yes, in FreeBSD you can reference disks by their SN by using the path /dev/diskid/DISK-${SN}, if the sysctl 'kern.geom.label.disk_ident.enable' is set to 1 (as by default).

Hi. I am facing a strange issue here with my OmniOS install. I have a pkgsrc zone running znc & irssi. I have set up both program. It used to work for a long time this way. Then, some days ago I have modified the configuration of ZNC and I have used that way for some days. But yesterday I had to reboot the machine, and while the zone started, the config change I did some days ago is missing.

I suspect this can be a boot-environment thing.

is it possible that a package update created and activated a new BE, and then you didn't reboot immediately but instead made a config change to the running BE?

beadm list and beadm mount the previous BE and see if it has the missing config change..

yes, that can be possible. If I run "zfs list" in the zone I see 13 different boot environment.

or, well, one of the previous be's if there are that many...

this is what I see: pastebin.com/raw/Uqc8A4yQ

"beadm list" shows creation dates and is generally more compact than "zfs list"

I generally prune old BE's fairly ruthlessly if the running system is stable.

here is the "beadm list" output: pastebin.com/raw/CNZ4mN5x

Strange, but zbe-12 is active, not the last one.

I have attempted to mount zbe-13, but it doesn't contain the changes I miss.

I'd recommend pruning BE's in the global zone.

see the beadm manpage; the 'xb' indicates that the BE would be active on boot in a different global BE

you likely had some pending updates in the global zone as well..

generally a bad idea to do any sysadmin ops in a non-global zone in between a pkg update and a reboot in the GZ for this reason.

pkg update in GZ with or without -r; then reboot without doing any other admin to NGZs. Then mess with NGZs after rebooting the GZ.

the lost change is likely in an older BE in the IRC zone.

No, it is actually in the zbe-12

I have reverted to an earlier BE in the global zone, I think this is the reason why the BE's marked as xb now. Is my logic sane here?

lets check my theory