Migrating a Non-Global Zone to a Different Machine

About Migrating a Zone

The zonecfg and zoneadm commands can be used to migrate an existing non-global zone from one system to another. The zone is halted and detached from its current host. The zonepath is moved to the target host, where it is attached.

The following requirements apply to zone migration:

• You must remove all inactive BEs on the source system before migration.

• The global zone on the target system must be running an Oracle Solaris 11 release that is equal to or higher than the original source host.

• To ensure that the zone will run properly, the target system must have the same or later versions of the required operating system packages as those installed on the original source host.

  Other packages, such as those for third-party products, can be different.

• If the new host has later versions of the zone-dependent packages, using zoneadm attach with the -u or -U options updates those packages within the zone to match the new host. The update on attach software looks at the zone that is being migrated and determines which packages must be updated to match the new host. Only those packages are updated. The rest of the packages can vary from zone to zone. Any packages installed inside the zone but not installed in the global zone are ignored and left as-is.

• If a storage object contains any preexisting partitions, zpools, or UFS file systems, the attach fails and an error message is displayed. To continue the attach operation and overwrite any preexisting data, use the -x option to zoneadm attach.

  -x force-zpool-import
  -x force-zpool-create=zpoolname
  -x force-zpool-create=zpoolname1,zpoolname2,zpoolname3
  -x force-zpool-create-all

  This option is similar to the zpool create -f command.

  The -x force-zpool-create=zpoolname option can be used one or more times.

The zoneadm detach process creates the information necessary to attach the zone on a different system. The zoneadm attach process verifies that the target machine has the correct configuration to host the zone.

Because there are several ways to make the zonepath available on the new host, the actual movement of the zonepath from one system to another is a manual process that is performed by the global administrator.

When attached to the new system, the zone is in the installed state.

How to Migrate A Non-Global Zone Using ZFS Archives

You must be the global administrator or a user with appropriate authorizations in the global zone to perform this procedure.

This example describes how to create an archive of a zone and then attach that archive to another system. It assumes that the administrators on the source and target hosts are able to access a shared NFS server for temporary file storage. In the event that shared temporary space is not available, other means, such as scp secure copy, a remote file copy program, can be used to copy the files between the source and target machines. The scp program requests passwords or passphrases if they are needed for authentication.

1. Become root or assume an equivalent role.
2. Shut down the zone to be migrated, my-zone in this procedure.

   host1# zoneadm -z my-zone shutdown

3. (Optional) Detach the zone.

   host1# zoneadm -z my-zone detach

   The detached zone is now in the configured state. The zone will not automatically boot when the global zone next boots.

4. Export the zone configuration.

   host1# mkdir /net/server/zonearchives/my-zone
   host1# zonecfg -z my-zone export > /net/server/zonearchives/my-zone/my-zone.zonecfg

5. Create a gzip ZFS archive.

   host1# zfs list -H -o name /zones/my-zone
   rpool/zones/my-zone
   host1# zfs snapshot -r rpool/zones/my-zone@v2v
   host1# zfs send -rc rpool/zones/my-zone@v2v | gzip > /net/server/zonearchives/my-zone/my-zone.zfs.gz

   Use of compression is optional, but it is generally faster because less I/O is performed while writing and subsequently reading the archive. For more information, see Oracle Solaris 11.1 Administration: ZFS File Systems.

6. On the new host, configure the zone.

   host2# zonecfg -z my-zone -f /net/server/zonearchives/my-zone/my-zone.zonecfg

   You will see the following system message:

   my-zone: No such zone configured
   Use 'create' to begin configuring a new zone.

7. (Optional) View the configuration.

   host2# zonecfg:my-zone> info
   zonename: my-zone
   zonepath: /zones/my-zone
   autoboot: false
   pool:
   net:
            address: 192.168.0.90
            physical: bge0

8. Make any required adjustments to the configuration.

   For example, the network physical device is different on the new host, or devices that are part of the configuration might have different names on the new host.

   host2# zonecfg -z my-zone
   zonecfg:my-zone> select net physical=bge0
   zonecfg:my-zone:net> set physical=e1000g0
   zonecfg:my-zone:net> end

9. Commit the configuration and exit.

   zonecfg:my-zone> commit
   zonecfg:my-zone> exit

10. Install the zone on the new host by using one of the following methods. Use of the install subcommand is recommended.
    • Install the zone, performing the minimum updates required to allow the install to succeed:

      host2# zoneadm -z my-zone install -p -a /net/server/zonearchives/my-zone/my-zone.zfs.gz

      In this release, you can also attach the zone, performing the minimum updates required to allow the attach to succeed. If updates are allowed, catalogs from publishers are refreshed during a zoneadm attach.

      host2# zoneadm -z my-zone attach -u -a /net/server/zonearchives/my-zone/my-zone.zfs.gz

    • Install the zone, updating all packages in the zone to the latest version that is compatible with the global zone.

      host2# zoneadm -z my-zone install -U -p -a /net/server/zonearchives/my-zone/my-zone.zfs.gz

      In this release, you can also attach the zone, updating all packages in the zone to the latest version that is compatible with the global zone.

      host2# zoneadm -z my-zone install -U -a /net/server/zonearchives/my-zone/my-zone.zfs.gz

    • Attach the zone to the new host without updating any software.

      host2# zoneadm -z my-zone attach -a /net/server/zonearchives/my-zone/my-zone.zfs.gz

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    Note - The -a and -d options to the attach subcommand might be removed in a future release of Oracle Solaris. Use of the install subcommand is recommended.

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Troubleshooting

If a storage object contains any preexisting partitions, zpools, or UFS file systems, the install fails and an error message is displayed. To continue the installation and overwrite any preexisting data, use the -x option to zoneadm install.