To Activate a Boot Environment and Synchronize Files

The first time you boot from a newly created boot environment, Solaris Live Upgrade software synchronizes the new boot environment with the boot environment that was last active. “Synchronize” means that certain critical system files and directories are copied from the last-active boot environment to the boot environment being booted. Solaris Live Upgrade does not perform this synchronization after the initial boot, unless you force synchronization with the luactivate command and the -s option.

When you switch between boot environments with the GRUB menu, files also are not synchronized. You must use the following procedure to synchronize files.

For more information about synchronization, see Synchronizing Files Between Boot Environments.

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

   Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. To activate the boot environment, type:

   # /sbin/luactivate -s BE_name

   -s

   Forces a synchronization of files between the last-active boot environment and the new boot environment. The first time that a boot environment is activated, the files between the boot environment are synchronized With subsequent activations, the files are not synchronized unless you use the -s option.

   ---

   Caution –

   Use this option with great care, because you might not be aware of or in control of changes that might have occurred in the last-active boot environment. For example, if you were running Solaris Express 5/07 software on your current boot environment and booted back to a Solaris 9 release with a forced synchronization, files could be changed on the Solaris 9 release. Because files are dependent on the release of the OS, the boot to the Solaris 9 release could fail because the Solaris Express 5/07 files might not be compatible with the Solaris 9 files.

   ---

   BE_name

   Specifies the name of the boot environment that is to be activated.

3. Reboot.

   # init 6

Example 5–15 Activating a Boot Environment

In this example, the second_disk boot environment is activated at the next reboot and the files are synchronized.

# /sbin/luactivate -s second_disk
# init 6