Managing Your ZFS Root Pool

The following sections provide information about installing and updating a ZFS root pool and configuring a mirrored root pool.

Installing a ZFS Root Pool

The Oracle Solaris 11 Express Live CD installation method installs a default ZFS root pool on a single disk. With the Oracle Solaris 11 Express automated installation (AI) method, you can create an AI manifest with the <ai_target_device> tag to identify the disk that is used to install the ZFS root pool. If you do not identify a target disk for the root pool, the default target disk is selected as follows:

• The installer searches for a disk based on a recommended size of approximately 13 GB

• The disks are searched based on an order determined by the libdiskmgt library

• The installer selects the first disk that matches the recommended size

• If no disk matches the recommended size, the automated installation fails

The AI installer provides the flexibility of installing a ZFS root pool on the default boot disk or on a target disk that you identify. You can specify the logical device, such as c1t0d0s0, or the physical device path. In addition, you can use the MPxIO identifier or the device ID for the device to be installed.

Also keep in mind that the disk intended for the root pool must have an SMI label. Otherwise, the installation will fail.

Similar to the Oracle Solaris 11 Express Live CD installation method, you can only install a root pool onto one disk with the automated installer. See the next section for configuring a mirrored root pool.

After the installation, review your ZFS storage pool and file system information. For example:

# zpool status
  pool: rpool
 state: ONLINE
 scrub: none requested
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        rpool       ONLINE       0     0     0
          c1t3d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors
# zfs list
rpool                    22.9G   111G  76.5K  /rpool
rpool/ROOT               6.80G   111G    31K  legacy
rpool/ROOT/solaris       6.80G   111G  5.20G  /
rpool/dump               7.94G   111G  7.94G  -
rpool/export              614K   111G    32K  /export
rpool/export/home         582K   111G    32K  /export/home
rpool/export/home/admin   550K   111G   550K  /export/home/admin
rpool/swap               8.19G   119G  14.2M  -

Review your ZFS BE information. For example:

# beadm list
BE      Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created          
--      ------ ---------- ----- ------ -------          
solaris NR     /          8.41G static 2011-01-13 15:31 

In the above output, NR means now running.

How to Update Your ZFS Boot Environment

The default ZFS boot environment (BE) is named solaris by default. You can identify your BEs by using the beadm list command. For example:

# beadm list
BE      Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created          
--      ------ ---------- ----- ------ -------          
solaris NR     /          8.41G static 2011-01-13 15:31 

In the above output, NR means now running.

You can use the pkg image command to update your ZFS boot environment. If you update your ZFS BE by using the pkg update command, a new BE is created and activated automatically, unless the updates to the existing BE are very minimal.

1. Update your ZFS BE.

   # pkg update
                                          
   
   DOWNLOAD                                  PKGS       FILES    XFER (MB)
   Completed                              707/707 10529/10529  194.9/194.9 
   .
   .
   .

   A new BE, solaris-1, is created automatically and activated.

2. Reboot the system to complete the BE activation. Then, confirm your BE status.

   # init 6
   .
   .
   .
   # beadm list
   BE        Active Mountpoint Space  Policy Created          
   --        ------ ---------- -----  ------ -------          
   solaris   -      -          19.18M static 2011-01-13 15:31 
   solaris-1 NR     /          8.43G  static 2011-01-13 15:44 

How to Configure a Mirrored Root Pool

You cannot configure a mirrored root pool with any of the Oracle Solaris 11 Express installation methods, but you can easily configure a mirrored root pool after the installation.

For information about replacing a disk in root pool, see How to Replace a Disk in the ZFS Root Pool.

1. Display your current root pool status.

   # zpool status rpool
     pool: rpool
    state: ONLINE
    scrub: none requested
   config:
   
           NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
           rpool       ONLINE       0     0     0
             c1t3d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0
   
   errors: No known data errors

2. Attach a second disk to configure a mirrored root pool.

   # zpool attach rpool c1t3d0s0 c1t2d0s0
   Make sure to wait until resilver is done before rebooting.

3. View the root pool status to confirm that resilvering is complete.

   # zpool status rpool
     pool: rpool
    state: ONLINE
   status: One or more devices is currently being resilvered.  The pool will
           continue to function, possibly in a degraded state.
   action: Wait for the resilver to complete.
    scan: resilver in progress since Thu Jan 13 15:54:54 2011
       2.16G scanned out of 14.8G at 71.3M/s, 0h3m to go
       2.16G resilvered, 14.59% done
   config:
   
           NAME          STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
           rpool         ONLINE       0     0     0
             mirror-0    ONLINE       0     0     0
               c1t3d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0
               c1t2d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0  (resilvering)
   
   errors: No known data errors

   In the above output, the resilvering process is not complete. Resilvering is complete when you see messages similar to the following:

   scrub: resilver completed after 0h10m with 0 errors on Thu Mar 11 11:27:22 2010

4. Verify that you can boot successfully from the second disk.
5. Set up the system to boot automatically from the new disk, either by using the eeprom command, the setenv command from the SPARC boot PROM, or reconfigure the PC BIOS.