Chapter 8 Introduction to Shutting Down and Booting a System

Oracle Solaris is designed to run continuously, so that electronic mail and network resources are available to users. This chapter provides guidelines for shutting down and booting a system.

The following is a list of the information that in this chapter:

• What's New in Shutting Down and Booting a System

• Where to Find Shut Down and Boot Tasks

• Shut Down and Boot Terminology

• Guidelines for Shutting Down a System

• Guidelines for Booting a System

• When to Shut Down a System

• When to Boot a System

For an overview of all of the boot features and methods that are available in the Oracle Solaris release, see Chapter 9, Shutting Down and Booting a System (Overview).

For instructions on booting a system, see Chapter 12, Booting an Oracle Solaris System (Tasks).

What's New in Shutting Down and Booting a System

This section describes new boot features in the Oracle Solaris release. For a complete listing of new features and a description of Oracle Solaris releases, see Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 What’s New.

Oracle Solaris Auto Registration Introduced

Oracle Solaris 10 9/10: Oracle Solaris Auto Registration feature is a mechanism whereby newly installed software products are automatically registered with My Oracle Support during the first system reboot after an installation or upgrade, and on subsequent system reboots, if any system configuration changes have occurred. Auto Registration leverages the existing service tag technology that enables products to be discovered on a network and then registered in a local registry.

The Auto Registration feature is managed by an SMF service. This service, which is enabled by default, runs once at boot time to check for newly installed products. If any new products are discovered, service tag information about these products is automatically transmitted to the Oracle Product Registration System by using an Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) connection.

The feature has a command-line interface (CLI), usr/sbin/regadm, that can be used by a privileged system administrator to manage the Auto Registration SMF service and to administer product registration, independent of the installation or upgrade process.

For more information, see Chapter 17, Working With the Oracle Solaris Auto Registration regadm Command (Tasks).

Automatic Boot Archive Recovery

Oracle Solaris 10 9/10: Starting with this release, boot archive recovery on the SPARC platform is automatic.

To support auto-recovery of the boot archives on the x86 platform, a new auto-reboot-safe property has been added to the boot configuration service, svc:/system/boot-config:default. By default, the property's value is set to false to ensure that the system does not automatically reboot to an unknown boot device. If the system is configured to automatically point to the BIOS boot device and GRUB menu entry that Oracle Solaris 10 is installed on, you can set the property's value to true. Setting the value to true enables an automatic reboot of the system for the purpose of recovering an out-of-date boot archive.

To set or change this property's value, use the svccfg and svcadm commands. See the svccfg(1M) and svcadm(1M) man pages.

For general information about this enhancement, see the boot(1M) man page.

For step-by-step instructions, see x86: How to Clear Automatic Boot Archive Update Failures by Using the auto-reboot-safe Property.

SPARC Support for Install-Time Updates

Oracle Solaris 10 9/10: Starting with this release, the itu utility has been modified to support booting a SPARC based system with Install-Time Updates (ITUs). Third-party vendors can now deliver driver updates on floppy disk, CD or DVD, and USB storage. In addition, new tools that enable you to modify the Oracle Solaris installation media with new packages and patches have been introduced. These tools can be used to deliver software updates for hardware platforms and to produce customized installation media. For task-related information, see SPARC: How to Boot a System With a Newly Created ITU.

See also the following man pages:

• itu(1M)

• mkbootmedia(1M)

• pkg2du(1M)

• updatemedia(1M)

Two-Terabyte Disk Support for Installing and Booting Oracle Solaris 10

Solaris 10 10/09: In previous releases, you could not install and boot the Solaris OS from a disk that was greater than 1 Tbyte in size. Starting with this release, you can install and boot the Oracle Solaris OS from a disk that is up to 2 Tbytes in size. In previous releases, you also had to use an EFI label for a disk that was larger than 1 Tbyte. In this release, you can use the VTOC label on any size disk. However, the addressable space by the VTOC label is limited to 2 Tbytes.

For more information, see What’s New in Disk Management? in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.

Oracle Solaris ZFS Boot Support

Solaris 10 10/08: This release includes Oracle Solaris ZFS installation, as well as ZFS boot support. You can now install and boot from a ZFS root file system. This enhancement applies to both the SPARC and x86 based platforms. Booting, system operations, and installation procedures have been modified to support this change.

For more information, see Booting From an Oracle Solaris ZFS Root File System.

x86: findroot Command

All Oracle Solaris installation methods, including Solaris Live Upgrade, now use the findroot command for specifying which disk slice on an x86 based system to boot. This implementation supports booting systems with Oracle Solaris ZFS roots, as well as UFS roots. Previously, the root command, root (hd0.0.a), was used to explicitly specify which disk slice to boot. This information is located in the menu.lst file that is used by GRUB.

The most common form of the GRUB menu.lst entry is now as follows:

findroot (rootfs0,0,a)
kernel$ /platform/i86pc/kernel/$ISADIR/unix -B $ZFS-BOOTFS
module$ /platform/i86pc/$ISADIR/boot_archive

In some Oracle Solaris 10 releases, the entry is as follows:

findroot (pool_rpool,0,a)
kernel$ /platform/i86pc/multiboot -B $ZFS-BOOTFS
module /platform/i86pc/boot_archive

For more information, see x86: Implementation of the findroot Command.

Support for Specifying Platform by Using bootadm Command

A new -p option has been added to the bootadm command.

This option enables you to specify the platform or machine hardware class of a client system in situations where the client platform differs from the server platform, for example when administering diskless clients.

The -p option must be used with the -R option.

# bootadm -p platform -R [altroot]

The specified platform must be one of the following:

• i86pc

• sun4u

• sun4v

For more information, see the bootadm(1M) man page.

