zpool-create.8

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.\" Copyright (c) 2007, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
.\" Copyright (c) 2012, 2018 by Delphix. All rights reserved.
.\" Copyright (c) 2012 Cyril Plisko. All Rights Reserved.
.\" Copyright (c) 2017 Datto Inc.
.\" Copyright (c) 2018 George Melikov. All Rights Reserved.
.\" Copyright 2017 Nexenta Systems, Inc.
.\" Copyright (c) 2017 Open-E, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
.\" Copyright (c) 2021, Colm Buckley <colm@tuatha.org>
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.Dd March 16, 2022
.Dt ZPOOL-CREATE 8
.Os
.
.Sh NAME
.Nm zpool-create
.Nd create ZFS storage pool
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm zpool
.Cm create
.Op Fl dfn
.Op Fl m Ar mountpoint
.Oo Fl o Ar property Ns = Ns Ar value Oc Ns …
.Oo Fl o Sy feature@ Ns Ar feature Ns = Ns Ar value Oc
.Op Fl o Ar compatibility Ns = Ns Sy off Ns | Ns Sy legacy Ns | Ns Ar file Ns Oo , Ns Ar file Oc Ns …
.Oo Fl O Ar file-system-property Ns = Ns Ar value Oc Ns …
.Op Fl R Ar root
.Op Fl t Ar tname
.Ar pool
.Ar vdev Ns …
.
.Sh DESCRIPTION
Creates a new storage pool containing the virtual devices specified on the
command line.
The pool name must begin with a letter, and can only contain
alphanumeric characters as well as the underscore
.Pq Qq Sy _ ,
dash
.Pq Qq Sy \&- ,
colon
.Pq Qq Sy \&: ,
space
.Pq Qq Sy \&\  ,
and period
.Pq Qq Sy \&. .
The pool names
.Sy mirror ,
.Sy raidz ,
.Sy draid ,
.Sy spare
and
.Sy log
are reserved, as are names beginning with
.Sy mirror ,
.Sy raidz ,
.Sy draid ,
and
.Sy spare .
The
.Ar vdev
specification is described in the
.Sx Virtual Devices
section of
.Xr zpoolconcepts 7 .
.Pp
The command attempts to verify that each device specified is accessible and not
currently in use by another subsystem.
However this check is not robust enough
to detect simultaneous attempts to use a new device in different pools, even if
.Sy multihost Ns = Sy enabled .
The administrator must ensure that simultaneous invocations of any combination
of
.Nm zpool Cm replace ,
.Nm zpool Cm create ,
.Nm zpool Cm add ,
or
.Nm zpool Cm labelclear
do not refer to the same device.
Using the same device in two pools will result in pool corruption.
.Pp
There are some uses, such as being currently mounted, or specified as the
dedicated dump device, that prevents a device from ever being used by ZFS.
Other uses, such as having a preexisting UFS file system, can be overridden with
.Fl f .
.Pp
The command also checks that the replication strategy for the pool is
consistent.
An attempt to combine redundant and non-redundant storage in a single pool,
or to mix disks and files, results in an error unless
.Fl f
is specified.
The use of differently-sized devices within a single raidz or mirror group is
also flagged as an error unless
.Fl f
is specified.
.Pp
Unless the
.Fl R
option is specified, the default mount point is
.Pa / Ns Ar pool .
The mount point must not exist or must be empty, or else the root dataset
will not be able to be be mounted.
This can be overridden with the
.Fl m
option.
.Pp
By default all supported features are enabled on the new pool.
The
.Fl d
option and the
.Fl o Ar compatibility
property
.Pq e.g Fl o Sy compatibility Ns = Ns Ar 2020
can be used to restrict the features that are enabled, so that the
pool can be imported on other releases of ZFS.
.Bl -tag -width "-t tname"
.It Fl d
Do not enable any features on the new pool.
Individual features can be enabled by setting their corresponding properties to
.Sy enabled
with
.Fl o .
