System Administration Guide,

Volume 1

Sun Microsystems, Inc.

901 San Antonio Road
Palo Alto, CA 94303-4900
U.S.A.
Part Number 805-7228–10
February 2000
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 Contents

About This Book 27

1. Managing Users and Groups Topics 33

2. Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 35

What’s New in Managing Users and Groups? 35

What Are User Accounts and Groups? 36

Guidelines for Managing User Accounts 37

Name Services 37

User (Login) Names 37

User ID Numbers 38

Passwords 40

Password Aging 41

Home Directories 42

User’s Work Environment 42

Guidelines for Managing Groups 43

Tools for Managing User Accounts and Groups 44

What You Can Do With Admintool 47

Modify User Accounts 47

Delete User Accounts 48

Add Customized User Initialization Files 48

3
 Administer Passwords 48

Disable User Accounts 48

Where User Account and Group Information Is Stored 49

Fields in the passwd File 49

Fields in the shadow File 52

Fields in the group File 53

Customizing a User’s Work Environment 56

Using Site Initialization Files 57

Avoid Local System References 58

Shell Features 58

Shell Environment 59

The PATH Variable 63

Locale Variables 64

Default File Permissions (umask) 65

Examples of User and Site Initialization Files 66

Example—Site Initialization File 67

3. Setting Up and Maintaining User Accounts and Groups (Tasks) 69

Becoming Superuser (root) 70

H How to Become Superuser (root) 70

Setting Up User Accounts Task Map 71

User Information Data Sheet 71

H How to Customize User Initialization Files 72

H How to Start Admintool 74

H How to Add a Group 75

H How to Add a New User Account 76

H How to Share a User’s Home Directory 77

H How to Mount a User’s Home Directory 79

Maintaining User Accounts Task Map 80

4 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 H How to Modify a Group 81

H How to Delete a Group 82

H How to Modify a User Account 82

H How to Disable a User Account 84

H How to Change a User’s Password 85

H How to Change Password Aging for a User Account 86

H How to Delete a User Account 88

Solaris User Registration 89

Accessing Solaris SolveSM 89

Troubleshooting Solaris User Registration Problems 90

H How to Restart Solaris User Registration 91

H How to Disable User Registration 91

4. Managing Server and Client Support Topics 93

5. Managing Server and Client Support (Overview) 95

What Are Servers and Clients? 95

What Does Support Mean? 96

Overview of System Types 96

Servers 97

Standalone Systems 98

JavaStation Client 98

6. Shutting Down and Booting a System Topics 99

7. Shutting Down and Booting a System (Overview) 101

What’s New in Shutting Down and Booting a System? 101

Booting a System Over the Network With DHCP 102

IA: Booting From CD-ROM Without the Solaris Boot Diskette 102

Where to Find Shutting Down and Booting Tasks 102

Shutting Down and Booting Terminology 103

Guidelines for Shutting Down a System 103

Contents 5
 Guidelines for Booting a System 104

Performing a Reconfiguration Boot 104

When to Shut Down a System 105

When to Boot a System 106

8. Run Levels and Boot Files (Tasks) 109

Run Levels 109

H How to Determine a System’s Run Level 110

The /etc/inittab File 111

Example—Default inittab File 112

What Happens When the System Is Brought to Run Level 3 113

Run Control Scripts 115

Using a Run Control Script to Stop or Start Services 116

H How to Use a Run Control Script to Stop or Start a Service 116

Adding a Run Control Script 117

H How to Add a Run Control Script 117

Disabling a Run Control Script 118

H How to Disable a Run Control Script 118

Run Control Script Summaries 119

9. Shutting Down a System (Tasks) 123

When to Shut Down the System 123

How to Shut Down a System 124

When to Turn Off Power to Devices 125

Notifying Users of System Down Time 125

H How to Determine Who Is Logged in to a System 126

H How to Shut Down a Server 126

H How to Shut Down a Standalone System 130

H How to Turn Off Power to All Devices 132

10. SPARC: Booting a System (Tasks) 133

6 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 SPARC: Using the Boot PROM 134

H SPARC: How to Switch to the ok Prompt 134

H SPARC: How to Find the PROM Release for a System 134

H SPARC: How to Change the Default Boot Device 134

H SPARC: How to Reset the System 137

SPARC: Booting a System 137

H SPARC: How to Boot a System to Run Level 3 (Multiuser State) 138

H SPARC: How to Boot a System to Run Level S (Single-User State) 139

H SPARC: How to Boot a System Interactively 140

H SPARC: How to Boot a System Over the Network 142

H SPARC: How to Boot a System for Recovery Purposes 143

H SPARC: How to Stop the System for Recovery Purposes 145

SPARC: Forcing a Crash Dump and Rebooting the System 146

H SPARC: How to Force a Crash Dump and Reboot the System 146

H SPARC: How to Boot the System With the Kernel Debugger (kadb) 147

11. IA: Booting a System (Tasks) 149

IA: Booting a System 149

IA: Booting the Solaris Device Configuration Assistant 151

H IA: How to Boot the Solaris Device Configuration Assistant 151

H IA: How to Boot a System to Run Level 3 (Multiuser State) 151

H IA: How to Boot a System to Run Level S (Single-User State) 152

H IA: How to Boot a System Interactively 154

H IA: How to Boot a System Over the Network 156

H IA: How to Boot a System for Recovery Purposes 157

H IA: How to Stop the System for Recovery Purposes 160

H IA: How to Boot a System with the Kernel Debugger (kadb) 160

IA: Forcing a Crash Dump and Rebooting the System 161

H IA: How to Force a Crash Dump and Reboot the System 161

Contents 7
 12. The Boot Process (Reference) 163

SPARC: The Boot PROM 163

SPARC: The Boot Process 164

IA: The PC BIOS 164

IA: Boot Subsystems 165

IA: Booting Solaris 166

IA: Menus Displayed During the Device Identification Phase 167

IA: Menus Displayed During the Boot Phase 169

IA: The Boot Process 170

13. Managing Removable Media Topics 173

14. Guidelines for Using CDs and Diskettes (Overview) 175

Where to Find Managing Removable Media Tasks 175

Removable Media Features and Benefits 176

Comparison of Automatic and Manual Mounting 176

What You Can Do With Diskettes and CDs 177

15. Using CDs From the Command Line (Tasks) 179

Using CDs Task Map 179

Using CD Names 180

H How to Load a CD 181

H How to Examine the Contents of a CD 181

H How to Copy Information From a CD 181

H How to Find Out If a CD Is Still in Use 182

H How to Eject a CD 183

H How to Access CDs on Other Systems 184

H How to Make Local CDs Available to Other Systems 185

H How to Configure a System to Play Musical CDs 188

H How to Prepare a System for a New CD-ROM Drive 189

Configuring Volume Management 190

8 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 H How to Stop Volume Management 190

H How to Restart Volume Management 190

16. Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks) 193

Formatting Diskettes Task Map 193

Using Diskette Names 194

Hardware Considerations 195

H How to Format a UFS Diskette 197

H How to Place a UFS File System on a Diskette 200

H How to Format a DOS Diskette 201

Using Diskettes Task Map 204

H How to Load a Diskette 205

H How to Examine the Contents of a Diskette 207

H How to Copy or Move Information From a Diskette 207

H How to Copy or Move Information to a Diskette 208

H How to Find Out If a Diskette Is Still in Use 209

H How to Eject a Diskette 210

H How to Access Diskettes on Other Systems 211

H How to Make Local Diskettes Available to Other Systems 212

17. Using PCMCIA Memory Cards From the Command Line (Tasks) 217

Formatting PCMCIA Memory Cards Task Map 217

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards Names 218

Hardware Considerations 219

H How to Format a UFS PCMCIA Memory Card 219

H How to Place a UFS File System on a PCMCIA Memory Card 222

H How to Format a DOS PCMCIA Memory Card 224

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards Task Map 226

H How to Load a PCMCIA Memory Card 227

H How to Examine the Contents of a PCMCIA Memory Card 229

Contents 9
 H How to Copy or Move Information From a PCMCIA Memory Card 229

H How to Copy or Move Information to a PCMCIA Memory Card 230

H How to Find Out If a PCMCIA Memory Card Is Still In Use 232

H How to Eject a PCMCIA Memory Card 232

H How to Access PCMCIA Memory Cards on Other Systems 233

H How to Make Local PCMCIA Memory Cards Available to Other Systems 235

18. How Volume Management Works (Reference) 239

Volume Management Mounts All Removable Media 239

Volume Management Provides Access to Diskettes 240

Volume Management Provides Access to CDs 241

Volume Management Supplies Convenient Mount Points for Easier Access 242

Volume Management Creates Two Sets of Symbolic Links 244

Symbolic Links for File System Access 244

Symbolic Links for Raw Device Access 244

Volume Management Can Be Limited by UFS Formats 245

What About Mixed Formats? 245

19. Managing Software Topics 247

20. Software Administration (Overview) 249

Where to Find Software Administration Tasks 249

What’s New in Software Management? 250

Overview of Software Packages 250

Tools for Managing Software 251

What Happens When You Add or Remove a Package 252

What You Should Know Before Adding or Removing Packages 253

Guidelines for Client Software Administration 253

Guidelines for Removing Packages 253

Avoiding User Interaction When Adding Packages 254

Using an Administration File 254

10 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Using a Response File 255

21. Software Administration (Tasks) 257

Commands for Handling Software Packages 257

Known Problem With Adding and Removing Packages 258

Adding Packages 258

H How to Add Packages to a Standalone System 258

Using a Spool Directory 261

H How to Add a Package to a Spool Directory 261

Checking the Installation of Packages 263

H How to List Information About All Installed Packages 263

H How to Check the Integrity of an Installed Package 264

H How to Display Detailed Information About a Package 265

Removing Packages From Servers and Standalone Systems 266

H How to Remove a Package 266

H How to Remove a Spooled Package 267

Adding and Removing Packages Using Admintool 267

H How to Add Packages With Admintool 267

H How to Remove Packages With Admintool 269

22. Patch Administration (Overview) 271

What Is a Patch? 271

Tools For Managing Patches 272

Patch Distribution 272

What You Need to Access Sun Patches 273

Patch Access Via the World Wide Web 273

Patch Access Via ftp 274

Patch Numbering 274

What Happens When You Install a Patch 274

What Happens When You Remove a Patch 275

Contents 11
 23. Managing Devices Topics 277

24. Device Management (Overview) 279

What’s New in Device Management? 279

SCSI and PCI Hot-Plugging 279

Improved Device Configuration (devfsadm) 280

Where to Find Device Management Tasks 281

About Device Drivers 281

Automatic Configuration of Devices 282

Features and Benefits 282

What You Need for Unsupported Devices 283

Displaying Device Configuration Information 283

driver not attached Message 284

Identifying a System’s Devices 284

H How to Display System Configuration Information 285

H How to Display Device Information 286

25. Configuring Devices 289

Adding a Peripheral Device to a System 290

H How to Add a Peripheral Device 290

H How to Add a Device Driver 291

Dynamic Reconfiguration and Hot-Plugging 293

Attachment Points 293

IA: Detaching PCI Adapter Cards 295

SCSI Hot Plugging With the cfgadm Command 296

H How to Display Configuration Information for all Devices 296

H How to Unconfigure a SCSI Controller 297

H How to Configure a SCSI Controller 298

H How to Configure a SCSI Device 298

H How to Disconnect a SCSI Controller 299

12 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 H How to Connect a SCSI Controller 300

H SPARC: How to Add a SCSI Device to a SCSI Bus 301

H SPARC: How to Replace an Identical Device on a SCSI Controller 303

H SPARC: How to Remove a SCSI Device 304

SPARC: Troubleshooting SCSI Configuration Problems 305

IA: PCI Hot-Plugging With the cfgadm Command 306

H IA: How to Display PCI Slot Configuration Information 306

H IA: How to Remove a PCI Adapter Card 307

H IA: How to Add a PCI Adapter Card 308

IA: Troubleshooting PCI Configuration Problems 309

26. Accessing Devices (Overview) 311

Accessing Devices 311

How Device Information Is Created 311

Device Naming Conventions 312

Logical Disk Device Names 312

Specifying the Disk Subdirectory 313

Specifying the Slice 314

SPARC: Disks With Direct Controllers 314

IA: Disks With Direct Controllers 315

SPARC: Disks With Bus-Oriented Controllers 315

IA: Disks With SCSI Controllers 315

Logical Tape Device Names 316

Logical CD-ROM Device Names 316

27. Managing Disks Topics 319

28. Disk Management (Overview) 321

What’s New in Disk Management? 321

IA: Support for Large Disks 321

Where to Find Disk Management Tasks 322

Contents 13
 Introduction 322

Disk Terminology 322

About Disk Slices 323

SPARC: Disk Slices 323

IA: Disk Slices 324

Using Raw Data Slices 326

Slice Arrangements on Multiple Disks 327

Determining Which Slices to Use 327

The format Utility 328

Definition 328

Features and Benefits 329

When to Use the format Utility 329

Guidelines for Using the format Utility 330

Formatting a Disk 331

About Disk Labels 332

Partition Table 332

Dividing a Disk Into Slices 335

Using the Free Hog Slice 335

29. Administering Disks (Tasks) 337

Administering Disks Task Map 337

Identifying Disks on a System 339

H How to Identify the Disks on a System 339

Formatting a Disk 341

H How to Determine if a Disk is Formatted 341

H How to Format a Disk 342

Displaying Disk Slices 344

H How to Display Disk Slice Information 344

Creating and Examining a Disk Label 346

14 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 H How to Label a Disk 346

