Auto Registration and Flash Archives
How Does Auto Registration Affect Flash Archives?
Flash Archives and ZFS Root Pools
Installing Clone Systems With an Initial Installation
Updating Clone Systems With a Flash Archive Differential Archive
3. Creating Flash Archives (Tasks)
4. Installing and Administering Flash Archives (Tasks)
The Flash Archive installation feature enables you to use a single reference installation of the Oracle Solaris OS on a system, which is called the master system. Then, you can replicate that installation on a number of systems, which are called clone systems. You can replicate clone systems with a Flash Archive initial installation that overwrites all files on the system or with a Flash Archive update that only includes the differences between two system images. A differential update changes only the files that are specified and is restricted to systems that contain software consistent with the old master image.
Starting with the Oracle Solaris 10 08/11 release, the ZFS file system has the following installation enhancements:
You can use the luupgrade command of Live Upgrade, a feature of Oracle Solaris, to install a ZFS root flash archive to a ZFS rooted alternate boot environment.
You can use the interactive text-mode installation method to install a system with a ZFS flash archive.
You can use the -D option of the Live Upgrade lucreate command to create a separate dataset for /var when you migrate a UFS root file system to a ZFS root file system.
For detailed instructions and limitations, see Chapter 4, Installing and Booting an Oracle Solaris ZFS Root File System, in Oracle Solaris ZFS Administration Guide.
Unlike the ZFS Flash Archive installation in the previous releases, a flash archive created on a ZFS root master system does not contain all the existing boot environments. Instead, the archive only contains the active ZFS boot environment. The archive does not include those datasets that are excluded explicitly with the -D option of the lucreate command and the user data present in the top-level pool dataset. The swap and dump volumes are not included into the archive but are created when the flash archive is installed.
For more information on ZFS Flash Archive creation and installation , refer to Chapter 4, Installing and Booting an Oracle Solaris ZFS Root File System, in Oracle Solaris ZFS Administration Guide.