SPARC: Booting From a ZFS Boot Environment

On SPARC platforms, the following two options of the boot command support booting from a ZFS boot environment or root file system:

-L: Displays a list of available boot environments within a ZFS pool.

Note - The boot -L command is executed from the OBP, not from the command line.
-Z dataset: Boots the root file system for the specified ZFS boot environment.

If you are booting a system from a ZFS root file system, first use the boot command with the -L option from the OBP to print a list of the available boot environments on the system. Then, use the -Z option to boot the specified boot environment.

For more information, see the boot(1M) man page.

On x86 platforms, the following entries are added to the /pool-name/boot/grub/menu.lst file during the installation process or during the beadm activate operation to boot ZFS automatically:

title 2010-12-10-be-s
findroot (pool_rpool,0,a)
bootfs rpool/ROOT/2010-12-10-be_152
kernel$ /platform/i86pc/kernel/$ISADIR/unix -B $ZFS-BOOTFS -s
module$ /platform/i86pc/$ISADIR/boot_archive

If the device that is identified by GRUB as the boot device contains a ZFS storage pool, the menu.lst file is used to create the GRUB menu. On an x86 based system with multiple ZFS boot environments, you can select a boot environment from the GRUB menu during boot time. If the root file system that corresponds to this menu entry is a ZFS dataset, the following option is added:

-B $ZFS-BOOTFS

The $ZFS-BOOTFS keyword enables you to boot from an Oracle Solaris ZFS root file system on an x86 based system. This option identifies which boot environment or dataset to boot. If you install an Oracle Solaris release that supports a ZFS boot loader, the GRUB menu.lst file, as well as the GRUB boot menu, contains this information by default.

For more information about booting from a ZFS boot environment or root file system, see Booting From a ZFS Boot Environment or Root File System on x86 Platforms in Booting and Shutting Down Oracle Solaris on x86 Platforms.

SPARC: How to Display a List of Available Boot Environments During the Boot Sequence

On SPARC based systems, the menu.lst file contains the following two commands:

title – Provides a title for a boot environment
bootfs – Specifies the full name of the boot environment

As explained in the following procedure, to display a list of the boot environments within a ZFS pool, use the boot -L command. This command displays a list of the available boot environments within a given ZFS root pool and provides instructions for booting the system.

Become the root role.
Bring the system to the ok PROM prompt.
```
# init 0
```
List the available boot environments in a ZFS pool.
```
ok boot device-specifier -L
```
where device-specifier identifies a storage pool, not a single root file system.
To boot one of the entries that is displayed, type the number that corresponds to the entry.
Boot the specified boot environment by following the instructions that are displayed on the screen.
For instructions, see SPARC: How to Boot From a ZFS Boot Environment or Root File System.

SPARC: How to Boot From a ZFS Boot Environment or Root File System

When booting from ZFS, the device-specifier identifies a storage pool, not a single root file system. A storage pool can contain multiple boot environments, datasets, or root file systems. Therefore, when booting from ZFS, you must also identify a root file system within the pool that is identified by the boot device as the default. The default boot device is identified by the pool's bootfs property. This procedure shows how to boot the system by specifying a ZFS boot environment. See the boot(1M) man page for a complete description of all the boot options that are available.

Note - In Oracle Solaris 11, a ZFS root file system is booted by default. Use this procedure to specify a ZFS root file system from which to boot.

For more information, see the zpool(1M) man page.

Become the root role.
Bring the system to the ok PROM prompt.
```
# init 0
```
(Optional) Display a list of available boot environments by using the boot command with the -L option.
For instructions, see SPARC: How to Display a List of Available Boot Environments During the Boot Sequence.
To boot a specified entry, type the number of the entry and press Return:
```
Select environment to boot: [1 - 2]:
```

To boot the system, follow the instructions that are displayed on the screen.

To boot the selected entry, invoke:
boot [<root-device>] -Z rpool/ROOT/boot-environment

ok boot -Z rpool/ROOT/boot-environment

For example:

# boot -Z rpool/ROOT/zfs2BE

After the system has booted, verify the active boot environment.
```
# prtconf -vp | grep whoami
```
(Optional) To display the boot path for the active boot environment, type the following command:
```
# prtconf -vp | grep bootpath
```
(Optional) To determine whether the correct boot environment was booted, type the following command:
```
# df -lk
```

Example 4-5 SPARC: Booting From a ZFS Boot Environment

This example shows how to use the boot -Z command to boot a ZFS boot environment on a SPARC based system.

# init 0
# svc.startd: The system is coming down. Please wait.
svc.startd: 79 system services are now being stopped.
svc.startd: The system is down.
syncing file systems... done
Program terminated
ok boot -Z rpool/ROOT/zfs2BEe
Resetting
LOM event: =44d+21h38m12s host reset
g ...

rProcessor Speed = 648 MHz
Baud rate is 9600
8 Data bits, 1 stop bits, no parity (configured from lom)

.
.
.
Environment monitoring: disabled
Executng last command: boot -Z rpool/ROOT/zfs2BE
Boot device: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8/disk@0,0 File and args: -Z rpool/ROOT/zfs2Be
zfs-file-system
.
.
.
Hostname: mallory
NIS domainname is ...
Reading ZFS config: done.
Mounting ZFS filesytems: (6/6)

mallory console login:

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