See
.Xr zpool-features 7
for details about feature properties.
.It Fl f
Forces use of
.Ar vdev Ns s ,
even if they appear in use or specify a conflicting replication level.
Not all devices can be overridden in this manner.
.It Fl m Ar mountpoint
Sets the mount point for the root dataset.
The default mount point is
.Pa /pool
or
.Pa altroot/pool
if
.Sy altroot
is specified.
The mount point must be an absolute path,
.Sy legacy ,
or
.Sy none .
For more information on dataset mount points, see
.Xr zfsprops 7 .
.It Fl n
Displays the configuration that would be used without actually creating the
pool.
The actual pool creation can still fail due to insufficient privileges or
device sharing.
.It Fl o Ar property Ns = Ns Ar value
Sets the given pool properties.
See
.Xr zpoolprops 7
for a list of valid properties that can be set.
.It Fl o Ar compatibility Ns = Ns Sy off Ns | Ns Sy legacy Ns | Ns Ar file Ns Oo , Ns Ar file Oc Ns …
Specifies compatibility feature sets.
See
.Xr zpool-features 7
for more information about compatibility feature sets.
.It Fl o Sy feature@ Ns Ar feature Ns = Ns Ar value
Sets the given pool feature.
See the
.Xr zpool-features 7
section for a list of valid features that can be set.
Value can be either disabled or enabled.
.It Fl O Ar file-system-property Ns = Ns Ar value
Sets the given file system properties in the root file system of the pool.
See
.Xr zfsprops 7
for a list of valid properties that can be set.
.It Fl R Ar root
Equivalent to
.Fl o Sy cachefile Ns = Ns Sy none Fl o Sy altroot Ns = Ns Ar root
.It Fl t Ar tname
Sets the in-core pool name to
.Ar tname
while the on-disk name will be the name specified as
.Ar pool .
This will set the default of the
.Sy cachefile
property to
.Sy none .
This is intended
to handle name space collisions when creating pools for other systems,
such as virtual machines or physical machines whose pools live on network
block devices.
.El
.
.Sh EXAMPLES
.\" These are, respectively, examples 1, 2, 3, 4, 11, 12 from zpool.8
.\" Make sure to update them bidirectionally
.Ss Example 1 : No Creating a RAID-Z Storage Pool
The following command creates a pool with a single raidz root vdev that
consists of six disks:
.Dl # Nm zpool Cm create Ar tank Sy raidz Pa sda sdb sdc sdd sde sdf
.
.Ss Example 2 : No Creating a Mirrored Storage Pool
The following command creates a pool with two mirrors, where each mirror
contains two disks:
.Dl # Nm zpool Cm create Ar tank Sy mirror Pa sda sdb Sy mirror Pa sdc sdd
.
.Ss Example 3 : No Creating a ZFS Storage Pool by Using Partitions
The following command creates a non-redundant pool using two disk partitions:
.Dl # Nm zpool Cm create Ar tank Pa sda1 sdb2
.
.Ss Example 4 : No Creating a ZFS Storage Pool by Using Files
The following command creates a non-redundant pool using files.
While not recommended, a pool based on files can be useful for experimental
purposes.
.Dl # Nm zpool Cm create Ar tank Pa /path/to/file/a /path/to/file/b
.
.Ss Example 5 : No Managing Hot Spares
The following command creates a new pool with an available hot spare:
.Dl # Nm zpool Cm create Ar tank Sy mirror Pa sda sdb Sy spare Pa sdc
.
.Ss Example 6 : No Creating a ZFS Pool with Mirrored Separate Intent Logs
The following command creates a ZFS storage pool consisting of two, two-way
mirrors and mirrored log devices:
.Dl # Nm zpool Cm create Ar pool Sy mirror Pa sda sdb Sy mirror Pa sdc sdd Sy log mirror Pa sde sdf
.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr zpool-destroy 8 ,
.Xr zpool-export 8 ,
.Xr zpool-import 8