First „free“ Oracle Solaris 11.4 CBE

Very great news in the Solaris universe; Oracle just announced a Common Build Environment (CBE) the first time for Solaris 11.4 operating system, free to use for non-productive and development environments.
Solaris 11.0 GA was released more than 10 years ago in 2011, 11.4 in August 2018, and with the switch to a continuous delivery model many new features have been added which were only available to customers with a valid support contract.
With the new CBE version everyone who is interested in Solaris can try and download it for a demo, PoC or to develop and build their own software on a „current“ version including features, updates and security patches.
Intial installation ISO images on the Oracle Solaris 11.4 downloads page are planned to be made available soon. Solaris is installed in 5 to 10 minutes on Virtual Box, perhaps there will be a ready to use image as well.
And Oracle intention is to periodically deliver CBE releases. If you are running an older Solaris 11.4 release like the GA with the default publisher repository you will be able to update using „pkg update“.
Oracle announced Solaris Support at least until 2034 some years ago. I hope that we will see a lot of CBE versions in the next 10+ years to give developers a chance and show everyone how cool, nice and easy but super mighty an UNIX can be 😉

The official blog by Darren Moffat:
https://blogs.oracle.com/solaris/post/announcing-the-first-oracle-solaris-114-cbe

Solaris 11.3 Restore rpool

I recently had the pleasure of restoring a Solaris IO domain backup on a T5-8 server. We lost the complete PCIe path to the local disks due to a hardware failure, but wanted to restore partial functionality for the guest LDOMs like vnet and at least one SAN HBA as soon as possible for more redundancy. To do this, I got a new SAN LUN and was able to restore the backup to it using a saved ZFS stream. To do this, I had to re-establish the network connections to be able to access the NFS share of the backups. First of all I had to boot from a Solaris medium, in my case it was a virtual ISO binding through my primary domain:

root@primary # ldm add-vdsdev options=ro /downloads/sol-11_3-text-sparc.iso sol11-3.iso@primary-vds
root@primary # ldm add-vdisk sol11-3.iso sol11-3.iso@primary-vds io-domain

Now I had a recovery medium but to do my restore, I had to re-establish the network connections to be able to access the backup NFS share. In my case the whole server and LDOMs are connected to the network using a LACP datalink and cabsulated VLANs (I think CISCO would call it port channel vlan trunk).
BTW; the password for a Solaris installation ISO booted into single-user is “solaris”

{0} ok show-disks
a) /pci@5c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,emlxs@0,1/fp@0,0/disk
b) /pci@5c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,emlxs@0/fp@0,0/disk
c) /virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/disk@0
d) /iscsi-hba/disk
q) NO SELECTION
Enter Selection, q to quit: c
/virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/disk@0 has been selected.
Type ^Y ( Control-Y ) to insert it in the command line.
e.g. ok nvalias mydev ^Y
         for creating devalias mydev for /virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/disk@0
{0} ok boot /virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/disk@0 -s
Boot device: /virtual-devices@100/channel-devices@200/disk@0  File and args: -s
SunOS Release 5.11 Version 11.3 64-bit
[...]
Enter user name for system maintenance (control-d to bypass): root
Enter root password (control-d to bypass):							
single-user privilege assigned to root on /dev/console.
Entering System Maintenance Mode

root@solaris:~#
root@solaris:~# dladm show-phys
LINK              MEDIA                STATE      SPEED  DUPLEX    DEVICE
net1              Ethernet             up         10000  full      ixgbe1
net4              Ethernet             up         0      unknown   vnet0
net3              Ethernet             unknown    0      unknown   vsw1
net5              Ethernet             up         0      unknown   vnet1
net2              Ethernet             unknown    0      unknown   vsw0
net0              Ethernet             up         10000  full      ixgbe0

