Migrating a Solaris 11 Kernel Zone

Published 08 Jan 2015 Read time 1 min 57 sec(s) (662 views). Solaris

You can migrate a kernel zone to another host by using the zoneadm suspend command. For zone migrations, a zone configuration must be portable across machines. For example, you cannot use a zvol on the source host.

NOTE: A zone source and destination must be on the same platform for a zone migration. On x86 systems, the vendor as well as the CPU revision must be identical. On SPARC, the hardware platform must be the same. For example, you cannot migrate a kernel zone from a T4 host to a T3 host.

Procedure

For the benefit of this article we are running Oracle Solaris 11.2 on two Oracle SPARC T4-2 Servers (global-src and global-dest).

On both the source and destination global zones, become a superuser or administrator with the correct privilages.
Suspend the file system on the kernel zone to be migrated using:
```
zoneadm -z <zonename> suspend
```
For example to suspend kernal zone kzone1 on global zone global-src:
```
global-src# zoneadm -z kzone1 suspend
```
Detach the kernel zone file system on the global zone using:
```
zoneadm -z <zonename> detach
```
For example to detach kernal zone kzone1 on global zone global-src:
```
global-src# zoneadm -z kzone1 detach
```
Export the zone configuration and transfer the file to the new host using:
```
zonecfg -z <zonename> export | ssh root@newhost zonecfg -z <zonename> -f -
```
For example to export kernal zone kzone1 on global zone global-src and import on global-zone global-dest:
```
global-src# zonecfg -z kzone1 export | ssh root@global-dest zonecfg -z kzone1 -f -
```
Attach the exported zone on the new global zone using:
```
zoneadm -z <zonename> attach
```
For example to attach kernal zone kzone1 on global zone global-dest:
```
global-dest# zoneadm -z kzone1 attach
```
Boot the kernel zone on the new global zone to resume the migrated zone using:
```
zoneadm -z <zonename> boot
```
For example to boot kernal zone kzone1 on global zone global-dest:
```
global-dest# zoneadm -z kzone1 boot
```
NOTE: To prevent loss of the encryption key during a kernel zone migration, use the zonecfg export command on the source system to generate a command file to be used on the destination system. For example, to generate a command file for zone kzone2 migrated from global-src to global-dest:
```
global-src# zonecfg -z kzone2 export -f /net/.../kzone2.cfg
```
```
global-dest# zonecfg -z kzone2 -f /net/.../kzone2.cfg
```