H How to Examine a Disk Label 348

Recovering a Corrupted Disk Label 349

H How to Recover a Corrupted Disk Label 349

Adding a Third-Party Disk 352

Creating a format.dat Entry 353

H How to Create a format.dat Entry 353

Automatically Configuring SCSI Disk Drives 354

H How to Automatically Configure a SCSI Drive 355

Repairing a Defective Sector 357

H How to Identify a Defective Sector by Using Surface Analysis 357

H How to Repair a Defective Sector 359

Tips and Tricks for Managing Disks 360

Debugging format Sessions 360

Label Multiple Disks by Using the prtvtoc and fmthard

Commands 360

30. SPARC: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 363

SPARC: About System and Secondary Disks 363

SPARC: Adding a System or Secondary Disk Task Map 364

H SPARC: How to Connect a System Disk and Boot 365

H SPARC: How to Connect a Secondary Disk and Boot 365

H SPARC: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk 367

H SPARC: How to Create File Systems 371

H SPARC: How to Install a Boot Block on a System Disk 372

31. IA: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 375

IA: About System and Secondary Disks 375

IA: Adding a System or Secondary Disk Task Map 376

IA: Guidelines for Creating an fdisk Partition 376

Contents 15
 H IA: How to Connect a System Disk and Boot 377

H IA: How to Connect a Secondary Disk and Boot 378

H IA: How to Create a Solaris fdisk Partition 379

H IA: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk 386

H IA: How to Create File Systems 388

H IA: How to Install a Boot Block on a System Disk 389

32. The format Utility (Reference) 391

Requirements or Restrictions for Using the format Utility 391

Recommendations for Preserving Information When Using format 392

Format Menu and Command Descriptions 392

The partition Menu 394

IA: The fdisk Menu 395

The analyze Menu 396

The defect Menu 398

Files Used by format (format.dat) 399

Structure of the format.dat File 400

Syntax of the format.dat File 400

Keywords in the format.dat File 400

Partition or Slice Tables (format.dat) 403

Specifing the Location of a format Data File 404

Rules for Input to format Commands 404

Inputting Numbers to format Commands 404

Specifying Block Numbers to format Commands 405

Specifying format Command Names 405

Specifying Disk Names to format Commands 406

Using format Help 406

Associated format Man Pages 406

33. Managing File Systems Topics 407

16 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

34. Managing File Systems (Overview) 409

What’s New in File Systems? 409

The /var/run File System 409

Mount Table Changes (/etc/mnttab) 410

Using the Universal Disk Format (UDF) File System 410

UDF Features and Benefits 411

Hardware and Software Requirements 411

H How to Connect a DVD-ROM Device 411

H How to Access Files on a DVD-ROM Device 412

H How to Display UDF File System Parameters 412

H How to Create a UDF File System 413

H How to Identify the UDF File System Type 413

H How to Check a UDF File System 413

H How to Mount a UDF File System 414

H How to Unmount a UDF File System 414

H How to Label a Device with a UDF File System and Volume Name 414

Overview of File Systems 415

Types of File Systems 416

Disk-Based File Systems 416

Network-Based File Systems 417

Virtual File Systems 417

File System Administration Commands 419

How the File System Commands Determine the File System Type 421

Manual Pages for Generic and Specific Commands 421

The Default Solaris File Systems 421

Swap Space 422

The UFS File System 423

Parts of a UFS File System 423

Contents 17
 UFS Logging 424

Planning UFS File Systems 424

Mounting and Unmounting File Systems 425

The Mounted File System Table 427

The Virtual File System Table 427

The NFS Environment 428

AutoFS 429

The Cache File System (CacheFS) 429

Deciding How to Mount File Systems 430

Determining a File System’s Type 430

H How to Determine a File System’s Type 430

35. Creating File Systems (Tasks) 433

Creating a UFS File System 433

File System Parameters 434

H How to Create a UFS File System 435

Creating a Temporary File System (TMPFS) 436

H How to Create a TMPFS File System 437

Creating a Loopback File System (LOFS) 438

H How to Create a LOFS File System 438

36. Mounting and Unmounting File Systems (Tasks) 441

Mounting File Systems 441

Commands Used to Mount and Unmount File Systems 442

Commonly Used Mount Options 443

H How to Determine Which File Systems Are Mounted 445

Mounting File Systems (/etc/vfstab File) 446

The /etc/vfstab Field Descriptions 446

H How to Add an Entry to the /etc/vfstab File 447

H How to Mount a File System (/etc/vfstab File) 449

18 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 H How to Mount All File Systems (/etc/vfstab File) 449

Mounting File Systems (mount Command) 451

H How to Mount a UFS File System 451

H How to Remount a UFS File System Without Large Files 452

H How to Mount an NFS File System 454

H How to Mount a System V (S5FS) File System 454

H How to Mount a PCFS (DOS) File System From a Hard Disk 455

Unmounting File Systems 456

Prerequisites 457

Verifying an Unmounted File System 457

H How to Stop All Processes Accessing a File System 457

H How to Unmount a File System 458

H How to Unmount All File Systems (/etc/vfstab File) 459

37. The Cache File System (Tasks) 461

How CacheFS Works 462

Setting Up a Cached File System Task Map 463

Creating a Cache 464

H How to Create a Cache 464

Specifying a File System to Be Mounted in the Cache 465

H How to Specify a File System to Be Mounted in a Cache With mount 465

H How to Mount a File System in a Cache by Editing the /etc/vfstab File 468

H How to Mount a File System in a Cache With AutoFS 469

Maintaining a Cached File System Task Map 470

Maintaining the Cache 471

H How to Modify File Systems in a Cache 471

H How to Display Information About Cached File Systems 472

H How to Specify Consistency Checking on Demand 473

H How to Delete a Cached File System 473

Contents 19
 H How to Check the Integrity of Cached File Systems 475

Managing Your Cache File Systems With cachefspack 476

H How to Pack Files in the Cache 476

Packing Lists 477

H How to Create a Packing List 477

H How to Pack Files in the Cache as Specified in a Packing List 478

H How to Specify Files in the Packing List to be Treated as Regular

Expressions 478

H How to Pack Files From a Shared Directory 479

Unpacking Files 480

H How to Unpack Files or Packing Lists From the Cache 480

Displaying Packed Files Information 482

H How to Display Packed Files Information 482

Viewing Help on the cachefspack Command 483

cachefspack Errors 484

CacheFS Statistics 489

Prerequisites for Setting Up and Viewing the CacheFS Statistics 489

Setting Up CacheFS Statistics Task Map 490

CacheFS Logging 490

H How to Set Up the Logging Process 491

How to Locate the Log File 491

How to Stop the Logging Process 492

Viewing the Cache Size 492

H How to View the Working Set (Cache) Size 492

Viewing the Statistics 494

H How to View Cache Statistics 494

The Cache Structure and Behavior 495

Consistency Checking of Cached File Systems With the Back File System 496

20 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Consistency Checking on Demand 496

38. Configuring Additional Swap Space (Tasks) 497

About Swap Space 497

Swap Space and Virtual Memory 498

Swap Space and the TMPFS File System 498

How Do I Know If I Need More Swap Space? 499

Swap-Related Error Messages 499

TMPFS-Related Error Messages 499

How Swap Space Is Allocated 500

The /etc/vfstab File 500

Planning for Swap Space 501

Monitoring Swap Resources 501

Adding More Swap Space 503

Creating a Swap File 503

H How to Create a Swap File and Make It Available 504

Removing a Swap File From Use 505

H How to Remove Extra Swap Space 505

39. Checking File System Integrity 507

File System Integrity 507

How the File System State Is Recorded 508

What fsck Checks and Tries to Repair 510

Why Inconsistencies Might Occur 510

The UFS Components That Are Checked for Consistency 511

The fsck Summary Message 516

Modifying File System Checking at Boot Time 517

The /etc/vfstab File 517

H How to Modify File System Checking at Boot Time 519

Interactively Checking and Repairing a UFS File System 519

Contents 21
 H How to See If a File System Needs Checking 519

H How to Check File Systems Interactively 520

Preening UFS File Systems 521

H How to Preen a File System 521

Restoring a Bad Superblock 522

H How to Restore a Bad Superblock 522

How to Fix a UFS File System fsck Cannot Repair 524

Syntax and Options for the fsck Command 524

Generic fsck Command Syntax, Options, and Arguments 525

40. UFS File System Reference 529

Default Directories for root (/) and /usr File Systems 529

The Platform-Dependent Directories 537

The Structure of UFS File System Cylinder Groups 538

The Boot Block 539

The Superblock 539

Inodes 539

Data Blocks 541

Free Blocks 541

Deciding on Custom File System Parameters 542

Logical Block Size 542

Fragment Size 543

Minimum Free Space 543

Rotational Delay (Gap) 544

Optimization Type 544

Number of Files 545

Commands for Creating a Customized File System 545

The newfs Command Syntax, Options, and Arguments 545

The Generic mkfs Command 548

22 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 UFS Direct Input/Output (I/O) 548

H How to Enable Forced Direct I/O on a UFS File System 549

41. Backing Up and Restoring Data Topics 551

42. Backing Up and Restoring File Systems (Overview) 553

Where to Find Backup and Restore Tasks 553

Definition: Backing Up and Restoring File Systems 554

Why You Should Back Up File Systems 555

Choosing a Tape Device 555

Planning Which File Systems to Back Up 556

Overview of the Backup and Restore Commands 558

Choosing the Type of Backup 559

Guidelines for Scheduling Backups 560

What Drives a Backup Schedule 560

How Often Should You Do Backups? 560

Using Dump Levels to Create Incremental Backups 560

Sample Backup Schedules 562

Example—Daily Cumulative, Weekly Cumulative Backups 562

Example—Daily Cumulative, Weekly Incremental Backups 563

Example—Daily Incremental, Weekly Cumulative Backups 564

Example—Backup Schedule for a Server 565

Other Backup Scheduling Suggestions 568

43. Backing Up Files and File Systems (Tasks) 571

Preparing to Do Backups 571

H How to Find File System Names 572

H How to Determine the Number of Tapes for a Full Backup 572

Doing Backups 573

H How to Do Backups to Tape 574

44. Restoring Files and File Systems (Tasks) 583

Contents 23
 Preparing to Restore Files and File Systems 583

Determining the Disk Device Name 584

Determining the Type of Tape Drive You Need 584

Determining the Tape Device Name 584

Restoring Complete File Systems 584

Restoring Individual Files and Directories 585

Restoring Files and File Systems 585

H How to Determine Which Tapes to Use 585

H How to Restore Files Interactively 587

H How to Restore Specific Files Non-Interactively 589

H How to Restore Files Using a Remote Tape Drive 591

H How to Restore a Complete File System 592

H How to Restore the root (/) and /usr File Systems 595

45. The ufsdump and ufsrestore Commands (Reference) 599

How ufsdump Works 599

Determining Device Characteristics 599

Detecting the End of Media 600

Copying Data With ufsdump 600

Role of the /etc/dumpdates File 600

Backup Device (dump-file) Argument 601

Specifying Files to Back Up 602

End-of-Media Detection 603

Specifying Tape Characteristics 603

Limitations of the ufsdump Command 603

Options and Arguments for the ufsdump Command 604

Default ufsdump Options 604

Options for the ufsdump Command 605

The ufsdump Command and Security Issues 607

24 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Options and Arguments for the ufsrestore Command 607

ufsrestore Command Syntax 607

ufsrestore Options and Arguments 608

Commands for Interactive Restore 610

46. Copying UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks) 613

Commands for Copying File Systems 614

Copying File Systems Between Disks 615

Making a Literal File System Copy 615

H How to Clone a Disk (dd) 616

Copying Directories Between File Systems (cpio Command) 619

H How to Copy Directories Between File Systems (cpio) 619

Copying Files and File Systems to Tape 621

Copying Files to Tape (tar Command) 623

H How to Copy Files to a Tape (tar) 623

H How to List the Files on a Tape (tar) 624

H How to Retrieve Files From a Tape (tar) 625

Copying Files to a Tape With pax 626

H How to Copy Files to a Tape (pax) 626

H How to Copy All Files in a Directory to a Tape (cpio) 627

H How to List the Files on a Tape (cpio) 628

H How to Retrieve All Files From a Tape (cpio) 629

H How to Retrieve Specific Files From a Tape (cpio) 630

H How to Copy Files to a Remote Tape Drive (tar and dd) 631

H How to Extract Files From a Remote Tape Drive 632

Copying Files and File Systems to Diskette 633

Things You Should Know When Copying Files to Diskettes 634

H How to Copy Files to a Single Formatted Diskette (tar) 634

H How to List the Files on a Diskette (tar) 635

Contents 25
 H How to Retrieve Files From a Diskette (tar) 636

H How to Archive Files to Multiple Diskettes 637

Copying Files With a Different Header Format 637

H How to Create an Archive for Older SunOS Releases 637

Retrieving Files Created With the bar Command 638

H How to Retrieve bar Files From a Diskette 638

47. Managing Tape Drives (Tasks) 639

Choosing Which Media to Use 639

Backup Device Names 640

Specifying the Default Density for a Tape Drive 641

Specifying Different Densities for a Tape Drive 642

Displaying Tape Drive Status 642

H How to Display Tape Drive Status 642

Handling Magnetic Tape Cartridges 643

H How to Retension a Magnetic Tape Cartridge 643

H How to Rewind a Magnetic Tape Cartridge 644

Guidelines for Drive Maintenance and Media Handling 644

Index 647

26 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

About This Book

System Administration Guide, Volume I is part of a three-volume set that includes a

significant part of the SolarisTM system administration information. It contains
information for both SPARCTM based and IA based systems.
This book assumes that you have already installed the SunOSTM 5.8 operating system,
and you have set up all networking software that you plan to use. The SunOS 5.8
operating system is part of the Solaris product family, which also includes many
features, including the Solaris Common Desktop Environment (CDE). The SunOS 5.8
operating system is compliant with AT&T’s System V, Release 4 operating system.
For the Solaris 8 release, new features interesting to system administrators are
covered in sections called What’s New in ... ? in the appropriate chapters.

Note - The Solaris operating environment runs on two types of hardware, or

platforms—SPARC and IA. The Solaris operating environment runs on both 64–bit
and 32–bit address spaces. The information in this document pertains to both
platforms and address spaces unless called out in a special chapter, section, note,
bullet, figure, table, example, or code example.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is intended for anyone responsible for administering one or more systems
running the Solaris 8 release. To use this book, you should have 1-2 years of UNIX®
system administration experience. Attending UNIX system administration training
courses might be helpful.

27
 How the System Administration
Volumes Are Organized
Here is a list of the topics covered by the three volumes of the System
Administration Guides.

System Administration Guide, Volume 1

4 “Managing Users and Groups Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 1
4 “Managing Server and Client Support Topics” in System Administration Guide,
Volume 1
4 “Shutting Down and Booting a System Topics” in System Administration Guide,
Volume 1
4 “Managing Removable Media Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 1
4 “Managing Software Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 1
4 “Managing Devices Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 1
4 “Managing Disks Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 1
4 “Managing File Systems Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 1
4 “Backing Up and Restoring Data Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume
1

System Administration Guide, Volume 2

4 “Managing Printing Services Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 2
4 “Working With Remote Systems Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 2
4 “Managing Terminals and Modems Topics” in System Administration Guide,
Volume 2
4 “Managing System Security Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 2
4 “Managing System Resources Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 2
4 “Managing System Performance Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume
2
4 “Troubleshooting Solaris Software Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume
2

28 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

System Administration Guide, Volume 3
4 “Network Services Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 3
4 “IP Address Management Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 3
4 “Modem-Related Network Services Topics” in System Administration Guide,
Volume 3
4 “Accessing Remote File Systems Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 3
4 “Mail Services Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 3
4 “Monitoring Network Services Topics” in System Administration Guide, Volume 3

Ordering Sun Documents

Fatbrain.com, an Internet professional bookstore, stocks select product
documentation from Sun Microsystems, Inc.
For a list of documents and how to order them, visit the Sun Documentation Center
on Fatbrain.com at http://www1.fatbrain.com/documentation/sun.

Accessing Sun Documentation Online

The docs.sun.comSM Web site enables you to access Sun technical documentation
online. You can browse the docs.sun.com archive or search for a specific book title or
subject. The URL is http://docs.sun.com.

What Typographic Conventions Mean

The following table describes the typographic conventions used in this book.

About This Book 29

 TABLE P–1 Typographic Conventions

Typeface or
Symbol Meaning Example

AaBbCc123 The names of commands, files, and Edit your .login file.
directories; on-screen computer output
Use ls −a to list all files.

machine_name% you have

mail.

What you type, contrasted with machine_name% su

AaBbCc123 Password:
on-screen computer output

AaBbCc123 Command-line placeholder: replace To delete a file, type rm

with a real name or value filename.

AaBbCc123 Book titles, new words or terms, or Read Chapter 6 in User’s

words to be emphasized. Guide.
These are called class options.
Do not save changes yet.

