Patches Needed to Run Solaris Live Upgrade

Correct operation of Solaris Live Upgrade requires that a limited set of patch revisions be installed for a given OS version. Before installing or running Live Upgrade, you are required to install a limited set of patch revisions. Make sure you have the most recently updated patch list by consulting http://sunsolve.sun.com. Search for the info doc 72099 on the SunSolve^SM web site.

Guidelines for Creating File Systems With the lucreate Command

The lucreate -m option specifies which file systems and the number of file systems to be created in the new boot environment You must specify the exact number of file systems you want to create by repeating this option. For example, a single use of the -m option specifies where to put all the file systems. You merge all the file systems from the original boot environment into the one file system specified by the -m option. If you specify the -m option twice, you create two file systems. When using the -m option to create file systems, follow these guidelines:

• You must specify one -m option for the root (/) file system for the new boot environment. If you run lucreate without the -m option, the Configuration menu is displayed. The Configuration menu enables you to customize the new boot environment by redirecting files onto new mount points.

• Any critical file systems that exist in the current boot environment and that are not specified in a -m option are merged into the next highest-level file system created.

• Only the file systems that are specified by the -m option are created on the new boot environment. If your current boot environment contains multiple file systems, and you want to have the same number of file systems in the new boot environment created, you must specify one -m option for each file system to be created. For example, if you have file systems for root (/), /opt, and /var, you would use one -m option for each file system on the new boot environment.

• Do not duplicate a mount point. For example, you cannot have two root (/) file systems.

Guidelines for Selecting Slices for File Systems

When you create file systems for a boot environment, the rules are identical to the rules for creating file systems for the Solaris operating environment. Solaris Live Upgrade cannot prevent you from creating invalid configurations for critical file systems. For example, you could type a lucreate command that would create separate file systems for root (/) and /kernel--an invalid division of root (/).

Do not overlap slices when re-slicing disks. If this condition exists, the new boot environment appears to have been created, but when activated, the boot environment does not boot. The overlapping file systems might be corrupted.

For Solaris Live Upgrade to work properly, the vfstab file on the active boot environment must have valid contents and must have an entry for root (/) at the minimum.

Guidelines for Selecting a Slice for the root (/) File System

When you create an inactive boot environment, you need to identify a slice where the root (/) file system is to be copied. Use the following guidelines when you select a slice for the root (/) file system. The slice must comply with the following:

• Must be a slice from which the system can boot.

• Must meet the recommended minimum size.

• If you have a sun4m system, the root (/) file system cannot be greater than 2 Gbytes.

• Can be on different physical disks or the same disk as the active root (/) file system.

• Can be a Veritas Volume Manager volume, but these volumes are not supported.

Guidelines for Selecting Slices for Mirrored File Systems

You can create a new boot environment that contains any combination of physical disk slices, Solaris Volume Manager volumes, or Veritas Volume Manager volumes. Critical file systems that are copied to the new boot environment can be of the following types:

• A physical slice.

• A single-slice concatenation that is included in a RAID-1 volume (mirror). The slice that contains the root (/) file system can be a RAID-1 volume.

• A single-slice concatenation that is included in a RAID-0 volume. The slice that contains the root (/) file system can be a RAID-0 volume.

When you create a new boot environment, the lucreate -m command recognizes the following three types of devices:

• A physical slice in the form of /dev/dsk/cwtxdysz

• A Solaris Volume Manager volume in the form of /dev/md/dsk/dnum

• A Veritas Volume Manager volume in the form of /dev/vx/dsk/volume_name

Note - If you have problems upgrading with Veritas VxVM, see System Panics When Upgrading With Solaris Live Upgrade Running Veritas VxVm.

General Guidelines for Creating Mirrored File Systems

Specifying a Volume

You can choose to specify a mirror or submirror or allow the lucreate command to choose a free volume for you.

• To specify a volume, append a comma and the name of the submirror or mirror to the device name. In the following option, the submirror d1 is specified.

  -m /:/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0,d1:attach

  
  

• To enable the software to choose a free volume, do not name the submirror or mirror. In this option, the submirror is not specified, and the software chooses a free volume.

  -m /:/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0:attach

  
  

Volume Naming Shortcuts

You can abbreviate the names of physical disk slices and Solaris Volume Manager volumes. The abbreviation is the shortest name that uniquely identifies a device. Examples follow.

• A Solaris Volume Manager volume can be identified by its dnum designation, so that, for example, /dev/md/dsk/d10 becomes simply d10.

• If a system has a single controller and multiple disks, you might use t0d0s0, but with multiple controllers use c0t0d0s0.

For more information on naming requirements and guidelines, see "Overview of Solaris Volume Manager Components" in Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide.

Checking Status of Volumes

If a mirror or submirror needs maintenance or is busy, components cannot be detached. You should use the metastat command before creating a new boot environment and using the detach keyword. The metastat command checks if the mirror is in the process of resynchronization or if the mirror is in use. For information, see the man page metastat(1M).

Detaching Volumes and Resynchronizing Mirrors

If you use the detach keyword to detach a submirror, lucreate checks if a device is currently resyncing. If the device is resyncing, you cannot detach the submirror and you get an error message.

Resynchronization is the process of copying data from one submirror to another submirror after the following problems:

• Submirror failures.

• System crashes.

• A submirror has been taken offline and brought back online.

• The addition of a new submirror.

For more information about resynchronization, see "RAID 1 Volume (Mirror) Resynchronization" in Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide.