Re: ZFS zombie pool haunting me, please send help (ZFS bugs?)

[Ellie <el%horse64.org@localhost>]

On 11/1/26 00:59, Ellie wrote:
> Dear NetBSD list,
>
> A haunted ZFS pool came back to end me just in time for Halloween, [...]

Dear NetBSD list,

I managed to fix it, and I'm documenting here how I did it.

Sadly, it was kind of an extreme solution so this won't be the most 
practical for others running into the same problem.

1. First, I had a reason to redo the disk image on Computer #2 anyway, 
so I basically just wiped and reset it (while the ZFS pool in question 
was not attached). This also removed any past ZFS pool knowledge.

2. Then, I attached the USB drive in question to this computer #2. Since 
my zombie ZFS pool was nested in a CGD partition, I also wiped that CGD 
by regenerating the config file with cgdconfig -g and then setting up a 
fresh inner ZFS partition but without actually creating a pool.

3. Then, I remotely accessed the Computer #1 main boot disk without 
booting that computer, to again wipe the pool cache on there.

4. Then I reattached the USB disk to the Computer #1.

Now I could finally open up the ZFS partition and create a new pool on 
Computer #1 without any notification of some haunted ghost pool.

I also didn't have any issues of Computer #2 now corrupting the pool (if 
I ever plug in the USB drive there), since it has no memory of ever 
having any relation to it.

Anyway, I think NetBSD ZFS seems to have possibly a design oversight 
regarding such corner cases!

Regards,

Ellie