Skip Navigation Links | |
Exit Print View | |
Oracle Solaris Administration: Basic Administration Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 Information Library |
1. Oracle Solaris Management Tools (Road Map)
2. Working With the Solaris Management Console (Tasks)
3. Working With the Oracle Java Web Console (Tasks)
4. Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview)
5. Managing User Accounts and Groups (Tasks)
6. Managing Client-Server Support (Overview)
7. Managing Diskless Clients (Tasks)
8. Introduction to Shutting Down and Booting a System
9. Shutting Down and Booting a System (Overview)
10. Shutting Down a System (Tasks)
11. Modifying Oracle Solaris Boot Behavior (Tasks)
12. Booting an Oracle Solaris System (Tasks)
13. Managing the Oracle Solaris Boot Archives (Tasks)
Managing the Oracle Solaris Boot Archives (Task Map)
Managing the boot-archive Service
How to Enable or Disable the boot-archive Service
Automatic Boot Archive Recovery
x86: How to Clear Automatic Boot Archive Update Failures by Using the auto-reboot-safe Property
How to Clear Automatic Boot Archive Update Failures by Using the bootadm Command
Using the bootadm Command to Manage the Boot Archives
How to Manually Update the Boot Archive by Using the bootadm Command
How to Manually Update the Boot Archive on a Solaris Volume Manager RAID-1 (Mirrored) Root Partition
How to List Contents of the Boot Archive
x86: How to Locate the Active GRUB Menu and List Current Menu Entries
x86: How to Set the Default Boot Entry for the Active GRUB Menu
14. Troubleshooting Booting an Oracle Solaris System (Tasks)
15. x86: GRUB Based Booting (Reference)
16. x86: Booting a System That Does Not Implement GRUB (Tasks)
17. Working With Oracle Configuration Manager
18. Managing Services (Overview)
20. Managing Software (Overview)
21. Managing Software With Oracle Solaris System Administration Tools (Tasks)
22. Managing Software by Using Oracle Solaris Package Commands (Tasks)
When you install Oracle Solaris OS on a system, the bootadm command creates one primary boot archive and one failsafe archive.
A primary boot archive is a subset of a root (/) file system. This boot archive contains all of the kernel modules, driver.conf files, and some configuration files. These files are located in the /etc directory. The files in the boot archive are read by the kernel before the root (/) file system is mounted. After the root (/) file system is mounted, the boot archive is discarded by the kernel from memory. Then, file I/O is performed against the root device.
The files that make up the SPARC boot archives are located in the /platform directory.
The contents of this directory are divided into three groups of files:
Files that are required for a sun4u boot archive
Files that are required for a sun4v boot archive
Files that are required for a sun4us boot archive
The files that make up the x86 boot archives are located in the /platform/i86pc directory.
To list the files and directories that are included in the boot archives, use the bootadm list-archive command.
If any files in the archive are updated, the boot archive must be rebuilt. For modifications to take effect, the rebuild of the archive must take place before the next system reboot.
The failsafe boot archive is the second type of archive that is created when you install the Solaris OS.
A failsafe boot archive has the following benefits and characteristics:
Is self-sufficient
Can boot on its own
Is created by default during installation of the OS
Requires no maintenance
For more information about booting a system in failsafe mode, see Booting a SPARC Based System in Failsafe Mode and Booting an x86 Based System in Failsafe Mode.