root@solaris:~# ipadm delete-ip net0
Jun  4 13:10:29 in.ndpd[722]: Interface net0 has been removed from kernel. in.ndpd will no longer use it
root@solaris:~# ipadm delete-ip net1
Jun  4 13:10:33 in.ndpd[722]: Interface net1 has been removed from kernel. in.ndpd will no longer use it
root@solaris:~#
root@solaris:~# dladm create-aggr -P L4 -L active -T long -l net0 -l net1 aggr0
root@solaris:~# dladm create-vlan -l aggr0 -v 1670 vl1670
root@solaris:~#
root@solaris:~# ipadm create-ip vl1670
root@solaris:~# ipadm create-addr -T static -a 10.10.9.46/24 vl1670/prod0
root@solaris:~#
root@solaris:~# ping 10.10.9.44
10.10.9.44 is alive  <-- just a test to my primary
root@solaris:~#
root@solaris:~# route add default 10.10.9.1
add net default: gateway 10.10.9.1
root@solaris:~# ping 10.10.10.123
10.10.10.123 is alive  <-- that's my NFS in another subnet
root@solaris:~#
root@solaris:~# dfshares 10.10.10.123
RESOURCE                                  SERVER ACCESS    TRANSPORT
10.10.10.123:/install                 10.10.10.123  -         -
10.10.10.123:/sysbackup               10.10.10.123  -         -
root@solaris:~#
root@solaris:~# mount -F nfs 10.10.10.123:/sysbackup /mnt
root@solaris:~# cd /mnt/zfssnap
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap# ls -lathr rpool.t5sol03_*
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody   nobody       41G Apr 18 02:06 rpool.t5sol03_2
-rw-r--r--   1 nobody   nobody       41G May  3 02:07 rpool.t5sol03_1
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap#

Ah, good to see, I got a backup being not so old, but in my case it's "just" an io-domain; so there is not really anything going on there, it's just providing redundant resources/paths for my guest LDOMs. I had to identify my new LUN which was easy because it was the only LUN without a label. You have to label it with VTOC (not EFI) to restore and make it bootable again:

root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap# format
Searching for disks...WARNING: /pci@5c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,emlxs@0/fp@0,0/ssd@w50060e8007296156,1c (ssd18):
        Corrupt label; wrong magic number

WARNING: /pci@5c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,emlxs@0/fp@0,0/ssd@w50060e8007296156,1c (ssd18):
        Corrupt label; wrong magic number

done

c2t50060E8007296156d28: configured with capacity of 99.99GB
[...]
^d
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap# format -L vtoc -d c2t50060E8007296156d28
Searching for disks...WARNING: /pci@5c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,emlxs@0/fp@0,0/ssd@w50060e8007296156,1c (ssd18):
        Corrupt label; wrong magic number

WARNING: /pci@5c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,emlxs@0/fp@0,0/ssd@w50060e8007296156,1c (ssd18):
        Corrupt label; wrong magic number

done

c2t50060E8007296156d28: configured with capacity of 99.99GB
selecting c2t50060E8007296156d28
[disk formatted]
WARNING: /pci@5c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,emlxs@0/fp@0,0/ssd@w50060e8007296156,1c (ssd18):
        Corrupt label; wrong magic number

WARNING: /pci@5c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,emlxs@0/fp@0,0/ssd@w50060e8007296156,1c (ssd18):
        Corrupt label; wrong magic number

WARNING: /pci@5c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,emlxs@0/fp@0,0/ssd@w50060e8007296156,1c (ssd18):
        Corrupt label; wrong magic number

c2t50060E8007296156d28 is labeled with VTOC successfully.
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap#
root@solaris:/# echo | format | grep c2t50060E8007296156d28
      43. c2t50060E8007296156d28 

OK; ready to restore... after creating a new rpool I used the latest backup ZFS send stream. We created a VTOC label, so we need to use slice 0 to enable OBP boot.