Shell Prompts in Command Examples

The following table shows the default system prompt and superuser prompt for the
C shell, Bourne shell, and Korn shell.

TABLE P–2 Shell Prompts

Shell Prompt

C shell prompt machine_name%

C shell superuser prompt machine_name#
Bourne shell and Korn shell prompt $
Bourne shell and Korn shell superuser #
prompt

30 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

General Conventions
Be aware of the following conventions used in this book.
4 When following steps or using examples, be sure to type double-quotes ("), left
single-quotes (‘), and right single-quotes (’) exactly as shown.
4 The key referred to as Return is labeled Enter on some keyboards.
4 The root path usually includes the /sbin, /usr/sbin, /usr/bin, and /etc
directories, so the steps in this book show the commands in these directories
without absolute path names. Steps that use commands in other, less common,
directories show the absolute paths in the examples.
4 The examples in this book are for a basic SunOS software installation without the
Binary Compatibility Package installed and without /usr/ucb in the path.

Caution - If /usr/ucb is included in a search path, it should always be at the end

of the search path. Commands like ps or df are duplicated in /usr/ucb with
different formats and options from the SunOS commands.

About This Book 31

32 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 1

Managing Users and Groups Topics

This section provides instructions for managing users and groups. This section
contains these chapters.

Provides overview information about setting up user

Chapter 2
accounts and groups in a network environment.

Provides step-by-step instructions for setting up user

Chapter 3
accounts and groups with Admintool.

33
34 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 2

Managing User Accounts and Groups

(Overview)

This chapter provides guidelines and planning information for managing user
accounts and groups. It also provides overview information about setting up user
accounts and groups in a network environment. This chapter includes information
about the files used to store user account and group information and about
customizing the user’s work environment.
This is a list of the concept information in this chapter.
4 “What Are User Accounts and Groups?” on page 36
4 “Guidelines for Managing User Accounts” on page 37
4 “Guidelines for Managing Groups” on page 43
4 “Tools for Managing User Accounts and Groups” on page 44
4 “Where User Account and Group Information Is Stored” on page 49
4 “Customizing a User’s Work Environment” on page 56
For step-by-step instructions on managing user accounts and groups, see Chapter 3.

What’s New in Managing Users and

Groups?
In this Solaris release, role-based access control (RBAC) provides a flexible way to
package superuser privileges for assignment to user accounts so that you don’t have
to give all superuser privileges to a user that needs to solve a specific problem.

35
 See “Role-Based Access Control” in System Administration Guide, Volume 2 for more
information.

What Are User Accounts and Groups?

One of the basic system administration tasks is to set up a user account for each user
at a site. A typical user account includes the information a user needs to log in and
use a system (without having the system’s root password). User account information
consists of four main components:

Component Description

User name A name that a user uses to log in to a system

(also known as a login name).

Password A secret combination of characters that a

user must enter with a user name to gain
access to a system.

User’s home directory A directory that is usually the user’s current

directory at login. It typically contains most
of the user’s files.

User initialization files Shell scripts that control how the user’s
working environment is set up when a user
logs in to a system.

Also, when you set up a user account, you can add the user to predefined groups of
users. A typical use of groups is to set up file and directory access only to users who
are part of a group (using the group permissions on a file or directory).
For example, you might have a directory containing top secret files that only a few
users should be able to access. You could set up a group called topsecret that
include the users working on the top secret project, and you could set up the top
secret files with read permission for the topsecret group. That way, only the users
in the topsecret group would be able to read the files.
There is also a special type of user account called a role, which is used to give
selected users special privileges. See “Role-Based Access Control” in System
Administration Guide, Volume 2 for more information.

36 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Guidelines for Managing User Accounts
The following sections describe some guidelines and planning information for
creating user accounts.

Name Services
If you are managing user accounts for a large site, you might want to consider using
a name service such as NIS or NIS+. A name service enables you to store user account
information in a centralized manner instead of storing user account information in
every system’s /etc files. When using a name service for user accounts, users can
move from system to system using the same user account without having site-wide
user account information duplicated in every system’s /etc files. Using a name
service also promotes centralized and consistent user account information.

User (Login) Names

User names, also called login names, let users access their own systems and remote
systems that have the appropriate access privileges. You must choose a user name
for each user account you create. User names must:
4 Be unique within your organization, which might span multiple domains
4 Contain from two to eight letters and numerals (the first character must be a letter
and at least one character must be a lowercase letter)
4 Not contain an underscore or space
It is helpful to establish a standard way of forming user names, and the names should
be easy for users to remember. A simple scheme when selecting a user name is to
use the first name initial and first seven letters of the user’s last name. For example,
Ziggy Ignatz becomes zignatz. If that scheme results in duplicate names, you can
use the first initial, middle initial, and the first six characters of the user’s last name.
For example, Ziggy Top Ignatz becomes ztignatz. If that still results in duplicate
names, you can use the first initial, middle initial, first five characters of the user’s
last name, and the number 1, or 2, or 3, and so on, until you have a unique name.

Note - Each new user name must be distinct from any mail aliases known to the
system or to an NIS or NIS+ domain. Otherwise, mail might be delivered to the alias
rather than to the actual user.

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 37

 User ID Numbers
Associated with each user name is a user identification (UID) number. The UID
number identifies the user name to any system on which the user attempts to log in,
and it is used by systems to identify the owners of files and directories. If you create
user accounts for a single individual on a number of different systems, always use
the same user name and user ID. In that way, the user can easily move files between
systems without ownership problems.
UID numbers must be a whole number less than or equal to 2147483647, and they
are required for both regular user accounts and special system accounts. The table
below lists the UID numbers reserved for user accounts and system accounts.

TABLE 2–1 Reserved UID Numbers

User ID Numbers Login Accounts Reserved For ...

0 - 99 root, daemon, bin, sys, etc. System accounts

100 - 2147483647 Regular users General purpose accounts

60001 nobody Unauthenticated users

60002 noaccess Compatibility with Solaris 2.0 and

compatible versions and SVR4
releases

Although UID numbers 0 through 99 are reserved, you can add a user with one of
these numbers. However, do not use them for regular user accounts. By definition,
root always has UID 0, daemon has UID 1, and pseudo-user bin has UID 2. In
addition, you should give uucp logins and pseudo user logins, like who, tty, and
ttytype, low UIDs so they fall at the beginning of the passwd file.
As with user (login) names, you should adopt a scheme to assign unique UIDs. Some
companies assign unique employee numbers, and administrators add 1000 to the
employee number to create a unique UID number for each employee.
To minimize security risks, you should avoid reusing the UIDs from deleted
accounts. If you must reuse a UID, “wipe the slate clean” so the new user is not
affected by attributes set for a former user. For example, a former user might have
been denied access to a printer—by being included in a printer deny list—but that
attribute might not be appropriate for the new user. If need be, you can use duplicate
UIDs in an NIS+ domain if the supply of unique UIDs is exhausted.

38 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Using Large User IDs and Group IDs
Previous Solaris software releases used 32-bit data types to contain the user IDs
(UIDs) and group IDs (GIDs), but UIDs and GIDs were constrained to a maximum
useful value of 60000. Starting with the Solaris 2.5.1 release and compatible versions,
the limit on UID and GID values has been raised to the maximum value of a signed
integer, or 2147483647.
UIDs and GIDs over 60000 do not have full functionality and are incompatible with
many Solaris features, so avoid using UIDs or GIDs over 60000.
The table below describes interoperability issues with previous Solaris and Solaris
product releases.

TABLE 2–2 Interoperability Issues for UIDs/GIDs Over 60000

Category Product/Command Issues/Cautions

NFSTM SunOSTM 4.0 NFS NFS server and client code truncates large
Interoperability software and UIDs and GIDs to 16 bits. This can create
compatible versions security problems if SunOS 4.0 and
compatible machines are used in an
environment where large UIDs and GIDs are
being used. SunOS 4.0 and compatible
systems require a patch.

Name Service NIS name service Users with UIDs above 60000 can log in or
Interoperability File-based name use the su command on systems running the
service Solaris 2.5 and compatible versions, but their
UIDs and GIDs will be set to 60001 (nobody).

NIS+ name service Users with UIDs above 60000 are denied
access on systems running Solaris 2.5 and
compatible versions and the NIS+ name
service.

Printed UIDs/GIDs OpenWindows File Large UIDs and GIDs do not display
Manager correctly if the OpenWindowsTM File
Manager is used with the extended file
listing display option.

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 39

 TABLE 2–3 Large UID/GID Limitation Summary

A UID or GID Of ... Limitations

60003 or greater 4 Users in this category logging into systems running Solaris
2.5 and compatible releases and the NIS or files name service
get a UID and GID of nobody.

65535 or greater 4 Solaris 2.5 and compatible releases systems running the NFS
version 2 software see UIDs in this category truncated to 16
bits, creating possible security problems.
4 Users in this category using the cpio command (using the
default archive format) to copy file see an error message for
each file and the UIDs and GIDs are set to nobody in the
archive.
4 SPARC based systems: Users in this category running SunOS
4.0 and compatible applications see EOVERFLOW returns
from some system calls, and their UIDs and GIDs are
mapped to nobody.
4 IA based systems: Users in this category running
SVR3-compatible applications will probably see EOVERFLOW
return codes from system calls.
4 IA based systems: If users in this category attempt to create
a file or directory on a mounted System V file system, the
System V file system returns an EOVERFLOW error.

100000 or greater 4 The ps -l command displays a maximum five-digit UID so

the printed column won’t be aligned when they include a
UID or GID larger than 99999.

262144 or greater 4 Users in this category using the cpio command (using -H
odc format) or the pax -x cpio command to copy files see
an error message returned for each file, and the UIDs and
GIDs are set to nobody in the archive.

1000000 or greater 4 Users in this category using the ar command have their
UIDs and GIDs set to nobody in the archive.

2097152 or greater 4 Users in this category using the tar command, the cpio -H
ustar command, or the pax -x tar command have their
UIDs and GIDs set to nobody.

Passwords
Although user names are publicly known, passwords must be kept secret and known
only to users. Each user account should be assigned a password, which is a
combination of six to eight letters, numbers, or special characters. You can set a
user’s password when you create the user account and have the user change it when
logging in to a system for the first time.

40 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

To make your computer systems more secure, ask users to change their passwords
periodically. For a high level of security, you should require users to change their
passwords every six weeks. Once every three months is adequate for lower levels of
security. System administration logins (such as root and sys) should be changed
monthly, or whenever a person who knows the root password leaves the company or
is reassigned.
Many breaches of computer security involve guessing a legitimate user’s password.
You should make sure that users avoid using proper nouns, names, login names, and
other passwords that a person might guess just by knowing something about the
user.
Good choices for passwords include:
4 Phrases (beammeup)
4 Nonsense words made up of the first letters of every word in a phrase (swotrb
for SomeWhere Over The RainBow)
4 Words with numbers or symbols substituted for letters (sn00py for snoopy)
Do not use these choices for passwords:
4 Your name, forwards, backwards, or jumbled
4 Names of family members or pets
4 Car license numbers
4 Telephone numbers
4 Social Security numbers
4 Employee numbers
4 Names related to a hobby or interest
4 Seasonal themes, such as Santa in December
4 Any word in the dictionary

Password Aging
If you are using NIS+ or the /etc files to store user account information, you can set
up password aging on a user’s password. Password aging enables you to force users
to change their passwords periodically or to prevent a user from changing a
password before a specified interval. If you want to prevent an intruder from gaining
undetected access to the system by using an old and inactive account, you can also
set a password expiration date when the account become disabled.

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 41

 Home Directories
The home directory is the portion of a file system allocated to a user for storing
private files. The amount of space you allocate for a home directory depends on the
kinds of files the user creates and the type of work done. As a general rule, you
should allocate at least 15 Mbytes of disk space for each user’s home directory.
A home directory can be located either on the user’s local system or on a remote file
server. In either case, by convention the home directory should be created as
/export/home/username. For a large site, you should store home directories on a
server. Use a separate file system for each /export/homen directory to facilitate
backing up and restoring home directories (for example, /export/home1,
/export/home2).
Regardless of where their home directory is located, users usually access their home
directories through a mount point named /home/username. When AutoFS is used to
mount home directories, you are not permitted to create any directories under the
/home mount point on any system. The system recognizes the special status of
/home when Autofs is active. For more information about automounting home
directories, see System Administration Guide, Volume 3.
To use the home directory anywhere on the network, you should always refer to it as
$HOME, not as /export/home/username. The latter is machine-specific. In addition,
any symbolic links created in a user’s home directory should use relative paths (for
example, ../../../x/y/x), so the links will be valid no matter where the home
directory is mounted.

User’s Work Environment

Besides having a home directory to create and store files, users need an environment
that gives them access to the tools and resources they need to do their work. When a
user logs in to a system, the user’s work environment is determined by initialization
files that are defined by the user’s startup shell, such as the C, Korn, or Bourne shell.
A good strategy for managing the user’s work environment is to provide customized
user initialization files (.login, .cshrc, .profile) in the user’s home directory.
See “Customizing a User’s Work Environment” on page 56 for detailed information
about customizing user initialization files for users. After you create the customized
user initialization files, you can add them to a user’s home directory when you create
a new user account.
A recommended one-time task is to set up separate directories, called skeleton
directories, on a server (you can use the same server where the user’s home
directories are stored). The skeleton directories enable you to store customized user
initialization files for different types of users.

42 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Note - Do not use system initialization files (/etc/profile, /etc/.login) to
manage a user’s work environment, because they reside locally on systems and are
not centrally administered. For example, if AutoFS is used to mount the user’s home
directory from any system on the network, then you would have to modify the
system initialization files on each system to ensure a consistent environment when a
user moved from system to system.

Another way to customize user accounts is through role-based access control. See
“Role-Based Access Control” in System Administration Guide, Volume 2 for more
information.

Guidelines for Managing Groups

A group is a collection of users who can share files and other system resources. For
example, the set of users working on the same project could be formed into a group.
A group is traditionally known as a UNIX group.
Each group must have a name, a group identification (GID) number, and a list of
user names that belong to the group. A GID identifies the group internally to the
system. The two types of groups that a user can belong to are:
4 Primary group – Specifies a group that the operating system assigns to files
created by the user. Each user must belong to a primary group.
4 Secondary groups – Specifies one or more groups to which a user also belongs.
Users can belong to up to 16 secondary groups.
Sometimes a user’s secondary group is not important. For example, ownership of
files reflect the primary group, not any secondary groups. Other applications,
however, might rely on a user’s secondary memberships. For example, a user has to
be a member of the sysadmin group (group 14) to use the Admintool software, but it
doesn’t matter if group 14 is his or her current primary group.
The groups command lists the groups that a user belongs to. A user can have only
one primary group at a time. However, the user can temporarily change the user’s
primary group (with the newgrp command) to any other group in which the user is
a member.
When adding a user account, you must assign a primary group for a user or accept
the default: staff (group 10). The primary group should already exist (if it doesn’t
exist, specify the group by a GID number). User names are not added to primary
groups. If they were, the list might become too long. Before you can assign users to a
new secondary group, you must create the group and assign it a GID number.

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 43

 Groups can be local to a system or can be managed through a name service. To
simplify group administration, you should use a name service like NIS+, which
enables you to centrally manage group memberships.

Tools for Managing User Accounts and

Groups
The table below lists the recommended tools for managing users and groups.

