Test run – moving to a SATADOM based zpool (zroot) using zfs snapshot and send | recv

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Yesterday I managed to move a zroot zpool from larger drives to smaller drives using snapshot, send, recv.

Today, I’m doing the same thing. Yet, what is different?

  • using serial numbers in some partition labels
  • moving to SATADOM

This really is a dry-run for when I do this on my production host, r730-01 – apart from the whole moving-to-smaller-drives part.

host ssh keys

NOTE: not shown in this post are messages like this:

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@    WARNING: REMOTE HOST IDENTIFICATION HAS CHANGED!     @
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
IT IS POSSIBLE THAT SOMEONE IS DOING SOMETHING NASTY!
Someone could be eavesdropping on you right now (man-in-the-middle attack)!
It is also possible that a host key has just been changed.
The fingerprint for the ED25519 key sent by the remote host is
SHA256:LWF/RpMvu/76V0sc1YlaXG8acZtsX57bF8s7estyjio.
Please contact your system administrator.
Add correct host key in /Users/dvl/.ssh/known_hosts to get rid of this message.
Offending ECDSA key in /Users/dvl/.ssh/known_hosts:770
Host key for 10.55.0.215 has changed and you have requested strict checking.
Host key verification failed.

When swapping between my own zroots and mfsbsd, I kept deleting entries from my ~/.ssh/known_hosts.

The existing zpool

You will recognize this zpool name from yesterday’s work.

dvl@r730-04:~ $ zpool list
NAME        SIZE  ALLOC   FREE  CKPOINT  EXPANDSZ   FRAG    CAP  DEDUP    HEALTH  ALTROOT
zroot_old   220G   927M   219G        -         -     0%     0%  1.00x    ONLINE  -

dvl@r730-04:~ $ zpool status
  pool: zroot_old
 state: ONLINE
config:

	NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
	zroot_old   ONLINE       0     0     0
	  mirror-0  ONLINE       0     0     0
	    da0p3   ONLINE       0     0     0
	    da1p3   ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors
dvl@r730-04:~ $ gpart show da0 da1
=>       40  468862048  da0  GPT  (224G)
         40       1024    1  freebsd-boot  (512K)
       1064        984       - free -  (492K)
       2048    4194304    2  freebsd-swap  (2.0G)
    4196352  464664576    3  freebsd-zfs  (222G)
  468860928       1160       - free -  (580K)

=>       40  468862048  da1  GPT  (224G)
         40       1024    1  freebsd-boot  (512K)
       1064        984       - free -  (492K)
       2048    4194304    2  freebsd-swap  (2.0G)
    4196352  464664576    3  freebsd-zfs  (222G)
  468860928       1160       - free -  (580K)

The destination drives

These are the SATADOM drives I’m aiming for:

ada0 at ahcich10 bus 0 scbus13 target 0 lun 0
ada0:  ACS-2 ATA SATA 3.x device
ada0: Serial Number 20170718AA0000185556
ada0: 600.000MB/s transfers (SATA 3.x, UDMA6, PIO 1024bytes)
ada0: Command Queueing enabled
ada0: 118288MB (242255664 512 byte sectors)

ada1 at ahcich11 bus 0 scbus14 target 0 lun 0
ada1:  ACS-2 ATA SATA 3.x device
ada1: Serial Number 20170719AA1178164201
ada1: 600.000MB/s transfers (SATA 3.x, UDMA6, PIO 1024bytes)
ada1: Command Queueing enabled
ada1: 118288MB (242255664 512 byte sectors)

They are sold as 128G devices. Photos are in r730-01: storage plan and smarctl here.

