Auto mounting of encrypted drives?

[In0chi]

I was able to set up ZFS in RaidZ1. Then I set up the same drives with a new encrypted pool. Both worked wonderfully.

My issues are:

1. Auto loading a key when it boots.
2. Feeling confident I can recover the encrypted pool if I had a software or hardware issue and used a new computer.

My process:
I didn’t see a way for ZFS to store or handle the encryption key on its own. I tried making a bash file to load the key, and I tried a .SH script. But neither one would load my encrypted pool on boot. Even if I could do it manually in Terminal.

I wanted the peace of mind knowing I could have a computer crash and recover the encrypted pool on a new computer or OS. So I reinstalled MacOS, installed ZFS, tried loading the pool manually in Terminal. But wasn’t able to recover the pool. Terminal/ZFS saw the pool/drives but I couldn’t mount or use the key properly.

I’m fairly novice with commands so I’m sure all of this is user error. I’m using an M1 Mac mini, OWC ThunderBay 8 with 3 16TB drives, over Thunderbolt 3.

[jxdking]

Here is what I do. It may not be the best practice, but it works well for me.

1. I use passphrase, so that I could key in manually when it is necessary.
2. I put the passphrase in a text file, and save it in a small zfs pool on a USB flash drive. Basically, when the USB is present at boot, the zfs key pool will be imported and mounted, so that your file system can load the passphrase from the mounted location.

[IvanVolosyuk]

@lundman