Solaris 10 Installation Guide: Solaris Live Upgrade and Upgrade Planning

Activating a Boot Environment

Activating a boot environment makes it bootable on the next reboot of the system. You can also switch back quickly to the original boot environment if a failure occurs on booting the newly active boot environment. See Chapter 10, Failure Recovery: Falling Back to the Original Boot Environment (Tasks).

Requirements and Limitations for Activating a Boot Environment

To successfully activate a boot environment, that boot environment must meet the following conditions:

Description	For More Information
The boot environment must have a status of “complete.”	To check status, see Displaying the Status of All Boot Environments.
If the boot environment is not the current boot environment, you cannot have mounted the partitions of that boot environment by using the `luumount` or `mount` commands.	To view man pages, see lumount(1M) or mount(1M).
The boot environment that you want to activate cannot be involved in a comparison operation.	For procedures, see Comparing Boot Environments.
If you want to reconfigure swap, make this change prior to booting the inactive boot environment. By default, all boot environments share the same swap devices.	To reconfigure swap, see “To Create a New Boot Environment,” Step 9 or To Create a Boot Environment and Reconfiguring Swap (Command-Line Interface).

x86 only –

Starting with the Solaris 10 1/06 release, you can use the GRUB menu to switch boot environments. See x86: Activating a Boot Environment With the GRUB Menu).

x86: (Optional) To Update the Boot Diskette Before Activating

Starting with Solaris 10 1/06 release, the Solaris Device Configuration Assistant software is no longer included in the Solaris software and you do not need this software to boot. Skip the following procedure.
For the Solaris 10 3/05 release, use one of the following procedures.
- If your system supports booting from CD or DVD, you do not need this software to boot. Skip the following procedure.
- If you use the Solaris Device Configuration Assistant diskette to boot, you need to update the boot diskette. Use the following procedure to match a boot diskette to your release by overwriting the existing diskette or writing to a new diskette.

Steps

Insert the Solaris 10 3/05 Device Configuration Assistant diskette. This is either the existing diskette that is overwritten or a new diskette.

Update the boot diskette with the latest image for this release.

Eject the boot diskette.

Type:
volcheck

Copy the new boot environment's boot/solaris/bootenv.rc file to the diskette.
cp /a/boot/solaris/bootenv.rc /floppy/floppy0/solaris/bootenv.rc

Check the input device and output device on the diskette. If they are incorrect, then update them.

You are ready to activate the new boot environment.

To Activate a Boot Environment (Character User Interface)

The first time you boot from a newly created boot environment, Solaris Live Upgrade software synchronizes the new boot environment with the boot environment that was last active. “Synchronize” means that certain critical system files and directories are copied from the last-active boot environment to the boot environment being booted. Solaris Live Upgrade does not perform this synchronization after this initial boot unless you request to do so when prompted to force a synchronization.

For more information about synchronization, see Synchronizing Files Between Boot Environments.

x86 only –

Starting with the Solaris 10 1/06 release, you can use the GRUB menu to switch boot environments. See x86: Activating a Boot Environment With the GRUB Menu).

Steps

From the Solaris Live Upgrade main menu, select Activate.

Type the name of the boot environment to make active:

Name of Boot Environment: Solaris_10
Do you want to force a Live Upgrade sync operations: no

You can either continue or force a synchronization of files.
- Press Return to continue.
  
  The first time that the boot environment is booted, files are automatically synchronized.
- You can force a synchronization of files, but use this feature with caution. Operating systems on each boot environment must be compatible with files that are being synchronized. To force a synchronization of files, type:
  Do you want to force a Live Upgrade sync operations: yes
  Caution –
  Use a forced synchronization with great care, because you might not be aware of or in control of changes that might have occurred in the last-active boot environment. For example, if you were running Solaris 10 software on your current boot environment and booted back to a Solaris 9 release with a forced synchronization, files could be changed on the Solaris 9 release. Because files are dependent on the release of the OS, the boot to the Solaris 9 release could fail because the Solaris 10 files might not be compatible with the Solaris 9 files.

Press F3 to begin the activation process.

Press Return to continue.

The new boot environment is activated at the next reboot.

To activate the inactive boot environment, reboot:
# init 6

To Activate a Boot Environment (Command-Line Interface)

To activate a boot environmentUse the following procedure, depending on your release:

For SPARC based systems, all releases.
For x86 based systems:
- For the Solaris 10 3/05 release, use the following procedure.

x86 only –

Starting with the Solaris 10 1/06 release, you can use the GRUB menu to switch boot environment. See x86: Activating a Boot Environment With the GRUB Menu. Use the follow

Steps

Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

To activate the boot environment, type:
# /sbin/luactivate BE_name
BE_name

Specifies the name of the boot environment that is to be activated

Reboot.
# init 6
Caution –
Use only the init or shutdown commands to reboot. If you use the reboot, halt, or uadmin commands, the system does not switch boot environments. The last-active boot environment is booted again.

Example 9–13 Activating a Boot Environment (Command-Line Interface)

In this example, the second_disk boot environment is activated at the next reboot.

# /sbin/luactivate second_disk
# init 6

To Activate a Boot Environment and Synchronize Files (Command-Line Interface)

The first time you boot from a newly created boot environment, Solaris Live Upgrade software synchronizes the new boot environment with the boot environment that was last active. “Synchronize” means that certain critical system files and directories are copied from the last-active boot environment to the boot environment being booted. Solaris Live Upgrade does not perform this synchronization after the initial boot, unless you force synchronization with the luactivate command and the -s option.

