Sun Solaris zonecfg commands

In the last post, I had explained the usage of zoneadm command for Solaris servers, now in this post we will get the information about the "zonecfg" command. 

This is very useful command which is mostly used during configuration of new zone or installed zone as well as for removal of any zone configuration files.

1. Command for creating a Solaris zone:

Please find the below commands to creating a zone on Sun Solaris server. The command must be run on Global zone with root user.

[sun]#zonecfg -z <zone>

Example: [sun]#zonecfg -z sunz01

Once you run the above command, you can enter in the configuration file, where you can add or edit the configuration for the zone.

2. Command for deleting a Solaris zone:

Please find the below command to deleting a Solaris zone from Global zone.

[sun]#zonecfg -z <zone> delete -F

Example: [sun]#zonecfg -z sunz01 delete -F

using above command you can delete or remove the configuration file of solaris local zone.

Note: You need to shutdown and uninstall the local zone before deleting the configuration files of Sun Solaris local zone.

3. Command for display zone current configuration:

Please find the below command to display the current configuration of local Solaris zones.

[sun]#zonecfg -z <zone> info

Example: [sun]#zonecfg -z sunz01 info

This command output show you the zonename, zonepath, autoboot etc attributes information of the solaris zone.

4. Command for zone creation file:

Please find the below command to create a solaris zone creation file.

[sun]#zonecfg -z <zone> export

Example: [sun]#zonecfg -z sunz0 export

Once the creation file has been export you can use this file to another zone creation as well as for restoration of this local zone if any problem occur on this zone.

How to create whole root zone on Solaris 11

In this post we will see how to install  zone on Solaris 11. In my last post regarding the zone creation you see the zone creation steps about Solaris 10.

Before going to main installation part we need to understand the basic installation methods difference between Solaris 10 & Solaris 11. 

In Solaris 10, we can’t install it without configuring repo on Solaris while in Solaris 11 ,first we need to create a  Solaris 11 repo , then we can install Solaris local zone. In Solaris 11, all the local zones by default uses exclusive ip address. You can’t set the IP address while configuring the zone. After the installation of zone, you can able to configure the IP from the local zone itself.

On my Solaris 11 machine I have already installed one local zone which is used for my R&D work so for this post work I need to install second local zone. So I will clone it from the first local zone.

Step by step method to create a zone on Solaris 11:-

1. In the first step we will create a new local zone. For the zone creation we will used "zonecfg" command and configure the zones as whole root zone without any options supplied.

#zonecfg -z sun02

sun02: No such zone configured

Use 'create' to begin configuring a new zone.

zonecfg:sun> create

zonecfg:sun> info

zonename: sun02

zonepath:

brand: native

autoboot: false

bootargs:

pool:

limitpriv:

scheduling-class:

ip-type: shared

hostid:

zonecfg:sun> set zonepath=/zones/sun02

zonecfg:sun > add anet

zonecfg:sun:anet> set linkname=net0

zonecfg:sun:anet> end

zonecfg:sun > verfiy

zonecfg:sun > commit

zonecfg:sun > exit

In the above step, we will create a zne and set the zonepath. In my case my new solaris zone path is "/zones/sun02" in your case you can change your installation zone path. Here, I assign the network interface "net0" for this newly zone.

2. After successfully zone creation in above step 1, we will go for start the Solaris zone installation in this step. As I explained you for solaris 11 local zone installation we required solaris 11 repo which is used for installation part.

sun#zoneadm -z sun02 install

The following ZFS file system(s) have been created:

    rpool/zones/sun02

Progress being logged to /var/log/zones/zoneadm.30220110Z233232Z.sun02.install

       Image: Preparing at /zones/sun02/root.

 AI Manifest: /tmp/manifest.xml.F_ayqq

  SC Profile: /usr/share/auto_install/sc_profiles/enable_sci.xml

    Zonename: sun02

Installation: Starting ...

              Creating IPS image

Startup linked: 1/1 done

        Installing packages from:

solaris  origin:  http://localhost:1008/solaris/ce43f14c4791b5320596e2023cde1ec08709a3af/

DOWNLOAD                                PKGS         FILES    XFER (MB)   SPEED

Completed                            183/183   33556/33556  222.2/222.2  139k/s

PHASE                                          ITEMS

Installing new actions                   46825/46825

Updating package state database               Done

Updating image state                          Done

Creating fast lookup database                 Done

Installation: Succeeded

Note:Man pages can be obtained by installing pkg:/system/manual done. Done: Installation completed in 2392.837 seconds.

Now our newly zone "sun02" has been installed successfully. All the configuration files are keep in /zones/sun02/root directory.

3. In this step we will boot the newly installed zone "sun02".

sun#zoneadm -z sun02 boot

You can check the status of zone that it is running or not after boot.

sun#zoneadm list -icv

ID NAME      STATUS     PATH          BRAND    IP

   0 global   running    /            solaris  shared

   1 sun01    running    /zones/sun01 solaris  excl

   3 sun02    running    /zones/sun02 solaris  excl

if you see the above output newly zone "sun02" is running working fine on the solaris 11 operating system.

4. Now in the next step, we will login on the local zone console to complete the configuration process.

sun# zlogin -C sun02

[Connected to zone 'sun02' console]

You can press enter when you will get this message. Now it is asking for some configuration step we need to give a details one by one.

Time Zone: Regions

select the region that contains your time zone.

Regions

UTC/GMT

Africa

Americas

Antarctica

Arctic Ocean

Asia

Atlantic Ocean

Australia

Europe

Indian Ocean

Pacific Ocean

F2_Continue  F3_Back  F6_Help  F9_Quit

Time Zone: Locations

Select the location that contains your time zone.

Locations

x Afghanistan

x Armenia

x Azerbaijan

x Bahrain

x Bangladesh

x Bhutan

x Brunei

x Cambodia

x China

x Cyprus

x East Timor

x Georgia

x Hong Kong

v India

F2_Continue  F3_Back  F6_Help  F9_Quit

Time Zone

Select your time zone.

Time Zones

Asia/Kolkata

F2_Continue  F3_Back  F6_Help  F9_Quit

System Configuration Summary

Review the settings below before continuing. Go back (F3) to make changes.

Time Zone: Asia/Kolkata

Language: *The following can be changed when logging in.

Default language: C/POSIX

Terminal type: vt100

Users:

No user account

Network:

Computer name: sun02

Network Configuration: Automatic

Support configuration:

Not generating a Support profile as OCM and ASR services are not installed.

Hostname: sun02

So now your zone is fully configured ans installed successfully. You can login in zone very easily. So in next step we will see the post configuration settings which is required on local solaris zone.

5. In the final step you need login to local zone sun02 and configured the ip address on the zone sun02.

sun#zlogin -z sun02

You can successfully login in your newly created solaris 11 zone. Please leave a comment if you have any doubt ,i will get back to you as soon as possible.