BEADM(8) Maintenance Commands and Procedures BEADM(8)

beadm - utility for managing zfs boot environments

beadm create [-a | -t] [-d description]


     [-e non-activeBeName | beName@snapshot]


     [-o property=value] ... [-p zpool]


     [-v] beName

beadm create [-v] beName@snapshot

beadm destroy [-fFsv] beName | beName@snapshot

beadm list [-a | -ds] [-H]


    [-k|-K date | name | space] [-v] [beName]

beadm mount [-s ro|rw] [-v] beName mountpoint

beadm unmount [-fv] beName | mountpoint

beadm rename [-v] beName newBeName

beadm activate [-v] [-t | -T] beName

beadm rollback [-v] beName snapshot

beadm rollback [-v] beName@snapshot

The beadm command is the user interface for managing zfs Boot Environments (BEs). This utility is intended to be used by System Administrators who want to manage multiple Solaris Instances on a single system.

The beadm command supports the following operations:

-
Create a new BE, based on the active BE.
-
Create a new BE, based on an inactive BE.
-
Create a snapshot of an existing BE.
-
Create a new BE, based on an existing snapshot.
-
Create a new BE, and copy it to a different zpool.
-
Activate an existing, inactive BE.
-
Mount a BE.
-
Unmount a BE.
-
Destroy a BE.
-
Destroy a snapshot of a BE.
-
Rename an existing, inactive BE.
-
Roll back a BE to an existing snapshot of a BE.
-
Display information about your snapshots and datasets.

The beadm command has the subcommands and options listed below. Also see EXAMPLES below.

beadm

Lists information for all boot environments. See beadm list.

beadm create [-a | -t] [-d description]
[-e non-activeBeName | beName@snapshot]
[-o property=value] ... [-p zpool]
[-v] beName

Creates a new boot environment named beName. If the -e option is not provided, the new boot environment will be created as a clone of the currently running boot environment. If the -d option is provided then the description is also used as the title for the BE's entry in the boot menu. If the -d option is not provided, beName will be used as the title.

-a

Activate the newly created BE. The default is to not activate the newly created BE. See also -t.

-d description

Create a new BE with a description associated with it.

-e non-activeBeName

Create a new BE from an existing inactive BE.

-e beName@snapshot

Create a new BE from an existing snapshot of the BE named beName.

-o property=value

Create the datasets for new BE with specific ZFS properties. Multiple -o options can be specified. See zfs(8) for more information on the -o option.

-p zpool

Create the new BE in the specified zpool. If this is not provided, the default behavior is to create the new BE in the same pool as as the origin BE. This option is not supported in non-global zone.
-t

Temporarily activate the newly created BE. The new BE will be used for the next boot only and the temporary activation will be automatically removed. The default is to not activate the newly created BE. See also -a.

-v

Verbose mode. Displays verbose error messages from beadm.

beadm create [-v] beName@snapshot

Creates a snapshot of the existing BE named beName.

-v

Verbose mode. Displays verbose error messages from beadm.

beadm destroy [-fFsv] beName | beName@snapshot

Destroys the boot environment named beName or destroys an existing snapshot of the boot environment named beName@snapshot. Destroying a boot environment will also destroy all snapshots of that boot environment. Use this command with caution.

-f

Forcefully unmount the boot environment if it is currently mounted.

-F

Force the action without prompting to verify the destruction of the boot environment.

-s

Destroy all snapshots of the boot environment.

-v

Verbose mode. Displays verbose error messages from beadm.

beadm list [-a | -ds] [-H]
[-k|-K date | name | space] [-v] [beName]

Lists information about the existing boot environment named beName, or lists information for all boot environments if beName is not provided. The 'Active' field indicates whether the boot environment is active now, represented by 'N'; active on reboot, represented by 'R'; or both, represented by 'NR'. If temporary next boot configuration is used, the boot environment is marked with 'T'. In non-global zone the 'Active' field also indicates whether the boot environment has a non-active parent BE, represented by 'x'; is active on boot in a non-active parent BE, represented by 'b'. Activate, rollback and snapshot operations for boot environments from non-active global parent BE aren't supported, destroy is allowed if these boot environments aren't active on boot.

