diff --git a/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.sh b/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.sh
--- a/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.sh
+++ b/usr.sbin/freebsd-update/freebsd-update.sh
@@ -895,6 +895,12 @@
 	if [ "$BASEDIR" != "/" ]; then
 		return 1
 	fi
+	# If ZFS is not available and we are operating on /, we know ZFS is not
+	# involved. Invoking bectl will load the ZFS module which we really
+	# shouldn't do spuriously.
+	if [ ! -c "/dev/zfs" ]; then
+		return 1
+	fi
 	# Create a boot environment if enabled
 	if [ ${BOOTENV} = yes ]; then
 		bectl check 2>/dev/null