How to Install ZFS File System on Oracle Linux 8

The Z File System is an integrated file system intended to solve all of the preceding file system architecture's big issues. It is initially created by Sun MicroSystems. ZFS is a stable, portable file-system with capabilities that are not present in most commonly available file systems nowadays. The ZFS is stable, very much easy to maintain, and flexible. Today, in this article, we will discuss and look at the methods to install ZFS File System on Oracle Linux 8.

Log in as a Root User

To install the ZFS File system in your Oracle Linux 8 system, you have to first log in as a root user. So, open your terminal and write the below command to work as a root user:

$ su

Oracle Linux 8 system will ask for your root user password. After providing your root user password, you can work now as a root user.

Check Installed Repositories

First of all, check for the repositories already installed on Oracle Linux 8. For this, try the repolist command under root user privilege. It will display all the repositories which are already been installed.

# yum repolist

Install Yum Repository Utilities

Now you have to install Yum utilities to avoid any inconvenience in the future while installation.

# yum install -y yum-utils

Install EPEL Repository

Now, it is time to install the EPEL repository in Oracle Linux 8, which is necessary for the installation of the ZFS file system.  You have to directly install it, from the official Fedora Project website mentioning the version and release of the EPEL RPM file. Try this command:

# dnf install https://dl.fedoraproject.org/pub/epel/epel-release
-latest-8.noarch.rpm

The system may ask you to hit y or Y to continue the installation process. If you want to install EPEL hit y from the keyboard, and it will start downloading and installing the EPEL repository.

After a while, the EPEL repository will be installed on Oracle Linux 8.

You can confirm the installation of the EPEL utility by using the same repolist command.

# yum repolist

Enable EPEL Utility Extra Modules

To enable EPEL utility in your system, execute the enable command in the terminal followed by epel name.

# yum config-manager -enable epel

It could be possible that some of the EPEL modules cannot be installed. To install extra packages of Enterprise Linux Modular 8, use the simple yum command followed by the keyword dkms.

# yum install -y dkms

Download ZFS RPM File

Finally, you are very near to install the ZFS File system. To install it on our system, we have to download it first from the official ZFS website. Now try the rpm command followed by a Link.

# rpm -Uvh http://download.zfsonlinux.org/epel
/zfs-release.el8_2.noarch.rpm

The ZFS rpm file has been successfully downloaded in our Oracle Linux 8.

Install ZFS File System

Finally, we can install the ZFS File system now. To install ZFS on Oracle Linux 8, try the yum command followed by the keyword zfs like this:

# yum install -y zfs

It will start installing ZFS on Oracle Linux 8. The completion of the installation will be done in a while. After the completion of installation. you can further proceed with the other things to do.

Load the driver

You have to load the ZFS driver to start using it. To load it try this:

# /sbin/modprobe zfs

Verify Loaded Utility Services

Now we can check about the ZFS File System loaded packages using the systemctl command.

# systemctl -a | grep zfs

This will show you which utilities and services are currently active, inactive, and failed.

Also, you can check for the enabled and disabled utility files using the systemctl grep command.

# systemctl list-unit-files | grep zfs

The image below is showing some utility services having statuses, enabled, and disabled.

Mutually Connect the Services

To mutually connect the utility services at the same time, try the below command.

# systemctl preset zfs-import-cache zfs-mount zfs-share zfs-zed
zfs-import-scan zfs-target

Now you can enable the services, to enable a single disabled utility service you can try this:

# systemctl enable zfs-import-scan.service

Now when you verify for the utility services, you will get to know that previously disabled services are now enabled.

# systemctl list-unit-files | grep zfs

Check/Identify the Devices

Now you can check for the devices already running in correspondence with the ZFS File system. To identify the devices, try the fdisk command with the -l keyword to list devices.

# fdisk -l

You will be able to see a list of Devices and Disk currently present in your system with their information regarding size, ID, type, start, and endpoints.

You can check for the already created and mounted pools by:

# df -h

at last, we have successfully installed ZFS File System on Oracle Linux 8. Now your system is ready to create pools, mount pools, Import and Export pools, delete pools, and other file-related things as well.

ZFS Commands

Now, here are some commands to try in ZFS File System. To create a pool in ZFS File System execute this command:

# zpool create pool_name /dev/sdc

To check the pool list, try this:

# zpool list

To check the list of datasets available, try this

# zfs-list

To check the current status of a pool, try this:

# zpool status

To import pool try this:

# zpool import pool_name

To export pool try this:

# zpool export pool_name

To delete a pool try this:

# zpool destroy pool_name

Also, you can create a ZFS File system using pools as below:

# zfs create pool_name/myfs

And most importantly, you can mount the pool using the simple mount command as used below:

# mount

Conclusion

The ZFS file system is a groundbreaking modern file system that radically improves the way data files are handled, with enormous capabilities and huge advantages that are not possible today in almost any other file system. You can feel at ease after trying this article thoroughly.