Required tool 'zpool' is missing

LXD
1

I’m on Ubuntu 18.04, running lxd via snap:

$ snap list lxd
Name  Version       Rev    Tracking       Publisher   Notes
lxd   5.13-cea5ee2  24758  latest/stable  canonical✓  -

I guess I haven’t created a new instance terribly recently, but have used it heavily in the past and haven’t changed any of its configuration. I just tried to create one today and it doesn’t work:

$ lxc launch ubuntu:focal -e
Creating the instance
Error: Failed instance creation: Failed creating instance record: Failed initialising instance: Failed loading storage pool: Required tool 'zpool' is missing

I have that on my machine, but is this something the snap is supposed to be bundling?

$ lxc storage list
Error: Required tool 'zpool' is missing

Note that existing containers appear to work fine.

2

We migrated to core22 for the latest track.
As part of that we had to drop some versions of ZFS which are no longer buildable on current distros, this includes the version of ZFS coming with stock Ubuntu 18.04 (0.7).

Other than upgrading to Ubuntu 20.04 or later, you can also fix this issue by switching over to the HWE kernel which will get you a supported ZFS version (0.8).

3

Oh that’s unfortunate. When was that change made? Is there another track I can use until I make that update happen?

4

We must have made that change a couple of months ago now, I believe for the latest track, the switch happened at the same time we rolled out LXD 5.12 in mid-March.

As far as alternative tracks, yes, there are some options but as LXD doesn’t support downgrading, they’re unlikely to be really viable options.

  • 3.0 => core18
  • 4.0 => core20
  • 5.0 => core20 (but will switch to core22 soon)
5

Alright, thank you. I’ll survive without it for now. I know I need to upgrade, but I’d like to do it on my time instead of having my tools automatically break, you know?

6

Yeah, that’s why an HWE kernel switch is likely the easiest step to get it back online as opposed to doing a full distro upgrade :slight_smile:

1 Like
7

See also LXD 5.12: ZFS stopped working in lxd - Error: Required tool 'zpool' is missing when kernel ZFS module version < 0.8