TABLE 2–4 Recommended Tools for Managing Users and Groups

If You Are The Recommended And You Will Need To Start This Tool
Managing Users and Tool Is ... ... See ...
Groups ...

On remote and/or AdminSuiteTM 2.3’s Graphics monitor

Solstice AdminSuite
local systems in a User and Group running an X
2.3 Administration
networked, name Manager (graphical window
Guide
service (NIS, NIS+) user interface) environment such as
environment CDE

On a local system Admintool (graphical Graphics monitor

Chapter 3
user interface) running an X
window system such
as CDE

The Solaris commands useradd and groupadd also let you set up users and groups
on a local system; however, the commands do not change name service maps or
tables. The table below describes the Solaris command used to manage user accounts
and groups if you are not using AdminSuite 2.3 or Admintool.

44 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 2–5 Managing User Accounts and Groups by Using Solaris Commands

If You Use This Name Service Then Use These

Task ... Commands

Add a User Account NIS+ nistbladm

nisclient

NIS useradd

make

None useradd

Modify a User Account NIS+ nistbladm

NIS usermod

make

None usermod

Delete a User Account NIS+ nistbladm

nisclient

NIS userdel

make

None userdel

Set Up User Account Defaults NIS+ not available

NIS useradd -D

make

None useradd -D

Disable a User Account NIS+ nistbladm

NIS passwd -r nis -l

make

None passwd -r files -l

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 45

 TABLE 2–5 Managing User Accounts and Groups by Using Solaris Commands (continued)

If You Use This Name Service Then Use These

Task ... Commands

Change a User’s Password NIS+ passwd -r nisplus

NIS passwd -r nis

None passwd -r files

Sort User Accounts NIS+ niscat

sort

NIS ypcat

sort

None awk

sort

Find a User Account NIS+ nismatch

NIS ypmatch

None grep

Add a Group NIS+ nistbladm

NIS groupadd

make

None groupadd

Modify Users in a Group NIS+ nistbladm

NIS groupmod

make

None groupmod

Delete a Group NIS+ nistbladm

46 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 2–5 Managing User Accounts and Groups by Using Solaris Commands (continued)

If You Use This Name Service Then Use These

Task ... Commands

NIS groupdel

make

None groupdel

What You Can Do With Admintool

Admintool is a graphical user interface that enables you to set up user accounts on a
local system.

Modify User Accounts

Unless you define a user name or UID number that conflicts with an existing one,
you should never need to modify a user account’s login name or UID number. Use
the following steps if two user accounts have duplicate user names or UID numbers:
4 If two user accounts have duplicate UID numbers, use Admintool to remove one
account and re-add it with a different UID number. You cannot use Admintool to
modify a UID number of an existing user account.
4 If two user account have duplicate user names, use Admintool to modify one of
the accounts and change the user name.
If you do use Admintool to change a user name, the home directory’s ownership is
changed (if a home directory exists for the user).
One part of a user account that you can change is a user’s group memberships.
Admintool’s Modify option lets you add or delete a user’s secondary groups.
Alternatively, you can use the Groups window to directly modify a group’s member
list.
You can also modify the following parts of a user account:
4 Comment
4 Login shell
4 Passwords

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 47

 4 Home directory

Delete User Accounts

When you delete a user account with Admintool, the software deletes the entries in
the passwd and group files. In addition, you can delete the files in the user’s home
directory.

Add Customized User Initialization Files

Although you can’t create customized user initialization files with Admintool, you
can populate a user’s home directory with user initialization files located in a
specified “skeleton” directory.
You can customize the user initialization templates in the /etc/skel directory and
then copy them to users’ home directories.

Administer Passwords
You can use Admintool for password administration, which includes specifying a
normal password for a user account, enabling users to create their own passwords
during their first login, disabling or locking a user account, or specifying expiration
dates and password aging information.

Note - Password aging is not supported by the NIS name service.

Disable User Accounts

Occasionally, you might need to temporarily or permanently disable a login account.
Disabling or locking a user account means that an invalid password, *LK*, is
assigned to the user account, preventing future logins.
The easiest way to disable a user account is to use Admintool to lock the password
for an account. You can also enter an expiration date in the Expiration Date field to
set how long the user account is disabled.
Other ways to disable a user account is to set up password aging or to change the
user’s password.

48 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Where User Account and Group
Information Is Stored
Depending on your site policy, you can store user account and group information in
a name service or a local system’s /etc files. In the NIS+ name service, information
is stored in tables, and in the NIS name service, information is stored in maps.

Note - To avoid confusion, the location of the user account and group information is
generically referred to as a file rather than a file, table, or map.

Most of the user account information is stored in the passwd file. However,
password encryption and password aging is stored in the passwd file when using
NIS or NIS+ and in the /etc/shadow file when using /etc files. Password aging is
not available when using NIS.
Group information is stored in the group file.

Fields in the passwd File

The fields in the passwd file are separated by colons and contain the following
information:

username:password:uid:gid:comment:home-directory:login-shell

For example:

kryten:x:101:100:Kryten Series 4000 Mechanoid:/export/home/kryten:/bin/csh

The table below describes the passwd file fields.

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 49

 TABLE 2–6 Fields in the passwd File

Field Name Description

username Contains the user or login name. User names should be unique
and consist of 1-8 letters (A-Z, a-z) and numerals (0-9). The first
character must be a letter, and at least one character must be a
lowercase letter. User names cannot contain underscores or
spaces.

password Contains an x, a placeholder for the encrypted password. The

encrypted password is stored in the shadow file.

uid Contains a user identification (UID) number that identifies the

user to the system. UID numbers for regular users should range
from 100 to 60000. All UID numbers should be unique.

gid Contains a group identification (GID) number that identifies the

user’s primary group. Each GID number must be a whole
number between 0 and 60002 (60001 and 60002 are assigned to
nobody and noaccess, respectively).

comment Usually contains the full name of the user. (This field is
informational only.) It is sometimes called the GECOS field
because it was originally used to hold the login information
needed to submit batch jobs to a mainframe running GECOS
(General Electric Computer Operating System) from UNIX
systems at Bell Labs.

home-directory Contains user’s home directory path name.

login-shell Contains the user’s default login shell, which can be /bin/sh,
/bin/csh or /bin/ksh. Table 2–13 contains a description of
shell features.

Default passwd File

The default Solaris passwd file contains entries for standard daemons, processes
usually started at boot time to perform some system-wide task, such as printing,
network administration, and port monitoring.

root:x:0:1:Super-User:/:/sbin/sh
daemon:x:1:1::/:
bin:x:2:2::/usr/bin:
sys:x:3:3::/:

(continued)

50 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

adm:x:4:4:Admin:/var/adm:
lp:x:71:8:Line Printer Admin:/usr/spool/lp:
uucp:x:5:5:uucp Admin:/usr/lib/uucp:
nuucp:x:9:9:uucp Admin:/var/spool/uucppublic:/usr/lib/uucp/uucico
listen:x:37:4:Network Admin:/usr/net/nls:
nobody:x:60001:60001:Nobody:/:
noaccess:x:60002:60002:No Access User:/:
nobody4:x:65534:65534:SunOS 4.x Nobody:/:

TABLE 2–7 Default passwd File Entries

User Name User ID Description

root 0 Superuser account

daemon 1 Umbrella system daemon associated with

updating calendars, and so forth

bin 2 Administrative daemon associated with running

system binaries to perform some routine system
task

sys 3 Administrative daemon associated with system

logging or updating files in temporary
directories

adm 4 Administrative daemon associated with system

logging

71 Line printer daemon

uucp 5 uucp daemon

nuucp 6 uucp daemon

listen 37 Network listener daemon

nobody 60001 Anonymous user account, assigned by an NFS

server when a request is received from an
unauthorized root user. The nobody user
account is assigned to software processes that
do not need nor should have any special
permissions.

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 51

 TABLE 2–7 Default passwd File Entries (continued)

User Name User ID Description

noaccess 60002 Account assigned to a user or a process that

needs access to a system through some
application but without actually logging in.

nobody4 65534 SunOS 4.0 or 4.1 version of nobody user

account.

Fields in the shadow File

The fields in the shadow file are separated by colons and contain the following
information:

username:password:lastchg:min:max:warn:inactive:expire

For example:

rimmer:86Kg/MNT/dGu.:8882:0::5:20:8978

The table below describes the shadow file fields.

TABLE 2–8 Fields in the shadow File

Field Name Description

username Contains the user or login name.

password Might contain the following entries: a 13-character encrypted

user password; the string *LK*, which indicates an inaccessible
account; or the string NP, which indicates no password for the
account.

lastchg Indicates the number of days between January 1, 1970, and the
last password modification date.

min Contains the minimum number of days required between

password changes.

max Contains the maximum number of days the password is valid

before the user is prompted to specify a new password.

52 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 2–8 Fields in the shadow File (continued)

Field Name Description

inactive Contains the number of days a user account can be inactive

before being locked.

expire Contains the absolute date when the user account expires. Past
this date, the user cannot log in to the system.

Fields in the group File

The fields in the group file are separated by colons and contain the following
information:

group-name:group-password:gid:user-list

For example:

bin::2:root,bin,daemon

The table below describes the group file fields.

TABLE 2–9 Fields in the group File

Field Name Description

group-name Contains the name assigned to the group. For example, members of
the chemistry department in a university might be called chem.
Group names can have a maximum of eight characters.

group-password Usually contains an asterisk or is empty. The group-password field is a

relic of earlier versions of UNIX. If a group has a password, the
newgrp command prompts users to enter it. However, there is no
utility to set the password.

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 53

 TABLE 2–9 Fields in the group File (continued)

Field Name Description

gid Contains the group’s GID number. It must be unique on the local
system, and should be unique across the entire organization. Each
GID number must be a whole number between 0 and 60002.
Numbers under 100 are reserved for system default group accounts.
User defined groups can range from 100 to 60000. (60001 and 60002
are reserved and assigned to nobody and noaccess, respectively.)

user-list Contains a comma-separated list of user names, representing the

user’s secondary group memberships. Each user can belong to a
maximum of 16 secondary groups.

Default group file

The default Solaris group file contains the following system groups that support
some system-wide task, such as printing, network administration, and electronic
mail. Many of these having corresponding entries in the passwd file.

root::0:root
other::1:
bin::2:root,bin,daemon
sys::3:root,bin,sys,adm
adm::4:root,adm,daemon
uucp::5:root,uucp
mail::6:root
tty::7:root,tty,adm
lp::8:root,lp,adm
nuucp::9:root,nuucp
staff::10:
daemon::12:root,daemon
sysadmin::14:root
nobody::60001:
noaccess::60002:
nogroup::65534:

TABLE 2–10 Default group File Entries

Group Name Group ID Description

root 0 Superuser group

other 1

54 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 2–10 Default group File Entries (continued)

Group Name Group ID Description

bin 2 Administrative group associated with running

system binaries

sys 3 Administrative group associated with system

logging or temporary directories

adm 4 Administrative group associated with system

logging

uucp 5 Group associated with uucp functions

mail 6 Electronic mail group

tty 7 Group associated with tty devices

8 Line printer group

nuucp 9 Group associated with uucp functions

staff 10 General administrative group

daemon 12 Daemon group

sysadmin 14 Administratve group associated with Admintool

and Solstice AdminSuite tools

nobody 60001 Anonymous group assigned by an NFS server

when a request is received from an
unauthorized root user

noaccess 60002

nogroup 65534

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 55

 Customizing a User’s Work
Environment
Part of setting up a user’s home directory is providing user initialization files for the
user’s login shell. A user initialization file is a shell script that sets up a work
environment for a user after the user logs in to a system. Basically, you can perform
any task in a user initialization file that you can do in a shell script, but its primary
job is to define the characteristics of a user’s work environment, such as a user’s
search path, environment variables, and windowing environment. Each login shell
has its own user initialization file (or files), which are listed in the table below.

TABLE 2–11 User Initialization Files for Bourne, C, and Korn Shells

Shell User Initialization File Purpose

Bourne $HOME/.profile Defines user’s environment at login

C $HOME/.cshrc Defines user’s environment for all C shells;

invoked after login shell

$HOME/.login Defines user’s environment at login

Korn $HOME/.profile Defines user’s environment at login

$HOME/$ENV Defines user’s environment at login in the

file; specified by the Korn shell’s ENV
environment variable

The Solaris environment provides default user initialization files for each shell in the
/etc/skel directory on each system, as shown in the table below.

TABLE 2–12 Default User Initialization Files

Shell Default File

C /etc/skel/local.login

/etc/skel/local.cshrc

Bourne or Korn /etc/skel/local.profile

56 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 2–12 Default User Initialization Files (continued)

You can use these files as a starting point and modify them to create a standard set
of files that provide the work environment common to all users, or you can modify
them to provide the working environment for different types of users. See “How to
Customize User Initialization Files” on page 72 for step-by-step instructions on how
to create sets of user initialization files for different types of users.
When you use Admintool to create a new user account and select the create home
directory option, the following files are created, depending on which login shell is
selected:

Shell Files Created

C The /etc/skel/local.cshrc and the /etc/skel/local.login files

are copied into the user’s home directory and are renamed .cshrc and
.login.

Bourne and The /etc/skel/local.profile file is copied into the user’s home
Korn directory and renamed .profile.

If you use the useradd command to add a new user account and specify the
/etc/skel directory by using the −k and −m options, all three /etc/skel/local*
and /etc/skel/.profile files are copied into the user’s home directory. At this
point, you’ll need to rename them to whatever is appropriate for the user’s login
shell.

Using Site Initialization Files

The user initialization files can be customized by both the administrator and the user.
This important feature can be accomplished with centrally located and globally
distributed user initialization files, called site initialization files. Site initialization files
enable you to continually introduce new functionality to the user’s work
environment, while enabling the user to customize the user’s initialization file.
When you reference a site initialization file in a user initialization file, all updates to
the site initialization file are automatically reflected when the user logs in to the
system or when a user starts a new shell. Site initialization files are designed for you
to distribute site-wide changes to users’ work environments that you did not
anticipate when you added the users.
Any customization that can be done in a user initialization file can be done in a site
initialization file. These files typically reside on a server (or set of servers), and appear
as the first statement in a user initialization file. Also, each site initialization file must
be the same type of shell script as the user initialization file that references it.

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 57

 To reference a site initialization file in a C-shell user initialization file, place a line
similar to the following at the beginning of the user initialization file:

source /net/machine-name/export/site-files/site-init-file

To reference a site initialization file in a Bourne- or Korn-shell user initialization file,

place a line similar to the following at the beginning of the user initialization file:

. /net/machine-name/export/site-files/site-init-file

Avoid Local System References

You should not add specific references to the local system in the user’s initialization
file. You want the instructions in a user initialization file to be valid regardless of the
system to which the user logs in. For example:

4 To make a user’s home directory available anywhere on the network, always refer
to the home directory with the variable $HOME. For example, use $HOME/bin; do
not use /export/home/username/bin. $HOME works when the user logs in to
another system, when home directories are automounted.

4 To access files on a local disk, use global path names, like

/net/machine-name/directory-name. Any directory referenced by
/net/machine-name can be mounted automatically on any system on which the
user logs in, assuming the system is running AutoFS.

Shell Features
The table below lists basic shell features that each shell provides, which can help you
determine what you can and can’t do when creating user initialization files for each
shell.

