Managing Boot Environments

Previously, you could perform a live upgrade or use the patchadd command to update your BE. In Oracle Solaris 11, the pkg update command is used to update a BE, or you can use the beadm command set to create, display, and remove BEs.

Tools for Managing Boot Environments

In Oracle Solaris 11, the beadm utility replaces the lu set of commands for managing ZFS BEs. In addition, the pkg update command updates your existing BE and creates a clone BE, if necessary.

Table 6-2 Comparison of Boot Environment Command Syntax

See Creating and Administering Oracle Solaris 11 Boot Environments and beadm(1M).

The system performs the following actions:

1. Creates a clone of the current BE that is a bootable image.

2. Updates the packages in the clone BE, but does not update any packages in the current BE.

3. Sets the new BE as the default boot choice the next time the system is booted. The current BE remains as an alternate boot choice.

Use the beadm command to create, rename, mount, unmount, activate, or destroy BEs. You can use the Package Manager to activate, rename, and delete BEs.

Reviewing the Initial ZFS BE After an Installation

After a system is installed, the following root pool file systems and components are available:

# zfs list -r rpool
NAME                      USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
rpool                    5.41G  67.4G  74.5K  /rpool
rpool/ROOT               3.37G  67.4G    31K  legacy
rpool/ROOT/solaris       3.37G  67.4G  3.07G  /
rpool/ROOT/solaris/var    302M  67.4G   214M  /var
rpool/dump               1.01G  67.5G  1000M  -
rpool/export             97.5K  67.4G    32K  /rpool/export
rpool/export/home        65.5K  67.4G    32K  /rpool/export/home
rpool/export/home/admin  33.5K  67.4G  33.5K  /rpool/export/home/admin
rpool/swap               1.03G  67.5G  1.00G  -

• rpool – Is a mount point containing boot-related components.

• rpool/ROOT – Is a special component that is not accessible and requires no administration.

• rpool/ROOT/solaris – Is the actual root ZFS BE, which is accessible from the / directory.

• rpool/ROOT/solaris/var – Is the separate var file system.

• rpool/dump – Is the dump volume.

• rpool/swap – Is the swap volume.

• rpool/export/home – Is a default mount point for home directories. In an enterprise environment with many users, you might consider moving export/home to another pool.

How to Update Your ZFS Boot Environment

To update a ZFS boot environment, use the pkg update command. If you update a ZFS BE by using pkg update, a new BE is created and automatically activated. If the updates to the existing BE are minimal, a backup BE is created before the updates are applied. The pkg update command displays whether a backup BE or a new BE is created.

1. Display your existing BE information.

   # beadm list
   BE        Active Mountpoint Space  Policy Created          
   --        ------ ---------- -----  ------ -------          
   solaris   NR     /          12.24G static 2011-10-04 09:42 

   In the above output, NR means the BE is active now and will be the active BE on reboot.

2. Update your BE.

   # pkg update
                   Packages to remove:   117
                  Packages to install:   186
                   Packages to update:   315
              Create boot environment:   Yes
   DOWNLOAD                                  PKGS       FILES    XFER (MB)
   Completed                              618/618 29855/29855  600.7/600.7
   .
   .
   .

   If your existing BE name is solaris, a new BE, solaris-1, is created and automatically activated after the pkg update operation is complete.

3. Reboot the system to complete the BE activation. Then, confirm your BE status.

   # init 6
   .
   .
   .
   # beadm list
   BE        Active Mountpoint Space  Policy Created          
   --        ------ ---------- -----  ------ -------          
   solaris   NR     /          12.24G static 2011-10-04 09:42 
   solaris-1 -      -          6.08G  static 2011-10-11 10:42

4. If an error occurs when booting the new BE, activate and boot to the previous BE.

   # beadm activate solaris
   # init 6