Add detailed README about ZFS testing environment

README.md

@@ -1,7 +1,120 @@
 # Vagrant ZFS
 
-This repository contains a Vagrant configuration using the libvirt provider to
+This repository contains Vagrant configuration using the libvirt provider to
-create a virtual ZFS environment.
+create a virtual ZFS environment for testing purposes.
+
+The setup leverages sparse qcow2 files to simulate large virtual disks
+(18TB each by default) for testing ZFS. These virtual disks only consume actual
+host storage space when data is written to them, with each empty disk requiring
+only 2-3MB of real space. This allows you to experiment with massive albeit
+empty ZFS arrays without needing equivalent physical storage resources.
+
+By default, the Vagrant VM will be configured with:
+
+- 4 vCPU cores
+- 4 GB of RAM
+- 16 virtual disks (default size of 18TB each, sparse disks)
+
+## Quick Start
+
+This quickstart demonstrates using zfs-kmod on Rocky Linux 9. Many professional
+environments standardize on RHEL-based infrastructure, making Rocky Linux an
+excellent choice for testing ZFS in enterprise-like settings. Get your test
+environment up and running with these steps:
+
+- Reset the environment if needed
+  ```
+  vagrant destroy -f
+  ```
+- (Optional) override the `VAGRANT_BOX` to Rocky Linux
+  ```
+  echo "VAGRANT_BOX: rockylinux/9" > .vagrant.yml
+  ```
+- Bring up the VM
+  ```
+  vagrant up
+  ```
+- After booting, login to the VM
+  ```
+  vagrant ssh
+  ```
+- Look at `/etc/os-release` to double check you are on Rocky Linux
+  ```
+  cat /etc/os-release
+  ```
+- Load the ZFS module (already loaded by default on Debian)
+  ```
+  lsmod | grep zfs
+  sudo modprobe zfs
+  lsmod | grep zfs
+  ```
+- Verify no pools exist and identify the persistent device names to use
+
+  ```
+  lsblk
+  zpool status
+  ls -al /dev/disk/by-id/
+  ```
+
+- Create a ZFS pool of 2x raidz2 vdevs with a spare disk
+  ```
+  sudo zpool create \
+    -o ashift=12 \
+    -O compression=lz4 \
+    -O canmount=off \
+    -O mountpoint=none \
+    tank \
+    raidz2 /dev/disk/by-id/virtio-VDZA{A..E} \
+    raidz2 /dev/disk/by-id/virtio-VDZA{F..J} \
+    spare /dev/disk/by-id/virtio-VDZAK
+  ```
+- Check the disks and zpool
+  ```
+  lsblk
+  zpool status
+  zfs list
+  ```
+- Create and mount a dataset
+  ```
+  sudo zfs create -o mountpoint=/srv/test tank/test
+  zfs list
+  ```
+- Add another vdev
+  ```
+  sudo zpool add tank raidz2 /dev/disk/by-id/virtio-VDZA{L..P}
+  zpool status
+  zfs list
+  ```
+
+## Configuration Overrides
+
+You can override the default settings by creating a `.vagrant.yml` file with
+the following available settings:
+
+- `VAGRANT_NAME`
+  - Default: `zfstest`
+  - The hostname for the virtual machine
+- `VAGRANT_BOX`
+  - Default: `debian/bookworm64`
+  - Also tested with `rockylinux/9`
+- `VAGRANT_PROV`
+  - Default: `true`
+  - Whether to provision the VM with ZFS packages
+- `VAGRANT_CPUS`
+  - Default: `4`
+  - Number of vCPU cores for the VM
+- `VAGRANT_MEM`
+  - Default: `4096` (4 GB)
+  - Memory allocation for the VM in MB
+- `VAGRANT_SH`
+  - Default: (empty)
+  - Optional shell script in ./scratch to run during provisioning
+- `NUM_DISKS`
+  - Default: `16`
+  - Number of virtual disks to create (max 676)
+- `DISK_SIZE`
+  - Default: `18T`
+  - Size of each virtual disk (sparse allocation)
 
 ## Copyright and License