How to update Solaris 10 Update 3 to Update 11?

UNIX Solaris
1

Hi friends,

We have a Solaris machine running 10 update 3

-bash-3.2#  cat /etc/release

                       Solaris 10 11/06 s10s_u3wos_10 SPARC

           Copyright 2006 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

                        Use is subject to license terms.

                           Assembled 14 November 2006

-bash-3.2#

-bash-3.2#  uname -a

SunOS sunXXXX02 5.10 Generic_150400-59 sun4u sparc SUNW,Sun-Fire-V490

-bash-3.2#  prtdiag

System Configuration:  Oracle Corporation  sun4u Sun Fire V490

System clock frequency: 150 MHz

Memory size: 32768 Megabytes

It is using UFS (not ZFS):

few of /etc/vfstab entries:

/dev/md/dsk/d0  /dev/md/rdsk/d0 /       ufs     1       no      -

#/dev/dsk/c1t0d0s4      /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0s4      /var    ufs     1       no      -

#/dev/dsk/c1t0d0s3      /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0s3      /home   ufs     2       yes     -

#/dev/dsk/c1t0d0s5      /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0s5      /s      ufs     2       yes     -

# Below entries are part of mirrorsets

/dev/md/dsk/d3  /dev/md/rdsk/d3  /home   ufs     2       yes  -

/dev/md/dsk/d4  /dev/md/rdsk/d4  /var    ufs     1       no   -

/dev/md/dsk/d5  /dev/md/rdsk/d5  /s      ufs     2       yes  -

We need to update/upgrade to Update 11. By googling I found that we can do it by booting from DVD or LiveUpgrade (seems to be simpler). but we do NOT have support for this machine from OEM. Is it possible to do LiveUpgrade without OEM support. I do have "Sol 10 Update 11" ISO.

Please advise me the detailed steps on how to -

  1. Break the OS mirror (in case we have to revoke) so that we can apply update only on one disk
  2. Perform update process (which one is the best way and its detailed steps).

Thanks

2

Firstly, the mirrors are created with SVM (Solaris Volume Manager) rather than by a hardware RAID controller. So why are you thinking of breaking the mirror? How is the machine usually backed up? I assume you use fssnap/ufsdump ? If so, surely it would be easier to simply restore the snapshot(s) if the upgrade goes wrong without messing with the mirroring. Unless you have some other motive.

1 Like
3

Thanks hicksd8 for your reply.

You're right, I will use ufsdump for the backup. But i thought I could break mirror in metadevice and then update the vfstab with direct partition device names so that I could boot with physical device (instead of mirror md)?

For updating to u11, what is the best approach? we don't have support subscription for this machine. Could I just apply latest (or the one that matches update-11) recommended patchset to get to the update-11?

Best,

4

My approach would be to ensure that you know how to restore the root partition easily if it goes wrong. Use fssnap followed by ufsdump to dump the snapshot. If you are in anyway unsure about how to restore then research that first.

As far as the actual upgrade is concerned I would download and burn the DVD installation media. Booting from that DVD ensure that the install procedure recognizes the existing installation and offers you the upgrade route. DO NOT allow it to proceed with a standard installation (overwriting the disk) if it happens to not recognize the existing OS.

If you hit problems with that post back here.

1 Like
5

And also..........although we are expecting to only update the root filesystem here, be professional and take dumps of all active filesystems in case anything affects them during the process. Give yourself an easy recovery route.

6

It's probably best to (1) unmount all filesystems which are not going to receive any upgraded bits and (2) take full back-ups of all filesystems (as hicksd8 mentioned) effected by the upgrade before upgrading.

Then, when the upgrade is done, you can remount all your "extra" filesystems.

1 Like
7

Thanks everyone. I successfully upgraded to Update 11.
I did use fssnap and ufsdump which are very useful.

1 Like