According to this tutorial, all I need do is install the zfs and zfs-lts packages, issue a modprobe zfs and I’m good to go.
Not so much.
Having created a pool and a couple of datasets, I rebooted the machine. That’s when the trouble started:
# zpool list
The ZFS modules are not loaded.
Try running '/sbin/modprobe zfs' as root to load them.
Wait….so I have to run modprobe every time the system boots? I google and find out that I can add a line to /etc/modules to automatically load the zfs module at boot, although I’m a bit confused why that didn’t happen when I installed the zfs package.
But it doesn’t really help anyway, because the pool apparently doesn’t exist:
# modprobe zfs
# zpool list
no pools available
Further googling suggests importing the pool. This works, but again I have to issue the command manually every time the system boots:
# zpool import -a
# zpool list
NAME SIZE ALLOC FREE CKPOINT EXPANDSZ FRAG CAP DEDUP HEALTH ALTROOT
backup 16.4T 1.88M 16.4T - - 0% 0% 1.00x ONLINE -
Shouldn’t this “just work”, like it does on Debian and Proxmox? What am I missing? What can I install to make Alpine play ball with ZFS without all this manual typing on every boot?
I’ve hunted around online for guides or existing forum questions, but either nobody’s using Alpine and ZFS together, or they’re doing so quietly, because google results on the subject are sparse indeed.
(If installing the latest version of Alpine will solve the problem, I’m prepared to do that. But I’m hesitant to wipe the machine and start again from scratch when it might not help at all.)