root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap# zpool create rpool c2t50060E8007296156d28s0
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap# zfs receive -Fv rpool < rpool.t5sol03_1
receiving full stream of rpool@t5sol03 into rpool@t5sol03
received 91.8KB stream in 1 seconds (91.8KB/sec)
receiving full stream of rpool/swap@t5sol03 into rpool/swap@t5sol03
received 10.0GB stream in 45 seconds (228MB/sec)
receiving full stream of rpool/dump@t5sol03 into rpool/dump@t5sol03
received 16.0GB stream in 72 seconds (228MB/sec)
receiving full stream of rpool/VARSHARE@t5sol03 into rpool/VARSHARE@t5sol03
received 6.61MB stream in 1 seconds (6.61MB/sec)
receiving full stream of rpool/VARSHARE/pkg@t5sol03 into rpool/VARSHARE/pkg@t5sol03
received 47.9KB stream in 1 seconds (47.9KB/sec)
receiving full stream of rpool/VARSHARE/pkg/repositories@t5sol03 into rpool/VARSHARE/pkg/repositories@t5sol03
received 46.3KB stream in 1 seconds (46.3KB/sec)
receiving full stream of rpool/VARSHARE/zones@t5sol03 into rpool/VARSHARE/zones@t5sol03
received 46.3KB stream in 1 seconds (46.3KB/sec)
receiving full stream of rpool/export@t5sol03 into rpool/export@t5sol03
received 900KB stream in 1 seconds (900KB/sec)
receiving full stream of rpool/ROOT@t5sol03 into rpool/ROOT@t5sol03
received 46.3KB stream in 1 seconds (46.3KB/sec)
receiving full stream of rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@install into rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@install
received 2.17GB stream in 16 seconds (139MB/sec)
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@2015-09-30-11:24:26 into rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@2015-09-30-11:24:26
received 3.29GB stream in 20 seconds (168MB/sec)
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@2015-10-15-08:39:59 into rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@2015-10-15-08:39:59
received 1.32GB stream in 10 seconds (136MB/sec)
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@2015-11-05-10:05:16 into rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@2015-11-05-10:05:16
received 468MB stream in 6 seconds (78.0MB/sec)
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@2015-11-16-10:04:06 into rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@2015-11-16-10:04:06
received 345MB stream in 5 seconds (68.9MB/sec)
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@t5sol03 into rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@t5sol03
received 3.77GB stream in 23 seconds (168MB/sec)
receiving full stream of rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@install into rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@install
received 146MB stream in 1 seconds (146MB/sec)
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@2015-09-30-11:24:26 into rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@2015-09-30-11:24:26
received 727MB stream in 5 seconds (145MB/sec)
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@2015-10-15-08:39:59 into rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@2015-10-15-08:39:59
received 341MB stream in 2 seconds (171MB/sec)
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@2015-11-05-10:05:16 into rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@2015-11-05-10:05:16
received 288MB stream in 2 seconds (144MB/sec)
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@2015-11-16-10:04:06 into rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@2015-11-16-10:04:06
received 819MB stream in 6 seconds (136MB/sec)
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@t5sol03 into rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@t5sol03
received 802MB stream in 5 seconds (160MB/sec)
found clone origin rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@2015-11-16-10:04:06
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.2.15.0.5.1@t5sol03 into rpool/ROOT/11.2.15.0.5.1@t5sol03
received 89.9MB stream in 5 seconds (18.0MB/sec)
found clone origin rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@2015-11-16-10:04:06
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.2.15.0.5.1/var@t5sol03 into rpool/ROOT/11.2.15.0.5.1/var@t5sol03
received 18.4MB stream in 1 seconds (18.4MB/sec)
found clone origin rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@2015-11-05-10:05:16
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.2.15.0.4.0@t5sol03 into rpool/ROOT/11.2.15.0.4.0@t5sol03
received 179MB stream in 5 seconds (35.9MB/sec)
found clone origin rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@2015-11-05-10:05:16
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.2.15.0.4.0/var@t5sol03 into rpool/ROOT/11.2.15.0.4.0/var@t5sol03
received 13.3MB stream in 1 seconds (13.3MB/sec)
found clone origin rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@2015-10-15-08:39:59
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.2.14.0.5.0@t5sol03 into rpool/ROOT/11.2.14.0.5.0@t5sol03
received 179MB stream in 4 seconds (44.7MB/sec)
found clone origin rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@2015-10-15-08:39:59
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.2.14.0.5.0/var@t5sol03 into rpool/ROOT/11.2.14.0.5.0/var@t5sol03
received 13.3MB stream in 1 seconds (13.3MB/sec)
found clone origin rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0@2015-09-30-11:24:26
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.2.10.0.5.0@t5sol03 into rpool/ROOT/11.2.10.0.5.0@t5sol03
received 16.8MB stream in 1 seconds (16.8MB/sec)
found clone origin rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var@2015-09-30-11:24:26
receiving incremental stream of rpool/ROOT/11.2.10.0.5.0/var@t5sol03 into rpool/ROOT/11.2.10.0.5.0/var@t5sol03
received 9.42MB stream in 1 seconds (9.42MB/sec)
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap#
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap# zfs list | grep rpool
rpool                            67.0G  30.9G  73.5K  /rpool
rpool/ROOT                       14.2G  30.9G    31K  legacy
rpool/ROOT/11.2.10.0.5.0         11.5M  30.9G  4.29G  /
rpool/ROOT/11.2.10.0.5.0/var     4.34M  30.9G   400M  /var
rpool/ROOT/11.2.14.0.5.0          126M  30.9G  4.42G  /
rpool/ROOT/11.2.14.0.5.0/var     5.75M  30.9G   406M  /var
rpool/ROOT/11.2.15.0.4.0          127M  30.9G  4.43G  /
rpool/ROOT/11.2.15.0.4.0/var     5.76M  30.9G   416M  /var
rpool/ROOT/11.2.15.0.5.1         39.5M  30.9G  4.42G  /
rpool/ROOT/11.2.15.0.5.1/var     7.44M  30.9G   531M  /var
rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0          13.9G  30.9G  4.87G  /
rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0/var      2.92G  30.9G   868M  /var
rpool/VARSHARE                   6.65M  30.9G  6.56M  /var/share
rpool/VARSHARE/pkg                 63K  30.9G    32K  /var/share/pkg
rpool/VARSHARE/pkg/repositories    31K  30.9G    31K  /var/share/pkg/repositories
rpool/VARSHARE/zones               31K  30.9G    31K  /system/zones
rpool/dump                       32.5G  47.4G  16.0G  -
rpool/export                      802K  30.9G   802K  /export
rpool/swap                       20.3G  41.2G  10.0G  -
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap# 

