Planning to Create the Solaris Flash Differential Archive for an Update

If you have a clone system and want to update it, you can create a differential archive that contains only the differences between two images, the unchanged master image and an updated master image. One image can be your system that is running the original software that was installed on the clone, or you need to access a saved copy of the unchanged master image. This image is to be updated with the desired changes. Another image is to be accessed and used for comparison. The differences between these two images is the differential archive. You can install a Solaris Flash differential archive with the custom JumpStart installation method. Or, you can use Solaris Live Upgrade to install a differential archive on an inactive boot environment. After you update a clone system with a differential archive, only the files that are in the differential archive are changed on the clone system. Scripts can be used to customize the archive before or after installation, which is especially helpful for reconfiguration.

An unchanged master image should be saved after the initial installation so it could be accessed by any of the following methods.

• A Solaris Live Upgrade boot environment, mounted on some directory that uses the lumount command. For a description of a Solaris Live Upgrade boot environment, see Chapter 30, Solaris Live Upgrade (Overview).

• A clone system that is mounted over NFS with root permissions.

• A system backup that can be restored with the ufsdump command.

For step-by-step instructions, see To Update a Master Image and Create a Differential Archive.