zsys VS zectl

From this bug report on github, here is a clear explanation of the problem:

This is a good thing for ZFS and public perception of ZFS. Ubuntu has made some very poor choices with how they've integrated ZFS -

* zsys has both implementation and design flaws. They utilize two zpools - one with limited feature flags that GRUB can use and one general pool, and then try to tightly couple datasets between those two pools while coordinating snapshots. zsys routinely runs a system out of space due to not cleaning up snapshots. It's been known to destroy user data as well.

https://github.com/ubuntu/zsys/issues/196

Example: https://github.com/ubuntu/zsys/issues/155

Heard of it, but I have no idea how it works and if I must install ubuntu server completely new. After a bit googling it seems dead? “It seems the project has been dead for months now. What going on?” https://github.com/ubuntu/zsys/issues/213

Ubuntu isn't my preferred OS these days, but I've had excellent experiences with it's ZFS root installs as well as it's included zsys: https://github.com/ubuntu/zsys

Re: things I've actually dealt with, see -- #172

I even filed a very polite GH issue about how zsys doesn't handle other systems/sanoid snapshots well, to which I got no response. However, a previous response to a user with the same issue was "Turn that other method of snapshot-ing off and delete your other snapshots" which, I'm sorry, just doesn't make any sense to say to any ZFS user -- "Pound sand and delete some of your data, then maybe it will work." Say what?

https://github.com/ubuntu/zsys/issues/112 - This could be an incompatibility with the way docker stores volumes, but this looks like it should've been fixed a while ago?

I came across zectl (https://github.com/johnramsden/zectl/blob/master/README.md) but found the docs quite sparse.

I've been trying to install it on ZFS root with systemd-boot but also have something like zectl for picking snapshots at boot time, so far no luck, seems hella complicated

You'll have to give up GRUB to use zectl . I believe it only works with systemd-boot. I don't know how well it supports multiple operating systems on the same pool. I don't know if your pool can be encrypted.

If you use a tool such as zectl for boot environments, then datasets that don't hold system data like rpool/ must be out of rpool/ROOT.

Anyone using this? https://github.com/johnramsden/zectl

If that doesn't appeal to you, you might want to consider zectl or bieaz. I know zectl has an AUR package, at least.