Upgrading a System Already Using Logical Domains

This section describes the process of upgrading the Solaris OS, firmware, and Logical Domains Manager components on a system that is already using the Logical Domains software.

Upgrading the Solaris OS

If your system is already configured with the Logical Domain software, then the control domain has to be upgraded. The other existing domains also have to be upgraded if you want to be able to use all features of the Logical Domains 1.2 software.

Refer to Required Software and Patches in Logical Domains 1.2 Release Notes to find the Solaris 10 OS that you should use for this version of the Logical Domains software, and the required and recommended patches for the different domains. Refer to the Solaris 10 installation guide for complete instructions for upgrading the Solaris OS.

When upgrading the Solaris OS in the control domain, you need to save and restore the Logical Domains autosave configuration data and the constraints database file, as described in this section.

Saving and Restoring Autosave Configuration Directories

Whenever you upgrade the operating system on the control domain, you must save and restore the Logical Domains autosave configuration data, which is found in the /var/opt/SUNWldm/autosave-autosave-name directories.

You can use the tar or cpio command to save and restore the entire contents of the directories.

Each autosave directory includes a timestamp for the last SP configuration update for the related configuration. If you restore the autosave files, the timestamp might be out of sync. In this case, the restored autosave configurations are shown in their previous state, either [newer] or up to date.

For more information about autosave configurations, see Managing Logical Domains Configurations.

Save and Restore Autosave Directories

This procedure shows how to save and restore the autosave directories.

1. Save the autosave directories.

   # cd / # tar -cvf autosave.tar var/opt/SUNWldm/autosave-*

2. (Optional) Remove the existing autosave directories to ensure a clean restore operation.

   Sometimes an autosave directory might include extraneous files, perhaps left over from a previous configuration, that might corrupt the configuration that was downloaded to the SP. In such cases, clean the autosave directory prior to the restore operation as shown in this example:

   # cd / # rm -rf var/opt/SUNWldm/autosave-*

3. Restore the autosave directories.

   These commands restore the files and directories in the /var/opt/SUNWldm directory.

   # cd / # tar -xvf autosave.tar

Saving and Restoring the Logical Domains Constraints Database File

Whenever you upgrade the operating system on the control domain, you must save and restore the Logical Domains constraints database file that can be found in /var/opt/SUNWldm/ldom-db.xml.

Also, save and restore the /var/opt/SUNWldm/ldom-db.xml file when you perform any other operation that is destructive to the control domain's file data, such as a disk swap.

Preserving the Logical Domains Constraints Database File When Using Live Upgrade

If you are using live upgrade on the control domain, consider adding the following line to the /etc/lu/synclist file:

/var/opt/SUNWldm/ldom-db.xml     OVERWRITE

This causes the database to be copied automatically from the active boot environment to the new boot environment when switching boot environments. For more information about /etc/lu/synclist and synchronizing files between boot environments, refer to Synchronizing Files Between Boot Environments in Solaris 10 5/09 Installation Guide: Solaris Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning.

Upgrading From Solaris 10 OS Older Than Solaris 10 5/08 OS

If the control domain is upgraded from a Solaris 10 OS version older than Solaris 10 5/08 OS (or without patch 127127-11), and if volume manager volumes were exported as virtual disks, then the virtual disk backends must be re-exported with options=slice after the Logical Domain Manager has been upgraded. See Exporting Volumes and Backward Compatibility for more information.

Upgrading the Logical Domains Manager and the System Firmware

This section shows how to upgrade to Logical Domains 1.2 software.

First download the Logical Domains Manager and the Solaris Security Toolkit on the control domain, see Downloading Logical Domains Manager and Solaris Security Toolkit.