For more information about synchronization, see Synchronizing Files Between Boot Environments.

Steps

Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

To activate the boot environment, type:
# /sbin/luactivate -s BE_name
-s

Forces a synchronization of files between the last-active boot environment and the new boot environment. The first time that a boot environment is activated, the files between the boot environment are synchronized With subsequent activations, the files are not synchronized unless you use the -s option.

Caution –
Use this option with great care, because you might not be aware of or in control of changes that might have occurred in the last-active boot environment. For example, if you were running Solaris 10 software on your current boot environment and booted back to a Solaris 9 release with a forced synchronization, files could be changed on the Solaris 9 release. Because files are dependent on the release of the OS, the boot to the Solaris 9 release could fail because the Solaris 10 files might not be compatible with the Solaris 9 files.

BE_name

Specifies the name of the boot environment that is to be activated.

Reboot.
# init 6

Example 9–14 Activating a Boot Environment (Command-Line Interface)

In this example, the second_disk boot environment is activated at the next reboot and the files are synchronized.

# /sbin/luactivate -s second_disk
# init 6

x86: Activating a Boot Environment With the GRUB Menu

Starting with the Solaris 10 1/06 release, a GRUB menu provides an optional method of switching between boot environments. The GRUB menu is an alternative to activating (booting) with the luactivate command or the Activate menu. Limitations to using the GRUB menu are the following:

The first activation of a boot environment must be done with the luactivate command or the Activate menu. After the initial activation, the boot environment is displayed on the GRUB menu. The boot environment can then be booted from the GRUB menu.
Switching to a boot environment with the GRUB menu bypasses synchronization. For more information about synchronizing files, see link Forcing a Synchronization Between Boot Environments.

Caution –

After you have activated a boot environment, do not change the disk order in the BIOS. Changing the order might cause the GRUB menu to become invalid. If this problem occurs, changing the disk order back to the original state fixes the GRUB menu.

Table 9–3 x86: Activating With the GRUB Menu Summary


Task	Description	For More Information
Activating a boot environment for the first time	The first time you activate a boot environment, you must use the `luactivate` command or the Activate menu. The next time you boot, that boot environment's name is displayed in the GRUB main menu. You can thereafter switch to this boot environment by selecting the appropriate entry in the GRUB menu.	x86: To Activate a Boot Environment With the GRUB Menu (Command-Line Interface) x86: GRUB Based Booting (Overview)
Synchronizing files	The first time you activate a boot environment, files are synchronized between the current boot environment and the new boot environment. With subsequent activations, files are not synchronized. When you switch between boot environments with the GRUB menu, files also are not synchronized. You can force a synchronization when using the `luactivate` command with the `-s` option.	To Activate a Boot Environment and Synchronize Files (Command-Line Interface)
Boot environments created before the Solaris 1/06 release	If a boot environment was created with the Solaris 8, 9, or 10 3/05 release, the boot environment must always be activated with the `luactivate` command or the Activate menu. These older boot environments do not display on the GRUB menu.
Editing or customizing the GRUB menu entries	The `menu.lst` file contains the information that is displayed in the GRUB menu. You can revise this file for the following reasons: To add to the GRUB menu entries for operating systems other than the Solaris OS. To customize booting behavior. For example, you could change booting to verbose mode or change the default time that automatically boots the OS. Note – If you want to change the GRUB menu, you need to locate the `menu.lst` file. For step-by-step instructions, see x86: Locating the GRUB Menu's `menu.lst` File (Tasks). Caution – Do not use the GRUB `menu.lst` file to modify Solaris Live Upgrade entries. Modifications could cause Solaris Live Upgrade to fail. Although you can use the `menu.lst` file to customize booting behavior, the preferred method for customization is to use the `eeprom` command. If you use the `menu.lst` file to customize, the Solaris OS entries might be modified during a software upgrade. Changes to the file could be lost.	x86: GRUB Based Booting (Overview) Chapter 12, GRUB Based Booting (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration

x86: To Activate a Boot Environment With the GRUB Menu (Command-Line Interface)

Starting with the Solaris 10 1/06 release, you can switch between two boot environments with the GRUB menu. Note the following limitations:

The first activation of a boot environment must be done with the luactivate command or the Activate menu. After the initial activation, the boot environment is displayed on the GRUB menu. The boot environment can then be booted from the GRUB menu.
Caution - Switching to a boot environment with the GRUB menu bypasses synchronization. For more information about synchronizing files, see link Forcing a Synchronization Between Boot Environments.

Note –

If a boot environment was created with the Solaris 8, 9, or 10 3/05 release, the boot environment must always be activated with the luactivate command or the Activate menu. These older boot environments are not displayed on the GRUB menu.

Steps

Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

Roles contain authorizations and privileged commands. For more information about roles, see Configuring RBAC (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

Reboot the system.

# init 6

The GRUB main menu is displayed. The two operating systems are listed, Solaris and second_disk, which is a Solaris Live Upgrade boot environment. The failsafe entries are for recovery, if for some reason the primary OS does not boot.

GNU GRUB version 0.95 (616K lower / 4127168K upper memory)
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Solaris                                                            |
|Solaris  failsafe                                                  |
|second_disk                                                        |
|second_disk failsafe                                               |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
Use the ^ and v keys to select which entry is highlighted. Press
enter to boot the selected OS, 'e' to edit the commands before
booting, or 'c' for a command-line.

To activate a boot environment, use the arrow key to select the desired boot environment and press Return.

The selected boot environment is booted and becomes the active boot environment.