Managing ZFS File Systems in Oracle^® Solaris 11.3

How to Update a ZFS Boot Environment

By default, the ZFS BE is named solaris. The pkg update command updates the ZFS BE by creating and automatically activating a new BE, provided that significant differences exist between the current and updated BEs.

1. (Optional) View the current boot environment configuration.

   The BE's Active field shows N to indicate that the BE is active, R to indicate that it becomes active after a system reboot, or both (NR).

   # beadm list
   BE       Active  Mountpoint  Space  Policy  Created
   --      ------ ---------- ----- ------ -------
   solaris  NR      /           3.82G  static  2012-07-19 13:44

2. Update the ZFS BE.

   # 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.

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

   # init 6
   .
   .
   # beadm list
   BE         Active  Mountpoint  Space   Policy  Created
   --         ------ ---------- -----  ------ -------
   solaris    -      -           46.95M   static  2014-07-20 10:25
   solaris-1  NR      /           3.82G   static  2014-07-19 14:45 

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

   # beadm activate solaris
   # init 6

   You use the same beadm activate BE command syntax to activate an existing backup BE independent of any update operation.