TABLE 2–13 Basic Features of Bourne, C, and Korn Shells

Feature Bourne C Korn

Known as the standard shell in Yes No No

UNIX

Compatible syntax with Bourne - No Yes

shell

Job control Yes Yes Yes

History list No Yes Yes

58 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 2–13 Basic Features of Bourne, C, and Korn Shells (continued)

Feature Bourne C Korn

Command-line editing No Yes Yes

Aliases No Yes Yes

Single-character abbreviation for No Yes Yes

login directory

Protection from overwriting No Yes Yes

(noclobber)

Setting to ignore Control-d No Yes Yes

(ignoreeof)

Enhanced cd No Yes Yes

Initialization file separate from No Yes Yes

.profile

Logout file No Yes No

Shell Environment
A shell maintains an environment that includes a set of variables defined by the
login program, the system initialization file, and the user initialization files. In
addition, some variables are defined by default. A shell can have two types of
variables:
4 Environment variables – Variables that are exported to all processes spawned by
the shell. Their settings can be seen with the env command. A subset of
environment variables, like PATH, affects the behavior of the shell itself.
4 Shell (local) variables – Variables that affect only the current shell. In the C shell, a
set of these shell variables have a special relationship to a corresponding set of
environment variables. These shell variables are user, term, home, and path.
The value of the environment variable counterpart is initially used to set the shell
variable.
In the C shell, you use the lowercase names with the set command to set shell
variables and use uppercase names with the setenv command to set environment
variables. If you set a shell variable, the shell sets the corresponding environment
variable and vice versa. For example, if you update the path shell variable with a
new path, the shell also updates the PATH environment variable with the new path.

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 59

 In the Bourne and Korn shells, you use the uppercase names with the setenv
command to set both shell and environment variables. You also have to use the
export command to finish setting environment variables. For all shells, you
generally refer to shell and environment variables by their uppercase names.
In a user initialization file, you can customize a user’s shell environment by changing
the values of the predefined variables or by specifying additional variables. The table
below shows how to set environment variables in a user initialization file.

TABLE 2–14 Setting Environment Variables in a User Initialization File

If You Want to Set a User’s Environment Then Add the Following Line to the User
Variables for The ... Initialization File ...

C shell setenv VARIABLE value

Example:

setenv MAIL /var/mail/ripley

Bourne or Korn shell VARIABLE=value; export VARIABLE

Example:

MAIL=/var/mail/ripley;export MAIL

The table below describes environment and shell variables you might want to
customize in a user initialization file. For more information about variables used by
the different shells, see sh(1), ksh(1), or csh(1).

TABLE 2–15 Shell and Environment Variable Descriptions

Variable Description

ARCH Sets the user’s system architecture (for example, sun4, i386). This
variable can be set with ARCH = ‘uname -p‘ (in Bourne or Korn
shells) or setenv ARCH ‘uname -p‘ (in C shell). No built-in behavior
of the shell depends on this variable. It’s only a useful variable for
branching within shell scripts.

CALENDAR Sets the path to the Calendar executables.

60 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 2–15 Shell and Environment Variable Descriptions (continued)

Variable Description

CDPATH (or Sets a variable used by the cd command. If the target directory of the
cdpath in the C cd command is specified as a relative path name, the cd command
shell) first looks for the target directory in the current directory (“.”). If the
target is not found, the path names listed in the CDPATH variable are
searched consecutively until the target directory is found and the
directory change is completed. If the target directory is not found, the
current working directory is left unmodified. For example, the CDPATH
variable is set to /home/jean, and two directories exist under /
home/jean: bin and rje. If you are in the /home/jean/bin
directory and type cd rje, you change directories to /home/jean/
rje, even though you do not specify a full path.

DESKSET Sets the path to the DeskSetTM executables.

history Sets history for the C shell.

HOME (or home in Sets the path to the user’s home directory.
the C shell)

LANG Sets the locale.

LOGNAME Defines the name of the user currently logged in. The default value of
LOGNAME is set automatically by the login program to the user name
specified in the passwd file. You should only need to refer to (not
reset) this variable.

LPDEST Sets the user’s default printer.

MAIL Sets the path to the user’s mailbox.

MANPATH Sets the hierarchies of man pages available.

MANSECTS Sets the hierarchies of man pages available.

OPENWINHOME Sets the path to the OpenWindows subsystem.

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 61

 TABLE 2–15 Shell and Environment Variable Descriptions (continued)

Variable Description

PATH (or path in Lists, in order, the directories that the shell searches to find the program
the C shell) to run when the user types a command. If the directory is not in the
search path, users must type the complete path name of a command.
The default PATH is automatically defined and set as specified in
.profile (Bourne or Korn shell) or .cshrc (C shell) as part of the
login process.
The order of the search path is important. When identical commands
exist in different locations, the first command found with that name is
used. For example, suppose that PATH is defined (in Bourne and Korn
shell syntax) as PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:$HOME/bin
and a file named sample resides in both /usr/bin and /home/
jean/bin. If the user types the command sample without specifying
its full path name, the version found in /usr/bin is used.

prompt Defines the shell prompt for the C shell.

PS1 Defines the shell prompt for the Bourne or Korn shell.

SHELL (or shell in Sets the default shell used by make, vi, and other tools.
the C shell)

TERMINFO Specifies the path name for an unsupported terminal that has been
added to the terminfo file. Use the TERMINFO variable in /etc/
profile or /etc/.login.

When the TERMINFO environment variable is set, the system first

checks the TERMINFO path defined by the user. If it does not find a
definition for a terminal in the TERMINFO directory defined by the
user, it searches the default directory, /usr/share/lib/terminfo,
for a definition. If it does not find a definition in either location, the
terminal is identified as “dumb.”

TERM (or term in Defines the terminal. This variable should be reset in /etc/profile
the C shell) or /etc/.login. When the user invokes an editor, the system looks
for a file with the same name as the definition of this environment
variable. The system searches the directory referenced by TERMINFO to
determine the terminal characteristics.

TZ Sets the time zone, which is used to display dates, for example, in the
ls -l command. If TZ is not set in the user’s environment, the system
setting is used; otherwise, Greenwich Mean Time is used.

62 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

The PATH Variable
When the user executes a command by using the full path, the shell uses that path to
find the command. However, when users specify only a command name, the shell
searches the directories for the command in the order specified by the PATH variable.
If the command is found in one of the directories, the shell executes it.
A default path is set by the system, but most users modify it to add other command
directories. Many user problems related to setting up the environment and accessing
the right version of a command or a tool can be traced to incorrectly defined paths.

Setting Path Guidelines

Here are some guidelines for setting up efficient PATH variables:
4 If security is not a concern, put the current working directory (.) first in the path.
However, including the current working directory in the path poses a security risk
that you might want to avoid, especially for superuser.
4 Keep the search path as short as possible. The shell searches each directory in the
path. If a command is not found, long searches can slow down system
performance.
4 The search path is read from left to right, so you should put directories for
commonly used commands at the beginning of the path.
4 Make sure directories are not duplicated in the path.
4 Avoid searching large directories, if possible. Put large directories at the end of the
path.
4 Put local directories before NFSTM mounted directories to lessen the chance of
“hanging” when the NFS server does not respond and to reduce unnecessary
network traffic.

Examples—Setting a User’s Default Path

The following examples show how to set a user’s default path to include the home
directory and other NFS mounted directories (the current working directory is
specified first in the path). In a C-shell user initialization file, you would add the
following:

set path=(. /usr/bin $HOME/bin /net/glrr/files1/bin)

In a Bourne- or Korn-shell user initialization file, you would add the following:

PATH=.:/usr/bin:/$HOME/bin:/net/glrr/files1/bin
export PATH

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 63

 Locale Variables
The LANG and LC environment variables specify the locale-specific conversions and
conventions for the shell, like time zones, collation orders, and formats of dates,
time, currency, and numbers. In addition, you can use the stty command in a user
initialization file to set whether the system will support multibyte characters.
LANG sets all possible conversions and conventions for the given locale. If you have
special needs, you can set various aspects of localization separately through these LC
variables: LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES, LC_NUMERIC, LC_MONETARY,
and LC_TIME.
The table below describes some of the values for the LANG and LC environment
variables.

TABLE 2–16 Values for LANG and LC Variables

Value Locale

de German

fr French

iso_8859_1 English and European

it Italian

japanese Japanese

korean Korean

sv Swedish

tchinese Taiwanese

Examples—Setting the Locale Using the LANG Variables

The following examples show how to set the locale using the LANG environment
variables. In a C-shell user initialization file, you would add the following:

setenv LANG DE

In a Bourne- or Korn-shell user initialization file, you would add the following:

64 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 LANG=DE; export LANG

Default File Permissions (umask)

When you create a file or directory, the default file permissions assigned to the file or
directory are controlled by the user mask. The user mask is set by the umask
command in a user initialization file. You can display the current value of the user
mask by typing umask and pressing Return.

The user mask can be set with a three-digit octal value. The first digit sets
permissions for the user; the second sets permissions for group; the third sets
permissions for other (also referred to as “world”). Note that if the first digit is zero,
it is not displayed. For example, if umask is set to 022, 22 is displayed.
To determine the umask value you want to set, subtract the value of the permissions
you want from 666 (for a file) or 777 (for a directory). The remainder is the value to
use with the umask command. For example, suppose you want to change the default
mode for files to 644 (rw-r--r--). The difference between 666 and 644 is 022, which
is the value you would use as an argument to the umask command.

You can also determine the umask value you want to set by using the table below,
which shows the file and directory permissions that are created for each of the octal
values of umask.

TABLE 2–17 Permissions for umask Values

umask Octal Value File Permissions Directory Permissions

0 rw- rwx

1 rw- rw-

2 r-- r-x

3 r-- r--

4 -w- -wx

5 -w- -w-

6 --x --x

7 --- (none) --- (none)

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 65

 The following line in a user initialization file sets the default file permissions to
rw-rw-rw-.

umask 000

Examples of User and Site Initialization Files

The following sections provide examples of user and site initialization files that you
can use to start customizing your own initialization files. Many of the examples use
system names and paths that you need to change for your particular site.

Example—.profile File

1
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/ccs/bin:.
MAIL=/var/mail/$LOGNAME 2
NNTPSERVER=server1 3
4
MANPATH=/usr/share/man:/usr/local/man
PRINTER=printer1 5
6
umask 022
7
export PATH MAIL NNTPSERVER MANPATH PRINTER

1. Defines the user’s shell search path.

2. Defines the path to the user’s mail file.
3. Defines the user’s Usenet news server.
4. Defines the user’s search path for man pages.
5. Defines the user’s default printer.
6. Sets the user’s default file creation permissions.
7. Sets the listed environment variables.

Example—.cshrc File

set path=($PATH $HOME/bin /usr/local/bin /usr/ccs/bin) 1

2
setenv MAIL /var/mail/$LOGNAME
3
setenv NNTPSERVER server1
setenv PRINTER printer1 4
5
alias h history
6
umask 022
source /net/server2/site-init-files/site.login 7

1. Defines the user’s shell search path.

2. Defines the path to the user’s mail file.

66 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

3. Defines the user’s Usenet news server.
4. Defines the user’s default printer.
5. Creates an alias for the history command (the user will need to type only h to
run the history command).
6. Sets the user’s default file creation permissions.
7. Sets the listed environment variables.

Example—Site Initialization File

The following shows an example site initialization file in which a user can choose a
particular version of an application.

# @(#)site.login
main:
echo "Application Environment Selection"
echo ""
echo "1. Application, Version 1"
echo "2. Application, Version 2"
echo ""
echo -n "Type 1 or 2 and press Return to set your
application environment: "

set choice = $<

if ( $choice !~ [1-2] ) then

goto main
endif

switch ($choice)

case "1":
setenv APPHOME /opt/app-v.1
breaksw

case "2":
setenv APPHOME /opt/app-v.2
endsw

This site initialization file could be referenced in a user’s .cshrc file (C shell users
only) with the following line:

source /net/server2/site-init-files/site.login

In this line, the site initialization file is named site.login and is located on a
server named server2. This line also assumes that the automounter is running on
the user’s system.

Managing User Accounts and Groups (Overview) 67

68 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 3

Setting Up and Maintaining User

Accounts and Groups (Tasks)

This chapter describes the procedures for setting up and maintaining user accounts
and groups.
This is a list of the step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “How to Customize User Initialization Files” on page 72
4 “How to Start Admintool” on page 74
4 “How to Add a Group” on page 75
4 “How to Add a New User Account” on page 76
4 “How to Share a User’s Home Directory” on page 77
4 “How to Mount a User’s Home Directory” on page 79
4 “How to Modify a Group” on page 81
4 “How to Delete a Group” on page 82
4 “How to Modify a User Account” on page 82
4 “How to Disable a User Account” on page 84
4 “How to Change a User’s Password” on page 85
4 “How to Change Password Aging for a User Account” on page 86
4 “How to Delete a User Account” on page 88
4 “How to Restart Solaris User Registration” on page 91
4 “How to Disable User Registration” on page 91
For overview information about Managing User Accounts and Groups, see Chapter 2.

69
 Becoming Superuser (root)
Most administrative tasks such as adding users require that you log in as root
(UID=0) first. The root account is also known as the superuser account because it’s
used to make system changes and can override user file protection in emergency
situations.
The superuser account should be used only to perform administrative tasks to
prevent indiscriminate changes to the system.
You can either log into the system as superuser or use the su(1M) command to
change to the superuser account.
If you are using role-based access control, you must assume a role (either superuser
or some other role) to perform administrative tasks. Roles are assumed by using the
su command; you cannot log in to a role directly. See “Role-Based Access Control”
in System Administration Guide, Volume 2 for more information.

How to Become Superuser (root)

Become superuser by one of the following methods. Both methods require that you
know the root password.

4 Change to the superuser account by using the su command.

% su
Password: root_password
#

The pound sign (#) is the Bourne shell prompt for the superuser account.
4 Log in as superuser on the system console.

hostname console: root

Password: root_password
#

This method is not enabled by default. You must modify the

/etc/default/login file to log in as superuser on the system console. See
“Securing Systems (Tasks)” in System Administration Guide, Volume 2 for
information on modifying this file.

70 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Setting Up User Accounts Task Map
TABLE 3–1 Setting Up User Accounts Task Map

Task Description For Instructions, Go To

1. Customize User Optional. Set up user initialization files “How to Customize User
Initialization Files (.cshrc, .profile, .login), so you can Initialization Files” on page 72
provide new users with consistent
environments.

2. Add a Group Optional. To help administer users, add “How to Add a Group” on
groups by using the Groups main window. page 75

3. Add a User Account Add a user account by using Admintool’s

“How to Add a New User
Users main window.
Account” on page 76

4. Share the User’s Home Share the user’s home directory, so the
“How to Share a User’s Home
Directory directory can be remotely mounted from the
Directory” on page 77
user’s system.

5. Mount the User’s Home Manually mount the user’s home directory
“How to Mount a User’s Home
Directory on the user’s system by using the mount
Directory” on page 79
command.

User Information Data Sheet

You might find it useful to create a form like the one below to gather information
about users before adding their accounts.
If you are using role-based access control, you will also need to list any roles,
profiles, or authorizations intended for the user account. See “Role-Based Access
Control” in System Administration Guide, Volume 2 for more information.

