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Oracle Solaris ZFS Administration Guide Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 Information Library |
1. Oracle Solaris ZFS File System (Introduction)
2. Getting Started With Oracle Solaris ZFS
3. Managing Oracle Solaris ZFS Storage Pools
4. Installing and Booting an Oracle Solaris ZFS Root File System
Installing and Booting an Oracle Solaris ZFS Root File System (Overview)
Oracle Solaris Installation and Live Upgrade Requirements for ZFS Support
Oracle Solaris Release Requirements
General ZFS Root Pool Requirements
Installing a ZFS Root File System (Oracle Solaris Initial Installation)
How to Create a Mirrored ZFS Root Pool (Postinstallation)
Installing a ZFS Root File System (Oracle Solaris Flash Archive Installation)
Installing a ZFS Root File System ( JumpStart Installation)
JumpStart Profile Examples for ZFS
Migrating to a ZFS Root File System or Updating a ZFS Root File System (Live Upgrade)
ZFS Migration Issues With Live Upgrade
Using Live Upgrade to Migrate or Update a ZFS Root File System (Without Zones)
Using Live Upgrade to Migrate or Upgrade a System With Zones (Solaris 10 10/08)
How to Configure a ZFS Root File System With Zone Roots on ZFS (Solaris 10 10/08)
How to Upgrade or Patch a ZFS Root File System With Zone Roots on ZFS (Solaris 10 10/08)
Supported ZFS with Zone Root Configuration Information (at Least Solaris 10 5/09)
How to Create a ZFS BE With a ZFS Root File System and a Zone Root (at Least Solaris 10 5/09)
How to Upgrade or Patch a ZFS Root File System With Zone Roots (at Least Solaris 10 5/09)
Managing Your ZFS Swap and Dump Devices
Adjusting the Sizes of Your ZFS Swap Device and Dump Device
Customizing ZFS Swap and Dump Volumes
Troubleshooting ZFS Dump Device Issues
Booting From a ZFS Root File System
Booting From an Alternate Disk in a Mirrored ZFS Root Pool
SPARC: Booting From a ZFS Root File System
x86: Booting From a ZFS Root File System
Resolving ZFS Mount-Point Problems That Prevent Successful Booting (Solaris 10 10/08)
How to Resolve ZFS Mount-Point Problems
Booting for Recovery Purposes in a ZFS Root Environment
How to Boot ZFS From Alternate Media
Recovering the ZFS Root Pool or Root Pool Snapshots
How to Replace a Disk in the ZFS Root Pool
How to Create Root Pool Snapshots
How to Re-create a ZFS Root Pool and Restore Root Pool Snapshots
How to Roll Back Root Pool Snapshots From a Failsafe Boot
5. Managing Oracle Solaris ZFS File Systems
6. Working With Oracle Solaris ZFS Snapshots and Clones
7. Using ACLs and Attributes to Protect Oracle Solaris ZFS Files
8. Oracle Solaris ZFS Delegated Administration
9. Oracle Solaris ZFS Advanced Topics
10. Oracle Solaris ZFS Troubleshooting and Pool Recovery
11. Recommended Oracle Solaris ZFS Practices
You can install and boot from a ZFS root file system in the following ways:
Oracle Solaris initial installation (interactive text mode installation method)
Select and install ZFS as the root file system.
Install a ZFS flash archive.
Oracle Solaris Live Upgrade feature
Migrate a UFS root file system to a ZFS root file system.
Create a new boot environment in a new ZFS root pool.
Create or update a boot environment in an existing ZFS root pool.
Upgrade an alternate boot environment (BE) with a ZFS flash archive.
Oracle Solaris JumpStart feature.
Create a profile to automatically install a system with a ZFS root file system.
Create a profile to automatically install a system with a ZFS flash archive.
After a SPARC based or an x86 based system is installed with or migrated to a ZFS root file system, the system boots automatically from the ZFS root file system. For more information about boot changes, see Booting From a ZFS Root File System.
The following ZFS installation features are provided in this Oracle Solaris release:
Using the interactive text installer feature, you can install a UFS or a ZFS root file system. The default file system is still UFS for this release. You can access the interactive text installer in the following ways:
SPARC: Use the following syntax for the Oracle Solaris Installation DVD:
ok boot cdrom - text
SPARC: Use the following syntax when booting from the network:
ok boot net - text
x86: Select the text-mode installation method.
A custom JumpStart profile provides the following features:
You can set up a profile to create a ZFS storage pool and designate a bootable ZFS file system.
You can set up a profile to install a flash archive of a ZFS root pool.
Using Live Upgrade, you can migrate a UFS root file system to a ZFS root file system.
You can set up a mirrored ZFS root pool by selecting two disks during installation. Or, you can attach additional disks after installation to create a mirrored ZFS root pool.
Swap and dump devices are automatically created on ZFS volumes in the ZFS root pool.
The following installation features are not provided in this release:
The GUI installation feature for installing a ZFS root file system is not currently available. You must select the text mode installation method to install a ZFS root file system.
