Solved: How to create a flar image in Solaris and restore it forrecovery

Flar image is a good way to recover your system from crashes. In this post we will see how to create a flar image and use it for recovery of the system.
Flar Creation

• It is recommended that you create flar image in single user mode. Shutdown server and boot it in single user.

#init 0ok>boot -s

• In this example, the FLAR image will be stored to a directory under /flash. The FLAR image will be named recovery_image.flar .

flarcreate -n my_bkp_image1 -c -S -R / -x /flash /flash/recovery_image.flar

• Once the flar image is created. Copy it to your repository system. Here we are using NFS.

cp -p /flash/recovery_image.flar /net/FLAR_recovery/recovery_image.flar

Flar Restoration

• To restore a flar image start the boot process.
• You can boot server either with Solaris CD/DVD or Network
• Go to the ok prompt and run one of the below command:-

For booting the boot media (installation CD/DVD). ok> boot cdromIf you want to boot from network do. 

ok> boot net

• Provide the network, date/time, and password information for the system.
• Once you reach the “Solaris Interactive Installation” part, select “Flash”.
• Provide the path to the system with location of the FLAR image:
  /net/FLAR_recovery/recovery_image.flar
• Select the correct Retrieval Method (HTTP, FTP, NFS) to locate the FLAR image.
• At the Disk Selection screen, select the disk where the FLAR image is to be installed.
• Choose not to preserve existing data.(Be sure you want to restore on selected disk)
• At the File System and Disk Layout screen, select Customize to edit the disk slices to input the values of the disk partition table from the original disk.
• Once the system is rebooted the recovery is complete.