Item Description

User Name:

UID:

Setting Up and Maintaining User Accounts and Groups (Tasks) 71

 Primary Group:

Secondary Groups:

Comment:

Default Shell:

Password Status and Aging:

Home Directory Server Name:

Home Directory Path Name:

Mounting Method:

Permissions on Home Directory:

Mail Server:

Department Name:

Department Administrator:

Manager:

Employee Name:

Employee Title:

Employee Status:

Employee Number:

Start Date:

Add to These Mail Aliases:

Desktop System Name:

How to Customize User Initialization Files

1. Become superuser on the system where the users’ home directories are created
and shared.

2. Create a skeleton directory for each type of user.

72 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # mkdir /shared-dir/skel/user-type

shared-dir The name of a directory that is available to other

systems on the network.

user-type The name of a directory to store initialization files for a

type of user.

3. Copy the default user initialization files into the directories you created for
different types of users.

# cp /etc/skel/local.cshrc /shared-dir/skel/user-type/.cshrc
# cp /etc/skel/local.login /shared-dir/skel/user-type/.login
# cp /etc/skel/local.profile /shared-dir/skel/user-type/.profile

Note - If the account has profiles assigned to it, then the user has to launch a
special version of the shell called a profile shell to use commands (with any
security attributes) that are assigned to the profile. There are three profile shells
corresponding to the types of shells: pfsh (Bourne shell), pfcsh (C shell), and
pfksh (Korn shell).

4. Edit the user initialization files for each user type and customize them based
on your site’s needs.
See “Customizing a User’s Work Environment” on page 56 for a detailed
description on the ways to customize the user initialization files.

5. Set the permissions for the user initialization files.

# chmod 744 /shared-dir/skel/user-type/.*

6. Verify the permissions for the user initialization files are correct with the
ls -la command.

Example—Customizing User Initialization Files

The following example customizes the C-shell user initialization file in the
/export/skel/enduser directory designated for a particular type of user.

Setting Up and Maintaining User Accounts and Groups (Tasks) 73

 # mkdir /export/skel/enduser
# cp /etc/skel/local.cshrc /export/skel/enduser/.cshrc

(Edit .cshrc file–see “Example—.cshrc File ” on page 66)

# chmod 744 /export/skel/enduser/.*

How to Start Admintool

1. Verify that the following prerequisites are met. To use Admintool, you must:
4 Have a bit-mapped display monitor. The Admintool software can be used only
on a system with a console that has a bit-mapped screen such as a standard
display monitor that comes with a Sun workstation.
4 Be running an X Window environment such as CDE.
4 Be a member of the sysadmin group (group 14).
If you want to perform administration tasks on a system with an ASCII terminal
as the console, use Solaris commands instead. See useradd(1M) for more
information.

2. Start Admintool.

$ admintool &

The Users main window appears.

Example—Starting Admintool
The Users main window enables you to manage user account information.

74 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How to Add a Group
1. Start Admintool, if it’s not already running.
See “How to Start Admintool” on page 74 for more information on starting
Admintool.

2. Choose Groups from the Browse menu.

The Groups window appears.

3. Select Add from the Edit menu.

The Add window has several fields. If you need information to complete a field,
click the Help button to see field definitions for this window.

4. Type the name of the new group in the Group Name text box.

5. Type the group ID for the new group in the Group ID text box.
The group ID should be unique.

6. (Optional) Type user names in the Members List text box.

The list of users will be added to the group. User names must be separated by
commas.

7. Click OK.
The list of groups displayed in the Groups window is updated to include the new
group.

Setting Up and Maintaining User Accounts and Groups (Tasks) 75

 Example—Adding a Group
The following example adds a group named users that has a group ID of 101.

How to Add a New User Account

1. (Optional) Fill out the user information data sheet on “User Information Data
Sheet” on page 71.

2. Start Admintool, if it’s not already running.

See “How to Start Admintool” on page 74 for more information.

3. Choose Add from the Edit menu.

The Add User window is displayed.

4. Fill in the Add User window.

If you need information to complete a field, click the Help button to see field
definitions for this window.

5. Click OK.
The list of user accounts displayed in the Users main window is updated to
include the new user account.

Where to Go From Here

If you created a user’s home directory, you must share the directory so the user’s
system can remotely mount it. See “How to Share a User’s Home Directory” on page
77 for detailed instructions.
If disk space is limited, you can set up a disk quota for the user in the file system
containing the user’s home directory. See “Managing Quotas (Tasks)” in System
Administration Guide, Volume 2 for information on setting disk quotas.

76 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Example—Adding a New User Account
The following example adds the user kryten to the system.

How to Share a User’s Home Directory

1. Become superuser on the system that contains the home directory.

2. Verify that the mountd daemon is running.

# ps -ef | grep mountd

root 176 1 0 May 02 ? 0:19 /usr/lib/nfs/mountd

Setting Up and Maintaining User Accounts and Groups (Tasks) 77

 The /usr/lib/nfs/mountd line shows whether the mountd daemon is running.

3. If the mountd daemon is not running, start it.

# /etc/init.d/nfs.server start

4. List the file systems that are shared on the system.

# share

5. Determine your next step based on whether the file system containing the
user’s home directory is already shared.

If the File System Containing the User’s

Home Directory Is ... Then ...

Already shared Go to the verification step below.

Not shared Go to Step 6 on page 78

6. Edit the /etc/dfs/dfstab file and add the following line.

share -F nfs /file-system

file-system Is the file system containing the user’s home directory

that you need to share. By convention, the file system is
/export/home.

7. Share the file systems listed in the /etc/dfs/dfstab file.

# shareall -F nfs

This command executes all the share commands in the /etc/dfs/dfstab file,
so you do not have to wait to reboot the system.

8. Verify that a user’s home directory is shared, as follows:

# share

78 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Where to Go From Here
If the user’s home directory is not located on the user’s system, you have to mount
the user’s home directory from the system where it is located. See “How to Mount a
User’s Home Directory” on page 79 for detailed instructions.

Example—Sharing a User’s Home Directory

# ps -ef | grep mountd
# /etc/init.d/nfs.server start
# share
# vi /etc/dfs/dfstab

(The line share -F nfs /export/home is added.)

# shareall -F nfs
# share
- /usr/dist ro ""
- /export/home/user-name rw ""

How to Mount a User’s Home Directory

1. Make sure that the user’s home directory is shared. See “How to Share a User’s
Home Directory” on page 77 for more information.

2. Log in as superuser on the user’s system.

3. Edit the /etc/vfstab file and create an entry for the user’s home directory.

system-name:/export/home/user-name - /export/home/user-name nfs - yes rw

system-name The name of the system where the home directory is

located.

/export/home/user-name The name of the user’s home directory that will be

shared. By convention, /export/home contains user’s
home directories; however, this could be a different file
system.

- Required placeholders in the entry.

/export/home/user-name The name of the directory where the user’s home

directory will be mounted.

Setting Up and Maintaining User Accounts and Groups (Tasks) 79

 See Chapter 36 for more information about adding an entry to the /etc/vfstab
file.

4. Create the mount point for the user’s home directory.

# mkdir -p /export/home/user-name

5. Mount the user’s home directory.

# mountall

All entries in the current vfstab file (whose mount at boot fields are set to
yes) are mounted.

6. Use the mount command to verify that the home directory is mounted.

Example—Mounting a User’s Home Directory

# vi /etc/vfstab

(The line venus:/export/home/ripley - /export/home/ripley

nfs - yes rw is added.)
# mkdir -p /export/home/ripley
# mountall
# mount
/ on /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/onerror=panic on Fri ...
/usr on /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s6 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/onerror=panic on Fri ...
/proc on /proc read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:09:48 1999
/dev/fd on fd read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:09:51 1999
/etc/mnttab on mnttab read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:10:06 1999
/var/run on swap read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:10:06 1999
/tmp on swap read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:10:09 1999
/export/home/ripley on venus:/export/home/ripley /read/write/remote on ...

Maintaining User Accounts Task Map

80 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 3–2 Task Map: Maintaining User Accounts

Task Description For Instructions, Go To

Modify a Group Modify a group’s name or the users in a

“How to Modify a Group” on
group by choosing Modify from the Edit
page 81
menu in the Groups window.

Delete a Group Delete a group by choosing Delete from the

“How to Delete a Group” on
Edit menu in the Groups window.
page 82

Modify a User Account Disable a User Account “How to Disable a User

If you want to temporarily disable a user Account” on page 84
account, lock the user account from the
Password menu in the Modify window.

Change a User’s Password “How to Change a User’s

Password” on page 85
If you want to change a user’s password, use
the Password menu in the Modify window.

Change Password Aging “How to Change Password

Aging for a User Account” on
If you want to force users to change their
page 86
passwords periodically, change the Password
Aging fields in the Modify window (Account
Security category).

Delete a User Account Delete a user account by choosing Delete

“How to Delete a User
from in the Edit menu in the Users window.
Account” on page 88

How to Modify a Group

1. Start Admintool, if it is not already running. Select Groups from the Browse
menu.
See “How to Start Admintool” on page 74 for more information.

2. Select the group entry you want to modify from the Groups window.

3. Choose Modify from the Edit menu.

The Modify Group window contains the selected group entry.

4. Modify either the group’s name or the users in the group.

Setting Up and Maintaining User Accounts and Groups (Tasks) 81

 User names must be separated by commas. If you need information to complete a
field, click the Help button to see field definitions for this window.

5. Click OK.
The group information displayed in the Groups window is updated.

Example—Modifying a Group
The following example adds the users r2d2, holly, and kryten to the staff
group.

How to Delete a Group

1. Start Admintool, if it’s not already running. Select Groups from the Browse
menu.
See “How to Start Admintool” on page 74 for more information.

2. Select the group entry you want to delete from Groups window.

3. Choose Delete from the Edit menu.

A window asks you to confirm the deletion.

4. Click OK.
The group entry is deleted from the Groups window.

How to Modify a User Account

1. Start Admintool, if it’s not already running. Select Users from the Browse menu.
See “How to Start Admintool” on page 74 for more information.

2. Select the user account entry to modify from the Users window.

82 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

3. Choose Modify from the Edit menu.
The Modify window contains the selected user account entry.

4. Modify the user account.

If you need information to complete a field, click the Help button to see field
definitions for this window. You can change any of the Account Security fields,
which includes changing a password or changing password aging. See the
following tasks for detailed step-by-step instructions:
4 “How to Disable a User Account” on page 84
4 “How to Change a User’s Password” on page 85
4 “How to Change Password Aging for a User Account” on page 86

5. Click OK.

6. To verify that the modifications were made, double-click the modified user
account entry in the Users window, then click Cancel to close the window
without making any modifications.

Example—Modifying a User Account

The following example adds the secondary group membership lp to the rimmer
user account.

Setting Up and Maintaining User Accounts and Groups (Tasks) 83

 How to Disable a User Account
Note - You can enable the user account by changing the password status to Normal
Password or Cleared Until First Login.

1. Start Admintool, if it’s not already running. Select Users from the Browse
menu, if necessary.
See “How to Start Admintool” on page 74 for more information.

2. Select the user account entry to be disabled.

3. Choose Modify from the Edit menu.

The Modify Users window contains the selected user account entry.

84 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

4. Choose Account Is Locked from the Password menu.
This selects the locked password status, which disables the user account.

5. Click OK.

6. Verify that you have disabled the user account by attempting to log in with the
disabled user account.

Example—Disabling a User Account

The following example disables the rimmer user account.

How to Change a User’s Password

1. Start Admintool, if it’s not already running. Select Users from the Browse menu.

Setting Up and Maintaining User Accounts and Groups (Tasks) 85

 See “How to Start Admintool” on page 74 for more information.

2. Select the user account entry that needs the password changed.

3. Choose Modify from the Edit menu.

The Modify User window is displayed containing the selected user account entry.

4. Choose Normal Password from the Password menu.

5. Click OK.

Example—Changing a User’s Password

This is the pop-up window used to change user’s passwords which is available from
the Add User or Modify User windows.

How to Change Password Aging for a User

Account
1. Start Admintool, if it is not already running. Select Users from the Browse
menu.
See “How to Start Admintool” on page 74 for more information.

2. Select the user account entry that needs its password aging changed.

3. Choose Modify from the Edit menu.

The Modify window contains the selected user account entry.

4. Change the following fields that affect password aging:

86 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 4 Min Change
4 Max Change
4 Max Inactive
4 Expiration Date
4 Warning
If you need information about the password aging fields that are part of the
Account Security category, click the Help button.

5. Click OK.

Example—Changing Password Aging for a User Account

In the following example, the user must keep a new password for at least one day
(Min Change) , and must change the password every 60 days (Max Change). The
user must change the password if the account is inactive for more than 10 days (Max
Inactive).

Setting Up and Maintaining User Accounts and Groups (Tasks) 87

 How to Delete a User Account
1. Start Admintool, if it’s not already running. Select Users from the Browse
menu, if necessary.
See “How to Start Admintool” on page 74 for more information.

2. Select the user account entry to remove from the Users window.

3. Choose Delete from the Edit menu.

The Delete window is displayed to confirm the removal of the user account.

4. (Optional) Click the check box to delete the user’s home directory and its
contents.

88 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

5. Click OK when you are ready to delete the user account. The user account
entry is deleted from the Users main window.

Example—Deleting a User Account

The account for user kryten and the /export/home/kryten directory is removed.

Solaris User Registration

Solaris User Registration is a tool for getting information about new Solaris releases,
upgrade offers, and promotions. This graphical user interface (GUI) starts
automatically when you first log into your desktop. The GUI lets you register now,
later, or never. The registration process also provides Sun with the user’s Solaris
version, survey type, platform, hardware, and locale.

Accessing Solaris Solve SM

Completing the Solaris User Registration process provides access to Solaris Solve, an
exclusive web site that offers valuable Solaris product information and solutions—all
in one convenient location. It provides a quick and easy method for getting the most
recent information on what’s happening around the latest Solaris release. Solaris
Solve also provides a preview to additional Sun contract and service opportunities.
Basically, the steps for completing Solaris User Registration and accessing Solaris
Solve are:
1. Fill in the electronic Solaris User Registration profile.
2. Submit the profile by email or print the profile to fax or mail.
3. Create your login ID and password to access the Solaris Solve site.
Even if you do not access the Solaris Solve site immediately, we recommend that
you create your Solaris Solve login ID and password during the Solaris User

Setting Up and Maintaining User Accounts and Groups (Tasks) 89

 Registration process. A Solaris Solve login ID and password should contain six to
eight alphanumeric characters without spaces and colons.
4. Access the Solaris Solve site.

Note - Solaris User Registration is not invoked if the system administrator or user is
logged in as superuser.

If you choose to register, a copy of the completed form is stored in

$HOME/.solregis/uprops. If you choose to never register and change your mind
later, you can start User Registration by:

4 Typing /usr/dt/bin/solregis at any command line prompt

4 Clicking the Registration icon in the Application Manager’s desktop tools folder
(Common Desktop Environment desktop only)

See solregis(1) for more information.

Troubleshooting Solaris User Registration

Problems
This section provides troubleshooting tips for solving Solaris User Registration
problems.

The following table describes problems that might occur when you try to register,
and actions required to resolve these conflicts.

