File System Types

Solaris Live Upgrade distinguishes between two file system types: critical file systems and shareable file systems. Critical file systems are required by the Solaris operating environment. These file systems are separate mount points in the vfstab of the active and inactive boot environments. Examples are root (/), /usr, /var, or /opt. These file systems are always copied from the source to the inactive boot environment. Critical file systems are sometimes referred to as non-shareable. Shareable file systems are user-defined files such as /export that contain the same mount point in the vfstab in both the active and inactive boot environments. Therefore, updating shared files in the active boot environment also updates data in the inactive boot environment. When you create a new boot environment, shareable file systems are shared by default. But you can specify a destination slice and then the file systems are copied. For more detailed information about shareable file systems, see Guidelines for Selecting Slices for Shareable File Systems.

Swap is a special shareable file system. Like a shareable file system, all swap slices are shared by default. But, if you specify a destination directory for swap, the swap slice is copied. For procedures on reconfiguring swap, see the following:

• “To Create a Boot Environment (Character Interface)” Step 9

• To Create a Boot Environment and Reconfigure Swap (Command-Line Interface)

Solaris Live Upgrade can create a boot environment with RAID-1 volumes (mirrors) on file systems. For an overview, see Creating a Boot Environment With Mirrored File Systems.