Exporting a Pool with a Special (Metadata) vdev

[SwisherSweet]

Howdy.

I'm wanting to export a pool that has a mirror special metadata vdev and have a few questions:

1. Is it even possible to export a pool having a special metadata vdev?
2. If I import the pool into another machine (or the same machine later), what happens to the special metadata vdev?

Thank you.

 

[Davvo]

As far as I know it is possible, you follow regular procedure. You will have to still use the metadata vdev in the new pool; if you don't, your pool won't be online/healthy.

 

[sretalla]

As with any other pool with more than 1 VDEV, all VDEVs are required to be present and healthy (enough) in order to import the pool successfully. (OK, there are special cases with SLOG and L2ARC + spare VDEVS, but forget those in this context).