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Man Pages
BEADM(1) FreeBSD General Commands Manual BEADM(1)

beadm
Utility to manage Boot Environments with ZFS

beadm activate ⟨beName

beadm create [-e nonActiveBe | -e beName@snapshot] ⟨beName

beadm create ⟨beName@snapshot

beadm destroy [-F] ⟨beName | beName@snapshot

beadm list [-a] [-D] [-H] [-s]

beadm mount ⟨beName⟩ [mountpoint]

beadm rename ⟨origBeName⟩ ⟨newBeName

beadm { umount | unmount } [-f] ⟨beName

beadm version

The beadm command is used to setup and interact with Boot Environments with ZFS.

Boot Environments allows the system to be upgraded, while preserving the old system environment in a separate ZFS dataset.

The following commands are supported by beadm:
<beName>

Activate the given beName for the next boot.

[-e nonActiveBe | -e beName@snapshot] ⟨beName

Creates a new boot environment named beName. If the -e param is specified, the new environment will be cloned from the given nonActiveBe | beName@snapshot.

beName@snapshot

Creates a snapshot of the existing boot environment named beName.

[-F] ⟨beName | beName@snapshot

Destroys the given beName boot environment or beName@snapshot snapshot. Specifying -F will automatically unmount without confirmation.

[-a] [-D] [-H] [-s]

Displays all boot environments. The Active field indicates whether the boot environment is active now (N); active on reboot (R); or both (NR). If -a is used, display all datasets. If -D is used, display the full space usage for each boot environment, assuming all other boot environments were destroyed. The -H option is used for scripting. It does not print headers and separate fields by a single tab instead of arbitrary white space. If -s is used, display all snapshots as well.

beName⟩ [mountpoint]

Temporarily mount the boot environment. Mount at the specified mountpoint if provided.

origBeName⟩ ⟨newBeName

Renames the given nonactive origBeName to the given newBeName

[-f] ⟨beName

Unmount the given boot environment, if it is mounted. Specifying -f will force the unmount if busy.

List the beadm version and exit.

  • Perform a system upgrade in a jail(8)

    Create a new boot environment called jailed:

    beadm create -e default jailed

    Set mountpoint for new jail to /usr/jails/jailed:

    beadm mount jailed /usr/jails/jailed

    The currently active boot environment is now replicated into the jailed system and ready for upgrade. Startup the jail, login and perform the normal upgrade process. Once this is done, stop the jail and disable it in /etc/rc.conf.

    Now activate the boot environment for the next boot

    beadm activate jailed

    Reboot into the new environment

    reboot

A HOWTO guide is posted at the FreeBSD forums:
  • http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=31662

jail(8), zfs(8), zpool(8)

beadm(1M) originally appeared in Solaris.

  • Slawomir Wojciech Wojtczak (vermaden) vermaden@interia.pl

    Creator and maintainer of beadm.

  • Bryan Drewery (bdrewery) bryan@shatow.net

    Wrote this manual page and contributed child dataset fixes.

  • Mike Clarke (rawthey) jmc-fbsd@milibyte.co.uk

    Wrote fast implementation of beadm list.

    Contributed a lot of fixes and usability changes.

September 4, 2012 FreeBSD

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