Live Upgrade Requirements

Before you install and use Live Upgrade, become familiar with these requirements.

Live Upgrade System Requirements

Live Upgrade is included in the Oracle Solaris software. You need to install the Live Upgrade packages on your current OS. The release of the Live Upgrade packages must match the release of the OS you are upgrading to. For example, if your current OS is the Solaris 9 release and you want to upgrade to the Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 release, you need to install the Live Upgrade packages from the Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 release.

The following table lists releases that are supported by Live Upgrade.

Table 3-1 Supported Oracle Solaris Releases

Installing Live Upgrade

You can install the Live Upgrade packages by using either of the following methods:

• The pkgadd command. The Live Upgrade packages are SUNWlucfg, SUNWlur, and SUNWluu, and these packages must be installed in that order.

• An installer on the Oracle Solaris Operating System DVD, the Oracle Solaris Software - 2 CD, or a network installation image.

Note the following information about patches that might need to be installed for the correct operation of Live Upgrade.

Correct operation of Live Upgrade requires that a limited set of patch revisions be installed for a particular OS version. Before installing or running Live Upgrade, you are required to install these patches.

ERROR: Cannot find or is not executable: 
</sbin/biosdev>.
ERROR: One or more patches required 
by Live Upgrade has not been installed.

Ensure that you have the most recently updated patch list by consulting http://support.oracle.com (My Oracle Support). Search for the knowledge document 1004881.1 - Live Upgrade Software Patch Requirements (formerly 206844) on My Oracle Support.

The patches listed in knowledge document 1004881.1 - Live Upgrade Software Patch Requirements (formerly 206844) on My Oracle Support are subject to change at any time. These patches potentially fix defects in Live Upgrade, as well as fix defects in components that Live Upgrade depends on. If you experience any difficulties with Live Upgrade, please check and make sure that you have the latest Live Upgrade patches installed.

If you are running the Solaris 8 or Solaris 9 OS, you might not be able to run the Live Upgrade installer. These releases do not contain the set of patches needed to run the Java 2 runtime environment. You must have the recommended patch cluster for the Java 2 runtime environment recommended to run the Live Upgrade installer and install the packages. To install the Live Upgrade packages, use the pkgadd command. Or install, for the Java 2 runtime environment, the recommended patch cluster. The patch cluster is available on http://support.oracle.com (My Oracle Support).

For instructions about installing the Live Upgrade software, see Installing Live Upgrade.

Required Packages

If you have problems with Live Upgrade, you might be missing packages. Table 3-2 lists the packages that each OS release requires to use Live Upgrade.

For the Oracle Solaris 10 release:

• The following software groups contain all the required Live Upgrade packages:

  • Entire Oracle Solaris Software Group Plus OEM Support

  • Entire Oracle Solaris Software Group

  • Developer Oracle Solaris Software Group

  • End User Oracle Solaris Software Group

• The following software groups might not include all the packages required to use Live Upgrade:

  • Core System Support Software Group

  • Reduced Network Support Software Group

For information about software groups, see Disk Space Recommendations for Software Groups in Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 Installation Guide: Planning for Installation and Upgrade.

Table 3-2 Required Packages for Live Upgrade

¹The SUNWj2rt package is needed only under the following conditions:

• When you run the Live Upgrade installer to add Live Upgrade packages

• When you upgrade and use CD media

²The SUNWj5rt package is needed only under the following conditions:

• When you run the Live Upgrade installer to add Live Upgrade packages

• When you upgrade and use CD media

To check for packages on your system, type the following command.

% pkginfo package-name

Live Upgrade Disk Space Requirements

For information about disk space requirements for an upgrade, see Chapter 3, System Requirements, Guidelines, and Upgrade Information, in Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 Installation Guide: Planning for Installation and Upgrade.

To estimate the file system size that is needed to create a boot environment, start the creation of a new boot environment and note the size is calculated. You can then quit the process.

The disk on the new boot environment must be able to serve as a boot device. Some systems restrict which disks can serve as a boot device. Refer to your system's documentation to determine whether any boot restrictions apply.

The disk might need to be prepared before you create the new boot environment. Check that the disk is formatted properly as follows:

• Identify slices large enough to hold the file systems to be copied.

• Identify file systems that contain directories that you want to share between boot environments rather than copy. If you want a directory to be shared, you need to create a new boot environment with the directory put on its own slice. The directory is then a file system and can be shared with future boot environments. For more information about creating separate file systems for sharing, see Guidelines for Selecting Slices for Shareable File Systems.

Live Upgrade Requirements If Creating RAID-1 Volumes (Mirrors)

Live Upgrade uses Solaris Volume Manager technology to create a boot environment that can contain file systems that are RAID-1 volumes (mirrors). Live Upgrade does not implement the full functionality of Solaris Volume Manager, but does require the following components of Solaris Volume Manager.

Table 3-3 Required Components for Live Upgrade and RAID-1 Volumes