Archiveadm system cloning - Solaris 11.4

UNIX Solaris
1

Hi all,

I am trying to use archiveadm to backup/clone an existing Solaris11.4 system.
However, i failed at media creation with the error -> "Media can only be created from archives containing root-only data"

root@xxx:/mnt/opt/software# zpool list
NAME        SIZE  ALLOC  FREE  CAP  DEDUP  HEALTH  ALTROOT
fpool    1016G   726G  290G  71%  1.00x  ONLINE  -
ifpool   299G   180G  119G  60%  1.00x  ONLINE  -
progpool    556G   138G  418G  24%  1.00x  ONLINE  -
rpool       556G   107G  449G  19%  1.14x  ONLINE  -

root@Uxxx:~# archiveadm create -D fpool,ifpool /mnt/backup/solaris11sys.uar

Logging to /system/volatile/archive_log.11701

  0% : Beginning archive creation: /mnt/backup/solaris11sys.uar
  6% : Executing dataset discovery...
10% : Dataset discovery complete
10% : Executing staging capacity check...
11% : Staging capacity check complete
15% : Creating zone media: UnifiedArchive [08346390-1c25-457d-b3a9-36eed1127990]
53% : CreateZoneMedia: UnifiedArchive [08346390-1c25-457d-b3a9-36eed1127990] complete
55% : Preparing archive image...
73% : Archive image preparation complete
75% : Beginning archive stream creation...
93% : Archive stream creation complete
93% : Beginning archive descriptor creation...
94% : Archive descriptor creation complete
95% : Beginning final archive assembly...
100% : Archive assembly complete

root@xxx:~# ls -lrth /mnt/backup/solaris11sys.uar
-rw-r--r--   1 root     root         66G Jan 27 18:56 /mnt/backup/solaris11sys.uar


root@Uxxx:~# archiveadm create-media -f iso solaris11sys.uar -o solaris11sys.iso

Logging to /system/volatile/archive_log.29564

  0% : Beginning media creation...
archiveadm create-media: /mnt/backup/solaris11sys.uar contains non-root data. Media can only be created from archives containing root-only data.

q1) Can we use archiveadm to clone a system that include both rpool + non-rpool datasets ?
q2) Can this archive then be created as an iso media ? - if it cannot be done, why let us create a clone archive that contain rpool + non-rpool datasets in the 1st place ? how do we restore from it ?

Regards,
Noob

1 Like
2

Did you happen to open a SR with my oracle support ?

Please keep us updated as I'm going to be doing the same for a S11.3 system, except no physical media.

3

Hi Sam,

How are you going to do a recovery without media - Is it possible to do a restoration without a media for global-zone ?

Regards
Noob

4

alternate boot environment ?!

5

Hi Sam,

What i meant is , you mention you will be doing achiveadm as well just without creating it to media.

How can the archive be apply/deploy on an ABE ? is there any command to do so ?

Regards,
Noob

6

i'm not sure anymore.

7

I know this is long overdue but I kid you not we had this done recently after my comments above;

A) If you want to do media creation from the archiveadm you need to exclude non-root datasets
B) If you have non-root datasets they're usually not a part of rpools; if this makes any sense.
1b) It should be a zpool just for those datasets which can be exported
2b) Exported zpools can be imported to another system or reattached to current system
C) Once you create a bootable UAR from the archiveadm, you will be able to install the cloned system and, have the ability to re-attach
the non-root datasets / zpools.
We were able to do this with a little hiccup here and there but the job went well...
Please if you have additional questions of the process just let me know so we can share with others who come across
this article.