Guidelines for Upgrading

When you upgrade a boot environment with the latest OS, you do not affect the active boot environment. The new files merge with the inactive boot environment critical file systems, but shareable file systems are not changed.

Rather than upgrading, if you have created a Solaris Flash archive, you could install the archive on an inactive boot environment. The new files overwrite critical file systems of the inactive boot environment, but shareable file systems are not changed. See Installing Solaris Flash Archives on a Boot Environment.

You can upgrade an inactive boot environment that contains any combination of physical disk slices, Solaris Volume Manager volumes, or Veritas Volume Manager volumes. The slice that is chosen for the root (/) file system must be a single-slice concatenation that is included in a RAID–1 volume (mirror). For procedures about creating a boot environment with mirrored file systems, see To Create a Boot Environment With RAID-1 Volumes (Mirrors) (Command-Line Interface).

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Note –

If VxVM volumes are configured on your current system, the lucreate command can create a new boot environment. When the data is copied to the new boot environment, the Veritas file system configuration is lost and a UFS file system is created on the new boot environment.

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Upgrading a System With Packages or Patches

You can use Solaris Live Upgrade to add patches and packages to a system. Solaris Live Upgrade creates a copy of the currently running system. This new boot environment can be upgraded or you can add packages or patches. When you use Solaris Live Upgrade, the only downtime the system incurs is that of a reboot. You can add patches and packages to a new boot environment with the luupgrade command.

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Caution –

When adding and removing packages or patches, Solaris Live Upgrade requires packages or patches that comply with the SVR4 advanced packaging guidelines. While Sun packages conform to these guidelines, Sun cannot guarantee the conformance of packages from third-party vendors. If a package violates these guidelines, the package can cause the package-addition software to fail or alter the active boot environment during an upgrade.

For more information about packaging requirements, see Appendix B, Additional SVR4 Packaging Requirements (Reference).

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Table 9–2 Upgrading a Boot Environment With Packages and Patches

Type of Installation	Description	For More Information
Adding patches to a boot environment.	Create a new boot environment and use the luupgrade command with the -t option.	To Add Patches to an Operating System Image on a Boot Environment (Command-Line Interface)
Adding packages to a boot environment.	Use the luupgrade command with the -p option.	To Add Packages to an Operating System Image on a Boot Environment (Command-Line Interface)