1. Creating and Using Oracle Solaris Kernel Zones
  2. Live Zone Reconfiguration of Kernel Zones
  3. Live Zone Reconfiguration of Kernel Zones
  4. zonecfg Utility Edit Modes

zonecfg Utility Edit Modes

Use the zonecfg utility edit modes to make configuration changes to the zone. You can change either the persistent stored configuration or the running live configuration. The zonecfg utility supports the following edit modes for use with Live Reconfiguration:

Default mode

Create, modify, and list the persistent zone configuration stored on the stable storage. Parameters you changed in the default mode do not affect a running zone at the time you make the changes. The default mode is the primary way to maintain the zone configuration. This mode is backwards compatible.

To have the changes made in default mode take effect in the running zone, you must issue one of the following zoneadm commands:

  • Use the zoneadm apply command to load the updated persistent zone configuration so it is applied to the running zone.

  • Use the zoneadm reboot command to reboot the zone and read the updated persistent zone configuration.

Live mode

Retrieve, inspect and edit the running live zone configuration. The live mode is available for a running zone only. Parameters you change in live mode take effect immediately after you use the commit subcommand to enable them in the live zone configuration.

Changes made in live mode are temporary. The changes remain active until the next zone reboot. For more information, see Temporary Changes to the Live Zone Configuration.

To make the modified live zone configuration permanent, make the same changes to the permanent configuration. To change both the live configuration and the permanent configuration, first edit the permanent configuration and then use the zoneadm apply command to apply the changes.

To enable live mode, use the ‐r option with the zonecfg command, which retrieves the live zone configuration instead of the persistent zone configuration. 

global$ pfexec zonecfg -z kzone -r

You can work with the zonecfg -r command just as you do in default mode. The full set of zonecfg subcommands and both the interactive and the batch mode are supported.

Not all resources can be reconfigured in the live configuration. For a list of supported resource types and properties, see Live Zone Reconfiguration Support or Restriction for Resource Types and Global Properties in Oracle Solaris Zones Configuration Resources.