zfs discuss - Dec 2008 - Upgrade from UFS -> ZFS on a single disk?

So we have roughly 700 OpenSolaris snv_81 boxes out in the field. 
We''re looking to upgrade them all to probable OpenSolaris 11.08 or the
latest snv_10x build soon.  Currently all boxes have a single 80gb HD (these are
small appliance type devices, so we can''t add a second hard drive). 
What we''d like to do is figure out a way via liveupgrade to upgrade to
a newer SXCE release (or OpenSolaris 11.08) AND migrate the filesystems from UFS
to ZFS at the same time.

The reason for wanting to go to ZFS is for the filesystem improvements and
resiliency, as a lot of these boxes get power cycled regularly..

Here is the current partition table:

/dev/dsk/c0d0s0 /  8gb
/dev/dsk/c0d0s1 swap 1.5gb
/dev/dsk/c0d0s3 /var 4gb
/dev/dsk/c0d0s4 /backup 2gb
/dev/dsk/c0d0s5 /luroot 8gb
/dev/dsk/c0d0s6 /luvar 4gb
/dev/dsk/c0d0s7 /export 45gb

/backup, /luroot and /luvar are not in use.
/export contains all the zones (each box has 3 non-global zones on it)

I was thinking about removing the /backup, /luroot, and /luvar partitions and
using that to create a ZFS rpool on it, then installing the new OS onto that,
but /export needs to stay with the zones on it.

An alternative option is to just re-install the boxes from scratch, and devise a
way to auto-configure them when they boot back up (they are all remotely located
and there''s no console access to any of them, so that''s a bit
tricky)

Anyway, just wanted to toss the idea out, see if anyone has done a UFS -> ZFS
in place upgrade while doing a live upgrade (or post live upgrade is also an
option of course, so long as it can be scripted)

Thanks!
-- 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

Seriously, if I had that many on _field_ I''d directly ring my support
rep.

Getting one step go wrong from instruction provided in forum might mean that
you''d have to spend quite a long time fixing everyone (or worse
re-installing) one by one from scratch!

Get a support guy walk you through this... every step documented and tested
(twice! with power failures thrown in the mix)... this isn''t a question
for the forum.
-- 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

On Mon, 29 Dec 2008, Akhilesh Mritunjai wrote:
> Seriously, if I had that many on _field_ I''d directly ring my
support rep.
>
> Getting one step go wrong from instruction provided in forum might 
> mean that you''d have to spend quite a long time fixing everyone
(or
> worse re-installing) one by one from scratch!
Since OpenSolaris is used as part of a packaged "product", there is no
doubt that the process used will be tested quite thoroughly before 
updating field sites.
> Get a support guy walk you through this... every step documented and 
> tested (twice! with power failures thrown in the mix)... this
isn''t
> a question for the forum.
There are no wrong questions here.  A paid support guy may lack the 
experience or sheer ingenuity of some of the folks here.  Clearly some 
ingenuity is required.

Bob
=====================================Bob Friesenhahn
bfriesen at simple.dallas.tx.us, http://www.simplesystems.org/users/bfriesen/
GraphicsMagick Maintainer,    http://www.GraphicsMagick.org/

The ZFS Administration Guide describes how to do this in the section
on Migrating a UFS Root File System to a ZFS Root File System
(Solaris Live Upgrade).  LiveUpgrade only applies to SXCE, though.
The OpenSolaris installer does not currently have the ability to do such
things.
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/community/zfs/docs/zfsadmin.pdf
 -- richard


Josh Rivel wrote:
> So we have roughly 700 OpenSolaris snv_81 boxes out in the field. 
We''re looking to upgrade them all to probable OpenSolaris 11.08 or the
latest snv_10x build soon.  Currently all boxes have a single 80gb HD (these are
small appliance type devices, so we can''t add a second hard drive). 
What we''d like to do is figure out a way via liveupgrade to upgrade to
a newer SXCE release (or OpenSolaris 11.08) AND migrate the filesystems from UFS
to ZFS at the same time.
>
> The reason for wanting to go to ZFS is for the filesystem improvements and
resiliency, as a lot of these boxes get power cycled regularly..
>
> Here is the current partition table:
>
> /dev/dsk/c0d0s0 /  8gb
> /dev/dsk/c0d0s1 swap 1.5gb
> /dev/dsk/c0d0s3 /var 4gb
> /dev/dsk/c0d0s4 /backup 2gb
> /dev/dsk/c0d0s5 /luroot 8gb
> /dev/dsk/c0d0s6 /luvar 4gb
> /dev/dsk/c0d0s7 /export 45gb
>
> /backup, /luroot and /luvar are not in use.
> /export contains all the zones (each box has 3 non-global zones on it)
>
> I was thinking about removing the /backup, /luroot, and /luvar partitions
and using that to create a ZFS rpool on it, then installing the new OS onto
that, but /export needs to stay with the zones on it.
>
> An alternative option is to just re-install the boxes from scratch, and
devise a way to auto-configure them when they boot back up (they are all
remotely located and there''s no console access to any of them, so
that''s a bit tricky)
>
> Anyway, just wanted to toss the idea out, see if anyone has done a UFS
-> ZFS in place upgrade while doing a live upgrade (or post live upgrade is
also an option of course, so long as it can be scripted)
>
> Thanks!
>

Richard,

Thank you for the tip. We are running SXCE currently (snv_81) on all the
clients, and are probably going to stick with it.  We may run 2008.11 for the
backend servers (those are already running ZFS).

Josh
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