Preparing the destination drives

I’m following yesterday’s work:

root@r730-04:~ # gpart create -s gpt /dev/ada0
ada0 created
root@r730-04:~ # gpart create -s gpt /dev/ada1
ada1 created

root@r730-04:~ # gpart add -a 1M -s 200M -t efi -l efi0_20170718AA0000185556 /dev/ada0
ada0p1 added
root@r730-04:~ # gpart add -a 1M -s 200M -t efi -l efi1_20170719AA1178164201 /dev/ada1
ada1p1 added


root@r730-04:~ # newfs_msdos /dev/gpt/efi0_20170718AA0000185556
/dev/gpt/efi0_20170718AA0000185556: 409360 sectors in 25585 FAT16 clusters (8192 bytes/cluster)
BytesPerSec=512 SecPerClust=16 ResSectors=1 FATs=2 RootDirEnts=512 Media=0xf0 FATsecs=100 SecPerTrack=63 Heads=16 HiddenSecs=0 HugeSectors=409600
root@r730-04:~ # newfs_msdos /dev/gpt/efi1_20170719AA1178164201
/dev/gpt/efi1_20170719AA1178164201: 409360 sectors in 25585 FAT16 clusters (8192 bytes/cluster)
BytesPerSec=512 SecPerClust=16 ResSectors=1 FATs=2 RootDirEnts=512 Media=0xf0 FATsecs=100 SecPerTrack=63 Heads=16 HiddenSecs=0 HugeSectors=409600
root@r730-04:~ # 


root@r730-04:~ # gpart add -a 1m -s 8G -t freebsd-swap -l swap0 /dev/ada0
ada0p2 added
root@r730-04:~ # gpart add -a 1m -s 8G -t freebsd-swap -l swap1 /dev/ada1
ada1p2 added


root@r730-04:~ # gpart add -t freebsd-zfs -l zfs0_20170718AA0000185556 /dev/ada0
ada0p3 added
root@r730-04:~ # gpart add -t freebsd-zfs -l zfs1_20170719AA1178164201 /dev/ada1
ada1p3 added

This is what the destination drives look like now:

root@r730-04:~ # gpart show ada0 ada1
=>       40  242255584  ada0  GPT  (116G)
         40       2008        - free -  (1.0M)
       2048     409600     1  efi  (200M)
     411648   16777216     2  freebsd-swap  (8.0G)
   17188864  225066760     3  freebsd-zfs  (107G)

=>       40  242255584  ada1  GPT  (116G)
         40       2008        - free -  (1.0M)
       2048     409600     1  efi  (200M)
     411648   16777216     2  freebsd-swap  (8.0G)
   17188864  225066760     3  freebsd-zfs  (107G)

This is what they look like with labels showing:

root@r730-04:~ # gpart show -l ada0 ada1
=>       40  242255584  ada0  GPT  (116G)
         40       2008        - free -  (1.0M)
       2048     409600     1  efi0_20170718AA0000185556  (200M)
     411648   16777216     2  swap0  (8.0G)
   17188864  225066760     3  zfs0_20170718AA0000185556  (107G)

=>       40  242255584  ada1  GPT  (116G)
         40       2008        - free -  (1.0M)
       2048     409600     1  efi1_20170719AA1178164201  (200M)
     411648   16777216     2  swap1  (8.0G)
   17188864  225066760     3  zfs1_20170719AA1178164201  (107G)

New zpool creation

This is the command for easy copy/paste. A side benefit of using labels: In this command, it is device-name independent.

zpool create -f \
  -o altroot=/altroot \
  -o cachefile=/tmp/zpool.cache \
  -O mountpoint=none \
  -O atime=off \
  -O compression=zstd \
  zroot_n mirror /dev/gpt/zfs0_20170718AA0000185556 /dev/gpt/zfs1_20170719AA1178164201

This is what I ran:

root@r730-04:~ # zpool create -f \
>   -o altroot=/altroot \
>   -o cachefile=/tmp/zpool.cache \
>   -O mountpoint=none \
>   -O atime=off \
>   -O compression=zstd \
>   zroot_n mirror /dev/gpt/zfs0_20170718AA0000185556 /dev/gpt/zfs1_20170719AA1178164201

root@r730-04:~ # zpool list
NAME        SIZE  ALLOC   FREE  CKPOINT  EXPANDSZ   FRAG    CAP  DEDUP    HEALTH  ALTROOT
zroot_n     107G   600K   107G        -         -     0%     0%  1.00x    ONLINE  /altroot
zroot_old   220G   928M   219G        -         -     0%     0%  1.00x    ONLINE  -

root@r730-04:~ # zpool status zroot_n
  pool: zroot_n
 state: ONLINE
config:

