Managing Your ZFS Root Pool

The following sections provide information about installing and updating a ZFS root pool and configuring a mirrored root pool.

Installing a ZFS Root Pool

The Oracle Solaris 11 Live CD installation method installs a default ZFS root pool on a single disk. With the Oracle Solaris 11 automated installation (AI) method, you can create an AI manifest to identify the disk or mirrored disks for the ZFS root pool.

The AI installer provides the flexibility of installing a ZFS root pool on the default boot disk or on a target disk that you identify. You can specify the logical device, such as c1t0d0s0, or the physical device path. In addition, you can use the MPxIO identifier or the device ID for the device to be installed.

After the installation, review your ZFS storage pool and file system information, which can vary by installation type and customizations. For example:

# zpool status
  pool: rpool
 state: ONLINE
 scrub: none requested
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        rpool       ONLINE       0     0     0
          c1t3d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors
# zfs list
# zfs list
NAME                      USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
rpool                    6.49G  60.4G    40K  /rpool
rpool/ROOT               3.46G  60.4G    31K  legacy
rpool/ROOT/solaris       3.46G  60.4G  3.16G  /
rpool/ROOT/solaris/var    303M  60.4G   216M  /var
rpool/dump               2.00G  60.5G  1.94G  -
rpool/export             96.5K  60.4G    32K  /rpool/export
rpool/export/home        64.5K  60.4G    32K  /rpool/export/home
rpool/export/home/admin  32.5K  60.4G  32.5K  /rpool/export/home/admin
rpool/swap               1.03G  60.5G  1.00G  -

Review your ZFS BE information. For example:

# beadm list
# beadm list
BE      Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created          
--      ------ ---------- ----- ------ -------          
solaris NR     /          3.85G static 2011-09-26 08:37

In the above output, the Active field indicates whether the BE is active now represented by N and active on reboot represented by R, or both represented by NR.

How to Update Your ZFS Boot Environment

The default ZFS boot environment (BE) is named solaris by default. You can identify your BEs by using the beadm list command. For example:

# beadm list
BE      Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created          
--      ------ ---------- ----- ------ -------          
solaris NR     /          8.41G static 2011-01-13 15:31

In the above output, NR means the BE is active now and will be the active BE on reboot.

You can use the pkg update command to update your ZFS boot environment. If you update your ZFS BE by using the pkg update command, a new BE is created and activated automatically, unless the updates to the existing BE are very minimal.

Update your ZFS BE.

# pkg update
                                       

DOWNLOAD                                  PKGS       FILES    XFER (MB)
Completed                              707/707 10529/10529  194.9/194.9 
.
.
.

A new BE, solaris-1, is created automatically and activated.

Reboot the system to complete the BE activation. Then, confirm your BE status.

# init 6
.
.
.
# beadm list
BE        Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created          
--        ------ ---------- ----- ------ -------          
solaris   -      -          6.25M static 2011-09-26 08:37 
solaris-1 NR     /          3.92G static 2011-09-26 09:32

If an error occurs when booting the new BE, activate and boot back to the previous BE.
```
# beadm activate solaris
# init 6
```

How to Mount an Alternate BE

You might need to copy or access a file from another BE for recovery purposes.

Become an administrator.
Mount the alternate BE.
```
# beadm mount solaris-1 /mnt
```

Access the BE.

# ls /mnt
bin        export     media      pkg        rpool      tmp
boot       home       mine       platform   sbin       usr
dev        import     mnt        proc       scde       var
devices    java       net        project    shared     
doe        kernel     nfs4       re         src        
etc        lib        opt        root       system

Unmount the alternate BE when you're finished with it.
```
# beadm umount solaris-1
```

How to Configure a Mirrored Root Pool

If you do not configure a mirrored root pool during an automatic installation, you can easily configure a mirrored root pool after the installation.

For information about replacing a disk in a root pool, see How to Replace a Disk in a ZFS Root Pool.

Display your current root pool status.

# zpool status rpool
  pool: rpool
 state: ONLINE
 scrub: none requested
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        rpool       ONLINE       0     0     0
          c2t0d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

Prepare a second disk for attachment to the root pool, if necessary.
- SPARC: Confirm that the disk has an SMI (VTOC) disk label and a slice 0. If you need to relabel the disk and create a slice 0, see Creating a Disk Slice for a ZFS Root File System in Oracle Solaris Administration: Devices and File Systems.
- x86: Confirm that the disk has an fdisk partition, an SMI disk label, and a slice 0. If you need to repartition the disk and create a slice 0, see Creating a Disk Slice for a ZFS Root File System in Oracle Solaris Administration: Devices and File Systems.

Attach a second disk to configure a mirrored root pool.

# zpool attach rpool c2t0d0s0 c2t1d0s0
Make sure to wait until resilver is done before rebooting.

View the root pool status to confirm that resilvering is complete.

# zpool status rpool
  pool: rpool
 state: ONLINE
status: One or more devices is currently being resilvered.  The pool will
        continue to function, possibly in a degraded state.
action: Wait for the resilver to complete.
 scan: resilver in progress since Thu Sep 29 18:09:09 2011
    1.55G scanned out of 5.36G at 36.9M/s, 0h1m to go
    1.55G scanned out of 5.36G at 36.9M/s, 0h1m to go
    1.55G resilvered, 28.91% done
config:

        NAME          STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        rpool         ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0    ONLINE       0     0     0
            c2t0d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c2t1d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0  (resilvering)

errors: No known data errors

In the above output, the resilvering process is not complete. Resilvering is complete when you see messages similar to the following:

resilvered 5.36G in 0h10m with 0 errors on Thu Sep 29 18:19:09 2011

Verify that you can boot successfully from the new disk.
Set up the system to boot automatically from the new disk.
- SPARC: Set up the system to boot automatically from the new disk, either by using the eeprom command or the setenv command from the boot PROM.
- x86: Reconfigure the system BIOS.

