Once you have created a snapshot of a disk image, you can duplicate this disk image by using the ZFS clone command. The cloned image then can be assigned to another domain. Cloning a boot disk image quickly creates a boot disk for a new guest domain without having to perform the entire Oracle Solaris OS installation process.
For example, if the disk0 created was the boot disk of domain ldg1, do the following to clone that disk to create a boot disk for domain ldg2.
primary# zfs create ldmpool/ldg2 primary# zfs clone ldmpool/ldg1/disk0@version_1 ldmpool/ldg2/disk0
Then ldompool/ldg2/disk0 can be exported as a virtual disk and assigned to the new ldg2 domain. The domain ldg2 can directly boot from that virtual disk without having to go through the OS installation process.
When a boot disk image is cloned, the new image is exactly the same as the original boot disk, and it contains any information that has been stored on the boot disk before the image was cloned, such as the host name, the IP address, the mounted file system table, or any system configuration or tuning.
Because the mounted file system table is the same on the original boot disk image and on the cloned disk image, the cloned disk image has to be assigned to the new domain in the same order as it was on the original domain. For example, if the boot disk image was assigned as the first disk of the original domain, then the cloned disk image has to be assigned as the first disk of the new domain. Otherwise, the new domain is unable to boot.
If the original domain was configured with a static IP address, then a new domain using the cloned image starts with the same IP address. In that case, you can change the network configuration of the new domain by using the Oracle Solaris 11 sysconfig unconfigure command or the Oracle Solaris 10 sys-unconfig command. To avoid this problem, you can also create a snapshot of a disk image of an unconfigured system.
If the original domain was configured with the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), then a new domain using the cloned image also uses DHCP. In that case, you do not need to change the network configuration of the new domain because it automatically receives an IP address and its network configuration as it boots.
When this operation completes, the domain halts.
For example:
primary# zfs snapshot ldmpool/ldg1/disk0@unconfigured
At this point, you have the snapshot of the boot disk image of an unconfigured system.