partition - Native ZFS Configuration on Ubuntu

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I'm experimenting with Native-ZFS on
Ubuntu right now. Here are the drives installed on the
system:

• 2 x
  2TB


• 3 x 1TB


• a 200GB
  operating system
  disk

I've got the OS
installed and the stable ZFS RC for 12.04 installed via the
PPA.

In terms of ZFS configuration, I'd like to
get the maximum theoretical capacity with 1 drive failure protection (so 5TB). I was
planning on this
configuration:

• 1
  zpool:
  
  
  
  
  • 1 4TB RAIDZ
    vdev:
    
    
    
    
    • 3 x 1TB
      drives
    
    
    • 2 x 1TB partitions, one from each of the 2TB
      drives
    
    
    
  
  
  • 1 1TB
    Mirrored vdev:
    
    
    
    
    • 2 x 1TB partitions,
      one from each of the 2TB
      drives
    
    
  
  

First
off, does this configuration make sense? Is there a better way to achieve 5TB (such as a
7 x 1TB RAIDZ2)? I'm not terribly concerned with performance (although I am somewhat
concerned with
upgradeability).

Secondly, can
anybody point me to a guide (or show me) the ZFS incantations to create such a (mildly
complicated) pool? All of the guides I've found create a 1-1 zpool-vdev and use the
entire raw disk, not partitions. Most of the documentation I've found for ZFS regarding
partitions is BSD or Solaris dependent, and I'm not sure how much of it applies to
Linux.

Thanks!

Answer

the only difference between using the whole disk to create a pool and part of a
disk is that you have to partition the disk first. so on your 2 TB drives, create 2
partitions, each 1 TB, using whatever partition tool you choose. (that would not be a
zfs utility, but instead something like
fdisk.)

then when you issue your zpool command,
pass the partition instead of the
drive:

zpool create tank1 raidz
            /dev/sda /dev/sdb /dev/sdc /dev/sde1
            /dev/sdf1

and
the same for the 1 TB
mirror:

zpool create tank2 mirror
            /dev/sde2 /dev/sdf2