The ZFS Boot Project
The team is working to provide the ability to install and boot the Solaris OS from a ZFS root file system.
The ZFS Boot project has been divided into three components: x86 boot, SPARC boot, and install.
The main work phases of this project are:
- Provide a ZFS plug-in for the GRUB boot loader (available in snv_62)
- Develop a boot loader that is usable on SPARC to read files from a ZFS file system
- Provide enhancements necessary for implementing a ZFS root file system
- Provide enhancements to the Solaris install and Live Upgrade features in order to set up and maintain a ZFS root file system
Announcements
October 2009
ZFS Flash support is available in the Solaris 10 10/09 release. You can install patches to use this feature in the Solaris 10 10/08 and Solaris 5/09 releases. For ZFS Flash archive information, see this page:
October 31, 2008
The Solaris 10 10/08 release provides the ability to install and boot a ZFS root file system. You can use the initial installation option or the JumpStart feature to install a ZFS root file system. Or, you can use the Live Upgrade feature to migrate a UFS root file system to a ZFS root file system. ZFS support for swap and dump devices is also provided.
Before you install or migrate to a ZFS root file system, review the following information:
- Installing and Booting a ZFS Root File System
- Solaris 10 10/08 Release Notes
- ZFS Troubleshooting Guide
June 4, 2008
6685292 - install should support booting from zfs
This putback provides the ability install the Solaris Operating System on a ZFS root file system for both x86 and SPARC platforms. The work includes enhancing the Solaris interactive text installer, Solaris Live Upgrade, and Jumpstart (profiled install) features.
The ZFS boot and install features are available in the Solaris Express Community Edition (SXCE), build 90 release.
After you review the list of known issues below, see the ZFS Boot FAQ and the ZFS Admin Guide for information about using the ZFS installation and booting features.
Known Issues
Before you consider using these features, review the known issues:
- (6697324) zpool offline doesn't work with mirrored ZFS root
- (6668666) zpool command should put a bootblock on a disk added as a mirror of a root pool vdev
- <6696226>liveupgrade needs to maintain menu.lst file on sparc platform
- (6709476) Segmentation fault while installing snv_90 DomU with ZFS mirror on snv_90 Dom0
For workarounds on some of these isssues, see the ZFS Admin Guide.
April 11, 2008
PSARC/2006/370 ZFS Boot Support (Build 88)
This putback provides the ability to boot the Solaris Operating System from a ZFS root file system on both x86 and SPARC platforms.
- 5008936 ZFS and/or zvol should support dumps
- 5070124 dumpadm -d /dev/... does not enforce block device requirement for savecore
- 6521468 ZFS Boot support for the SPARC platform
- 6574993 zfs_mountroot() may need to call clkset() to set the boot_time kstat
- 6633197 zvol should not permit newfs or createpool while it's in use by swap or dump
- 6661127 zfs_name_valid() does not support ZFS_TYPE_POOL
Additional Details
- Full ZFS boot and install support will be available in a subsequent build. Because of the phased putback, we recommend waiting for the full boot and install support rather than attempting to use the ZFS boot features separately.
- This is a flag day for Cap-Eye Install users and existing users of transitional ZFS root file systems. Matching user-land libraries, kernel, and grub are required.
- Systems that already have ZFS root file systems can be bfu'd with this release, but bfu does not convert the legacy mounts (of /, /var, and so on) to ZFS mounts. Backwards bfu to releases that don't support ZFS boot is prohibited.
- At some point, you are advised to reinstall your systems to achieve the "standard" ZFS boot configuration, which uses ZFS mounts, not legacy mounts. However, the system continues to boot with legacy mounts (at least for now).