Managing Boot Environments in the GUI¶
The GUI page to manage ZFS Boot Environments is System > Boot Environments.
Note
If the Boot Environment menu entry is missing, the firewall does not support ZFS Boot Environments.

ZFS Boot Environment list in the GUI¶
The Boot Environments page lists all existing ZFS Boot Environments with the following fields, as shown in ZFS Boot Environment list in the GUI:
- Name
The name of the ZFS Boot Environment.
Automatic entries, such as those created by the upgrade process, are prefixed by
auto-
and include the timestamp at which they were created.- Base Version
The version of pfSense® software contained within the ZFS Boot Environment.
- Created
The time at which the ZFS Boot Environment was created.
- Last Booted
The time at which the firewall last booted into the ZFS Boot Environment.
- Space
The amount of disk space consumed by the ZFS Boot Environment.
- Description
The longer text description of the ZFS Boot Environment.
- Actions
Actions the administrator can take on the ZFS Boot Environment.
: Indicates the ZFS Boot Environment the firewall will use for the next boot
: Persistently activate the entry as the next ZFS Boot Environment
: Edit the ZFS Boot Environment
: Clone the ZFS Boot Environment
: Temporarily activate the ZFS Boot Environment one time and reboot
There is an additional confirmation prompt to reboot after selecting this option.
: Delete the ZFS Boot Environment
Creating a new Boot Environment¶
Administrators can create new ZFS Boot Environments in several different ways.
Warning
While boot environments are helpful, they do not remove the need for off-device backups. Take separate configuration backups before starting any potentially disruptive set of changes, including upgrades.
Automatic During Upgrade¶
By default the firewall automatically creates a new ZFS Boot Environment before performing an upgrade. This behavior can be disabled, see Boot Environments.
Quick Create¶
Clicking Quick Create from the ZFS Boot Environment list will clone the
current default ZFS Boot Environment. The resulting entry will be named
quick-
followed by the current timestamp.
Create / Clone¶
Clicking Create from the ZFS Boot Environment list opens a form to create a new ZFS Boot Environment with custom options, including:
- Name
Short name to briefly indicate purpose, must only contain characters from the set
a-z
,A-Z
,0-9
and_
.- Clone From
The existing ZFS Boot Environment to use as the basis for this new entry.
- Description
A longer description for the ZFS Boot Environment without formatting restrictions.
Click Save to create the new ZFS Boot Environment.
The entry from the ZFS Boot Environment list works identically but
it pre-selects the chosen entry in the Clone From field.
Editing an existing Boot Environment¶
Clicking on the row for a ZFS Boot Environment opens a form to edit
the Name and Description of the entry. The clone source cannot be
changed after the entry has been created.
Selecting Boot Environments in the GUI¶
There are multiple ways in the GUI to select which ZFS Boot Environment the firewall will use next.
From the ZFS Boot Environment at System > Boot Environments there are two methods:
Click
to select the ZFS Boot Environment persistently
Click
to select the ZFS Boot Environment for a single boot only and reboot. This is not persistent and the next boot after will return to the default.
From Diagnostics > Reboot, select a Boot Environment from the list and reboot. This is not persistent and the next boot after will return to the default.