Redesign of SPARC Bootstrap Process

The Oracle Solaris SPARC bootstrap process has been redesigned to increase commonality with the x86 boot architecture.

Other enhancements include an improved boot architecture that supports booting a system from additional file system types, for example an Oracle Solaris ZFS file system, or a single miniroot, for installation, as well as booting from DVD, NFS, or HTTP. These enhancements increase flexibility and reduce maintenance requirements on SPARC based systems.

As part of this redesign, the boot archives and the bootadm command, previously only available on the x86 based platform, are now an integral part of the SPARC boot architecture.

The primary difference between the SPARC and x86 boot architectures is how the boot device and file are selected at boot time. The SPARC based platform continues to use the OpenBoot PROM (OBP) as the primary administrative interface, with boot options selected by using OBP commands. On x86 based systems, these options are selected through the BIOS and the GRand Unified Bootloader (GRUB) menu.

Although the SPARC boot process has changed, no administrative procedures for booting a SPARC based system have been impacted. Boot tasks performed by the system administrator remain the same as they were prior to the boot architecture redesign.

For more information, see the boot(1M) and bootadm(1M) man pages.

For more information in this document, see Understanding the New SPARC Boot Architecture.

x86: Support for Using Power Button to Initiate System Shutdown

Pressing and releasing the power button on x86 based systems initiates a clean system shutdown and turns the system off. This functionality is equivalent to using the init 5 command to shut down a system. On some x86 based systems, the BIOS configuration might prevent the power button from initiating shutdown. To enable use of the power button to perform a clean system shutdown, reconfigure the BIOS.

On certain x86 based systems that were manufactured before 1999 and are running an older release, pressing the power button immediately turns off system power without safely shutting it down. This same behavior occurs when you press the power button on systems running with ACPI support that is disabled through the use of acpi-user-options.

For more information about acpi-user-options, see the eeprom(1M) man page.

Where to Find Shut Down and Boot Tasks

Use these references to find step-by-step instructions for shutting down and booting a system.

Shut Down and Boot Terminology

The following terminology is used when shutting down and booting a system:

Run levels and init states

A run level is a letter or digit that represents a system state in which a particular set of system services are available. The system is always running in one of a set of well-defined run levels. Run levels are also referred to as init states because the init process maintains the run level. System administrators use the init command or the svcadm command to initiate a run-level transition. This book refers to init states as run levels.

Boot options

A boot option describes how a system is booted.

Different boot options include the following:

• Interactive boot – You are prompted to provide information about how the system is booted, such as the kernel and device path name.

• Reconfiguration boot – The system is reconfigured to support newly added hardware or new pseudo devices.

• Recovery boot – The system is hung or an invalid entry is prohibiting the system from booting successfully or from allowing users to log in.

For terminology that is specific to GRUB based booting, see x86: GRUB Terminology.

Guidelines for Shutting Down a System

Keep the following in mind when you shut down a system:

• Use the init and shutdown commands to shut down a system. Both commands perform a clean system shutdown, which means that all system processes and services are terminated normally.

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  x86 only –

  For x86 based systems that are running at least the Solaris 10 6/06 release, you can initiate a clean system shutdown by pressing and releasing the power button. Shutting down an x86 based system in this manner is equivalent to using the init 5 command to shut down a system. On some x86 based systems, the BIOS configuration might prevent the power button from initiating a system shutdown. To use the power button, reconfigure the BIOS.

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• Use the shutdown command to shut down a server. Logged-in users and systems that mount resources from the server are notified before the server is shut down. Additional notification of system shutdowns by electronic mail is also recommended so that users can prepare for system downtime.

• You need superuser privileges to use the shutdown or init command to shut down a system.

• Both shutdown and init commands take a run level as an argument.

  The three most common run levels are as follows:

  • Run level 3 – All system resources are available and users can log in. By default, booting a system brings it to run level 3, which is used for normal day-to-day operations. This run level is also known as multiuser level with NFS resources shared.

  • Run level 6 – Stops the operating system and reboots to the state that is defined by the initdefault entry in the /etc/inittab file.

  • Run level 0 – The operating system is shut down, and it is safe to turn off power. You need to bring a system to run level 0 whenever you move a system, or add or remove hardware.

  Run levels are fully described in Chapter 18, Managing Services (Overview).

Guidelines for Booting a System

Keep the following in mind when you boot a system:

• After a SPARC based system is shut down, it is booted by using the boot command at the PROM level.

• After an x86 based system is shut down, it is booted by selecting an OS instance in the GRUB menu.

• In the Solaris 9 release and some Oracle Solaris 10 releases, after an x86 based system is shut down, it is booted by using the boot command at the Primary Boot Subsystem menu.

• A system can be rebooted by turning the power off and then back on.

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  Caution –

  This method is not considered a clean shutdown, unless you have an x86 based system that is running a release that supports this shutdown method. See x86: Support for Using Power Button to Initiate System Shutdown. Use this shutdown method only as an alternative in emergency situations. Because system services and processes are terminated abruptly, file system damage is likely to occur. The work required to repair this type of damage could be substantial and might require the restoration of various user and system files from backup copies.

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• SPARC and x86 based systems use different hardware components for booting. These differences are described in Chapter 15, x86: GRUB Based Booting (Reference).

When to Shut Down a System

The following table lists system administration tasks and the type of shutdown method that is required to initiate the task.

For examples of shutting down a server or a stand-alone system, see Chapter 10, Shutting Down a System (Tasks).

When to Boot a System

The following table lists system administration tasks and the corresponding boot option that is used to complete the task.