Creating and Using Oracle^® Solaris Zones

About Zone Conversions and Converting Oracle Solaris Zones

Zone conversion is the process of creating an archive of an Oracle Solaris global zone or non-global zone and deploying it as an Oracle Solaris global zone or non-global zone. The source zone type (global or non-global) may be the same as or different than the deployed zone type (global or non-global).

You can convert a zone as follows:

• A global zone can be transformed into a non-global zone. This process is also referred to as a physical to virtual or P2V conversion.

• A non-global zone can be transformed into a non-global zone. This process is sometimes referred to as a virtual to virtual or V2V conversion.

• A non-global zone may be transformed into a global zone. This process is sometimes referred to as a virtual to physical conversion.

On an Oracle Solaris 10 system, you can use archives to transform Oracle Solaris 10 native zones into solaris10 branded zones on an upgraded host.

The following archive types are supported by zone conversions:

• Unified Archives. See Using Oracle Solaris Unified Archives for Zone Conversions

• Legacy Archives. See Using Legacy Archives for Zone Conversions

Unified Archives are recommended for zone conversions for host systems running Oracle Solaris 11.2. For Oracle Solaris 11 releases prior to Oracle Solaris 11.2, use legacy archives.

Prior to converting a global zone to a non-global zone, you can verify that the software running in the global zone is compatible with non-global zones. The zonep2vchk(1M) tool evaluates a global zone's configuration before conversion to a non-global zone.

Using Oracle Solaris Unified Archives for Zone Conversions

You can use the zonecfg and zoneadm commands to configure and to install new zones directly from a Unified Archive file. Unified Archive files contain both zone configuration and zone data. On the destination system, a zone can be configured and installed from the archive.

For this release, see Using Unified Archives for System Recovery and Cloning in Oracle Solaris 11.3 for a full description of Unified Archives, including usage for system and zone cloning and recovery.

Using Legacy Archives for Zone Conversions

Legacy archives include archive files created with zfs send, cpio, or pax.

Legacy archives for zone conversions should only be considered:

• If the source system is running an Oracle Solaris release earlier than Oracle Solaris 11.2.

• If zones on shared storage (ZOSS) is not available.

See the zfs(1M), cpio(1), or pax(1) man pages for additional information.

Using the zonep2vchk Tool to Prepare for Global to Non-Global Conversions

The zonep2vchk(1M) tool evaluates a global zone's configuration before conversion to a non-global zone. The primary documentation for the tool is the zonep2vchk(1M) man page.

About the zonep2vchk Tool

The zonep2vchk evaluates a global zone, or physical instance, when it is converted to a non-global zone, or virtual instance. The physical to virtual (P2V) conversion process consists of archiving a global zone (source), and then installing a non-global zone (target) using that archive. The zonep2vchk utility must be run with an effective user id of 0.

The utility does the following:

• Identifies problem areas in the source system's configuration

• Minimizes the manual reconfiguration effort required

• Supports conversion of both Oracle Solaris 10 and Oracle Solaris 11 system images into zones on Oracle Solaris 11 releases

• Supports complex network configurations in the original system image, including multiple IP interfaces, IP multipathing, and VLANs

This tool can be used to assist in the conversion of an Oracle Solaris 11 or Oracle Solaris 10 global zone to a non-global zone on this release. This tool results in the following conversion types:

• Converts an Oracle Solaris 11 system into a solaris brand zone

• Converts an Oracle Solaris 10 system into a solaris10 brand zone

For Oracle Solaris 11 target systems, an anet resource (VNIC) is included in the zonecfg output for each network resource on the source system. By default, exclusive-IP is the network type when migrating either an Oracle Solaris 11 system or an Oracle Solaris 10 system into a non-global zone on an Oracle Solaris 11 system.

Figure 2  zonep2vchk Utility

Types of Zone Analyses

Basic analysis, the –b option, checks for Oracle Solaris features in use that might be impacted by global to non-global conversion.

Static analysis, the –s option, inspects binaries for system and library calls that might not function in a zone.

Runtime analysis, the –r option, inspects the currently executing applications for operations that might not function in a zone.

Information Produced From Zone Analyses

Two main categories of information are presented by the analysis:

• Issues that can be addressed with a specific zone configuration or with configuration changes in the global zone

• Identification of functions that cannot work inside a zone

For example, if an application sets the system clock, that can be enabled by adding the appropriate privilege to a zone, but if an application accesses kernel memory, that is never allowed inside a zone. The output distinguishes between these two classes of issues.

By default, the utility prints messages in human readable form. To print messages in machine parsable form, the –P option is used. For complete information on available options as well as command invocation and output, see the zonep2vchk(1M) man page.