ZFS Repo Still Down -- Another Source Available?

[mhumm2]

Yes, I'm still trying to add the zfs repo to my sources so I can install the ZFS FS and VLM. It looks like the repo is down for some reason unless I'm using the wrong command.

mark@Ubuntu-Server:~$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:zfs-native/stable
[sudo] password for mark: 
Cannot add PPA: 'ppa:~zfs-native/ubuntu/stable'.
ERROR: '~zfs-native' user or team does not exist.

Anyway, here is my latest attempt to follow this Article. I thought I'd try it since the install package name was different than the other one I tried, but it did not work:

mark@Ubuntu-Server:~$ sudo apt install zfs
[sudo] password for mark: 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'zfsutils-linux' instead of 'zfs'
The following additional packages will be installed:
libnvpair1linux libuutil1linux libzfs2linux libzpool2linux zfs-doc zfs-zed
Suggested packages:
default-mta | mail-transport-agent nfs-kernel-server zfs-initramfs
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libnvpair1linux libuutil1linux libzfs2linux libzpool2linux zfs-doc zfs-zed zfsutils-linux
0 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 897 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,902 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] 
Ign:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main i386 zfs-doc all 0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17
Err:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 libuutil1linux amd64 0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17
Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err:3 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 libnvpair1linux amd64 0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17
Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err:4 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 libzpool2linux amd64 0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17
Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err:5 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 libzfs2linux amd64 0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17
Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err:6 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 zfsutils-linux amd64 0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17
Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err:7 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 zfs-zed amd64 0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17
Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
Err:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main i386 zfs-doc all 0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17
Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
E: Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zfs-linux/zfs-doc_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17_all.deb  Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
E: Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zfs-linux/libuutil1linux_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17_amd64.deb  Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
E: Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zfs-linux/libnvpair1linux_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17_amd64.deb  Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
E: Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zfs-linux/libzpool2linux_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17_amd64.deb  Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
E: Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zfs-linux/libzfs2linux_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17_amd64.deb  Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
E: Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zfs-linux/zfsutils-linux_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17_amd64.deb  Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
E: Failed to fetch http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/z/zfs-linux/zfs-zed_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu17_amd64.deb  Temporary failure resolving 'us.archive.ubuntu.com'
E: Unable to fetch some archives, maybe run apt-get update or try with --fix-missing?

Well, I think I may have found something, but I need some guidance. Here is what I found on a Launchpad site named "ZFS Build for Ubuntu"

There are AMD64 packages here setup to be downloaded.

Built files

Files resulting from this build:

libnvpair1linux-dbg_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (60.1 KiB)
libnvpair1linux-dbgsym_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.ddeb (914 bytes)
libnvpair1linux_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (22.9 KiB)
libuutil1linux-dbg_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (52.6 KiB)
libuutil1linux-dbgsym_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.ddeb (1.1 KiB)
libuutil1linux_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (26.8 KiB)
libzfs2linux-dbg_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (225.2 KiB)
libzfs2linux-dbgsym_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.ddeb (840 bytes)
libzfs2linux_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (104.0 KiB)
libzfslinux-dev_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (2.5 MiB)
libzpool2linux-dbg_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (900.2 KiB)
libzpool2linux-dbgsym_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.ddeb (832 bytes)
libzpool2linux_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (374.7 KiB)
zfs-dkms_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (1.0 MiB)
zfs-doc_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_all.deb (48.9 KiB)
zfs-initramfs_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_all.deb (4.0 KiB)
zfs-zed-dbg_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (37.6 KiB)
zfs-zed-dbgsym_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.ddeb (872 bytes)
zfs-zed_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (29.1 KiB)
zfsutils-linux-dbg_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (395.4 KiB)
zfsutils-linux-dbgsym_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.ddeb (872 bytes)
zfsutils-linux_0.6.5.6-0ubuntu16_amd64.deb (269.7 KiB)

So can I download these individual files and use my Debian installer to install them onto my server? I just plain don't know about the ones with the .ddeb extension. I've never run into this situation before.

Again, I only want ZFS for my NAS disks, not the Ubuntu server root filesystem. Please advise.

[claydoh]

That ppa only has packages for 14.04, so it is no good for any other release.

The error messages are indicating that whatever server in the pool that is being used for us.archive.ubuntu.com on your system is down at the moment. You may just have to wait a bit, or temporarily change your sources to the "
main" server or choose another one manually. You can do this in Muon etc via Configure Software Sources in the settings menus

You don't need all of those packages, specifically the -dev and -dbg and -dbgsym packages.
You will need other dependencies that are not part of zfs, but those should be installed automatically as deps of one of the main packages, if you use Kubuntu's deb package installer installer Qapt. I do not know if the Debian installer handles deps or not.

BUT if you look at the output you get from running apt install zfs it does tell you exactly which packages you need:

The following NEW packages will be installed:
libnvpair1linux libuutil1linux libzfs2linux libzpool2linux zfs-doc zfs-zed zfsutils-linux

[oshunluvr]

I'm sorry if this isn't helpful, but would you mind explaining why you need to use ZFS vs. BTRFS? Seems like you're going through a lot of trouble to leave yourself with the potential of having an unusable server if the ppa maintainer decides it's no longer worth the trouble.

[mhumm2]

Thank you Claydoh, I'll take a look at that.

