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ZFS Data Transfer

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Some useful commands for moving Zvols or datasets across pools

Last updated: 2/6/2026

I needed to migrate some Zvols to a different pool so I found these zfs commands.

  1. Create a snapshot.
zfs snapshot poolname/zvolname@snapshot_name
# or
zfs snapshot poolname/dataset@snapshot_name
  1. View Snapshots
zfs list -t snapshot
  1. Copy the zvol or dataset as a snapshot to the new pool.
zfs send SourcePool/zvolname@snapshot_name | zfs recv DestPool/zvolname
# or
zfs send SourcePool/datasetname@snapshot_name | zfs recv DestPool/datasetname

If you want the destination's name to be different from the souce you can change the destination's name.

Note: If you make chanegs to a dataset or zvol after the snapshot it won't be copied to the destination.