How to Create Root Pool Snapshots

Create root pool snapshots for recovery purposes. The best way to create root pool snapshots is to do a recursive snapshot of the root pool.

The procedure below creates a recursive root pool snapshot and stores the snapshot as a file in a pool on a remote system. In the case of a root pool failure, the remote dataset can be mounted by using NFS and the snapshot file received into the recreated pool. You can also store root pool snapshots as the actual snapshots in a pool on a remote system. Sending and receiving the snapshots from a remote system is a bit more complicated because you must configure ssh or use rsh while the system to be repaired is booted from the Solaris OS miniroot.

For information about remotely storing and recovering root pool snapshots and the most up-to-date information about root pool recovery, go to this site:

http://www.solarisinternals.com/wiki/index.php/ZFS_Troubleshooting_Guide

Validating remotely stored snapshots as files or snapshots is an important step in root pool recovery and in either method, snapshots should be recreated on a routine basis, such as when the pool configuration changes or when the Solaris OS is upgraded.

In the following example, the system is booted from the zfs1009BE boot environment.

1. Create space on a remote system to store the snapshots.

   For example:

   remote# zfs create rpool/snaps

2. Share the space to the local system.

   For example:

   remote# zfs set sharenfs='rw=local-system,root=local-system' rpool/snaps # share -@rpool/snaps /rpool/snaps sec=sys,rw=local-system,root=local-system ""

3. Create a recursive snapshot of the root pool.

   In this example, the system has two BEs, zfsnv109BE and zfsnv1092BE. The active BE is zfsnv109BE.

   local# zpool set listsnapshots=on mpool local# zfs snapshot -r mpool@0311 local# zfs list NAME USED AVAIL REFER MOUNTPOINT mpool 9.98G 41.2G 22.5K /mpool mpool@0311 0 - 22.5K - mpool/ROOT 7.48G 41.2G 19K /mpool/ROOT mpool/ROOT@0311 0 - 19K - mpool/ROOT/zfsnv1092BE 85K 41.2G 7.48G /tmp/.alt.luupdall.2934 mpool/ROOT/zfsnv1092BE@0311 0 - 7.48G - mpool/ROOT/zfsnv109BE 7.48G 41.2G 7.45G / mpool/ROOT/zfsnv109BE@zfsnv1092BE 28.7M - 7.48G - mpool/ROOT/zfsnv109BE@0311 58K - 7.45G - mpool/dump 2.00G 41.2G 2.00G - mpool/dump@0311 0 - 2.00G - mpool/swap 517M 41.7G 16K - mpool/swap@0311 0 - 16K -

4. Send the root pool snapshots to the remote system.

   For example:

   local# zfs send -Rv mpool@0311 > /net/remote-system/rpool/snaps/mpool.0311 sending from @ to mpool@0311 sending from @ to mpool/swap@0311 sending from @ to mpool/dump@0311 sending from @ to mpool/ROOT@0311 sending from @ to mpool/ROOT/zfsnv109BE@zfsnv1092BE sending from @zfsnv1092BE to mpool/ROOT/zfsnv109BE@0311 sending from @ to mpool/ROOT/zfsnv1092BE@0311