	NAME                               STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
	zroot_n                            ONLINE       0     0     0
	  mirror-0                         ONLINE       0     0     0
	    gpt/zfs0_20170718AA0000185556  ONLINE       0     0     0
	    gpt/zfs1_20170719AA1178164201  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors
root@r730-04:~ #

snapshot and replication

This is where the destination drives receive the data from the currently-in-use drives:

root@r730-04:~ # zfs  snapshot -r zroot_old@2delete-later-full2
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/usr@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/usr/ports@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/usr/src@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/home@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/home/dvl@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/tmp@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/ROOT@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/ROOT/default@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/ROOT/clean@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/var@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/var/log@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/var/audit@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/var/tmp@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/var/mail@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
cannot create snapshot 'zroot_old/var/crash@2delete-later-full2': dataset already exists
no snapshots were created
root@r730-04:~ #

Oh yes, these drives were used yesterday. Let’s delete so you get the full picture. First, a dry run:

root@r730-04:~ # zfs destroy -nrv zroot_old@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/usr@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/usr/ports@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/usr/src@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/home@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/home/dvl@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/tmp@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/ROOT@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/ROOT/default@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/ROOT/clean@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/var@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/var/log@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/var/audit@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/var/tmp@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/var/mail@2delete-later-full2
would destroy zroot_old/var/crash@2delete-later-full2
would reclaim 316K

That looks OK. The next command omits the -n parameter.

root@r730-04:~ # zfs destroy -rv zroot_old@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/usr@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/usr/ports@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/usr/src@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/home@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/home/dvl@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/tmp@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/ROOT@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/ROOT/default@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/ROOT/clean@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/var@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/var/log@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/var/audit@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/var/tmp@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/var/mail@2delete-later-full2
will destroy zroot_old/var/crash@2delete-later-full2
will reclaim 316K

And now for the regularly schedule command:

root@r730-04:~ # zfs snapshot -r zroot_old@2delete-later-full2
root@r730-04:~ #

The send | receive:

