Folks, Need help with ZFS recovery following zfs create ...
We recently received new laptops (hardware refresh) and I simply transfered the multiboot hdd (using OpenSolaris 2008.11 as the primary production OS) from the old laptop to the new one (used the live DVD to do the zpool import, updated the boot archive and did a devfsadm) and worked away as usual. I then wanted to use the WinXP distribution which was shipped with the new laptop and discovered the existing partition was too small. I bought a new hdd and proceeded to partition it as required (1.WinXP 24GB, 2.Solaris 24GB, 3.Solaris 130GB, 4.extended with logical 5.FAT32 30GB, 6.Linux 20GB, 7.Linux swap 6GB). I would consider myself inexperienced with ZFS (one of the reasons I opted for OpenSolaris was to get more familiar with it and the other features before they were adopted by customers). So although I bet there would be more elgant ways to do this I stuck with what I know. I connected the hdd (with functional but inappropriate partition sizes) to the usb port. I 'dd' the first Solaris partition across (OpenSolaris rpool dataset) to the new drive (used the live DVD to do the zpool import, update_grub and bootadm) then all was as it should be. It appears I may have been able to do this from the hdd after booting OpenSolaris but I wasn't aware of how to deal with two pools of the same name - Ie. rpool. I subsequently copied the linux OS across (booted linux, created ext3fs and copied OS files across using tar). Also from Linux, I created the FAT32 filesystem and copied the data across with tar). - all okay and functional. At this point all I need to do was copy the second 130GB Solaris partition (zfs filesystem) across and proceeded to create the new pool and zfs file system. My intention was to mount the two and simply copy the data across. What I did do was zpool create to the device where the existing pool (of valid data) was and created a zfs filesystem. [b]When I did the zpool status I realised what I had done and promptly disconnected the hdd from the usb port[/b]. I have googled to see if anyone has successfully recovered data following an inadvertent 'zpool create' without success. The Sun url also says the data cannot be recovered and should be sourced from a backup. I dont have a recent backup (and I guess worse yet - don't know what I will have lost by going back to a 8 monthish old backup). So I guess what I'm hoping is that like other filesystems if the zfs 'superstructures' are removed the data would still be in place and using some of the cached detail perhaps it can be pieced back? I know it's a long shot but as I don't know ZFS well enough, I must ask the question. Some documentation seemed to suggest ZFS would advise if a healthy pool existed before blowing it away (perhaps only if it is mounted? this wasn't imported?). As there is very obviously a risk here it would be a good time to add any possible checks to zpool create. Does anyone have any recovery advise? -- This message posted from opensolaris.org _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
