Solaris11-How to Manage Boot Environments ?

1.List out the current boot environments.In active column, NR stands for active Now(N) and active on Reboot(R).And also you can see there is no snapshot exist on the system

root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# date
Saturday, July  6, 2013 04:24:21 PM IST
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# beadm list
BE      Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created
--      ------ ---------- ----- ------ -------
solaris NR     /          2.37G static 2013-06-11 06:27
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# zfs list |grep @
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~#

2.Clone the current BE to new BE called UA-NEW.Here unlike solaris 10,snapshots are kept in the background. So you can see only new BE’s datasets. The datasets name with UA-NEW belongs to new boot environment.

root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# beadm create UA-NEW
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# beadm list
BE      Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created
--      ------ ---------- ----- ------ -------
UA-NEW  -      -          61.0K static 2013-07-06 16:28
solaris NR     /          2.37G static 2013-06-11 06:27
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# beadm list -a UA-NEW
BE/Dataset/Snapshot      Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created
-------------------      ------ ---------- ----- ------ -------
UA-NEW
   rpool/ROOT/UA-NEW     -      -          87.0K static 2013-07-16 23:31
   rpool/ROOT/UA-NEW/var -      -          1.0K  static 2013-07-16 23:31
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~#

3. Mount the boot environment.

root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# mkdir /UA-NEW
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# beadm mount UA-NEW /UA-NEW
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# df -h /UA-NEW
Filesystem             Size   Used  Available Capacity  Mounted on
rpool/ROOT/UA-NEW       15G   3.9G       8.8G    31%    /UA-NEW
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# beadm list
BE      Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created
--      ------ ---------- ----- ------ -------
UA-NEW  -      /UA-NEW    88.0K static 2013-07-16 23:31
solaris NR     /          5.24G static 2013-02-12 03:26
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~#

4.Now we will install new package on UA-NEW.

root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# pkg -R /UA-NEW verify -v diffstat
pkg verify: no packages matching 'diffstat' installed
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# pkg -R /UA-NEW install  diffstat
Packages to install: 1

Planning linked: 0/3 done; 1 working: zone:webunixarena1
Planning linked: 0/3 done; 1 working: zone:webunixarena1
Planning linked: 1/3 done; 1 working: zone:dbunixarena1
Planning linked: 2/3 done; 1 working: zone:newzone
Planning linked: 3/3 done
DOWNLOAD                                PKGS         FILES    XFER (MB)   SPEED
Completed                                1/1           6/6      0.0/0.0    0B/s

Downloading linked: 0/3 done; 1 working: zone:webunixarena1
Downloading linked: 1/3 done; 1 working: zone:dbunixarena1
Downloading linked: 2/3 done; 1 working: zone:newzone
Downloading linked: 3/3 done
PHASE                                          ITEMS
Installing new actions                         24/24
Updating package state database                 Done
Updating image state                            Done
Creating fast lookup database                   Done
Executing linked: 0/3 done; 1 working: zone:webunixarena1
Executing linked: 1/3 done; 1 working: zone:dbunixarena1
Executing linked: 2/3 done; 1 working: zone:newzone
Executing linked: 3/3 done
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~#

Note:You need to configure IPS to install new packages.
5.Verify the package on UA-NEW.

root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# pkg -R /UA-NEW verify -v diffstat
PACKAGE                                                                 STATUS
pkg://solaris/text/diffstat                                                 OK
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# pkg -R /UA-NEW list diffstat
NAME (PUBLISHER)                                  VERSION                    IFO
text/diffstat                                     1.51-0.175.1.0.0.9.0       i--
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~#

6.Activate the UA-NEW.

root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# beadm activate UA-NEW
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# beadm list
BE      Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created
--      ------ ---------- ----- ------ -------
UA-NEW  R      /UA-NEW    5.39G static 2013-07-16 23:31
solaris N      /          2.08M static 2013-02-12 03:26
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~#

7.Reboot the system to boot the system from UA-NEW.

root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# init 6

while rebooting system,you can see the below screen on X86 systems.

8.Verify whether system is boot from UA-NEW.

root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# beadm list 
BE      Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created          
--      ------ ---------- ----- ------ -------          
UA-NEW  NR     /          5.79G static 2013-07-16 23:31 
solaris -      -          6.55M static 2013-02-12 03:26 
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~#

Note:Look at the Active column to confirm BE state. N- Active Now; R- Active on Reboot;
9.Verify the installed packages are available in current boot environment.

root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# pkg list diffstat
NAME (PUBLISHER)                                  VERSION                    IFO
text/diffstat                                     1.51-0.175.1.0.0.9.0       i--
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~#

10.You can also do the verification on OLD-BE, whether the package is available there are not.

root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# mkdir /old-be
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# beadm mount solaris /old-be
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# pkg -R /old-be list diffstat
pkg list: no packages matching 'diffstat' installed
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# 

1.Any time you can rollback the Solaris 11 to old boot environment using below command.

root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# beadm activate solaris
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# beadm list
BE      Active Mountpoint Space   Policy Created          
--      ------ ---------- -----   ------ -------          
UA-NEW  N      /          341.97M static 2013-07-16 23:31 
solaris R      /old-be    5.26G   static 2013-02-12 03:26 
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# 

N- Active now
R- Active upon Reboot

2.Reboot the server using “init 6” .

root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# init 6 

While rebooting the server,you can see the below screen on X86 machines.

3.Now you won;t see the new package on the system.

root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# beadm list
BE      Active Mountpoint Space   Policy Created          
--      ------ ---------- -----   ------ -------          
UA-NEW  -      -          343.81M static 2013-07-16 23:31 
solaris NR     /          5.36G   static 2013-02-12 03:26 
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# pkg list diffstat
pkg list: no packages matching 'diffstat' installed
root@Unixarena-SOL11:~# 

The you can manage the boot environments for OS patch bundle installation.

Thank you for reading this article. Please leave a comment if you have any doubt.