Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance Racked System ZS5-4
 
Sun ZFS Storage 7320
 
Oracle ZFS Storage ZS3-BA
 
Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance Racked System ZS5-2
 
Oracle ZFS Storage ZS3-2
 
Oracle ZFS Storage ZS3-4
 
Oracle ZFS Storage ZS5-2
 
Sun ZFS Storage 7420
 

PLA-Support>Sun Systems>DISK>ZFS Storage>SN-DK: 7xxx NAS
 

In this Document

Symptoms

Changes

Cause

Solution

References

Created from <SR 3-11348929271>

Applies to:

Symptoms

After incorrectly manually upgrading the system zpool on the appliance to the latest zpool version, the appliance will not boot.

Changes

The system zpool version was incorrectly manually upgraded by using a zpool command.

Cause

The appliance has only certain supported system zpool versions.

The version of grub currently in the array code does not recognize zpool versions above 33.

Solution

NOTE: For Appliance Kit code versions up to 8.6.X the system zpool version is 13. It has not changed from 2008 code versions through to 2013.1.6.X

NOTE: Appliance Kit code version 8.7.0 upgrades the system zpool version to 33. A higher zpool version will still not boot.

This information is in the ak8.7.0 release notes regarding the ability to rollback once at the ak8.7.0 version:

"Important: Due to changes in the system pool version and other underlying
mechanisms, software release OS8.7.0 (2013.1.7.0) can be rolled back up to and
including OS8.2.0 (2013.1.2.0). Rolling back to an earlier software release than
OS8.2.0 will result in unpredictable behavior"

NOTE: For Appliance Kit code versions up to 8.6.X the expected version of the system zpool is 13 but the current grub will boot any version up to zpool version 33.

It is expected that a future version of ak code will have an updated grub that will allow booting of upgraded system zpool versions above 33.

The current version expected to have the fix for this is os8.7.

Note from Phill Hughes:

"GRUB in 8.7 supports pool version 33. Upgrading the system pool version to 35 will render the system unbootable and require a reinstall.

As has always been the case, a manual upgrade of the appliance system pool (or user pool) version is not supported and has the potential to cause major problems.

As part of the 8.7 upgrade process the system pool version will be upgraded to version 33. This was done to allow the system dump device to be rebuilt with a 1m block size, improving system dump times.

Upgrading GRUB in 8.7 to support version 35 introduced some upgrade/rollback scenarios that could also lead to an unbootable system so GRUB was left alone (see notes in 23053032)."

If the system zpool version was upgraded manually, by using a zpool command, to a version above 33 then the only way to recover is to fishstick the array and this must be done by Oracle Technical support.

As indicated - by the prompt shown when entering the emergency shell - commands are only to be executed in the shell by qualified Oracle Support personnel.

In the array, the only supported way for zpool upgrades to be done is through an upgrade of the Appliance Kit code.

If any zpool is running at any particular version and there are no deferred updates listed in the Updates section, then that particular zpool version is the current version.

The output below shows the 'good/optimal' status for an appliance system zpool :

References

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