How do I create zfs based RAID 10 (striped mirrored VDEVs) for my server as I need to do small random read I/O. How can I create striped 2 x 2 zfs mirrored pool on Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS server?

A stripped mirrored Vdev Zpool is the same as RAID10 but with an additional feature for preventing data loss. In this quick tutorial, you will learn how to create a striped mirrored Vdev Zpool (RAID 10) on Ubuntu Linux 16.04 LTS server. The commands remains same on FreeBSD or any other Linux distro or Unix-like system.

Adblock detected 😱

My website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to my visitors. I get it! Ads are annoying but they help keep this website running. It is hard to keep the site running and producing new content when so many people block ads. Please consider donating money to the nixCraft via PayPal/Bitcoin, or become a supporter using Patreon.

Before you get started

First, obviously, you want to make sure zfs is installed, run the following command:
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install zfsutils-linux

Create striped mirrored VDEVs (RAID 10)

The syntax is:
sudo zpool create NAME mirror VDEV1 VDEV2 mirror VDEV3 VDEV4
or:
sudo zpool create NAME mirror VDEV1 VDEV2
sudo zpool add NAME mirror VDEV3 VDEV4
A VDE can be a raw disk, a file/image, or a partition.

Step – 1: Find device name

In this example, I’m going to create a striped mirrored Vdev Zpool using four physical disk. It is recommended that you use /dev/disk/by-id/ disk names, which often use serial numbers of drives. Type the following command to find out find the disks that you have in your system:
$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/ | grep sd[a-z]$
Sample outputs:

Step -2: Create a 2 x 2 mirrored pool using four raw disks

You can use wwn-0x50011731002b33ac (sda), wwn-0x50011731002b50d0 (sdb), wwn-0x5001173100406557 (sdc), and wwn-0x50011731004085a7 (sdd) as follows to create a zpool containing a VDEV of 4 drives in a mirror i.e. a 2 x 2 mirrored pool:
$ sudo zpool create tank0 mirror wwn-0x50011731002b33ac wwn-0x50011731002b50d0 mirror wwn-0x5001173100406557 wwn-0x50011731004085a7
OR: use the following syntax, to create a zpool called foo containing a VDEV of 2 drives in a mirror:
$ sudo zpool create foo mirror wwn-0x50011731002b33a wwn-0x50011731002b50d0
Next, add another VDEV of 2 drives in a mirror to the pool:
$ sudo zpool add foo mirror wwn-0x5001173100406557 wwn-0x50011731004085a7 -f

Another example: Create a 2 x 2 mirrored pool using four partitions

Use the following command to list the partitions:
$ ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/ | grep sd[a-z][0-9]$
Use serial number-partition format to create a zpool containing a VDEV of 4 drives in a mirror:
$ sudo zpool create cartwheel mirror wwn-0x5001173100406557-part1 wwn-0x50011731004085a7-part1 -f
$ sudo zpool add cartwheel mirror wwn-0x50011731002b50d0-part1 wwn-0x50011731002b33ac-part8 -f
Finally, execute the following command to make sure it was created on the system:
$ zpool status
$ zpool list
$ df -H
Sample outputs:

You can now start copying data or store data in /nixcraft:
$ cd /cartwheel
$ ls
$ cp /bar/ .
However, ZFS allows you to create file system. For example salesdata or lxccontainers file systems in the pool called cartwheel:
$ sudo zfs create cartwheel/salesdata
$ sudo zfs create cartwheel/lxccontainers
$ zfs list
Sample outputs:

NAME                      USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
cartwheel                 111K  1.44T    19K  /cartwheel
cartwheel/lxccontainers    19K  1.44T    19K  /cartwheel/lxccontainers
cartwheel/salesdata        19K  1.44T    19K  /cartwheel/salesdata

To destroy both file systems from the pool called cartwheel, run:
$ sudo zfs destroy cartwheel/salesdata
$ sudo zfs destroy cartwheel/lxccontainers
$ sudo zfs list

How do I delete a zpool and all data stored in the pool called cartwheel?

$ sudo zpool destroy zpoolNameHere
$ sudo zpool destroy cartwheel
$ zpool status