Error: Failed to create storage pool 'lxd_zfs': cannot open 'lxd_pool': dataset does not exist

LXD
1

I am trying to configure LXD to use an existing ZFS pool but LXD somehow cannot find the pool although it does exists.

The computer has only one physical disk with multiple partitions. The ZFS pool has been created to use one of those partitions.

$ sudo zpool create lxd_pool /dev/nvme0n1p11

$ sudo zpool list
NAME       SIZE  ALLOC   FREE    CAP  DEDUP  HEALTH  ALTROOT
lxd_pool  97.5G   400K  97.5G     0%  1.00x  ONLINE  -

$ sudo zpool status -v                      
  pool: lxd_pool
 state: ONLINE
 scrub: none requested
config:

	NAME          STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
	lxd_pool      ONLINE       0     0     0
	  nvme0n1p11  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

$ sudo zfs list -t all
NAME       USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
lxd_pool   364K  96.0G   112K  /lxd_pool

$ ls -lah /lxd_pool             
total 13K
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root    2 Oct 12 16:48 .
drwxr-xr-x 28 root root 4.0K Oct 12 16:48 ..

$ sudo snap list | grep lxd
lxd                   3.5                     9010  stable    canonical✓    -

When configuring LXD, the ZFS pool is not found…

$ sudo lxd init
Would you like to use LXD clustering? (yes/no) [default=no]: 
Do you want to configure a new storage pool? (yes/no) [default=yes]: 
Name of the new storage pool [default=default]: lxd_zfs
Name of the storage backend to use (btrfs, ceph, dir, lvm, zfs) [default=zfs]: 
Create a new ZFS pool? (yes/no) [default=yes]: no
Name of the existing ZFS pool or dataset: lxd_pool
Would you like to connect to a MAAS server? (yes/no) [default=no]: 
Would you like to create a new local network bridge? (yes/no) [default=yes]: no
Would you like to configure LXD to use an existing bridge or host interface? (yes/no) [default=no]: yes
Name of the existing bridge or host interface: lxdbr0
Would you like LXD to be available over the network? (yes/no) [default=no]: 
Would you like stale cached images to be updated automatically? (yes/no) [default=yes] 
Would you like a YAML "lxd init" preseed to be printed? (yes/no) [default=no]: 
Error: Failed to create storage pool 'lxd_zfs': cannot open 'lxd_pool': dataset does not exist
2

Odd, does passing something like lxd_pool/lxd make it work?

Also, what version of LXD is this and is it the snap or the deb?

3

I am using Snap 3.5 stable 9010 on Ubuntu 18.04 with ZFS installed with package https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/zfs-linux/0.7.5-1ubuntu16.4.

I have tried with lxd_pool/lxd as suggested but without success. See below for details.

$ sudo lxd init
Would you like to use LXD clustering? (yes/no) [default=no]: 
Do you want to configure a new storage pool? (yes/no) [default=yes]: 
Name of the new storage pool [default=default]: lxd_zfs
Name of the storage backend to use (btrfs, ceph, dir, lvm, zfs) [default=zfs]: 
Create a new ZFS pool? (yes/no) [default=yes]: no
Name of the existing ZFS pool or dataset: lxd_pool/lxd
Would you like to connect to a MAAS server? (yes/no) [default=no]: 
Would you like to create a new local network bridge? (yes/no) [default=yes]: no
Would you like to configure LXD to use an existing bridge or host interface? (yes/no) [default=no]: yes
Name of the existing bridge or host interface: lxdbr0
Would you like LXD to be available over the network? (yes/no) [default=no]: 
Would you like stale cached images to be updated automatically? (yes/no) [default=yes] 
Would you like a YAML "lxd init" preseed to be printed? (yes/no) [default=no]: 
Error: Failed to create storage pool 'lxd_zfs': Failed to create ZFS filesystem: cannot create 'lxd_pool/lxd': no such pool 'lxd_pool'
4

I think that you have created a ZFS filesystem in that partition and LXD somehow cannot create the pool in there.
Is that partition meant to be used only for LXD?
If that is the case, then you can use zfs destroy to clear everything up.
Finally, you can run sudo lxd init again, and specify the block device for LXD to create the ZFS pool (as in /dev/sda7 or something).

5

@simos

Yes, this partition is meant to be used for LXD only. I encounter this problem on my development machine, which has LXD installed with Snap. As a result the default storage location would end up to be on the root device. With this change, I simply want to move the storage to another partition in order to avoid that the storage device clogs up the root device and renders the machine unbootable.

Actually, this worked!

$ sudo lxd init
Would you like to use LXD clustering? (yes/no) [default=no]: 
Do you want to configure a new storage pool? (yes/no) [default=yes]: 
Name of the new storage pool [default=default]: lxd_zfs
Name of the storage backend to use (btrfs, ceph, dir, lvm, zfs) [default=zfs]: 
Create a new ZFS pool? (yes/no) [default=yes]: yes
Would you like to use an existing block device? (yes/no) [default=no]: yes
Path to the existing block device: /dev/nvme0n1p11
Would you like to connect to a MAAS server? (yes/no) [default=no]: no
Would you like to create a new local network bridge? (yes/no) [default=yes]: no
Would you like to configure LXD to use an existing bridge or host interface? (yes/no) [default=no]: yes
Name of the existing bridge or host interface: lxdbr0
Would you like LXD to be available over the network? (yes/no) [default=no]: 
Would you like stale cached images to be updated automatically? (yes/no) [default=yes] 
Would you like a YAML "lxd init" preseed to be printed? (yes/no) [default=no]: