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Upgrade from OpenSolaris 2008.05 to OpenSolaris 2008.11

Wednesday Dec 10, 2008

UPDATE, Dec 15 2008: As some of the fixes have been integrated back into OpenSolaris 2008.05, this is even simpler now.

Please see below at Evan's comment.

UPDATE, Dec 18 2008: The screencast now also reflects the simpler method.

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To my surprise, I've come across a few blogs and comments about the new OpenSolaris 2008.11, that mentioned that it is not possible to upgrade from OpenSolaris 2008.05 to this latest version.

That's incorrect.

Although it's not as straightforward as it should be, and as it is, in fact, now (with OpenSolaris 2008.11), but it is still possible on command line, with a few simple steps.

Checkout the screencast on how to do this:

In addition, the detailed step-by-step instructions are also posted on opensolaris.org.

Happy Upgrading !

OpenSolaris 2008.11

The Open Platform for the Future
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[8] Comments

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Posted at 09:52AM Dec 10, 2008 by Markus Weber in OpenSolaris
Tags: how-to opensolaris upgrade

Comments:

This is awesome Markus - thank you!

Posted by Glynn Foster on December 10, 2008 at 02:32 PM PST #

Why is the upgrade not straightforward? Why was it not possible to do it at the GRUB level(boot time like in fedora)? what are the problems involved? Please elaborate

Posted by Nischal on December 12, 2008 at 01:21 AM PST #

And also how do I do the upgrade if I have a very slow net connection? Please help.

Posted by Nischal on December 12, 2008 at 01:45 AM PST #

Nischal,
I do not know the exact technical reasons for the upgrade issues.
One of the key engineer on the OpenSolaris project, Stephen Hahn, referred on his blog ( http://blogs.sun.com/sch/entry/2008_11_a_roundup ) as "We got caught offguard by some misinteractions between GRUB, ZFS, and early startup; won't happen again".

If I find out more details, I'll let you know.

Posted by Markus Weber on December 12, 2008 at 11:30 AM PST #

Nischal,
for a slow network connection, I can think of two different approaches.

If applicable to you, you could always ask for a free LiveCD to be shipped free to you to get the latest image here: https://oscd.sun.com/

Another way to improve speed is to point to a network repository mirror as close to you as possible.
Or, if possible, even create one yourself, or find an organization near you to create one, by following those instructions:
http://www.opensolaris.org/os/project/pkg/Mirroring/

Maybe not the best answers. So again, if I can find out more, I will let you know.

Posted by Markus Weber on December 12, 2008 at 11:35 AM PST #

Please refer to the updated upgrade instructions many of the bugs that early on had made this upgrade not as straightforward as it should have been have been addressed. The instructions have been greatly simplified due to these fixes which have also been back published to 2008.05.
http://opensolaris.org/os/project/indiana/resources/relnotes/200805/image-update/

Much of the information in the webcast is no longer needed and can lead to confusion if followed. This is because it references the image-update instruction link but no longer matches that updated information.

Posted by Evan Layton on December 15, 2008 at 03:21 PM PST #

Evan,
thanks a lot for the info. This is actually excellent news.
I just tried the much more simple instructions, and it worked perfectly fine.

Posted by Markus Weber on December 15, 2008 at 04:59 PM PST #

It's great.

Posted by Alan Watson on March 09, 2009 at 09:11 AM PDT #