Booting the Failsafe Archive on a SPARC Based System
Booting a system from a root (/) file system image that is a
boot archive, and then remounting this file system on the actual root device
can sometimes result in a boot archive and root file system that do
not match, or are inconsistent. Under these conditions, the proper operation and
integrity of the system is compromised. After the root (/) file system
is mounted, and before relinquishing the in-memory file system, the system performs a
consistency verification against the two files systems. If an inconsistency is detected, the
normal boot sequence is suspended and the system reverts to failsafe mode.
Also, if a system failure, a power failure, or a kernel panic
occurs immediately following a kernel file update, the boot archives and the root (/)
file system might not be synchronized. Although the system might still boot with
the inconsistent boot archives, it is recommended that you boot the failsafe archive
to update the boot archives. You can also use the bootadm command to
manually update the boot archives. For more information, see Using the bootadm Command to Manage the Boot Archives.
The failsafe archive can be booted for recovery purposes or to update the
boot archive on both the SPARC and x86 platforms.
On the SPARC platform the failsafe archive is:
/platform/`uname -m`/failsafe
You would boot the failsafe archive by using the following syntax:
ok boot -F failsafe
Failsafe booting is also supported on systems that are booted from ZFS. When
booting from a ZFS-rooted BE, each BE has its own failsafe archive.
The failsafe archive is located where the root (/) file system is located,
as is the case with a UFS-rooted BE. The default failsafe archive
is the archive that is in the default bootable file system. The
default bootable file system (dataset) is indicated by the value of the pool's
bootfs property.
For information about booting an x86 based failsafe archive, see Booting the Failsafe Archive on an x86 Based System.
Another method that can be used to update the boot archives is
to clear the boot-archive service. However, the preferred methods for updating the boot archives
are to boot the failsafe archive or use the bootadm command. For more
information, see How to Update an Inconsistent Boot Archive by Clearing the boot-archive Service.
How to Boot the Failsafe Archive on a SPARC Based System
Use this procedure to boot the failsafe archive on a SPARC based
system. If the system does not boot after the boot archive is updated,
you might need to boot the system in single-user mode. For more information,
see SPARC: How to Boot a System to Run Level S (Single-User Level).
Note - This procedures also includes instructions for booting the failsafe archive for a specific
ZFS dataset.
- 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.
- Bring the system to the ok prompt:
# init 0
- Boot the failsafe archive.
- To boot the default failsafe archive, type:
ok boot -F failsafe
- To boot the failsafe archive of a specific ZFS dataset:
ok boot -F failsafe -Z dataset
For example:
ok boot -F failsafe -Z rpool/ROOT/zfsBE2
Note - To determine the name of the dataset to boot, first use the
boot -L command to display a list of the available BEs on the
system. For more information, see SPARC: How to List Available Bootable Datasets Within a ZFS Root Pool.
If an inconsistent boot archive is detected a message is displayed.
- To update the boot archive, type y and press Return.
An out of sync boot archive was detected on rpool.
The boot archive is a cache of files used during boot
and should be kept in sync to ensure proper system operation.
Do you wish to automatically update this boot archive? [y,n,?] y
If the archive was updated successfully, a message is displayed:
The boot archive on rpool was updated successfully.
Example 12-7 SPARC: Booting the Failsafe Archive
This example shows how to boot the failsafe archive on a SPARC
based system. If no device is specified, the failsafe archive for the default
boot device is booted.
ok boot -F failsafe
Resetting ...
screen not found.
Can't open input device. Keyboard not present. Using ttya for input and output.
Sun Enterprise 220R (2 X UltraSPARC-II 450MHz), No Keyboard
OpenBoot 3.23, 1024 MB memory installed, Serial #13116682.
Ethernet address 8:0:20:c8:25:a, Host ID: 80c8250a.
Rebooting with command: boot -F failsafe
Boot device: /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/disk@1,0:a File and args: -F failsafe
SunOS Release 5.10t
Copyright 1983-2007 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Use is subject to license terms.
Configuring /dev Searching for installed OS instances...
An out of sync boot archive was detected on /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0.
The boot archive is a cache of files used during boot and
should be kept in syncto ensure proper system operation.
Do you wish to automatically update this boot archive? [y,n,?] y
Updating boot archive on /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0.
The boot archive on /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0 was updated successfully.
Solaris 5.10 was found on /dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0.
Do you wish to have it mounted read-write on /a? [y,n,?] n
Starting shell.
#
Example 12-8 SPARC: Booting the Failsafe Archive for a Specified ZFS Dataset
This example shows how to boot the failsafe archive of a ZFS
dataset. Note that the boot -L command is first used to display a list
of available boot environments. This command must be run at the ok prompt.
ok boot -L
Rebooting with command: boot -L
Boot device: /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/disk@1,0 File and args: -L
1 zfsBE2
Select environment to boot: [ 1 - 1 ]: 1
To boot the selected entry, invoke:
boot [<root-device>] -Z rpool/ROOT/zfsBE2
Program terminated
{0} ok
Resetting ...
screen not found.
Can't open input device.
Keyboard not present. Using ttya for input and output.
Sun Enterprise 220R (2 X UltraSPARC-II 450MHz), No Keyboard
OpenBoot 3.23, 1024 MB memory installed, Serial #13116682.
Ethernet address 8:0:20:c8:25:a, Host ID: 80c8250a.
{0} ok boot -F failsafe -Z rpool/ROOT/zfsBE2
Boot device: /pci@1f,4000/scsi@3/disk@1,0 File and args: -F failsafe -Z
rpool/ROOT/zfsBE2
SunOS Release 5.10
Copyright 1983-2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
Use is subject to license terms.
Configuring /dev
Searching for installed OS instances...
ROOT/zfsBE2 was found on rpool.
Do you wish to have it mounted read-write on /a? [y,n,?] y
mounting rpool on /a
Starting shell.
#
#
#
# zpool list
NAME SIZE USED AVAIL CAP HEALTH ALTROOT
rpool 16.8G 6.26G 10.5G 37% ONLINE /a
#
# zpool status
pool: rpool
state: ONLINE
scrub: none requested
config:
NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM
rpool ONLINE 0 0 0
c0t1d0s0 ONLINE 0 0 0
errors: No known data errors
#
# df -h
Filesystem size used avail capacity Mounted on
/ramdisk-root:a 163M 153M 0K 100% /
/devices 0K 0K 0K 0% /devices
/dev 0K 0K 0K 0% /dev
ctfs 0K 0K 0K 0% /system/contract
proc 0K 0K 0K 0% /proc
mnttab 0K 0K 0K 0% /etc/mnttab
swap 601M 344K 601M 1% /etc/svc/volatile
objfs 0K 0K 0K 0% /system/object
sharefs 0K 0K 0K 0% /etc/dfs/sharetab
swap 602M 1.4M 601M 1% /tmp
/tmp/root/etc 602M 1.4M 601M 1% /.tmp_proto/root/etc
fd 0K 0K 0K 0% /dev/fd
rpool/ROOT/zfsBE2 16G 5.7G 9.8G 37% /a
rpool/export 16G 20K 9.8G 1% /a/export
rpool/export/home 16G 18K 9.8G 1% /a/export/home
rpool 16G 63K 9.8G 1% /a/rpool