You cannot use the standard upgrade program to upgrade your UFS root file system to a ZFS root file system.
Ensure that the following requirements are met before attempting to install a system with a ZFS root file system or attempting to migrate a UFS root file system to a ZFS root file system.
You can install and boot a ZFS root file system or migrate to a ZFS root file system in the following ways:
Install a ZFS root file system – Available starting in the Solaris 10 10/08 release.
Migrate from a UFS root file system to a ZFS root file system with Live Upgrade – You must have installed at least the Solaris 10 10/08 release, or you must have upgraded to at least the Solaris 10 10/08 release.
The following sections describe ZFS root pool space and configuration requirements.
The required minimum amount of available pool space for a ZFS root file system is larger than for a UFS root file system because swap and dump devices must be separate devices in a ZFS root environment. By default, swap and dump devices are the same device in a UFS root file system.
When a system is installed or upgraded with a ZFS root file system, the size of the swap area and the dump device depends upon the amount of physical memory. The minimum amount of available pool space for a bootable ZFS root file system depends on the amount of physical memory, the disk space available, and the number of boot environments (BEs) to be created.
Review the following disk space requirements for ZFS storage pools:
1536 MB is the minimum amount of memory required to install a ZFS root file system.
1536 MB of memory or greater is recommended for better overall ZFS performance.
At least 16 GB of disk space is recommended. The disk space is consumed as follows:
Swap area and dump device – The default sizes of the swap and dump volumes that are created by the Oracle Solaris installation programs are as follows:
Initial installation – In the new ZFS boot environment, the default swap size is calculated as half the size of physical memory, generally in the 512-MB to 2- GB range. You can adjust the swap size during an initial installation.
The default dump size is calculated by the kernel based on dumpadm information and the size of physical memory. You can adjust the dump size during an initial installation.
Live Upgrade – When a UFS root file system is migrated to a ZFS root file system, the default swap size for the ZFS BE is calculated as the size of the swap device of the UFS BE. The default swap size calculation adds the sizes of all the swap devices in the UFS BE and creates a ZFS volume of that size in the ZFS BE. If no swap devices are defined in the UFS BE, then the default swap size is set to 512 MB.
In the ZFS BE, the default dump size is set to half the size of physical memory, between 512 MB and 2 GB.
You can adjust the sizes of your swap and dump volumes to sizes of your choosing as long as the new sizes support system operations. For more information, see Adjusting the Sizes of Your ZFS Swap Device and Dump Device.
Boot environment (BE) – In addition to either new swap and dump space requirements or adjusted swap and dump device sizes, a ZFS BE that is migrated from a UFS BE requires approximately 6 GB. Each ZFS BE that is cloned from another ZFS BE doesn't require additional disk space, but consider that the BE size will increase when patches are applied. All ZFS BEs in the same root pool use the same swap and dump devices.
Oracle Solaris OS Components – All subdirectories of the root file system that are part of the OS image, with the exception of /var, must be in the same dataset as the root file system. In addition, all OS components must reside in the root pool, with the exception of the swap and dump devices.
For information about changing default swap and dump devices with Live Upgrade, see Customizing ZFS Swap and Dump Volumes.
Another restriction is that the /var directory or dataset must be a single dataset. For example, you cannot create a descendent /var dataset, such as /var/tmp, if you want to also use Live Upgrade to migrate or patch a ZFS BE, or create a ZFS flash archive of this pool.
For example, a system with 12 GB of disk space might be too small for a bootable ZFS environment because 2 GB of disk space is required for each swap and dump device, and approximately 6 GB of disk space is required for the ZFS BE that is migrated from the UFS BE.
Review the following ZFS root pool configuration requirements:
The pool that is intended to be the root pool must have an SMI label. This requirement is usually met if the pool is created with disk slices.
The pool must exist either on a disk slice or on disk slices that are mirrored. If you attempt to use an unsupported pool configuration during a Live Upgrade migration, you see a message similar to the following:
ERROR: ZFS pool name does not support boot environments
For a detailed description of supported ZFS root pool configurations, see Creating a ZFS Root Pool.
x86: The disk must contain an Oracle Solaris fdisk partition. This fdisk partition is created automatically when the x86 based system is installed. For more information about Solaris fdisk partitions, see Guidelines for Creating an fdisk Partition in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.
Disks that are designated for booting in a ZFS root pool must be less than 2 TBs in size on both SPARC based and x86 based systems.
Compression can be enabled on the root pool but only after the root pool is installed. No way exists to enable compression on a root pool during installation. The gzip compression algorithm is not supported on root pools.
Do not rename the root pool after it is created by an initial installation or after Solaris Live Upgrade migration to a ZFS root file system. Renaming the root pool might cause an unbootable system.
In addition, do not change the default mount point of the root pool components, if you want to use Live Upgrade.
If you want to change your swap and dump devices and use Live Upgrade, see Customizing ZFS Swap and Dump Volumes.