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Using ZFS for Zone Backups or Snapshots

Derek Crudgington, April 2006

Using ZFS for temporary zone backups or snapshots works great and is quick and easy. (Editor's note: ZFS is the new file system available in the OpenSolaris OS and scheduled for release in an update of the Solaris 10 OS.)

Create a ZFS file system for zone1 and set its mountpoint:

# zfs create pool1/zones/zone1
# zfs set mountpoint=/zones/zone1 pool1/zones/zone1

Configure the zone and set its zonepath=/zones/zone1:

# zonecfg -z zone1

and so on and so forth...

# zoneadm -z zone1 install
# zoneadm -z zone1 boot
# zlogin -C zone1

and so on and so forth...

# zoneadm list -vc
ID NAME STATUS PATH
0 global running /
3 zone1 running /zones/zone1

Take a snapshot of the zone just as it is and call it test. Nothing is created inside the zone yet.

# zfs snapshot pool1/zones/zone1@test
# zlogin zone1
[Connected to zone 'zone1' pts/2]
Last login: Mon Nov 28 14:35:20 on pts/1
Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.11 snv_27 October 2007
# ls
bin etc home mnt opt proc system usr
dev export lib net platform sbin tmp var

Make files in the zone. We will revert back to the old one without these momentarily:

# mkfile 50m testfile
# mkfile 100m testfile1
# ls
bin export mnt platform system tmp
dev home net proc testfile usr
etc lib opt sbin testfile1 var

# exit
# zonename
global

Now, back in the global zone, let's do a rollback to the snapshot where it doesn't have testfile and testfile1.

# zfs rollback -r pool1/zones/zone1@test
cannot umount '/zones': Device busy

Oops! We forgot to shut down the zone first:

# zoneadm -z zone1 halt
# zfs rollback -r pool1/zones/zone1@test
# zoneadm -z zone1 boot

This whole rollback procedure took about five seconds.

Let's log in to the zone to see if the files are gone and if the rollback was successful:

# zlogin zone1
[Connected to zone 'zone1' pts/2]
Last login: Mon Nov 28 14:35:20 on pts/1
Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.11 snv_27 October 2007
# ls
bin etc home mnt opt proc system usr
dev export lib net platform sbin tmp var 

About the Author

Derek Crudgington can be reached at dacrud@gmail.com, or you can check out his web site at http://hell.jedicoder.net.

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