TABLE 3–3 Registration Problem Descriptions and Suggested Resolutions

Problem Description How to Resolve the Problem

The registration form failed to initialize: Web Check for missing registration files.
page window displays and requests that
user see system administrator to resolve
problem preventing registration setup.

The form could not be emailed: Dialog box Check to see if email is configured correctly.
displays and requests that user see system Also check if CDE is on user’s system since
administrator to resolve problem. it must be present to email completed
registration form. Alternatively, users can
print the form and fax or mail it.

The form could not be printed: Dialog box Check to see if the printer is configured
displays and requests that user see system correctly. Alternatively, the user can email
administrator to resolve problem. form.

90 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 3–3 Registration Problem Descriptions and Suggested Resolutions (continued)

Problem Description How to Resolve the Problem

The form could not be saved: Dialog box Check the user’s home directory. Required
displays and verifies that registration action depends on the system’s
succeeded; however, the registration configuration.
information cannot be recalled when
updating registration in the future.

You forgot your Solaris Solve login ID and Send a mail message describing the problem
password. to [email protected] or see “How to
Restart Solaris User Registration” on page 91

You want to restart the registration process.

“How to Restart Solaris User Registration”
on page 91

How to Restart Solaris User Registration

Use the following procedure to restart the Solaris User Registration process.
1. Change to the $HOME/.solregis directory.

% cd $HOME/.solregis

2. Remove the uprops file.

% rm uprops

3. Restart the registration process.

% /usr/dt/bin/solregis &

How to Disable User Registration

The table below shows how to disable User Registration before and after installing
Solaris software. Before disabling Solaris User Registration, system administrators
should register for their organization.

Setting Up and Maintaining User Accounts and Groups (Tasks) 91

 TABLE 3–4 Ways to Disable User Registration

To Disable User You Can ... For More Information

Registration ... See ...

Before Solaris software is 4 Deselect the SUNWsregu

package (interactive Solaris 8 Advanced
installed
installation) Installation Guide
4 Modify a custom JumpStart
profile to not install the
solregis(1)
SUNWsregu package
4 Create and run a finish script
that creates a file named
solregis in the /etc/
default directory on one or
more systems with the
following line in it: DISABLE=1

After Solaris software is 4 Use the pkgrm command to

remove the SUNWsregu Chapter 21
installed
package
4 Add the solregis file in the / Solaris 8 Advanced
etc/default directory Installation Guide
(custom JumpStart installation
only)
solregis(1)

92 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 4

Managing Server and Client Support

Topics

This section provides a conceptual overview for managing server and client support
in the Solaris environment. This section contains this chapter.

Provides a high-level overview about managing server

Chapter 5
and client support on a network. This chapter describes
the different system types for which you can add
support, and guidelines for choosing a system type to
use.

93
94 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 5

Managing Server and Client Support

(Overview)

This chapter describes managing server and client support on a network, and it
provides overview information about each system configuration (referred to as a
system type) supported in the Solaris environment. This chapter also includes
guidelines for selecting the appropriate system type to meet your needs.
This is a list of the overview information in this chapter.
4 “What Are Servers and Clients?” on page 95
4 “What Does Support Mean?” on page 96
4 “Overview of System Types” on page 96

Note - AutoClientTM and diskless systems are not supported in the Solaris 8 release.
See Solstice AdminSuite 2.3 Administration Guide for information on managing
existing client systems.

What Are Servers and Clients?

Systems on the network can usually be described as one of the following:
4 Server – A system that provides services to other systems in its network. There are
file servers, boot servers, database servers, license servers, print servers,
installation servers, and even servers for particular applications. This chapter uses
the term server to mean a system that provides file systems and installation
software for other systems on the network.

95
 4 Client – A system that uses remote services from a server. Some clients have
limited disk storage capacity, or perhaps none at all, and they have to rely on
remote file systems from a server to function.
Other clients might use remote services (such as installation software) from a
server, but they don’t rely on a server to function. A standalone system, which has
its own hard disk containing the root (/), /usr, and /export/home file systems
and swap space, is a good example of this type of client.

What Does Support Mean?

Providing support for a system means providing software and services to help
another system function. Support can include:
4 Making a system known to the network (i.e., host name and ethernet address
information)
4 Providing installation services to remotely boot and install a system
4 Providing operating system (OS) services to a system with limited or no disk space

Overview of System Types

System types are basically defined by how they access the root (/) and /usr file
systems, including the swap area. For example, standalone and server systems
mount these file systems from a local disk, while other clients mount the file systems
remotely, relying on servers to provide these services. The table below lists these and
other differences for each system type.

96 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 5–1 System Type Overview

Local File Remote File Relative

System Type Systems Local Swap? Systems Network Use Performance

Server root (/) Yes – none – high high

/usr

/home

/opt

/export/home

/export/root

Standalone root (/) Yes – none – low high

System
/usr

/export/home

JavaStationTM – none – No /home low high

Servers
A server system has the following file systems:
4 The root (/) and /usr file systems, plus swap space
4 The /export, /export/swap, and /export/home file systems, which support
client systems and provide home directories for users
4 The /opt directory or file system for storing application software
Servers can also contain the following software to support other systems:
4 Solaris CD image and boot software for networked systems to perform remote
installations
4 JumpStartTM directory for networked systems to perform custom JumpStart
installations

Managing Server and Client Support (Overview) 97

 Standalone Systems
A networked standalone system can share information with other systems in the
network, but it could continue to function if detached from the network.
A standalone system can function autonomously because it has its own hard disk
containing the root (/), /usr, and /export/home file systems and swap space. The
standalone system thus has local access to operating system software, executables,
virtual memory space, and user-created files.

Note - A standalone system requires sufficient disk space to hold the four necessary
file systems.

A non-networked standalone system is a standalone system with all the characteristics

listed above except it is not connected to a network.

JavaStation Client
The JavaStationTM is a client designed for zero administration. This client optimizes
JavaTM ; the JavaStation client takes full advantage of the network to deliver
everything from Java applications and services to complete, integrated system and
network management. The JavaStation has no local administration; booting,
administration, and data storage are handled by servers.

98 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 6

Shutting Down and Booting a System

Topics

This section provides instructions for shutting down and booting systems running
the Solaris release. This section contains these chapters.

Provides an overview and guidelines for shutting down

Chapter 7
and booting a system.

Provides information about run levels and boot files.

Chapter 8

Provides step-by-step instructions for shutting down a

Chapter 9
system.

Provides step-by-step instructions for booting a SPARC

Chapter 10
based system.

Provides step-by-step instructions for booting an IA based

Chapter 11
system.

Provides a high-level overview of the boot process,

Chapter 12
including a description of the platform-specific hardware
used to boot SPARC based and IA based systems.

99
100 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 7

Shutting Down and Booting a System

(Overview)

This chapter provides guidelines for shutting down and booting a system. The
Solaris software environment is designed to run continuously so that electronic mail
and network resources are available to users. Occasionally, it is necessary to shut
down or reboot a system because of a system configuration change, a scheduled
maintenance event, or a power outage.
This is a list of overview information in this chapter.
4 “What’s New in Shutting Down and Booting a System?” on page 101
4 “Where to Find Shutting Down and Booting Tasks” on page 102
4 “Shutting Down and Booting Terminology” on page 103
4 “Guidelines for Shutting Down a System” on page 103
4 “Guidelines for Booting a System” on page 104
4 “Performing a Reconfiguration Boot” on page 104
4 “When to Shut Down a System” on page 105
4 “When to Boot a System” on page 106

What’s New in Shutting Down and

Booting a System?
This section describes new features related to shutting down and booting a system in
this Solaris release.

101
 Booting a System Over the Network With DHCP
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) functionality has been added to boot
a system over the network in this Solaris release. The previous network boot
technology based on RARP/bootparams is still available.

A DHCP server must have been installed and configured in your network before you
can use DHCP booting. For information on setting up a DHCP server, see
“Configuring DHCP Service” in System Administration Guide, Volume 3.

For information on booting a SPARC based system over the network, see “SPARC:
How to Boot a System Over the Network” on page 142. For information on booting
an IA based system over the network, see “IA: How to Boot a System Over the
Network” on page 156.

IA: Booting From CD-ROM Without the Solaris

Boot Diskette
You can boot the Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) directly from the locally attached
CD-ROM without the Solaris boot diskette on IA based systems that support this
feature.

The Solaris boot diskette is still available for the systems that do not support this
feature.

See Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Installation Guide for information on booting
IA based systems with or without the boot diskette.

Where to Find Shutting Down and

Booting Tasks
Use these references to find step-by-step instructions for shutting down and booting
a system.

For Information On ... See ...

Shutting down a SPARC based or IA based

Chapter 9
system

Booting a SPARC based system

Chapter 10

102 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 For Information On ... See ...

Booting an IA based system

Chapter 11

Managing a SPARC based system with the

Using Power Management
power management software

Shutting Down and Booting

Terminology
This section describes the terminology used in shutting down and booting a system.
4 Run levels and init states – A run level is a letter or digit representing a system
state in which a particular set of system services are available. The system is
always running in one of a set of well-defined run levels. Run levels are also
referred to as init states because the init process is used to perform transitions
between run levels. System administrators use the init(1M) command to initiate
a run-level transition. This book refers to init states as run levels.
4 Boot types – A boot type describes how a system is booted. Different boot types
include:

4 Interactive boot – You are prompted to provide information about how the
system is booted, such as the kernel and device path name.
4 Reconfiguration boot – The system is reconfigured to support newly added
hardware or new pseudo devices.
4 Recovery boot – The system is hung or an invalid entry is prohibiting the
system from booting successfully or from allowing users to log in.

Guidelines for Shutting Down a System

Keep the following in mind when shutting down a system:
4 Use the init and shutdown commands to shut down a system. Both commands
perform a clean system shutdown, which means all system processes and services
are terminated normally.
4 Use the shutdown command to shut down a server, because logged-in users and
systems mounting resources from the server are notified before the server is shut

Shutting Down and Booting a System (Overview) 103

 down. Additional notification of system shutdowns via electronic mail is also
recommended so that users can be prepared for system downtime.
4 You need superuser privileges to use the shutdown or init command to shut
down a system.
4 Both shutdown and init commands take a run level as an argument. The three
most common run levels are:

4 Run level 3 – Means that all system resources are available and users can log
in. By default, booting a system brings it to run level 3, which is used for
normal day-to-day operations. Also known as multiuser level with NFS
resources shared.
4 Run level 6 – Stops the operating system and reboots to the state defined by
the initdefault entry in the /etc/inittab file.
4 Run level 0 – Means the operating system is shut down and it is safe to turn off
power. Bringing a system to run level 0 is needed whenever the system is
moved or hardware is added or removed.
4 Run levels are fully described in Chapter 8.

Guidelines for Booting a System

Keep the following in mind when booting a system:
4 After a system is shut down, it is booted by using the boot command at the
PROM level on a SPARC based system or by using the boot command at the
Primary Boot Subsystem Menu on an Intel system.
4 A system can be rebooted by turning the power off and then back on. This is not a
clean shutdown because system services and processes are terminated abruptly.
However, turning a system’s power off and back is an alternative for emergency
situations.
4 SPARC based and IA based systems use different hardware components for
booting. These differences are described in Chapter 12.

Performing a Reconfiguration Boot

Perform a reconfiguration boot when adding new hardware to the system. See the
table below to determine which reconfiguration procedure to use.

104 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 7–1 Reconfiguration Procedures

If You Are Reconfiguring The System To ... See ...

Add a secondary disk

Chapter 30 or Chapter 31

Add some other peripheral device

“How to Add a Peripheral Device” on page
290

When to Shut Down a System

The following table provides a list of system administration tasks and the type of
shut down needed to initiate the task.

TABLE 7–2 Shutting Down a System

If You Are ... Change To This Run Level ... See ...

Turning off system power due to Run level 0, where it is safe to

Chapter 9
anticipated power outage turn off power

Changing kernel parameters in the Run level 6 (reboot the system)

Chapter 9
/etc/system file

Performing file system Run level S (single-user mode)

Chapter 9
maintenance, such as backing up or
restoring system data

Repairing a system configuration See “When to Boot a System” N/A

file such as /etc/system on page 106

Adding or removing hardware Reconfiguration boot (plus

Chapter 24
from the system turning off power when
adding or removing hardware)

Repairing an important system file See “When to Boot a System” N/A

which is causing system boot on page 106
failure

Shutting Down and Booting a System (Overview) 105

 TABLE 7–2 Shutting Down a System (continued)

If You Are ... Change To This Run Level ... See ...

Booting the kernel debugger (kadb) Run level 0, if possible

Chapter 9
to track down a system problem

Recovering from a hung system See “When to Boot a System” N/A

and you want to force a crash on page 106
dump

See Chapter 9 for examples of shutting down a server or standalone system.

When to Boot a System

The table below provides a list of system administration tasks and the corresponding
boot type used to complete the task.

TABLE 7–3 Booting a System

If You Are Rebooting See SPARC See IA

the System After ... Use This Boot Type ... Procedure ... Procedure ...

Turning off system power Turn system power back

Chapter 9 Chapter 9
due to anticipated power on
outage

Changing kernel Reboot the system to run

“SPARC: How “IA: How to
parameters in the /etc/ level 3 (multiuser mode
to Boot a System Boot a System
system file with NFS resources
to Run Level 3 to Run Level 3
shared)
(Multiuser (Multiuser
State)” on page State)” on page
138 151

Performing file system Use Control-d from run

“SPARC: How “IA: How to
maintenance, such as level S to bring the
to Boot a System Boot a System
performing a backup or system back to run level 3
to Run Level S to Run Level S
restoring system data
(Single-User (Single-User
State)” on page State)” on page
139 152

106 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 7–3 Booting a System (continued)

If You Are Rebooting See SPARC See IA

the System After ... Use This Boot Type ... Procedure ... Procedure ...

Repairing a system Interactive boot

“SPARC: How “IA: How to
configuration file such as
to Boot a System Boot a System
/etc/system
Interactively” Interactively”
on page 140 on page 154

Adding or removing Reconfiguration boot

“SPARC: How Chapter 31
hardware from the (plus turning on system
to Connect a
system power after adding or
Secondary Disk
removing hardware)
and Boot” on
page 365

Booting the kernel Booting kabd

“SPARC: How “IA: How to
debugger (kadb) to track
to Boot the Boot a System
down a system problem
System With the with the Kernel
Kernel Debugger
Debugger (kadb)” on page
(kadb)” on page 160
147

Repairing an important Recovery boot

“IA: How to “IA: How to
system file which is
Boot a System Boot a System
causing system boot
for Recovery for Recovery
failure
Purposes” on Purposes” on
page 157 page 157

Recovering from a hung Recovery boot See example on See example on

system and you want to “IA: How to “IA: How to
force a crash dump Force a Crash Force a Crash
Dump and Dump and
Reboot the Reboot the
System” on System” on
page 161 page 161

See Chapter 10 or Chapter 11 for examples of booting a system.