root@r730-04:~ # zfs send -Rv zroot_old@2delete-later-full2 | zfs receive -uFv zroot_n
full send of zroot_old@clean estimated size is 43.1K
send from @clean to zroot_old@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 624B
full send of zroot_old/usr@clean estimated size is 43.1K
send from @clean to zroot_old/usr@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 624B
full send of zroot_old/usr/ports@clean estimated size is 43.1K
send from @clean to zroot_old/usr/ports@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 624B
full send of zroot_old/usr/src@clean estimated size is 43.1K
send from @clean to zroot_old/usr/src@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 624B
full send of zroot_old/home@clean estimated size is 43.1K
send from @clean to zroot_old/home@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 624B
full send of zroot_old/home/dvl@clean estimated size is 59.1K
send from @clean to zroot_old/home/dvl@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 34.1K
full send of zroot_old/tmp@clean estimated size is 56.1K
send from @clean to zroot_old/tmp@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 48.1K
full send of zroot_old/ROOT@clean estimated size is 43.1K
send from @clean to zroot_old/ROOT@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 624B
full send of zroot_old/ROOT/default@clean estimated size is 1.74G
send from @clean to zroot_old/ROOT/default@2025-11-22-21:22:10-0 estimated size is 624B
send from @2025-11-22-21:22:10-0 to zroot_old/ROOT/default@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 242K
full send of zroot_old/ROOT/clean@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 1.74G
full send of zroot_old/var@clean estimated size is 43.1K
send from @clean to zroot_old/var@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 624B
full send of zroot_old/var/log@clean estimated size is 278K
send from @clean to zroot_old/var/log@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 431K
full send of zroot_old/var/audit@clean estimated size is 43.1K
send from @clean to zroot_old/var/audit@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 624B
full send of zroot_old/var/tmp@clean estimated size is 43.1K
send from @clean to zroot_old/var/tmp@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 4.61K
full send of zroot_old/var/mail@clean estimated size is 43.1K
send from @clean to zroot_old/var/mail@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 624B
full send of zroot_old/var/crash@clean estimated size is 43.6K
send from @clean to zroot_old/var/crash@2delete-later-full2 estimated size is 624B
total estimated size is 3.47G
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old@2delete-later-full2
receiving full stream of zroot_old@clean into zroot_n@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/usr@clean
received 46.0K stream in 0.03 seconds (1.77M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n@2delete-later-full2
received 312B stream in 0.01 seconds (30.0K/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/usr@clean into zroot_n/usr@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/usr@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/usr/ports@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/usr/ports@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/usr/src@clean
received 46.0K stream in 0.01 seconds (3.13M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/usr@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/usr@2delete-later-full2
received 312B stream in 0.01 seconds (27.4K/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/usr/ports@clean into zroot_n/usr/ports@clean
received 46.0K stream in 0.01 seconds (3.00M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/usr/ports@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/usr/ports@2delete-later-full2
received 312B stream in 0.01 seconds (22.7K/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/usr/src@clean into zroot_n/usr/src@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/usr/src@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/home@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/home@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/home/dvl@clean
received 46.0K stream in 0.01 seconds (3.82M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/usr/src@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/usr/src@2delete-later-full2
received 312B stream in 0.01 seconds (23.1K/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/home@clean into zroot_n/home@clean
received 47.5K stream in 0.01 seconds (3.24M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/home@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/home@2delete-later-full2
received 312B stream in 0.01 seconds (26.7K/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/home/dvl@clean into zroot_n/home/dvl@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/home/dvl@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/tmp@clean
received 65.4K stream in 0.01 seconds (5.13M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/home/dvl@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/home/dvl@2delete-later-full2
received 16.4K stream in 0.01 seconds (1.09M/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/tmp@clean into zroot_n/tmp@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/tmp@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/ROOT@clean
received 62.0K stream in 0.02 seconds (3.86M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/tmp@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/tmp@2delete-later-full2
received 39.4K stream in 0.01 seconds (2.96M/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/ROOT@clean into zroot_n/ROOT@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/ROOT@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/ROOT/default@clean
received 46.0K stream in 0.02 seconds (2.97M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/ROOT@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/ROOT@2delete-later-full2
received 312B stream in 0.01 seconds (26.4K/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/ROOT/default@clean into zroot_n/ROOT/default@clean
15:02:58   1.05G   zroot_old/ROOT/default@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/ROOT/default@2025-11-22-21:22:10-0
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/ROOT/default@2delete-later-full2
15:02:59   1.75G   zroot_old/ROOT/default@2delete-later-full2
15:03:00   1.75G   zroot_old/ROOT/default@2delete-later-full2
received 1.75G stream in 3.82 seconds (469M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/ROOT/default@2025-11-22-21:22:10-0 into zroot_n/ROOT/default@2025-11-22-21:22:10-0
received 312B stream in 0.01 seconds (25.3K/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/ROOT/default@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/ROOT/default@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/ROOT/clean@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/var@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/var@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/var/log@clean
received 314K stream in 0.02 seconds (17.0M/sec)
found clone origin zroot_n/ROOT/default@2025-11-22-21:22:10-0
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/ROOT/clean@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/ROOT/clean@2delete-later-full2
received 312B stream in 0.03 seconds (10.0K/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/var@clean into zroot_n/var@clean
received 46.0K stream in 0.01 seconds (3.05M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/var@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/var@2delete-later-full2
received 312B stream in 0.01 seconds (27.0K/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/var/log@clean into zroot_n/var/log@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/var/log@2delete-later-full2
received 292K stream in 0.02 seconds (17.0M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/var/log@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/var/log@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/var/audit@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/var/audit@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/var/tmp@clean
received 409K stream in 0.03 seconds (14.0M/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/var/audit@clean into zroot_n/var/audit@clean
received 49.1K stream in 0.02 seconds (3.15M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/var/audit@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/var/audit@2delete-later-full2
received 312B stream in 0.01 seconds (22.6K/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/var/tmp@clean into zroot_n/var/tmp@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/var/tmp@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/var/mail@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/var/mail@2delete-later-full2
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/var/crash@clean
received 47.5K stream in 0.02 seconds (2.97M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/var/tmp@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/var/tmp@2delete-later-full2
received 312B stream in 0.01 seconds (22.5K/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/var/mail@clean into zroot_n/var/mail@clean
received 47.0K stream in 0.02 seconds (3.02M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/var/mail@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/var/mail@2delete-later-full2
received 312B stream in 0.01 seconds (22.9K/sec)
receiving full stream of zroot_old/var/crash@clean into zroot_n/var/crash@clean
TIME        SENT   SNAPSHOT zroot_old/var/crash@2delete-later-full2
received 47.5K stream in 0.02 seconds (3.04M/sec)
receiving incremental stream of zroot_old/var/crash@2delete-later-full2 into zroot_n/var/crash@2delete-later-full2
received 312B stream in 0.01 seconds (22.7K/sec)

