[SunHELP] ZFS recovery

[Neurodancer]

On 17 Jun 2014, at 10:31 AM, microcode at zoho.com wrote:

>> The server would not boot, dropping to grub instead of loading
>> Solaris. grub was unable to see any files, and I got incorrect partition
>> type errors. I tried booting from each mirror drive individually, same
>> problems. 
> 
> Sounds like mobo settings. Double check AHCI is the same as for the install,
> especially.

This is a Dell T105 and the only setting is to turn SATA on or off.

>> I installed OpenIndiana and it was unable to import the drives from
>> Solaris 10. It said they were damaged which I expected, and to use -f to
>> force the import. However, then OI said that the pools had incompatible
>> features/versions. 
> 
> Yeah, because OI branched from the S10 filesystem code.
> 
>> 
>> I assumed since OI had much newer code that it would be able to load
>> Solaris 10 volumes but evidently not. 
> 
> Nope, incompatible in some case in both directions.

Ouch... I had really hoped to not see that. Its really too bad because ZFS is so neat, but I find the version issue to be really a PITA.

>> OK, so... anyone have any idea what is going on? Why does the system halt
>> at grub and cannot see the zpools, but Solaris 11 can? 
> 
> Check mobo settings, AHCI, RAID, etc. If you boot an S10 installer it should
> also be able to see the zpools. If it does, then you should be able to boot
> in service mode and installboot grub and everything magically works again.

Solaris won't boot, period. Solaris 10 and 11 installers can see the pools. 

I can't think of what might be damaged on both mirrored drives that stops booting but doesn't keep Solaris installers from seeing and mounting the volumes.