device ID.


# zpool create external \
/dev/gptid/1bcdc07f-4603-11e1-bd02-003048bb1b96 \
/dev/gptid/1cf8bda4-4603-11e1-bd02-003048bb1b96 \
/dev/gptid/1da00324-4603-11e1-bd02-003048bb1b96 \
/dev/gptid/1e83229b-4603-11e1-bd02-003048bb1b96


And check on it…


# zpool status external
pool: external
state: ONLINE
scan: none requested
config:

errors: No known data errors


You can use the gpart utility to see all kinds of data about your partitions as well. This is useful to figure out which gptid belongs to which disk.

The only solution seems to be moving all the data away and back. I bought 4 external hard drives, made a storagebomb and away I went. This page has a good description of how to move an entire pool to a different device, preserving all the snapshots and whatnot.

I’ll post my script here later.

1. Read The Config Files!!!

RC’s configuration files are well documented and revisiting that potent, inline documentation can often answer your questions.

• main.inc.php.dist
• db.inc.php.dist

2. Enable Logging

If you’re experiencing undesired behavior, 9 times out of 10, the problem is the way you’ve configured RC. There is no way to identify yourself as the problem, without knowing exactly what it is that RC is doing behind the scenes. For that, you need to enable logging.

Just think… If the problem is in the logs, you won’t have to look stupid when you realize you made a typo on the mail server hostname. Less public ridicule is always a good thing!

Make sure your log directory is able to be written to by the web server!

3. READ THE LOGS

The logging is written in plain English. If you don’t know English, you’re probably not reading this page.

4. Google The Error

Now that you have thoroughly read through the log file and see errors indicating what may be wrong with your configuration, you have everything you need to make important inferences. If these inferences aren’t enough to guide you into a working configuration, it’s time for you to Google the error message. Chances are you’ll find somebody who has had the same issue and has since fixed it. If you’re lucky enough, this kind fellow may have posted the solution to your very problem!

5. Still Need Help?

If you’re unfortunate enough to come to this section having completed the previous sections thoroughly, you’ve either missed something (which happens), or you’ve got a problem that people in the channel will be interested to help you solve! All that’s left is for you to present the problem in a well-thought-out form. You should also make sure to mention the steps you’ve performed to try to fix your issue.

Now that you’ve asked your question, you have only one thing left to do — WAIT. Nobody in the channel is paid to support you, so if they’re busy, they may be disregarding the channel. You get what you pay for.

Extract the ISO

Get your install ISO from somewhere and extract it to some directory.

mkdir ./iso
tar -C ./iso -pxf 8.0-RELEASE-i386-disc1.iso
cd ./iso

loader.conf

Next thing to do is to tell the boot loader to start using the serial port. This can be done by putting:

console="comconsole"

somewhere inside boot/loader.conf (obviously inside the iso directory)

Make the ISO!

Now wrap it all up into an iso using:

mkisofs -J -r -b boot/cdboot -no-emul-boot -o 8.0-RELEASE-i386-disc1-serial.iso ./iso

or something of the sort.

You’re done!

Go burn the ISO file and boot a system off the CD. Set your terminal’s baud rate to 9600 and you’ll eventually see things booting up!

The thing works nicely, it accepts laptop & desktop SATA drives and clones with one button push.

It cloned a 160GB deathstar in about an hour, which isn’t bad for that junky of a drive. I just wish it had a secure erase function…

The disk cloner with disks in it…

Here’s my process:

Verify Anonymous CVS Connectivity

First, you must verify that you can connect to the anoncvs server. You can find instructions in the FreeBSD Handbook for this process.

One thing you should probably be aware of is that there are a very limited number of anoncvs mirrors, which is why I chose the .tw one.

Prepare Your Ports Tree

You need to be sure that you have an updated portsdb installed so portdowngrade is able to find the matching ports with a search.

portsdb -u

Installing & Using portdowngrade

cd /usr/ports/*/portdowngrade
make DEFAULT_CVS_SERVER=\":pserver:anoncvs@anoncvs.tw.freebsd.org:/home/ncvs\" install clean

Note that you may replace the server name with whichever mirror you chose in the earlier step.

Once installed, you may now downgrade the port using:

portdowngrade devel/bugzilla

for instance. From here the documentation will be more than enough to show you how to get the downgraded port checked out and installed.

The Missing Step: Making portupgrade Ignore the Port!

This is easy as pie, but there are two ways to do it. I chose to do both.

Option 1: Edit the pkgtools.conf file

Usually located in /usr/local/etc/, pkgtools.conf will allow you to specify an additional port in the HOLD_PKGS array like such:

HOLD_PKGS = [
    'bsdpan-*',
    'devel/bugzilla*'
]

Option 2: +IGNOREME

Creating a +IGNOREME file in the package directory will stop both portaudit and portmaster from upgrading the port.

touch /var/db/pkg/bugzilla/+IGNOREME

To fix it, you just need to go in the config editor and set

mail.server.default.use_condstore

to false, supposedly.

ATX Power Supply Test

If you’ve tried to install the vSphere client on Windows 7, you’ve undoubtedly come across errors like the following:

Error parsing the server "192.168.2.2" "clients.xml" file.
Login will continue, contact your system administrator.

and

The type initializer for 'VirtualInfrastructure.Utils.HttpWebRequestProxy' threw an exception.

Although Windows 7 is fully released now, nobody seems to feel like supporting it. Though, I guess Microsoft did kindof rush it out the door… Anyway, there’s a nice PowerShell script out there that allows you to fix this stupidity. After browsing the VMWare community, I came across this URL:

http://www.tinyint.com/index.php/2009/09/04/vsphere-client-on-windows-7/

I followed the instructions and now everything is working the way it should be. Maybe VMWare could just… do this for you ?