Oshunluvr, I've been struggling with FreeNAS for about two years. The only shining star of that OS is ZFS. It really is an amazing fs and LVM. It was the only easy part of the process of getting a home NAS up and running. When I read that ZFS was now natively part of 16.04 with the kernel mods already built in, I couldn't switch fast enough to the OS I've been using for ten years. Okay, I've been using kubuntu, but I'm sure you know what I mean. I thought it would mitigate all the pain I was having with FreeNAS and their forum dwellers, and the FreeNAS guide book OMG, the guide. Anyway, after I installed Ubuntu Server 16.04LTS onto a 64GB bootable flash drive, I thought I was home free! Now I find out that the ZFS PPA is 3rd party.

Mind you, I'm not trying to use ZFS as my root fs. I only want it for my NAS drives. I did some research on "Butter FS" and as I understand, it's not a reliable fs yet. One of my references is here.

As I understand ZFS fs is 128-bit. I've been researching that as well. It's a very interesting topic considering it has to operate on a 64-bit OS. I suppose my experience is the biggest reason. With FreeNAS, ZFS is just rock solid, fast, and most importantly, reliable. Combined with ECC RAM, ZFS has the ability to correct bit errors up to 2 bits/8 bytes. I think that's incredible. On the con side, I'm not happy about it never being included in one of the main Ubuntu repos. I don't understand that either because with FreeNAS which is a BSD Linux OS, it's included. There's nothing to install.

Of course FreeNAS is a special OS too, designed for NAS servers. I was really hoping Ubuntu would eventually do something similar with their server OSs. Well, that's about it. I hope I answered your questions and as always, if I'm missing something, please don't hesitate to educate me. Thanks.

[oshunluvr]

Well, that reference is two years old, so you might want to update your reading. General rule-of-thumb in my world, if it is more than six months old, it's likely out of date. BTRFS is undergoing development - tool enhancement mostly.The file system format is stable.

Reliable? I guess that's a subjective term. Is relying on a PPA that's currently down and only supports a 3 year old version of Ubuntu a "reliable" path? A file system format that will never be in the kernel?

As for my personal experience, I've been using btrfs since about 2012 - since btrfstools v0.19 and before it was in the kernel. I've had one corruption caused by a malfunctioning SATA controller and one that the source was unknown. Both were repairable with a little effort and neither resulted in data loss. I cannot say the same for EXT. A couple of times I had some issues/questions and I've gone to the btrfs IRC channel and had helpful discussions with the file system developers.

To the point: You, in this one post, describe more problems getting ZFS up and running than I've encountered in half-a-decade, including when btrfs was still considered experimental. If it were me, I'd evaluate your selection of OS vs. file system. In other words, if ZFS is the most important thing, then you'd better stick with a distro/OS that supports it directly and forget Ubuntu. If having the flexibility of Ubuntu is more important, then maybe it's time to reevaluate your file systems choices. Back in the old days, I hung on to ReiserFS for about 2 years longer than I should have. By the time I moved on, it was a relief to let go of the struggles keeping a not well supported FS alive.

It is true that in some use-cases ZFS out performs BTRFS, but do those use-cases apply to a home server? Not usually - network speeds are usually the bottleneck. ZFS is designed for enterprise level environments with large relatively stable drive pools. It's not, nor meant to be, easy to use or be a product used by regular day-to-day users. BTRFS is simple and easy to use, easily scale-able, supports every disk configuration you can think of, does snapshots which means easy backups and the ability to roll back, and most functions occurs without unmounting the file system even not using it. I rotated a 2TB drive off my server and replaced it with a 6TB drive without out taking down any services and without rebooting. I'm pretty sure you won't be doing that with ZFS.

One final point to the reliability issue: I think both formats are reliable enough. If your data is important, you'll make backups. You can't depend on the reliability of a file system or a hard drive to keep your data safe.

[GreyGeek]

IF you want to install zfs on Kubuntu or Neon all you have to do is use muon and search for zfsutils-linux and install it. It will bring along two other packages.

IF you want to boot from ext4 and use zfs to run on the rest of headless servers I could understand, but using zfs as your sole fs, with desktop support, has only been supported on Ubuntu since June 9th and takes 9 steps to install, including KDE (step 8), as explained in the following link:
https://github.com/zfsonlinux/zfs/wi...04-Root-on-ZFS
(OpenZFS was added to Ubuntu 16.04LTS in April of 2016)
Arch and LFS are easy compared to that recipe.

You can make btrfs your only fs and boot from it as well. And, you can select it from the LiveUSB installation partition page. Adding and removing storage devices using btrfs is just as easy as zfs. The dust hasn't settled yet on the CDDL license behind zfs. I'll pass on zfs.

[mhumm2]

Thank you Oshunluvr, that was a very critical and honest evaluation of my plans. You've convinced me to take a look at btrfs and give it a try. I'll find an install guide online that was written in 2016 or later.

Hello GreyGeek. Oshunluvr was talking about the relief he felt finally walking away from ReiserFS. I feel the same way about walking away from FreeNAS. I think the FreeNAS guide was my biggest obstacle so I'm back to Ubuntu Server 16.04.2 LTS. I have very robust server hardware including a SuperMicro mobo that boots to an internal, vertically oriented USB port designed for a flash drive. That's what's running Ubuntu Server and I needed a fs capable of RAID Z or RAID 5 that is reliable, fast, and easy to use. I was working to use ZFS again since that was the biggest draw to FreeNAS so when Ubuntu got it, I jumped.

On a personal note, the two of you have been an outstanding support network for me. There are others of course such as Vinny, Claydoh, and the rest, but you two are the pointy end of my Ubuntu spear <grin><warning strained metaphor in use>. Thank you both very much.

If you ever get to the Emerald Coast of Florida, (also called the Redneck Riviera) you'll have to let me know so we can meet in the real world. That would be fun.