Upgrading the Solaris OS When Non-Global Zones Are Installed

Solaris Zones partitioning technology provides the ability to configure non-global zones in a single instance of Solaris, the global zone. A non-global zone is an application execution environment in which processes are isolated from all other zones. Starting with the Solaris 10 1/06 release and if you are running a system with non-global zones installed, you can use standard Solaris upgrade programs to upgrade. You can use either the Solaris interactive installation program or custom JumpStart to upgrade. There are some limitations to upgrading with non-global zones installed.

• A limited number of custom JumpStart keywords are supported. For a list of supported custom JumpStart keywords, see Solaris 10 8/07 Installation Guide: Custom JumpStart and Advanced Installations.

• You must use the Solaris Operating System DVD or a network installation image created from a DVD. You cannot use the Solaris Software CDs to upgrade a system. For more information about installing with this program, see Chapter 2, Installing With the Solaris Installation Program (Tasks), in Solaris 10 8/07 Installation Guide: Basic Installations.

• On a system with non-global zones installed, do not use Solaris Live Upgrade to upgrade your system. While you can create a boot environment with the lucreate command, the luupgrade command cannot upgrade a boot environment that has non-global zones installed. In that case, the upgrade fails and an error message is displayed.

For details on using the Solaris interactive installation program, see Solaris 10 8/07 Installation Guide: Basic Installations