Each line in the machine parsable output has the boot environment name as the first field. The 'Space' field is displayed in bytes and the 'Created' field is displayed in UTC format. The -H option used with no other options gives the boot environment's uuid in the second field. This field will be blank if the boot environment does not have a uuid. See the EXAMPLES section. In non-global zones, this field shows the uuid of the parent BE.

-a

Lists all available information about the boot environment. This includes subordinate file systems and snapshots.

-d

Lists information about all subordinate file systems belonging to the boot environment.

-s

Lists information about the snapshots of the boot environment.

-H

Do not list header information. Each field in the list information is separated by a semicolon.

-k date

Sort BEs by date of creation in ascending order. This is default.

-k name

Lexical sort of BEs by name in ascending order.

-k space

Sort BEs by space in ascending order.

-K date | name | space

Same as the -k option, but sorts in descending order.

-v

Verbose mode. Displays verbose error messages from beadm.

beadm mount [-s ro|rw] [-v] beName mountpoint

Mounts a boot environment named beName at mountpoint. mountpoint must be an already existing empty directory.

-s ro|rw

Mount the shared filesystems of the BE in read-only or read-write mode.

-v

Verbose mode. Displays verbose error messages from beadm.

beadm unmount [-fv] beName | mountpoint

Unmounts the boot environment named beName. The command can also be given a path to a beName mount point on the system.

-f

Forcefully unmount the boot environment even if its currently busy.

-v

Verbose mode. Displays verbose error messages from beadm.

beadm rename [-v] beName newBeName

Renames the boot environment named beName to newBeName.

-v

Verbose mode. Displays verbose error messages from beadm.

beadm rollback [-v] beName snapshot | beName@snapshot

Roll back the boot environment named beName to existing snapshot of the boot environment named beName@snapshot.

-v

Verbose mode. Displays verbose error messages from beadm.

beadm activate [-v] [-t | -T] beName

Makes beName the active BE on next reboot.

-t

Sets temporary, one time activation. For next boot, the beName is used for boot, and the temporary activation is removed. When temporary activation is removed, the next boot will use zfs dataset specified in boot pool bootfs property.

-T

Removes temporary next boot configuration of beName.

-v

Verbose mode. Displays verbose error messages from beadm.

The alternate BE location outside rpool/ROOT can be configured by modifying the BENAME_STARTS_WITH parameter in /etc/default/be. For example: BENAME_STARTS_WITH=rootfs

Example 1: Create a new BE named BE1, by cloning the current live BE.


# beadm create BE1

Example 2: Create a new BE named BE2, by cloning the existing inactive BE named BE1.


# beadm create -e BE1 BE2

Example 3: Create a snapshot named now of the existing BE named BE1.


# beadm create BE1@now

Example 4: Create a new BE named BE3, by cloning an existing snapshot of BE1.


# beadm create -e BE1@now BE3

Example 5: Create a new BE named BE4 based on the currently running BE. Create the new BE in rpool2.


# beadm create -p rpool2 BE4

Example 6: Create a new BE named BE5 based on the currently running BE. Create the new BE in rpool2, and create its datasets with compression turned on.


# beadm create -p rpool2 -o compression=on BE5

Example 7: Create a new BE named BE6 based on the currently running BE and provide a description for it.


# beadm create -d "BE6 used as test environment" BE6

Example 8: Activate an existing, inactive BE named BE3.


# beadm activate BE3

Example 9: Mount the BE named BE3 at /mnt.


# beadm mount BE3 /mnt

Example 10: Unmount the mounted BE named BE3.


# beadm unmount BE3

Example 11: Destroy the BE named BE3 without verification.


# beadm destroy -f BE3

Example 12: Destroy the snapshot named now of BE1.


# beadm destroy BE1@now

Example 13: Rename the existing, inactive BE named BE1 to BE3.


# beadm rename BE1 BE3

Example 14: Roll back the BE named BE1 to snapshot BE1@now.


# beadm rollback BE1 BE1@now

Example 15: List all existing boot environments.


# beadm list
BE  Active Mountpoint Space  Policy Created
--  ------ ---------- -----  ------ -------
BE2 -      -          72.0K  static 2008-05-21 12:26
BE3 -      -          332.0K static 2008-08-26 10:28
BE4 -      -          15.78M static 2008-09-05 18:20
BE5 NR     /          7.25G  static 2008-09-09 16:53

Example 16: List all existing boot environments and list all dataset and snapshot information about those boot environments.


