Creating a Snapshot of a Boot Environment

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The following command creates a BE snapshot.

beadm create BeFMRI@snapshotdescription

BeFMRI is the name of an existing BE whose snapshot you want to create. If the existing BE name is not valid, the command fails. The custom description in the name helps to identify the date or purpose of the snapshot.

Note - If you do not follow the snapshot name format, the command performs a cloning operation instead of creating snapshot.

Note the following snapshot sample names and descriptions:

BE1@0312200.12:15pm – The name for a snapshot of the existing BE1 boot environment. The custom description, 0312200.12:15pm, records the date and time that the snapshot was taken for future reference.
BE2@backup – The name for a snapshot of BE2. The snapshot description merely notes that this is a backup of BE2.
BE1@march132008 – The name for a snapshot of BE1. The snapshot description records the date that the snapshot was taken.

Some other system functions automatically take snapshots of a BE. Names for such snapshots automatically include a timestamp that indicates when the snapshot was taken.