The mfsBSD has been successfully booted and it should be possible to log in through ssh(1). This section will describe how to create and label slices, set up gmirror for RAID-1, and how to use sysinstall to install a minimal distribution of the FreeBSD operating system.
The first task is to allocate disk space for FreeBSD, i.e.: to create slices and partitions. Obviously, the currently running system is fully loaded in system memory and therefore there will be no problems with manipulating hard drives. To complete this task, it is possible to use either sysinstall or fdisk(8) in conjunction to bsdlabel(8).
At the start, mark all system disks as empty. Repeat the following command for each hard drive:
#dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad0count=2
Next, create slices and label them with your preferred
tool. While it is considered easier to use
sysinstall, a powerful and also
probably less buggy method will be to use standard text-based
UNIX® tools, such as fdisk(8) and bsdlabel(8),
which will also be covered in this section. The former option
is well documented in the Installing
FreeBSD chapter of the FreeBSD Handbook. As it was
mentioned in the introduction, this article will present how
to set up a system with RAID-1 and
ZFS capabilities. Our set up will
consist of a small gmirror(8) mirrored
/ (root), /usr and
/var dataset, and the rest of the disk
space will be allocated for a zpool(8) mirrored
ZFS file system. Please note, that
the ZFS file system will be
configured after the FreeBSD operating system is successfully
installed and booted.
The following example will describe how to create slices and labels, initialize gmirror(8) on each partition and how to create a UFS2 file system in each mirrored partition:
#fdisk -BI /dev/ad0
#fdisk -BI /dev/ad1#bsdlabel -wB /dev/ad0s1
#bsdlabel -wB /dev/ad1s1#bsdlabel -e /dev/ad0s1
#bsdlabel /dev/ad0s1 > /tmp/bsdlabel.txt && bsdlabel -R /dev/ad1s1 /tmp/bsdlabel.txt
#gmirror label root /dev/ad[01]s1a
#gmirror label var /dev/ad[01]s1d#gmirror label usr /dev/ad[01]s1e#gmirror label -F swap /dev/ad[01]s1b
#newfs /dev/mirror/root
#newfs /dev/mirror/var#newfs /dev/mirror/usr
| Create a slice covering the entire disk and initialize the boot code contained in sector 0 of the given disk. Repeat this command for all hard drives in the system. |
| Write a standard label for each disk including the bootstrap code. |
| Now, manually edit the label of the given disk. Refer
to the bsdlabel(8) manual page in order to find out
how to create partitions. Create partitions
|
| Import the recently created label for the second hard drive, so both hard drives will be labeled in the same way. |
| Note that |
| Create a UFS2 file system on each mirrored partition. |
This is the most important part. This section will describe how to actually install the minimal distribution of FreeBSD on the hard drives that we have prepared in the previous section. To accomplish this goal, all file systems need to be mounted so sysinstall may write the contents of FreeBSD to the hard drives:
#mount /dev/mirror/root /mnt#mkdir /mnt/var /mnt/usr#mount /dev/mirror/var /mnt/var#mount /dev/mirror/usr /mnt/usr
When you are done, start sysinstall(8). Select the
installation from the main
menu. Select and press
Enter. With the help of arrow keys, move the
cursor on the Install Root item, press
Space and change it to
/mnt. Press
Enter to submit your changes and exit the
menu by pressing
q.
Warning:
Note that this step is very important and if skipped, sysinstall will be unable to install FreeBSD.
Go to the menu,
move the cursor with the arrow keys to
Minimal, and check it by pressing
Space. This article uses the Minimal
distribution in order to save network traffic, because the
system itself will be installed over
ftp. Exit this menu by choosing
Exit.
Note:
The and menus will be skipped, as these are useless now.
In the menu, select
FTP. Select the nearest mirror and let
sysinstall assume that the network
is already configured. You will be returned back to the
menu.
Finally, perform the system installation by selecting the last option, . Exit sysinstall when it finishes the installation.
The FreeBSD operating system should be installed now; however, the process is not finished yet. It is necessary to perform some post installation steps in order to allow FreeBSD to boot in the future and to be able to log in to the system.
You must now chroot(8) into the freshly installed system in order to finish the installation. Use the following command:
#chroot /mnt
To complete our goal, perform these steps:
Copy the
GENERICkernel to the/boot/kerneldirectory:#cp -Rp /boot/GENERIC/* /boot/kernelCreate the
/etc/rc.conf,/etc/resolv.confand/etc/fstabfiles. Do not forget to properly set the network information and to enable sshd in/etc/rc.conf. The contents of/etc/fstabwill be similar to the following:# Device Mountpoint FStype Options Dump Pass# /dev/mirror/swap none swap sw 0 0 /dev/mirror/root / ufs rw 1 1 /dev/mirror/usr /usr ufs rw 2 2 /dev/mirror/var /var ufs rw 2 2 /dev/cd0 /cdrom cd9660 ro,noauto 0 0
Create
/boot/loader.confwith the following contents:geom_mirror_load="YES" zfs_load="YES"
Perform the following command, which will make ZFS available on the next boot:
#echo 'zfs_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.confAdd additional users to the system using the adduser(8) tool. Do not forget to add a user to the
wheelgroup so you may obtain root access after the reboot.Double-check all your settings.
The system should now be ready for the next boot. Use the reboot(8) command to reboot your system.