How to Update from Oracle Solaris 11.3 to Oracle Solaris 11.4

Review Installation Considerations in Oracle Solaris 11.4 Release Notes for system memory and disk space requirements and for platform support, including firmware and device support.

Review Update Considerations in Oracle Solaris 11.4 Release Notes for work that you might need to do such as check the setterm package, check the java mediated link, remove files from /var/tmp, or export the OpenLDAP database to LDIF format.

Update the system to Oracle Solaris 11.3 SRU 23 or newer.

If the system to be updated is running Oracle Solaris 11.3 SRU 23 or newer, continue to Step 2.

If the system to be updated is running a release of Oracle Solaris 11.3 that is older than SRU 23, update to at least Oracle Solaris 11.3 SRU 23.
1. Check configured publishers.
  Ensure that the configured publishers provide Oracle Solaris 11.3 SRU 23 or a newer Oracle Solaris 11.3 SRU. The following command lists all Oracle Solaris 11.3 SRUs that are available from the publishers that are configured on the system:
```
$ pkg list -af entire@0.5.11-0.175.3
NAME (PUBLISHER)                   VERSION                    IFO
entire                             0.5.11-0.175.3.27.0.4.0    ---
entire                             0.5.11-0.175.3.26.0.5.0    ---
entire                             0.5.11-0.175.3.25.0.3.0    ---
entire                             0.5.11-0.175.3.24.0.4.0    ---
entire                             0.5.11-0.175.3.23.0.5.0    ---
entire                             0.5.11-0.175.3.22.0.3.0    ---
```
2. Update to Oracle Solaris 11.3 SRU 23 or a newer Oracle Solaris 11.3 SRU.
  The following example shows updating to Oracle Solaris 11.3 SRU 27:
```
$ pkg update --be-name 11.3.27 entire@0.5.11-0.175.3.27
```
3. Boot to the boot environment (BE) that was created in the previous step.
Check that the system supports Oracle Solaris 11.4.
1. Run the Oracle Solaris 11.4 readiness checker.
  
  If you are running Oracle Solaris 11.3 SRU 35 or newer, see How to Install and Run the Pre-Update Enterprise Health Check Tool.
2. Fix any check failures that are documented in the report.
Update the system to Oracle Solaris 11.4.

Caution:
Oracle Solaris 11.4 SRU 57 removes support for upgrading directly from Oracle Solaris 11.3 to a release of Oracle Solaris 11.4 after SRU 56. Instead, before you can update to the latest Oracle Solaris 11.4 release, update to an Oracle Solaris 11.4 release from GA to SRU 56 and ensure that all non-global zones have been booted at least one time.
1. Get access to Oracle Solaris 11.4 packages.
  Use one of the following methods:
  - Use the Oracle Solaris support package repository.
    
    Configure the https://pkg.oracle.com/solaris/support/ location for the solaris publisher.
  - Provide a local Oracle Solaris 11.4 package repository.
    
    Download the repository files and installation script from the Oracle Solaris 11.4 Support Repository Updates (SRU) Index (Doc ID 2433412.1) page on My Oracle Support (MOS).
    
    See Creating Package Repositories in Oracle Solaris 11.4 for information about downloading and installing a local package repository, configuring the solaris publisher to use the local repository, and providing access to the local repository from other systems.
2. Check configured publishers.
  Confirm that the system can access Oracle Solaris 11.4 packages:
```
$ pkg list -af entire@11.4
NAME (PUBLISHER)         VERSION                    IFO
...
entire                   11.4-11.4.14.0.1.5.0       ---
...
entire                   11.4-11.4.1.0.1.4.0        –--
```
  If you do not see Oracle Solaris 11.4 packages, make sure you did not skip solaris publisher location configuration in the previous step.
3. View the Oracle Solaris 11.4 license.
  The license associated with Oracle Solaris 11.4 must be accepted in order to perform the update. View the contents of this license prior to acceptance, to ensure that you understand it. The following command shows the summary license:
```
$ pkg info -r --license install-image/solaris-auto-install
```
  The full license is available at https://www.oracle.com/assets/terms-oracle-solaris-170415.pdf for users of Oracle server hardware, and is available at https://www.oracle.com/downloads/licenses/solaris-cluster-express-license.html for developers. If you agree to accept this license, then proceed with the update.
4. Test the update.
  
  If any software on the system has been obsoleted in Oracle Solaris 11.4, that software will be removed when you upgrade to Oracle Solaris 11.4, as noted in Platform Support in Oracle Solaris 11.4 Release Notes. To see the list of packages that will be removed on upgrade, use the pkg update -nv command. The -n option shows what will be done but does not actually perform the update. The -v option shows what packages will be removed, and shows the full package versions. For software that will be removed, check the End of Feature Notices for Oracle Solaris 11 list for a suggested replacement or other workaround.
  
  If the test update fails, check whether your platform is supported for Oracle Solaris 11.4 (Installation Considerations in Oracle Solaris 11.4 Release Notes) or whether you need to check the setterm package as described in Pre-Update Checks in Oracle Solaris 11.4 Release Notes.
5. Update to Oracle Solaris 11.4.
  The following command updates to the newest version of Oracle Solaris 11.4 that is available from configured publishers. Update to the newest version to ensure that you have all the fixes that you have in the Oracle Solaris 11.3 boot environment that you are updating.
  
  Using the --accept option signals your legal acceptance of the above license.
```
$ pkg update --accept
```
  If you are updating to a version of Oracle Solaris 11.4 that is earlier than Oracle Solaris 11.4 SRU 13, use the --be-name option to give the new boot environment a meaningful name. Starting with Oracle Solaris 11.4 SRU 13, the names of the boot environments created are based upon the name of the installed SRU. For example, the default name of the Oracle Solaris 11.4 SRU 14 boot environment is 11.4.14.5.0.
6. Boot to the new Oracle Solaris 11.4 BE.

Troubleshooting

Check that your new BE is updated as expected:

Next Steps

Review Update Considerations in Oracle Solaris 11.4 Release Notes for steps that you might need to take after update.