Upgrading With Non-Global Zones

The following sections describe how you can upgrade a system that contains non-global zones.

After the Oracle Solaris OS is installed, you can install and configure non-global zones. You can upgrade the Oracle Solaris OS when non-global zones are installed. If you have branded non-global zones installed, they are ignored during the upgrade process.

Zones Parallel Patching

Starting with the Solaris 10 10/09 release, zones parallel patching enhances the standard Oracle Solaris 10 patch utilities. This feature improves zones patching performance by patching non-global zones in parallel.

The global zone is still patched before the non-global zones are patched.

For releases prior to the Solaris 10 10/09 release, this feature is delivered in the following patch utilities patches:

• SPARC: Patch 119254-66 or later revision

• x86: Patch 119255-66 or later revision

For more information, see the following documentation:

• Oracle Solaris 10 10/09: Zones Parallel Patching to Reduce Patching Time in System Administration Guide: Oracle Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Oracle Solaris Zones

• Oracle Solaris 10 10/09: How to Patch Non-Global Zones in Parallel in System Administration Guide: Oracle Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Oracle Solaris Zones

Choosing an Installation Program to Upgrade a System Using Non-Global Zones

Installation programs that can accommodate systems that have non-global zones installed are described in this section.

Live Upgrade and Non-Global Zones

You can upgrade or patch a system that contains non-global zones. If you have a system that contains non-global zones, Live Upgrade is the recommended upgrade program or program to add patches. Other upgrade programs might require extensive upgrade time due to the time required to complete the upgrade increases linearly with the number of installed non-global zones. If you are patching a system with Live Upgrade, you do not have to take the system to single-user mode and you can maximize your system's uptime.

Starting with the Solaris 10 8/07 release, changes to accommodate systems that have non-global zones installed are as follows:

• A new package, SUNWlucfg, must be installed with the other Live Upgrade packages, SUNWlur and SUNWluu.

• Creating a new boot environment from the currently running boot environment remains the same with one exception: You can specify a destination slice for a shared file system within a non-global zone. This exception occurs under the following circumstances:

  • If on the current boot environment the zonecfg add fs command was used to create a separate file system for a non-global zone

  • If this separate file system resides on a shared file system, such as /zone/root/export

    To prevent this separate file system from being shared in the new boot environment, the lucreate command has changed to enable specifying a destination slice for a separate file system for a non-global zone. The argument to the -m option has a new optional field, zonename. This new field places the non-global zone's separate file system on a separate slice in the new boot environment. For more information about setting up a non-global zone with a separate file system, see the zonecfg(1M) man page.

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    Note - By default, any file system other than the critical file systems (root (/), /usr, and /opt file systems) is shared between the current and new boot environments. Updating shared files in the active boot environment also updates data in the inactive boot environment. The /export file system is an example of a shared file system. If you use the -moption and the zonename option, the non-global zone's shared file system is copied to a separate slice and data is not shared. This option prevents non-global zone file systems that were created with the zonecfg add fs command from being shared between the boot environments.

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Additional changes starting with the Solaris 10/8/07 release that accommodate systems with non-global zones installed include the following:

• Comparing boot environments is enhanced. The lucompare command now generates a comparison of boot environments that includes the contents of any non-global zone.

• The lumount command now provides non-global zones with access to their corresponding separate file systems that exist on inactive boot environments. When the global zone administrator uses the lumount command to mount an inactive boot environment, the boot environment is mounted for non-global zones as well.

• Listing file systems with the lufslist command is enhanced to display a list of file systems for both the global zone and the non-global zones.

For step-by-step instructions on using Live Upgrade on UFS file systems when non-global zones are installed, see Chapter 8, Upgrading the Oracle Solaris OS on a System With Non-Global Zones Installed, in Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 Installation Guide: Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning.

For an overview and step-by-step instructions about installing with ZFS root pools, see Chapter 13, Live Upgrade for ZFS With Non-Global Zones Installed, in Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 Installation Guide: Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning.

Interactive GUI Installation and Non-Global Zones

You can upgrade or patch a system when non-global zones are installed. The time required to upgrade or patch might be extensive, depending on the number of non-global zones that are installed.

For more information about installing with this program, see Chapter 2, Installing With the Oracle Solaris Installation Program For UFS File Systems (Tasks), in Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 Installation Guide: Basic Installations.

JumpStart Installation and Non-Global Zones

You can upgrade or patch with any keyword that applies to an upgrade or patching. The time required to upgrade or patch might be extensive, depending on the number of non-global zones that are installed.

For more information about installing with this program, see Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 Installation Guide: JumpStart Installations.

Limitations When Upgrading With Non-global Zones

Note the following limitations:

• When using Live Upgrade on a system with zones installed it is critical to avoid zone state transitions during lucreate and lumount operations.

  • When you use the lucreate command to create an inactive boot environment, if a given non-global zone is not running, then the zone cannot be booted until the lucreate operation has completed.

  • When you use the lucreate command to create an inactive boot environment if a given non-global zone is running, the zone should not be halted or rebooted until the lucreate operation has completed.

  • When an inactive boot environment is mounted with the lumount command, you cannot boot non-global zones or reboot them, although zones that were running before the lumount operation can continue to run.

  • Because a non-global zone can be controlled by a non-global zone administrator as well as by the global zone administrator, to prevent any interaction, halt all zones during lucreate or lumount operations.

• Problems can occur when the global zone administrator does not notify the non-global zone administrator of an upgrade with Live Upgrade.

  When Live Upgrade operations are underway, non-global zone administrator involvement is critical. The upgrade affects the work of the administrators, who will be addressing the changes that occur as a result of the upgrade. Zone administrators should ensure that any local packages are stable throughout the sequence, handle any post-upgrade tasks such as configuration file adjustments, and generally schedule around the system outage.

  For example, if a non-global zone administrator adds a package while the global zone administrator is copying the file systems with the lucreate command, the new package is not copied with the file systems and the non-global zone administrator is unaware of the problem.

• Flash archives cannot be used with non-global zones.

  A flash archive cannot be properly created when a non-global zone is installed. This feature is not compatible with Oracle Solaris Zones partitioning technology. If you create a flash archive, the resulting archive is not installed properly when the archive is deployed under these conditions:

  • The archive is created in a non-global zone.

  • The archive is created in a global zone that has non-global zones installed.

• The -R command option or equivalent must not be used in some situations.

  Any command that accepts an alternate root (/) file system by using the -R option or equivalent must not be used if the following are true:

  • The command is run in the global zone.

  • The alternative root (/) file system refers to any path within a non-global zone.

  An example is the -R root-path option to the pkgadd utility run from the global zone with a path to the root (/) file system in a non-global zone.

Backing Up Your System Before Performing an Upgrade With Zones

You should back up the global and non-global zones on your Oracle Solaris system before you perform the upgrade. For information about backing up a system with zones installed, see Chapter 27, Oracle Solaris Zones Administration (Overview), in System Administration Guide: Oracle Solaris Containers-Resource Management and Oracle Solaris Zones.