The default ZFS boot environment (BE) is named solaris by default. You can identify your BEs by using the beadm list command. For example:
# beadm list BE Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created -- ------ ---------- ----- ------ ------- solaris NR / 3.82G static 2012-07-19 13:44
In the above output, NR means the BE is active now and will be the active BE on reboot.
You can use the pkg update command to update your ZFS boot environment. If you update your ZFS BE by using the pkg update command, a new BE is created and activated automatically, unless the updates to the existing BE are very minimal.
# pkg update DOWNLOAD PKGS FILES XFER (MB) Completed 707/707 10529/10529 194.9/194.9 . . .
A new BE, solaris-1, is created automatically and activated.
You can also create and activate a backup BE outside of the update process.
# beadm create solaris-1 # beadm activate solaris-1
# init 6 . . . # beadm list BE Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created -- ------ ---------- ----- ------ ------- solaris - - 46.95M static 2012-07-20 10:25 solaris-1 NR / 3.82G static 2012-07-19 14:45
# beadm activate solaris # init 6