System Administration Guide: Oracle Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Oracle Solaris Zones

Installing the Zone

The zoneadm command described in Part II, Zones and in the zoneadm(1M) man page is the primary tool used to install and administer non-global zones. Operations using the zoneadm command must be run from the global zone on the target system.

In addition to unpacking files from the archive, the install process performs checks, required postprocessing, and other functions to ensure that the zone is optimized to run on the host.

You can use an image of a Solaris system that has been fully configured with all of the software that will be run in the zone. See Creating the Image Used to Directly Migrate A Solaris System Into a Zone.

If you created a Solaris system archive from an existing system and use the -p (preserve sysidcfg) option when you install the zone, the zone will have the same identity as the system used to create the image.

If you use the -u (sys-unconfig) option when you install the zone on the target, the zone produced will not have a hostname or name service configured.

Caution –

You must specify either the -p option or the -u option, or an error results.

Installer Options

Option	Description
`-a` `archive`	Location of archive from which to copy system image. Full flash archive and `cpio`, `gzip` compressed `cpio`, `bzip` compressed `cpio`, and level 0 `ufsdump` are supported. Refer to the `gzip` man page available in the `SUNWsfman` package.
`-d` `path`	Location of directory from which to copy system image.
`-d` `—`	Use the `-d` option with the dash parameter to direct that the existing directory layout be used in the `zonepath`. Thus, if the administrator manually sets up the `zonepath` directory before the installation, the `-d` `—` option can be used to indicate that the directory already exists.
`-p`	Preserve system identity.
`-s`	Install silently.
`-u`	`sys-unconfig` the zone.
`-v`	Verbose output.
`-bpatchid`	One or more `-b` options can be used to specify a patch ID for a patch installed in the system image. These patches will be backed out during the installation process.

The -a and -d options are mutually exclusive. The -p, -s, -u and -v options are only allowed when either -a or -d is provided.

How to Install the Zone

Become superuser, or assume the Primary Administrator role.

Install the configured zone s-zone by using the zoneadm command with the install -a option and the path to the archive.
global# zoneadm -z s-zone install -u -a /net/machine_name/s-system.flar
You will see various messages as the installation completes. This can take some time.

When the installation completes, use the list subcommand with the -i and -v options to list the installed zones and verify the status.

Troubleshooting

If an installation fails, review the log file. On success, the log file is in /var/log inside the zone. On failure, the log file is in /var/tmp in the global zone.

If a zone installation is interrupted or fails, the zone is left in the incomplete state. Use uninstall -F to reset the zone to the configured state.