That took some minutes, you can see it's quite fast over a 10g network to a SAN LUN.
Now we have to make the pool and the disk bootable installing a bootloader, again VTOC slice 0.

root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap# zpool set bootfs=rpool/ROOT/11.3.2.0.4.0 rpool
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap#
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap# beadm mount 11.3.2.0.4.0 /tmp/mnt
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap# installboot -F zfs /tmp/mnt/platform/`uname -i`/lib/fs/zfs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/c2t50060E8007296156d28s0
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap# beadm umount 11.3.2.0.4.0
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap# beadm activate 11.3.2.0.4.0
root@solaris:/mnt/zfssnap# cd / ; umount /mnt
root@solaris:/# init 0

The last step is to identify the LUN in OBP; in my case we saw it had the SCSI LUN depth identifier "d28" in the end; in older device naming conventions "d" stands for "drive number". It's the 28th LUN from this HDS storage; in OBP we need to convert it from "base 10" to hexadecimal -> that's "1c" then (16based).

root@solaris:/# echo | format | grep c2t50060E8007296156d28
      43. c2t50060E8007296156d28 

So we will take the hardware path, which you already saw in the format output before; but you could also see it using "show-disks" or "probe-scsi-all" in OBP and add the WWN, you would see again in your "probe-scsi-all" output or the "super long" SCSI address in your format menue, followed by the "drive number" and slice "0":

{0} ok devalias backupdisk  /pci@5c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,emlxs@0/fp@0,0/disk@w50060e8007296156,1c:0
{0} ok setenv boot-device backupdisk
{0} ok boot                                                  
Boot device: /pci@5c0/pci@1/pci@0/pci@8/SUNW,emlxs@0/fp@0,0/disk@w50060e8007296156,1c:0  File and args:
SunOS Release 5.11 Version 11.3 64-bit
Copyright (c) 1983, 2015, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Hostname: io-domain

io-domain console login:

YEAH! It's up again 😉

If you know all steps and commands, such a full Solaris OS restore takes about 10-15 minutes; that's really nice and "easy". Hope you will never get in that situation but always remember, that backup was just done by sending a ZFS snapshot archive to an external NFS. To commands could save your "life":

# zfs snapshot -r rpool@backup
# zfs send -R rpool@backup > /NFS

I don't say that's the solution for all circumstances; and you could automate many steps for that; but as an admin, it so much easier to get the full OS back than handling a third party backup tool with bare metal restores in case of emergency. After restoring your OS you will have your backup-agent running properly again and could restore application data if needed.
Stay save and have fun!

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I, Martin PRESSLABER (Place of residence: Austria), process personal data to operate this website only to the extent technically necessary. All details in my privacy policy.