Using ZFS to Clone Non-Global Zones and Other Enhancements

Solaris Express Community Release, build 39: When the source zonepath and the target zonepath both reside on ZFS and are in the same pool, zoneadm clone now automatically uses the ZFS clone feature to clone a zone. This enhancement means that zoneadm clone will take a ZFS snapshot of the source zonepath and set up the target zonepath. The snapshot is named SUNWzoneX, where X is a unique ID used to distinguish between multiple snapshots. The destination zone's zonepath is used to name the ZFS clone. A software inventory is performed so that a snapshot used at a future time can be validated by the system. Note that you can still specify that the ZFS zonepath be copied instead of the ZFS clone, if desired.

To clone a source zone multiple times, a new parameter added to zoneadm allows you to specify that an existing snapshot should be used. The system validates that the existing snapshot is usable on the target. Additionally, the zone install process now has the capability to detect when a ZFS file system can be created for a zone, and the uninstall process can detect when a ZFS file system in a zone can be destroyed. These steps are then performed automatically by the zoneadm command.

Keep the following points in mind when using ZFS on a system with Solaris containers installed:

• Do not use the ZFS snapshot features to clone a zone

• You can delegate or add a ZFS file system to a non-global zone. For more information, see Adding ZFS File Systems to a Non-Global Zone or Delegating Datasets to a Non-Global Zone.

For more information, see System Administration Guide: Virtualization Using the Solaris Operating System.