See how the allocated amounts are so very similar

root@r730-04:~ # zpool list
NAME        SIZE  ALLOC   FREE  CKPOINT  EXPANDSZ   FRAG    CAP  DEDUP    HEALTH  ALTROOT
zroot_n     107G   926M   106G        -         -     0%     0%  1.00x    ONLINE  /altroot
zroot_old   220G   927M   219G        -         -     0%     0%  1.00x    ONLINE  -

Notice how the compression algorithm was also replicated over, despite the specification of zstd on zpool creation:

root@r730-04:~ # zfs get compression zroot_n
NAME     PROPERTY     VALUE           SOURCE
zroot_n  compression  lz4             received

Mountpoint and bootfs

root@r730-04:~ # zfs set mountpoint=/ zroot_n/ROOT/default
root@r730-04:~ # zpool set bootfs=zroot_n/ROOT/default zroot_n
root@r730-04:~ #

Bootloader for uefi

I don’t know why the instructions had this mount command, but I’m blindly following along (bad advice).

root@r730-04:~ # zfs mount -a
root@r730-04:~ # mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi

root@r730-04:~ # mount -t msdosfs /dev/gpt/efi0_20170718AA0000185556  /mnt/boot/efi
root@r730-04:~ # mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT
root@r730-04:~ # cp /boot/loader.efi /mnt/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
root@r730-04:~ # umount /mnt/boot/efi

root@r730-04:~ # mount -t msdosfs /dev/gpt/efi1_20170719AA1178164201  /mnt/boot/efi
root@r730-04:~ # mkdir -p /mnt/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT
root@r730-04:~ # cp /boot/loader.efi /mnt/boot/efi/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
root@r730-04:~ # umount /mnt/boot/efi

Rename the pool

It was here that I booted into mfsbsd. I deviated slightly from the instructions by adding -f to the first import

root@mfsbsd:~ # zpool import -f zroot_n zroot
root@mfsbsd:~ # zpool export zroot
root@mfsbsd:~ # shutdown -r now

Getting rid of the other zroot

I couldn’t get the system too boot from the SATADOMs. It was always booting into the 30GB drives I set up during Moving a zpool to smaller drives with UEFI #ZFS #FreeBSD

I booted into mfsBSD (on the thumbdrive) and renamed that zpool, like this:

Here are the available zpools. Notice how the drives are showing up as mfisyspd devices. I should have dropped into the loader prompt and issues set hw.mfi.mrsas_enable=”YES”.

