Setting up ZFS with native encryption: Difference between revisions
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dd if=/dev/random of=/etc/home.key bs=32 count=1 | dd if=/dev/random of=/etc/home.key bs=32 count=1 | ||
chmod 600 /etc/home.key | chmod 600 /etc/home.key | ||
IMPORTANT: Make sure you don't lose this key by overwriting your root filesystem or anything like that. You might want to store a copy of it on an encrypted USB drive, for instance. | |||
= ZFS setup = | = ZFS setup = |
Revision as of 21:43, 21 March 2023
This is a guide for creating and auto-mounting an encrypted ZFS drive or partition on an existing encrypted alpine linux system, using ZFS's own encryption capabilities. If you want to make a fresh install with the root partition on ZFS, see Root on ZFS with native encryption.
The system will be encrypted when powered off but will not require you to type an extra password at boot, since it uses a key stored on the encrypted root partition. Alternative options are also given, such as prompting for a password at boot rather than storing the key on the root drive. The example in this guide is modeled around creating a ZFS filesystem to be used as a user's home directory, but it can be trivially modified to create a filesystem for other purposes.
Preparation
Every command in this guide should be run as root.
apk update apk add zfs zfs-lts # install the utilities modprobe zfs # load the kernel modules mdev -s # make sure the device nodes are present
Create an encryption key
This section can be skipped if you intend to unlock the drive by typing a password rather than unlocking automatically. You should use a password instead if your root partition is not encrypted. The location "/etc/home.key" can be anything.
dd if=/dev/random of=/etc/home.key bs=32 count=1 chmod 600 /etc/home.key
IMPORTANT: Make sure you don't lose this key by overwriting your root filesystem or anything like that. You might want to store a copy of it on an encrypted USB drive, for instance.
ZFS setup
Create the zpool
Replace `/dev/sd...` with the name of the disk or partition where you would like to make the zfs filesystem, such as `/dev/nvme0n1` or `/dev/sda1`. If you would like to be prompted for a password at boot rather than using the key as generated above, then replace `-O keylocation=file:///etc/home.key -O keyformat=raw` with `-O keylocation=prompt -O keyformat=passphrase`. The name "homepool" can be anything.
zpool create -o ashift=12 -O acltype=posixacl -O compression=lz4 \ -O dnodesize=auto -O normalization=formD -O relatime=on -O xattr=sa \ -O encryption=aes-256-gcm -O keylocation=file:///etc/home.key -O keyformat=raw \ -O mountpoint=none homepool /dev/sd...
After completing this, confirm that the pool has been created:
zpool status
Should return something like:
pool: homepool state: ONLINE config: NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM homepool ONLINE 0 0 0 sd... ONLINE 0 0 0 errors: No known data errors
Create and mount the filesystem
zfs create -o mountpoint=/home/username homepool/username chown username:username /home/username # likely unnecessary if not creating a homedir
Set up the services to auto-mount the new filesystem
rc-update add zfs-import # import existing zpools rc-update add zfs-load-key # load the encryption keys rc-update add zfs-mount # mount the filesystems
Finally,
reboot