How to Find the System Boot Slice When Upgrading the Solaris Operating System

On machines with mirrored root file systems, the Solaris installation software will display all slices used in the root mirror as available for upgrade. The slice names may also contain different controller numbers than those used for the same slices in the system's vfstab and in the DiskSuite configuration database. BugIDs 4046177, 4043749, 4017614, and 4041649 describe this problem.

If all the upgradable slices are on the same controller, you can ignore controller number changes and choose the slice with the same target and disk number as the root slice in the system vfstab. You can display the system vfstab during the upgrade, and before choosing which slice to upgrade, by performing the following steps:

1. When the Solaris installation software displays the list of upgradable slices, either start up a subshell in the windowing system or write down the names of the slices and exit the installation program.

2. In a command shell, mount either of the slices displayed by the install software on /a:

   # mount /dev/dsk/slice_name /a

3. Display the system's vfstab:

   # more /a/etc/vfstab

4. Restart or resume the Solaris installation program and upgrade the slice with the same target and disk numbers as the one mounted on the root filesystem in /a/etc/vfstab.

If the slices are on different controllers, follow the procedure below to find out which slice is the boot slice.

1. When the Solaris installation software displays the list of upgradable slices, either start up a subshell in the windowing system, or write down the names of the slices and exit the installation program.

2. In a command shell, mount either of the slices displayed by the install software on /a:

   # mount /dev/dsk/slice_name /a

3. Display the system's vfstab:

   # more /a/etc/vfstab

4. Find the root slice in the vfstab, and display its /device path:

   # ls -l /a/dev/dsk/root_slice_name

5. Find the device path for each of the miniroot's slice names, using the following command:

   # ls -l /dev/dsk/slice_name

6. Restart or resume the installation program and upgrade the slice that has the same /device path as that of the system root slice, or the path most similar to it. There are minor differences between the path displayed in Solaris 8 and Solaris 2.5.1, and 2.6, and cmdk(7D) has been replaced by sd(7D) at the ends of the path names of SCSI devices in Solaris 8. However, you should have little difficulty choosing the path most similar to that of the boot device.

If you can't figure out which slice to upgrade, contact Sun Enterprise Services.

If you choose incorrectly and upgrade the wrong slice, the system will reboot under the old version of Solaris. If that happens, rerun the upgrade on the other slice.