Listing Existing Boot Environments and Snapshots

All snapshots, boot environments, and datasets that were created by the beadm command can be displayed with the beadm list subcommand.

Snapshots and boot environments can be created by the beadm command. Snapshots and boot environments can also be created by other utilities. For example, the pkg command may automatically create a clone of a boot environment when you install or update packages using that command. The beadm list command output also displays boot environments that are created by the pkg command.

How to Display Information About Your Boot Environments, Snapshots, and Datasets

1. Choose the information that you want to view, as described in this step.
   • Choose an option for the beadm list command from the following list:

     • -a – Lists all available information about the boot environment. This option includes subordinate datasets and snapshots.

     • -d – Lists information about a boot environment's datasets.

     • -s – Lists information about a boot environment's snapshots.

     • -H – Omits the header information from the display. Choosing this option results in a display that can be more easily parsed for scripts or other programs.

   • You can also choose whether to specify a boot environment name in the beadm list command.

     By default, if you do not include a boot environment name in the command, the results include all boot environments.

     But, if you include a boot environment name in the beadm list command, the results include only information about that boot environment.

2. Type the beadm list command with preferred options.

   For example, include the -a option and specify the BE1 environment as follows:

   $ beadm list -a BE1

3. Review the information that is displayed about the available boot environments.

Example 2-1 Viewing Boot Environment Specifications

This example includes the -a option and specifies the BE2 environment as follows:

$ beadm list -a BE2

Sample results are displayed. The BE2 environment will be active on reboot, as indicated by the R in the Active column.

BE/Dataset             Active Mountpoint Space  Policy Created         
----------             ------ ---------- -----  ------ -------         
BE2 rpool/ROOT/BE2     R      /mnt       89.67M static 2008-09-17 20:17
    rpool/ROOT/BE2/var -      /mnt/var   0      static 2008-09-17 20:17

Two datasets are included in BE2, the dataset, rpool/ROOT/BE2, and the dataset, rpool/ROOT/BE2/var. The values for the Active column are as follows:

• R – Active on reboot

• N – Now active

• “-” – Inactive

Example 2-2 Viewing Snapshot Specifications

This example includes the -s option, which displays information for any snapshots that exist on the current image. The status of those snapshots is the same list that the zfs(1M) command displays.

$ beadm list -s test-2

Sample results are displayed.

BE/Snapshot     Space Policy Created
----------- ----- ------ ------- 
test-2
test-2@2010-04-12-22:29:27 264.02M static 2010-04-12 16:29
test-2@2010-06-02-20:28:51 32.50M static 2010-06-02 14:28
test-2@2010-06-03-16:51:01 16.66M static 2010-06-03 10:51
test-2@2010-07-13-22:01:56 25.93M static 2010-07-13 16:01
test-2@2010-07-21-17:15:15 26.00M static 2010-07-21 11:15
test-2@2010-07-25-19:07:03 13.75M static 2010-07-25 13:07
test-2@2010-07-25-20:33:41 12.32M static 2010-07-25 14:33
test-2@2010-07-25-20:41:23 30.60M static 2010-07-25 14:41
test-2@2010-08-06-15:53:15 8.92M static 2010-08-06 09:53
test-2@2010-08-06-16:00:37 8.92M static 2010-08-06 10:00
test-2@2010-08-09-16:06:11 193.72M static 2010-08-09 10:06
test-2@2010-08-09-20:28:59 102.69M static 2010-08-09 14:28
test-2@install 205.10M static 2010-03-16 19:04

In the sample results, each snapshot title includes a timestamp, indicating when that snapshot was taken.