Then stop all domains (except the control domain) running on the platform:

Stop All Domains Running on the Platform, Except the Control Domain

1. Bring down each domain to the ok prompt.

2. Issue the stop-domain subcommand from the control domain for each domain.

   primary# ldm stop-domain ldom

3. Issue the unbind-domain subcommand from the control domain for each domain.

   primary# ldm unbind-domain ldom

Upgrading to Logical Domains 1.2 Software

This section shows how to upgrade to Logical Domains 1.2 software.

Perform the procedure Upgrade From LDoms 1.0 Software if you want to use your existing LDoms 1.0 configurations with Logical Domains 1.2 software. Existing LDoms 1.0 configurations do not work with Logical Domains 1.2 software.

If you are upgrading from LDoms 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, or 1.1 software, perform the procedure Upgrade From LDoms 1.0.x or 1.1. Existing LDoms 1.0.1, 1.0.2, 1.0.3, and 1.1 configurations do work with Logical Domains 1.2 software.

Upgrade From LDoms 1.0 Software

Existing Logical Domains 1.0 configurations do not work with Logical Domains 1.2 software, so you need to save your Logical Domains 1.0 configurations before the upgrade to use them in Logical Domains 1.2 software. The following procedure describes a method for saving and rebuilding a configuration using XML constraints files and the -i option to the ldm add-domain command.

The basic process is to save the constraints information for each domain into an XML file, which can then be re-issued to the Logical Domains Manager after the upgrade to rebuild a desired configuration.

The procedure in this section works for guest domains, not the control domain. Although you can save the control (primary) domain's constraints to an XML file, you cannot feed it back into the ldm add-domain -i command. However, you can use the resource constraints from the XML file to create the CLI commands to reconfigure your primary domain. See Rebuilding the Control Domain for instructions on how to translate typical XML output from an ldm list-constraints -x primary command into the CLI commands needed to reconfigure a primary domain.

The method that follows does not preserve actual bindings, only the constraints used to create those bindings. This means that, after this procedure, the domains will have the same virtual resources, but will not necessarily be bound to the same physical resources.

1. For each domain, create an XML file containing the domain's constraints.

   # ldm list-constraints -x ldom > ldom.xml

2. List all the logical domain configurations stored on the service processor.

   # ldm list-config

3. Remove each logical domain configuration stored on the service processor.

   # ldm rm-config config-name

4. Disable the Logical Domains Manager daemon (ldmd).

   # svcadm disable ldmd

5. Remove the Logical Domains Manager package (SUNWldm).

   # pkgrm SUNWldm

6. Remove the Solaris Security Toolkit package (SUNWjass).

   # pkgrm SUNWjass

7. Flash update the system firmware.

   For the entire procedure, see Upgrade System Firmware or Upgrade System Firmware Without an FTP Server.

8. Reinstall the Logical Domain Manager and the Solaris Security Toolkit.

   See Installing the Logical Domains Manager and Solaris Security Toolkit.

9. Reconfigure the primary domain manually.

   For instructions, see Set Up the Control Domain.

10. Run the following commands for each guest domain's XML file you created in Step 1.

    # ldm add-domain -i ldom.xml # ldm bind-domain ldom # ldm start-domain ldom

Upgrade From LDoms 1.0.x or 1.1

1. Flash update the system firmware.

   For the entire procedure, see Upgrade System Firmware or Upgrade System Firmware Without an FTP Server.

2. Disable the Logical Domains Manager daemon (ldmd).

   # svcadm disable ldmd

3. Remove the old SUNWldm package.

   # pkgrm SUNWldm

4. Add the new SUNWldm package.

   Specifying the -d option assumes that the package is in the current directory.

   # pkgadd -Gd . SUNWldm

5. Use the ldm list command to verify that the Logical Domains Manager is running.

   The ldm list command should list all domains that are currently defined on the system. In particular, the primary domain should be listed and be in the active state. The following sample output shows that only the primary domain is defined on the system.

   # ldm list NAME             STATE    FLAGS   CONS    VCPU  MEMORY   UTIL  UPTIME primary          active   ---c-   SP      32    3264M    0.3%  19d 9m