How to Replace a Disk in a ZFS Root Pool

You might need to replace a disk in the root pool for the following reasons:

The root pool is too small and you want to replace it with a larger disk
The root pool disk is failing. In a non-redundant pool, if the disk is failing so that the system won't boot, you'll need to boot from an alternate media, such as a CD or the network, before you replace the root pool disk.

In a mirrored root pool configuration, you might be able to attempt a disk replacement without having to boot from alternate media. You can replace a failed disk by using the zpool replace command or if you have an additional disk, you can use the zpool attach command. See the steps below for an example of attaching an additional disk and detaching a root pool disk.

Systems with SATA disks require that you offline and unconfigure a disk before attempting the zpool replace operation to replace a failed disk. For example:

# zpool offline rpool c1t0d0s0
# cfgadm -c unconfigure c1::dsk/c1t0d0
<Physically remove failed disk c1t0d0>
<Physically insert replacement disk c1t0d0>
# cfgadm -c configure c1::dsk/c1t0d0
<Confirm that the new disk has an SMI label and a slice 0>
# zpool replace rpool c1t0d0s0
# zpool online rpool c1t0d0s0
# zpool status rpool
<Let disk resilver before installing the boot blocks>
SPARC# installboot -F zfs /usr/platform/`uname -i`/lib/fs/zfs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0s0
x86# installgrub /boot/grub/stage1 /boot/grub/stage2 /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0s0

On some hardware, you do not have to online or reconfigure the replacement disk after it is inserted.

Physically connect the replacement disk.
Confirm that the replacement (new) disk has an SMI (VTOC) label and a slice 0.
For information about relabeling a disk that is intended for the root pool, see How to Label a Disk in Oracle Solaris Administration: Devices and File Systems.

Attach the new disk to the root pool.

For example:

# zpool attach rpool c2t0d0s0 c2t1d0s0
Make sure to wait until resilver is done before rebooting.

Confirm the root pool status.

For example:

# zpool status rpool
  pool: rpool
 state: ONLINE
 scan: resilvered 5.36G in 0h2m with 0 errors on Thu Sep 29 18:11:53 2011
config:

        NAME          STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        rpool         ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0    ONLINE       0     0     0
            c2t0d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            c2t1d0s0  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

Verify that you can boot from the new disk after resilvering is complete.
For example, on a SPARC based system:
```
ok boot /pci@1f,700000/scsi@2/disk@1,0
```
Identify the boot device pathnames of the current and new disk so that you can test booting from the replacement disk and also manually boot from the existing disk, if necessary, if the replacement disk fails. In the example below, the current root pool disk (c2t0d0s0) is:
```
/pci@1f,700000/scsi@2/disk@0,0
```
In the example below, the replacement boot disk is (c2t1d0s0):
```
boot /pci@1f,700000/scsi@2/disk@1,0
```
If the system boots from the new disk, detach the old disk.
For example:
```
# zpool detach rpool c2t0d0s0
```
Set up the system to boot automatically from the new disk.
- SPARC: Set up the system to boot automatically from the new disk, either by using the eeprom command or the setenv command from the boot PROM.
- x86: Reconfigure the system BIOS.

How to Create a BE in Another Root Pool

If you want to re-create your existing BE in another root pool, follow the steps below. You can modify the steps based on whether you want two root pools with similar BEs that have independent swap and dump devices or whether you just want a BE in another root pool that shares the swap and dump devices.

After you activate and boot from the new BE in the second root pool, it will have no information about the previous BE in the first root pool. If you want to boot back to the original BE, you will need to boot the system manually from the original root pool's boot disk.

Create a second root pool with an SMI (VTOC)-labeled disk. For example:
```
# zpool create rpool2 c4t2d0s0
```
Create the new BE in the second root pool. For example:
```
# beadm create -p rpool2 solaris2
```
Set the bootfs property on the second root pool. For example:
```
# zpool set bootfs=rpool2/ROOT/solaris2 rpool2
```
Activate the new BE. For example:
```
# beadm activate solaris2
```
Boot from the new BE but you must boot specifically from the second root pool's boot device.
```
ok boot disk2
```
Your system should be running under the new BE.
Re-create the swap volume. For example:
```
# zfs create -V 4g rpool2/swap
```

Update the /etc/vfstab entry for the new swap device. For example:

/dev/zvol/dsk/rpool2/swap       -               -               swap -     no      -

Re-create the dump volume. For example:
```
# zfs create -V 4g rpool2/dump
```
Reset the dump device. For example:
```
# dumpadm -d /dev/zvol/dsk/rpool2/dump
```
Reset your default boot device to boot from the second root pool's boot disk.
- SPARC – Set up the system to boot automatically from the new disk, either by using the eeprom command or the setenv command from the boot PROM.
- x86 – Reconfigure the system BIOS.
Reboot to clear the original root pool's swap and dump devices.
```
# init 6
```

Skip Navigation Links
Exit Print View
	Oracle Solaris Administration: ZFS File Systems Oracle Solaris 11 Information Library