# beadm list -d -s
BE/Dataset/Snapshot     Active Mountpoint Space   Policy Created
-------------------     ------ ---------- -----   ------ -------
BE2


   p/ROOT/BE2           -      -          36.0K   static 2008-05-21 12:26


   p/ROOT/BE2/opt       -      -          18.0K   static 2008-05-21 16:26


   p/ROOT/BE2/opt@now   -      -          0       static 2008-09-08 22:43


   p/ROOT/BE2@now       -      -          0       static 2008-09-08 22:43
BE3


   p/ROOT/BE3           -      -          192.0K  static 2008-08-26 10:28


   p/ROOT/BE3/opt       -      -          86.0K   static 2008-08-26 10:28


   p/ROOT/BE3/opt/local -      -          36.0K   static 2008-08-28 10:58
BE4


   p/ROOT/BE4           -      -          15.78M  static 2008-09-05 18:20
BE5


   p/ROOT/BE5           NR     /          6.10G   static 2008-09-09 16:53


   p/ROOT/BE5/opt       -      /opt       24.55M  static 2008-09-09 16:53


   p/ROOT/BE5/opt@bar   -      -          18.38M  static 2008-09-10 00:59


   p/ROOT/BE5/opt@foo   -      -          18.38M  static 2008-06-10 16:37


   p/ROOT/BE5@bar       -      -          139.44M static 2008-09-10 00:59


   p/ROOT/BE5@foo       -      -          912.85M static 2008-06-10 16:37

Example 17: List all dataset and snapshot information about BE5


# beadm list -a BE5
BE/Dataset/Snapshot   Active Mountpoint Space   Policy Created
-------------------   ------ ---------- -----   ------ -------
BE5


   p/ROOT/BE5         NR     /          6.10G   static 2008-09-09 16:53


   p/ROOT/BE5/opt     -      /opt       24.55M  static 2008-09-09 16:53


   p/ROOT/BE5/opt@bar -      -          18.38M  static 2008-09-10 00:59


   p/ROOT/BE5/opt@foo -      -          18.38M  static 2008-06-10 16:37


   p/ROOT/BE5@bar     -      -          139.44M static 2008-09-10 00:59


   p/ROOT/BE5@foo     -      -          912.85M static 2008-06-10 16:37

Example 18: List machine parsable information about all boot environments.


# beadm list -H
BE2;;;;55296;static;1211397974
BE3;;;;339968;static;1219771706
BE4;;;;16541696;static;1220664051
BE5;215b8387-4968-627c-d2d0-f4a011414bab;NR;/;7786206208;static;1221004384

Example 19: Create and list temporary activation.


# beadm list
BE  Active Mountpoint Space  Policy Created
--  ------ ---------- -----  ------ -------
BE2 -      -          4,85M  static 2016-10-30 14:29
BE3 -      -          4,84M  static 2016-10-30 18:53
BE4 -      -          5,54M  static 2016-10-30 23:53
BE5 NR     /          12,6G  static 2016-11-06 01:46
# beadm create BE6
# beadm activate -t BE6
# beadm list
BE  Active Mountpoint Space  Policy Created
--  ------ ---------- -----  ------ -------
BE2 -      -          4,85M  static 2016-10-30 14:29
BE3 -      -          4,84M  static 2016-10-30 18:53
BE4 -      -          5,54M  static 2016-10-30 23:53
BE5 NR     /          60,0K  static 2016-11-06 01:46
BE6 T      -          12,6G  static 2016-11-06 12:56

The following exit values are returned:

0

Successful completion

>0

Failure

/var/log/beadm/<beName>/create.log.<yyyymmdd_hhmmss>

Log used for capturing beadm create output 

yyyymmdd_hhmmss - 20071130_140558
yy - year; 2007
mm - month; 11
dd - day; 30
hh - hour; 14
mm - minute; 05
ss - second; 58

/etc/default/be

Contains default value for BENAME_STARTS_WITH parameter

See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ATTRIBUTE TYPE ATTRIBUTE VALUE
Interface Stability Uncommitted

zfs(8)

March 10, 2023 OmniOS