OpenSolaris

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   1. What is ZFS?
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   12. ZFS Boot
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          1. create directories
          2. mountroot transition
       2. netinstall setup
       3. ZFS Boot Project FAQ
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The ZFS Boot Project

The team is working to provide the ability to boot the Solaris Operating System from a ZFS root file system as well as install the Solaris Operating System to a ZFS root file system.

The ZFS Boot project has been divided into three components: x86 boot, SPARC boot, and install.

The main work phases of this project are:

• A ZFS plug-in for the GRUB boot loader (available in snv_62)
• Development of a boot loader usable on SPARC that can read files from a ZFS file system.
• Some enhancements necessary for implementing a ZFS root file systems
• Enhancements to the Solaris install and LiveUpgrade features in order to set up and maintain root file systems in ZFS pools.

Announcements

June 4, 2008

6685292 - install should support booting from zfs

This putback provides the ability install the Solaris Operating System on a ZFS root file system for both x86 and SPARC platforms. The work includes enhancing the Solaris interactive text installer, Solaris Live Upgrade, and Jumpstart (profiled install) features.

The ZFS boot and install features are available in the Solaris Express Community Edition (SXCE), build 90 release.

After you review the list of known issues below, see the ZFS Boot FAQ and the ZFS Admin Guide for information about using the ZFS installation and booting features.

Known Issues

Before you consider using these features, review the known issues:

• (6697324) zpool offline doesn't work with mirrored ZFS root
• (6688026) installer failing due to "insufficient space" with 18GB disk
• (6686603) Rename pool name cause luactivate/lurename failed.
• (6668666) zpool command should put a bootblock on a disk added as a mirror of a root pool vdev
• (6707013) LU fail to migrate root file system from UFS to ZFS
• <6696226>liveupgrade needs to maintain menu.lst file on sparc platform
• <6702802>Fail to migrate a UFS/SVM root file system to a ZFS file system
• <6710323>zfs requires 'rootdev' to reside in the miniroot
• <6680633>zfs SPARC disk layout causes boot header and bootblk to claim blocks 15-31
• (6709476) Segmentation fault while installing snv_90 DomU with ZFS mirror on snv_90 Dom0
• (6709746) Dom0 panic while rebooting domU

For workarounds on some of these isssues, see the ZFS Admin Guide.

April 11, 2008

PSARC/2006/370 ZFS Boot Support (Build 88)

This putback provides the ability to boot the Solaris Operating System from a ZFS root file system on both x86 and SPARC platforms.

• 5008936 ZFS and/or zvol should support dumps
• 5070124 dumpadm -d /dev/... does not enforce block device requirement for savecore
• 6521468 ZFS Boot support for the SPARC platform
• 6574993 zfs_mountroot() may need to call clkset() to set the boot_time kstat
• 6633197 zvol should not permit newfs or createpool while it's in use by swap or dump
• 6661127 zfs_name_valid() does not support ZFS_TYPE_POOL

Additional Details

• Full ZFS boot and install support will be available in a subsequent build. Because of the phased putback, we recommend waiting for the full boot and install support rather than attempting to use the ZFS boot features separately.
• This is a flag day for Cap-Eye Install users and existing users of transitional ZFS root file systems. Matching user-land libraries, kernel, and grub are required.
• Systems that already have ZFS root file systems can be bfu'd with this release, but bfu does not convert the legacy mounts (of /, /var, and so on) to ZFS mounts. Backwards bfu to releases that don't support ZFS boot is prohibited.
• At some point, you are advised to reinstall your systems to achieve the "standard" ZFS boot configuration, which uses ZFS mounts, not legacy mounts. However, the system continues to boot with legacy mounts (at least for now).

Transitional ZFS Boot Support

Announcements

March 28, 2007	ZFS Boot Loader for x86
April 13, 2006	ZFS Mountroot

Documentation

The following instructions are appropriate for build 62 to approximately build 88. New instructions to follow soon (April 2008).

• Transitional ZFS Boot x86 Manual Setup (Builds 62-87)
• Transitional ZFS Boot x86 Netinstall Setup (builds 62-87)

ZFS Boot Presentations

• Lori Alt's ZFS Boot Presentation at SNIA 2007 (mediacast)
• Lori Alt's ZFS Boot Presentation at SNIA 2007 (slides in PDF)