root@mfsbsd:~ # zpool import
   pool: zroot
     id: 244204476102814311
  state: ONLINE
 action: The pool can be imported using its name or numeric identifier.
 config:

	zroot            ONLINE
	  mirror-0       ONLINE
	    mfisyspd2p3  ONLINE
	    mfisyspd3p3  ONLINE

   pool: zroot_old
     id: 16510343806874404582
  state: ONLINE
 action: The pool can be imported using its name or numeric identifier.
 config:

	zroot_old                                       ONLINE
	  mirror-0                                      ONLINE
	    gptid/2743db32-c7e7-11f0-9fcc-ecf4bbe70138  ONLINE
	    mfisyspd1p3                                 ONLINE

   pool: zroot
     id: 9688445990579055578
  state: ONLINE
 action: The pool can be imported using its name or numeric identifier.
 config:

	zroot                              ONLINE
	  mirror-0                         ONLINE
	    gpt/zfs0_20170718AA0000185556  ONLINE
	    gpt/zfs1_20170719AA1178164201  ONLINE

I can see two zroots. I know the second one is the one I want to boot from (because it has gpt/zfs*, as configured above).

I import the first one via ID, renaming it in the process, adjust the bootfs, and export it.

root@mfsbsd:~ # zpool import 244204476102814311 zroot_30G_drives
cannot import 'zroot': pool was previously in use from another system.
Last accessed by r730-04.int.unixathome.org (hostid=0) at Sun Nov 23 16:09:34 2025
The pool can be imported, use 'zpool import -f' to import the pool.

root@mfsbsd:~ # zpool import -f 244204476102814311 zroot_30G_drives

root@mfsbsd:~ # zpool set bootfs=zroot_30G_drives/ROOT/default zroot_30G_drives
you have mail
root@mfsbsd:~ # zpool export zroot_30G_drives

root@mfsbsd:~ # shutdown -r now
Shutdown NOW!
shutdown: [pid 3777]
root@mfsbsd:~ #                                                                                
*** FINAL System shutdown message from root@mfsbsd ***                       

System going down IMMEDIATELY                                                  

                                                                               

System shutdown time has arrived
Connection to 10.55.0.215 closed by remote host.
Connection to 10.55.0.215 closed.

Getting back in

That worked, it booted into the SATADOMs:

[11:34 pro05 dvl ~] % ssh dvl@10.55.0.215 
The authenticity of host '10.55.0.215 (10.55.0.215)' can't be established.
ED25519 key fingerprint is SHA256:RlezjzwPeCsDv7CFMfLjo6ie/urY91caSXIxqDmJHcg.
This key is not known by any other names.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '10.55.0.215' (ED25519) to the list of known hosts.
Last login: Sun Nov 23 14:37:59 2025 from pro07.startpoint.vpn.unixathome.org
FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE (GENERIC) releng/14.3-n271432-8c9ce319fef7

Welcome to FreeBSD!

Release Notes, Errata: https://www.FreeBSD.org/releases/
Security Advisories:   https://www.FreeBSD.org/security/
FreeBSD Handbook:      https://www.FreeBSD.org/handbook/
FreeBSD FAQ:           https://www.FreeBSD.org/faq/
Questions List:        https://www.FreeBSD.org/lists/questions/
FreeBSD Forums:        https://forums.FreeBSD.org/

Documents installed with the system are in the /usr/local/share/doc/freebsd/
directory, or can be installed later with:  pkg install en-freebsd-doc
For other languages, replace "en" with a language code like de or fr.

Show the version of FreeBSD installed:  freebsd-version ; uname -a
Please include that output and any error messages when posting questions.
Introduction to manual pages:  man man
FreeBSD directory layout:      man hier

To change this login announcement, see motd(5).
To erase a line you've written at the command prompt, use "Ctrl-U".
		-- Dru 
dvl@r730-04:~ $ zpool list
NAME    SIZE  ALLOC   FREE  CKPOINT  EXPANDSZ   FRAG    CAP  DEDUP    HEALTH  ALTROOT
zroot   107G   927M   106G        -         -     0%     0%  1.00x    ONLINE  -

dvl@r730-04:~ $ zpool status
  pool: zroot
 state: ONLINE
config:

	NAME                               STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
	zroot                              ONLINE       0     0     0
	  mirror-0                         ONLINE       0     0     0
	    gpt/zfs0_20170718AA0000185556  ONLINE       0     0     0
	    gpt/zfs1_20170719AA1178164201  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors
dvl@r730-04:~ $

I declare success and this process is ready for production.

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