Booting and Shutting Down Oracle® Solaris 11.2 Systems

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Updated: July 2014
 
 

How Run Levels Work

A system's run level (also known as an init state) defines what services and resources are available to users. A system can be in only one run level at a time.

Oracle Solaris has eight run levels, which are described in the following table. The default run level is specified in the /etc/inittab file as run level 3.

Table 4-1  Oracle Solaris Run Levels
Run Level
Init State
Type
Purpose
0
Power-down state
Power-down
To shut down the operating system so that it is safe to turn off power to the system.
s or S
Single-user state
Single-user
To run as a single user with some file systems mounted and accessible.
1
Administrative state
Single-user
To access all available file systems. User logins are disabled.
2
Multiuser state
Multiuser
For normal operations. Multiple users can access the system and all file systems. All daemons are running except for the NFS server daemons.
3
Multiuser level with NFS resources shared
Multiuser
For normal operations with NFS resources shared. This is the default run level.
4
Alternative multiuser state
Multiuser
Not configured by default, but available for customer use.
5
Power-down state
Power-down
To shut down the operating system so that it is safe to turn off power to the system. If possible, automatically turns off power on systems that support this feature.
6
Reboot state
Reboot
To stop the operating system and reboot to the state that is defined by the initdefault entry in the /etc/inittab file.
The SMF service, svc:/system/boot-config:default, is enabled by default. When the config/fastreboot_default property is set to true, init 6 bypasses certain firmware initialization and test steps, depending on the specific capabilities of the system. See Accelerating the Reboot Process.

In addition, the svcadm command can be used to change the run level of a system, by selecting a milestone at which to run. The following table shows which run level corresponds to each milestone.

Table 4-2  Run Levels and SMF Milestones
Run Level
SMF Milestone FMRI
S
milestone/single-user:default
2
milestone/multi-user:default
3
milestone/multi-user-server:default

What Happens When a System Is Booted to a Multiuser State (Run Level 3)

  1. The init process is started and reads the properties defined in the svc:/system/environment:init SMF service to set any environment variables. By default, only the TIMEZONE variable is set.

  2. Then, init reads the inittab file and does the following:

    1. Executes any process entries that have sysinit in the action field so that any special initializations can take place before users log in to the system.

    2. Passes the startup activities to svc.startd.

    For a detailed description of how the init process uses the inittab file, see the init(1M) man page.

When to Use Run Levels or Milestones

In general, changing milestones or run levels is an uncommon procedure. If it is necessary, using the init command to change to a run level will change the milestone as well and is the appropriate command to use. The init command is also good for shutting down a system.

However, booting a system using the none milestone can be very useful for debugging startup problems. There is no equivalent run level to the none milestone. For more information, see How to Investigate Problems Starting Services at System Boot in Managing System Services in Oracle Solaris 11.2 .

Determining a System's Current Run Level

To determine a system's current run level, use the who -r command.

Example 4-11  Determining a System's Run Level

The output of the who –r command displays information about a system's current run level, as well as previous run levels.

$ who -r
 .    run-level 3  Dec 13 10:10  3  0 S
$
Output of who –r command
Description
run-level 3
Identifies the current run level
Dec 13 10:10
Identifies the date of last run level change
3
Also identifies the current run level
0
Identifies the number of times the system has been at this run level since the last reboot
S
Identifies the previous run level