Getting ready

To follow this recipe, it's necessary that we have a machine (physical or virtual) running Oracle Solaris 11; we log in to the system as the root user and open a terminal. Some extra disk space might be necessary.

How to do it…

To perform this recipe, we're obliged to create a backup from the current BE (solaris_test_1), after which we should be successful in creating a new BE from this backup. The whole process uses snapshots. (In this case, we are using a logical snapshot, which uses pointers to leave the original image untouched.) Let's create a snapshot by running the following command:

root@solaris11:~# beadm create solaris_test_1@backup

Chapter 1

root@solaris11:~# beadm list -a solaris_test_1

BE/Dataset/Snapshot Active Mountpoint Space Policy Created

------------------- ------ ---------- ----

- ------ -------

solaris_test_1

rpool/ROOT/solaris_test_1 NR / 26.06G static 2013-11-05 22:38

rpool/ROOT/solaris_test_1/var - /var 421.96M static 2013-11-08 04:06

rpool/ROOT/solaris_test_1/var@2013-10-10-22:27:20 - - 66.49M static 2013-10-10 19:27

rpool/ROOT/solaris_test_1/var@2013-11-08-06:06:01 - - 62.48M static 2013-11-08 04:06

rpool/ROOT/solaris_test_1/var@backup - - 73.0K static 2013-11-08 04:23

rpool/ROOT/solaris_test_1/var@install - - 63.03M static 2013-10-05 21:01

rpool/ROOT/solaris_test_1@2013-10-10-22:27:20 - - 132.81M static 2013-10-10 19:27

rpool/ROOT/solaris_test_1@2013-11-08-06:06:01 - - 65.78M static 2013-11-08 04:06

rpool/ROOT/solaris_test_1@backup - - 0

static 2013-11-08 04:23

rpool/ROOT/solaris_test_1@install - - 105.95M static 2013-10-05 21:01

We are now ready to create a new BE from another one:

root@solaris11:~# beadm create -e solaris_test_1@backup solaris_test_2

root@solaris11:~# beadm list

BE	Active	Mountpoint	Space	Policy	Created
--	------	----------	-----	------	-------
solaris	-	-	8.57M	static	2013-10-05	20:44
solaris-backup-1	-	-	303.0K	static	2013-10-26	22:49
solaris-backup-a	-	-	7.26G	static	2013-10-10	19:57
solaris_test_1	NR	-	26.06G	static	2013-11-05	22:38
solaris_test_2	-	-	209.0K	static	2013-11-08	04:23

IPS and Boot Environments

At this point, it might be logical to activate this environment (beadm activate solaris_test_2) and boot it.

Finally, before finishing the chapter, we need to reactivate the original solaris boot environment, reboot the system, and remove all the remaining BEs:

root@solaris11:~# beadm activate solaris

root@solaris11:~# init 6

root@solaris11:~# beadm destroy solaris_test_2

Are you sure you want to destroy solaris_test_2? This action cannot be undone(y/[n]): y

root@solaris11:~# beadm destroy solaris_test_1

Are you sure you want to destroy solaris_test_1? This action cannot be undone(y/[n]): y

root@solaris11:~# beadm destroy solaris-backup-a

Are you sure you want to destroy solaris-backup-a? This action cannot be undone(y/[n]): y

root@solaris11:~# beadm destroy solaris-backup-1

Are you sure you want to destroy solaris-backup-1? This action cannot be undone(y/[n]): y

root@solaris11:~# beadm list

BE	Active	Mountpoint	Space	Policy	Created
--	------	----------	-----	------	-------
solaris	NR	/	25.46G	static	2013-10-05 20:44

An overview of the recipe

This final recipe from the chapter has shown us a quick way to create a new BE based on an old one. To do this, we needed to take a backup first. Finally, we destroyed the existing BEs to clean up our system. Obviously, it's not appropriate to destroy the booted BE.

Chapter 1