What's New in the Solaris 10 10/09 Release for Installation

ZFS and Flash Installation Support

Starting with the Solaris 10 10/09 release, you can set up a JumpStart profile to identify a flash archive of a ZFS root pool.

A Flash archive can be created on a system that is running a UFS root file system or a ZFS root file system. A Flash archive of a ZFS root pool contains the entire pool hierarchy, except for the swap and dump volumes, and any excluded datasets. The swap and dump volumes are created when the Flash archive is installed.

You can use the Flash archive installation method as follows:

• Generate a Flash archive that can be used to install and boot a system with a ZFS root file system.

• Perform a JumpStart installation of a system by using a ZFS Flash archive.

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  Note –

  Creating a ZFS Flash archive backs up an entire root pool, not individual boot environments. Individual datasets within the pool can be excluded by using the flarcreate and flar command's -D option.

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For detailed instructions and limitations, see Installing a ZFS Root File System (Flash Archive Installation) in Solaris ZFS Administration Guide.

Two-Terabyte Disk Support for Installing and Booting the Solaris OS

In previous Solaris releases, you could not install and boot the Solaris OS from a disk that was greater than 1 terabyte in size. Starting with the Solaris 10 10/09 release, you can install and boot the Solaris OS from a disk that is up to 2 TB in size.

Starting with the Solaris 10 10/09 release, you can use the VTOC label on a disk of any size, but the addressable space by the VTOC is limited to 2 TB. This feature allows disks that are larger than 2 TB to be used as boot drives, but the usable space from the label is limited to 2 TB.

This feature is only available on systems that run a 64-bit kernel. A minimum of 1 GB of memory is required for x86 based systems.

For detailed information, see Two-Terabyte Disk Support for Installing and Booting the Solaris OS in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.

Faster Installations

Starting with the Solaris 10 10/09 release, SVR4 package commands run faster. This enhancement means that the Solaris installation technologies, such as initial installations, upgrades, Live Upgrades, and zone installations, perform significantly faster.

Zones Parallel Patching Reduces Patching Time

Starting with the Solaris 10 10/09 release, zones parallel patching enhances the standard Solaris 10 patch utilities. This feature improves zones patching performance by patching non-global zones in parallel.

For releases prior to the Solaris 10 10/09 release, this feature is delivered in the following patch utilities patches:

• SPARC: patch 119254-66 or later revision

• x86: patch 119255-66 or later revision

The global zone is still patched before the non-global zones are patched.

For more information, see the following documentation:

• Solaris 10 10/09: Zones Parallel Patching to Reduce Patching Time in System Administration Guide: Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Solaris Zones

• Solaris 10 10/09: How to Patch Non-Global Zones in Parallel in System Administration Guide: Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Solaris Zones