Using flar

UNIX Solaris
1

Hi

I have systems running UFS and ZFS file system type, and I need to create images of them ( in HP-UX ) we call it ignite, but in my case I dont have tape drives attached to the servers. I have read about flar archives, but the do I have to create those images in single user mode or using the current run level?

2

Assuming you are on Solaris 10...
Check here:
Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 Installation Guide: Flash Archives (Creation and Installation) - Oracle Solaris 10 1/13 Installation Guide: Flash Archives (Creation and Installation)
and here:
Oracle Solaris ZFS Administration Guide - Oracle Solaris ZFS Administration Guide
first. If you have questions, come back.

3

To answer your question flash archives do not need to be created in single user mode. They can be created in multi-user mode BUT you should do that when the system is as quiet as possible, not under load.

1 Like
4

ok, so after creating a flar archive would it be possible to provision other servers with this flar file

5

Depends what you mean by "provision"?

Flash is usually used (1) for disaster recovery and/or (2) to clone a system.

Whether recovery or cloning the new system has the same node name, ip configuration, and other configs as the original. Be aware of that.

Why don't you want to do a fresh install?

6

what I really want is to have an image of 4 servers and keep it in another server on the network, or use one server as a template to create other installations

7

So if this other server has enough disk space to store the capacity of the four production servers, why don't you configure a NFS share (or 4 NFS shares) on it and backup each of them over the network? Does that do what you want?

2 Likes
8

I need to get to grips with NFS now, as I understand what I need to do is on each of the server, export the file system or dirrectory containing the flar archive to the server with lots of space...

---------- Post updated at 04:29 PM ---------- Previous update was at 10:42 AM ----------

I have now create a flar archive:

bash-3.00# flarcreate -n sol10_u9 -c -S -R / -x /flash /flash/sol10serv75.flar
Full Flash
Checking integrity...
Integrity OK.
Running precreation scripts...
Precreation scripts done.
Creating the archive...
cpio: File size of "var/adm/sulog" has increased by 66
cpio: Error with fstatat() of "etc/devices/snapshot_cache", errno 2, No such file or directory
52601901 blocks
2 error(s)
Archive creation complete.
Running postcreation scripts...
Postcreation scripts done.
 
Running pre-exit scripts...
Pre-exit scripts done.
You have new mail in /var/mail//root

the use the flar info

bash-3.00# flar info /flash/sol10serv75.flar
archive_id=f39f02dda1f30868701c2ff1122ad263
files_archived_method=cpio
creation_date=20180510085401
creation_master=nikira-db
content_name=sol10_u9
creation_node=nikira-db
creation_hardware_class=sun4v
creation_platform=sun4v
creation_processor=sparc
creation_release=5.10
creation_os_name=SunOS
creation_os_version=Generic_142909-17
files_compressed_method=compress
content_architectures=sun4v
type=FULL
You have new mail in /var/mail//root
bash-3.00#

but I am not sure about rthe integrity of the archive

9

Why are you unsure about the integrity of the flash archive? What makes you think that there may be a problem?

If you really want to test, take a copy of the archive and then try and split it. If it will split without error then it is good.

See this thread and my post#22:

1 Like