Solaris Flash Archive

You can back up your Solaris operating environment (not the data) by creating a Flash archive. Previously in this chapter, you learned how to back up your operating system by using ufsdump and specifying a level 0 dump of the root (/), /usr, and other operating systemrelated file systems. The Flash archive feature can be used as a backup or to replicate an installation on a number of systems, called clone systems. (A description of the Flash archive is provided in Chapter 2. Installing a Flash Archive is also described in Chapter 14, "Advanced Installation Procedures.")

After the system has been set up and configured (but before it goes into production) is a good time to create the archive. While you're in single-user mode, you use the flarcreate command to create the Solaris Flash archive. The following is the syntax for this command:

flarcreate -n <name> <options> <path>/<filename>

The arguments for the command are described in Table 7.16.

Table 7.16. Arguments to the flarcreate Command

Argument	Description
<name>	Specifies the name that you give the archive.
<path>	Specifies the path to the directory in which you want to save the archive file. If you do not specify a path for saving the archive, flarcreate saves the archive file in the current directory.
<filename>	Specifies the name of the archive file.

Many options are available for the flarcreate command, and they are described in Chapter 13. The following example shows the options you use to create an archive of the entire operating environment on the local tape drive:

flarcreate -n osarchive -t /dev/rmt/0

The -n option allows you to identify the archive with a unique name. It is not the name with which the archive will be stored, however. The -t option specifies that the archive will be stored to tape.

If the archive creation is successful, the flarcreate command returns the exit code 0. If the archive creation fails, the flarcreate command returns a nonzero exit code.

You can use the flar command to administer archives. The flar command includes subcommands for extracting information, splitting archives, and combining archives.

You can use the flar command with the -i option to get information about archives you have already created, as follows:

flar -i /data/vararchive

The system responds with the following:

files_archived_method=cpio
creation_date=20020327221216
creation_master=ultra5
content_name=vararchive
files_compressed_method=none
files_archived_size=34472960
content_architectures=sun4u