Virtual Dedupe Requires Workaround: OpenSolaris build 128a Kernel Panics on Boot in VMWare
December 4th, 2009
I am super excited you can now download a compiled version of OpenSolaris that includes the new ZFS Dedupe support! However when I went to try installing build 128a from GENUNIX, I found it kernel panic’d on both VMWare Workstation and ESXi 4.0.
A little googling and I found this bug and workaround:
6820576 Kernel panic when booting Nevada and OpenSolaris http://bugs.opensolaris.org/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6820576 When booting build 121 on a VMware guest instance, the system may panic with the following function listed in the kernel stack trace pcplusmp`ioapic_read Work-around: Boot with the "pcieb" driver disabled by editing the GRUB "kernel$" entry. This can be done interactively by typing the character "e" when the GRUB menu appears and using the arrows key to navigate to the "kernel$" entry. Entering a second "e" will allow one to append to the end of the line the string " -B disable-pcieb=true". To complete the boot, enter a carriage return followed by the "b" character. To make this change persistent, edit the file /rpool/boot/grub/menu.lst and add the same string to the appropriate "kernel$" entries.
That fixed the problem right up thankfully!
Hey man, take a look at nexentastor, i tested it and i was very excited how easy it is to setup. Unfortunately it does not yet offer the dedup support, but it will in the near future.
In my opinion it comes very handy if you do not want to have much todo with the cli. There is a 4TB Developer Edition which is available for free.
Nexentastor has definitely caught my attention. It is something we may try at work after a very disappointing experience with OpenFiler. For home I don’t mind jumping some hurdles. I also am already over the 4gb limit.