Shutting Down and Booting a System (Overview) 107

108 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 8

Run Levels and Boot Files (Tasks)

This chapter provides guidelines for shutting down and booting a system and
information about run levels and boot files.
This is a list of the step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “How to Determine a System’s Run Level” on page 110
4 “How to Use a Run Control Script to Stop or Start a Service” on page 116
4 “How to Add a Run Control Script” on page 117
4 “How to Disable a Run Control Script” on page 118
This is a list of overview information in this chapter.
4 “Run Levels” on page 109
4 “The /etc/inittab File” on page 111
4 “Run Control Scripts” on page 115
4 “Run Control Script Summaries” on page 119

Run Levels
A system’s run level (also known as an init state) defines what services and resources
are available to users. A system can be in only one run level at a time.
The Solaris environment has eight run levels, which are described in the following
table. The default run level is specified in the /etc/inittab file as run level 3.

109
 TABLE 8–1 Solaris Run Levels

Run
Level Init State Type Use This Level ...

0 Power-down state Power-down To shut down the operating

system so that it is safe to turn off
power to the system.

s or S Single-user state Single-user To run as a single user with all file

systems mounted and accessible.

1 Administrative state Single-user To access all available file systems

with user logins allowed.

2 Multiuser state Multiuser For normal operations. Multiple

users can access the system and
the entire file system. All
daemons are running except for
the NFS server daemons.

3 Multiuser state with Multiuser For normal operations with NFS

NFS resources shared resource-sharing available.

4 Alternative multiuser This level is currently unavailable.

state

5 Power-down state Power-down To shut down the operating

system so that it is safe to turn off
power to the system. If possible,
automatically turn off power on
systems that support this feature.

6 Reboot state Reboot To shut down the system to run

level 0, and then reboot to
multiuser state (or whatever level
is the default in the inittab file).

How to Determine a System’s Run Level

Display run level information by using the who -r command to determine a
system’s run level.

$ who -r

Use the who -r command to determine a system’s current run level for any level
except run level 0.

110 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Example—Determining a System’s Run Level
$ who -r
. run-level 3 Sep 1 14:45 3 0 S
$

run level 3 Identifies the current run level.

Sep 1 14:45 Identifies the date of last run level change.

3 Is the current run level.

0 Identifies the number of times at this run level since the

last reboot.

S Identifies the previous run level.

The /etc/inittab File

When you boot the system or change run levels with the init or shutdown
command, the init daemon starts processes by reading information from the
/etc/inittab file. This file defines three important items for the init process:
4 The system’s default run level
4 What processes to start, monitor, and restart if they terminate
4 What actions to be taken when the system enters a new run level
Each entry in the /etc/inittab file has the following fields:
id:rstate:action:process
The following table describes the fields in an inittab entry.

Run Levels and Boot Files (Tasks) 111

 TABLE 8–2 Fields in the inittab File

Field Description

id A unique identifier for the entry.

rstate A list of run levels to which this entry applies.

action How the process specified in the process field is to be run. Possible
values include: initdefault, sysinit, boot, bootwait, wait,
and respawn.

process The command to execute.

Example—Default inittab File

The following example shows an annotated default inittab file:

1 ap::sysinit:/sbin/autopush -f /etc/iu.ap
2 ap::sysinit:/sbin/soconfig -f /etc/sock2path
3 fs::sysinit:/sbin/rcS sysinit >/dev/msglog 2<>/dev/msglog </dev/console
4 is:3:initdefault:
5 p3:s1234:powerfail:/usr/sbin/shutdown -y -i5 -g0 >/dev/msglog 2<>/dev/...
6 sS:s:wait:/sbin/rcS >/dev/msglog 2<>/dev/msglog </dev/
console
7 s0:0:wait:/sbin/rc0 >/dev/msglog 2<>/dev/msglog </dev/
console
8 s1:1:respawn:/sbin/rc1 >/dev/msglog 2<>/dev/msglog </dev/
console
9 s2:23:wait:/sbin/rc2 >/dev/msglog 2<>/dev/msglog </dev/
console
10 s3:3:wait:/sbin/rc3 >/dev/msglog 2<>/dev/msglog </dev/
console
11 s5:5:wait:/sbin/rc5 >/dev/msglog 2<>/dev/msglog </dev/
console
12 s6:6:wait:/sbin/rc6 >/dev/msglog 2<>/dev/msglog </dev/
console
13 fw:0:wait:/sbin/uadmin 2 0 >/dev/msglog 2<>/dev/msglog </dev/
console
14 of:5:wait:/sbin/uadmin 2 6 >/dev/msglog 2<>/dev/msglog </dev/
console
15 rb:6:wait:/sbin/uadmin 2 1 >/dev/msglog 2<>/dev/msglog </dev/
console
16 sc:234:respawn:/usr/lib/saf/sac -t 300
17 co:234:respawn:/usr/lib/saf/ttymon -g -h -p "‘uname -n‘ console login: "
-T terminal-type -d /dev/console -l console -m ldterm,ttcompat

(continued)

112 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

1. Initializes STREAMS modules

2. Configures socket transport providers
3. Initializes file systems
4. Defines default run level
5. Describes a power fail shutdown
6. Defines single-user mode
7. Defines run level 0
8. Defines run level 1
9. Defines run level 2
10. Defines run level 3
11. Defines run level 5
12. Defines run level 6
13. Defines an unused level, firmware
14. Defines an unused level, off
15. Defines an unused level, reboot
16. Initializes Service Access Controller
17. Initializes console

What Happens When the System Is Brought to

Run Level 3
1. The init process is started and reads the /etc/default/init file to set any
environment variables. By default, only the TIMEZONE variable is set.
2. Then init reads the inittab file to do the following:

a. Identify the initdefault entry, which defines the default run level (3).
b. Execute any process entries that have sysinit in the action field so that any
special initializations can take place before users login.
c. Execute any process entries that have 3 in the rstate field, which matches
the default run level, 3.

See init(1M) for a detailed description of how the init process uses the
inittab file.
The following table describes the key words used for run level 3’s action field.

Run Levels and Boot Files (Tasks) 113

 TABLE 8–3 Run Level 3 Action Key Word Descriptions

Key Word Starts the Specified Process ...

powerfail Only when the system receives a power fail signal.

wait And waits for its termination.

If it does not exist. If the process already exists, continue

respawn scanning the inittab file.

The following table describes the processes (or commands) executed at run level 3.

TABLE 8–4 Run Level 3 Command Descriptions

Command or Script Name Description

/usr/sbin/shutdown Shuts down the system. The init process runs the
shutdown command only if the system has received
a powerfail signal.

/sbin/rcS Mounts and checks root (/), /usr, /var, and /var/
adm file systems.

/sbin/rc2 Starts the standard system processes, bringing the

system up into run level 2 (multiuser mode).

/sbin/rc3 Starts NFS resource sharing for run level 3.

/usr/lib/saf/sac -t 30 Starts the port monitors and network access for

UUCP. This process is restarted if it fails.

/usr/lib/saf/ttymon -g -h -p Starts the ttymon process that monitors the console

"‘uname -n‘ console login: " for login requests. This process is restarted if it fails.
-T terminal_type -d /dev/ The terminal_type on a SPARC based system is sun
console -l console
The terminal_type on an IA based system is AT386

114 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Run Control Scripts
The Solaris software environment provides a detailed series of run control (rc)
scripts to control run level changes. Each run level has an associated rc script
located in the /sbin directory:

4 rc0

4 rc1
4 rc2
4 rc3
4 rc5

4 rc6
4 rcS
For each rc script in the /sbin directory, there is a corresponding directory named
/etc/rcn.d that contains scripts to perform various actions for that run level. For
example, /etc/rc2.d contains files used to start and stop processes for run level 2.

# ls /etc/rc2.d
K07dmi S70uucp S75cron S91afbinit
K07snmpdx S71ldap.client S75flashprom S91ifbinit
K28nfs.server S71rpc S75savecore S92volmgt
README S71sysid.sys S76nscd S93cacheos.finish
S01MOUNTFSYS S72autoinstall S80PRESERVE S94ncalogd
S05RMTMPFILES S72inetsvc S80lp S95IIim
S20sysetup S72slpd S80spc S95amiserv
S21perf S73cachefs.daemon S85power S95ocfserv
S30sysid.net S73nfs.client S88sendmail S99audit
S40llc2 S74autofs S88utmpd S99dtlogin
S47asppp S74syslog S89bdconfig
S69inet S74xntpd S90wbem

The /etc/rcn.d scripts are always run in ASCII sort order. The scripts have names
of the form:
[KS][0-9][0-9]*
Files beginning with K are run to terminate (kill) a system process. Files beginning
with S are run to start a system process.
Run control scripts are also located in the /etc/init.d directory. These files are
linked to corresponding run control scripts in the /etc/rcn.d directories.
The actions of each run control script are summarized in Table 8–5.

Run Levels and Boot Files (Tasks) 115

 Using a Run Control Script to Stop or Start
Services
One advantage of having individual scripts for each run level is that you can run
scripts in the /etc/init.d directory individually to turn off functionality without
changing a system’s run level.

How to Use a Run Control Script to Stop or Start

a Service
1. Become superuser.

2. Turn off functionality.

# /etc/init.d/filename stop

3. Restart functionality.

# /etc/init.d/filename start

4. Use the pgrep command to verify whether the service has been stopped or
started.

# pgrep -f service

Example—Using a Run Control Script to Stop or Start a

Service
Turn off NFS server functionality by typing:

# /etc/init.d/nfs.server stop
# pgrep -f nfs
#

Restart the NFS services by typing:

# /etc/init.d/nfs.server start
# pgrep -f nfs
141
143
245

116 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

247
# pgrep -f nfs -d, | xargs ps -fp
daemon 141 1 40 Jul 31 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/nfs/statd
root 143 1 80 Jul 31 ? 0:01 /usr/lib/nfs/lockd
root 245 1 34 Jul 31 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd -a 16
root 247 1 80 Jul 31 ? 0:02 /usr/lib/nfs/mountd

Adding a Run Control Script

If you want to add a run control script to start and stop a service, copy the script
into the /etc/init.d directory and create links in the rcn.d directory you want
the service to start and stop.

See the README file in each /etc/rcn.d directory for more information on naming
run control scripts. The procedure below describes how to add a run control script.

How to Add a Run Control Script

1. Become superuser.

2. Add the script to the /etc/init.d directory.

# cp filename /etc/init.d
# chmod 0744 /etc/init.d/filename
# chown root:sys /etc/init.d/filename

3. Create links to the appropriate rcn.d directory.

# cd /etc/init.d
# ln filename /etc/rc2.d/Snnfilename
# ln filename /etc/rcn.d/Knnfilename

4. Use the ls command to verify that the script has links in the specified
directories.

# ls /etc/init.d/ /etc/rc2.d/ /etc/rcn.d/

Run Levels and Boot Files (Tasks) 117

 Example—Adding a Run Control Script
# cp xyz /etc/init.d
# cd /etc/init.d
# ln xyz /etc/rc2.d/S100xyz
# ln xyz /etc/rc0.d/K100xyz
# ls /etc/init.d /etc/rc2.d /etc/rc0.d

Disabling a Run Control Script

Disable a run control script by renaming it with a dot (.) at the beginning of the new
file name. Files that begin with a dot are not executed. If you copy a file by adding a
suffix to it, both files will be run.

How to Disable a Run Control Script

1. Become superuser.

2. Rename the script by adding an underscore (_) to the beginning of the new file.

# cd /etc/rcn.d
# mv filename _filename

3. Verify the script has been renamed.

# ls
# _filename

Example—Disabling a Run Control Script

The following example changes the S100datainit script name but saves the
original script.

118 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # cd /etc/rc2.d
# mv S100datainit _S100datainit

Run Control Script Summaries

TABLE 8–5 The /sbin/rc0 Script

Script Name Description

/sbin/rc0 Performs the following tasks:

4 Stops system services and daemons

4 Terminates all running processes
4 Unmounts all file systems

TABLE 8–6 The /sbin/rc1 Script

Script Name Description

/sbin/rc1 Runs the /etc/rc1.d scripts to perform the following tasks:

4 Stops system services and daemons

4 Terminates all running processes
4 Unmounts all file systems
4 Brings the system up in single-user mode

Run Levels and Boot Files (Tasks) 119

 TABLE 8–7 The /sbin/rc2 Script

Script Name Description

/sbin/rc2 Runs the /etc/rc2.d scripts to perform the following tasks:

4 Mounts all local file systems

4 Enables disk quotas if at least one file system was mounted with
the quota option
4 Saves editor temporary files in /usr/preserve
4 Removes any files in the /tmp directory
4 Configures system accounting
4 Configures default router
4 Sets NIS domain and ifconfig netmask
4 Reboots the system from the installation media or a boot server if
either /.PREINSTALL or /AUTOINSTALL exists
4 Starts inetd and rpcbind and named, if appropriate
4 Starts Kerberos client-side daemon, kerbd
4 Starts NIS daemons (ypbind) and NIS+ daemons (rpc.nisd),
depending on whether the system is configured for NIS or NIS+,
and whether the system is a client or a server
4 Starts keyserv, statd, lockd, xntpd, and utmpd
4 Mounts all NFS entries
4 Starts nscd (name service cache daemon)
4 Starts automount, cron, LP print service, sendmail, utmpd, and
vold daemons

Note - Many of the system services and applications that are started at run level 2
depend on what software is installed on the system.

TABLE 8–8 The /sbin/rc3 Script

Script Name Description

/sbin/rc3 Runs the /etc/rc3.d scripts to perform the following tasks:

4 Cleans up sharetab
4 Starts nfsd
4 Starts mountd
4 If the system is a boot server, starts rarpd, rpc.bootparamd, and
rpld
4 Starts snmpdx (Solstice Enterprise AgentsTM process).

120 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 8–9 The /sbin/rc5 and /sbin/rc6 Scripts

Script Name Description

/sbin/rc5 and / Runs the /etc/rc0.d/K* scripts to perform the following tasks:
sbin/rc6

4 Kills all active processes

4 Unmounts the file systems

TABLE 8–10 The /sbin/rcS Script

Script Name Description

/sbin/rcS Runs the /etc/rcS.d scripts to bring the system up to run level S.
The following tasks are performed from these scripts:

4 Establishes a minimal network

4 Mounts /usr, if necessary
4 Sets the system name
4 Checks the root (/) and /usr file systems
4 Mounts pseudo file systems (/proc and /dev/fd)
4 Rebuilds the device entries for reconfiguration boots
4 Checks and mounts other file systems to be mounted in single-user
mode

Run Levels and Boot Files (Tasks) 121

122 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 9

Shutting Down a System (Tasks)

This chapter describes the procedures for shutting down systems. This is a list of the
step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “How to Determine Who Is Logged in to a System” on page 126
4 “How to Shut Down a Server” on page 126
4 “How to Shut Down a Standalone System” on page 130
4 “How to Turn Off Power to All Devices” on page 132
This is a list of the overview information in this chapter.
4 “When to Shut Down the System” on page 123
4 “How to Shut Down a System” on page 124
4 “When to Turn Off Power to Devices” on page 125
4 “Notifying Users of System Down Time” on page 125
For overview information about the available run levels, see Chapter 8.

When to Shut Down the System

Solaris software is designed to be left running continuously so that the electronic
mail and network software can work correctly. However, some system administration
tasks and emergency situations require that the system is shut down to a level where
it is safe to remove power or brought to an intermediate level, where not all system
services are available, such as:
4 Adding or removing hardware
4 Preparing for an expected power outage

123
 4 Performing file system maintenance, such as a backup
See Chapter 7 for a complete list of system administration tasks requiring a system
shutdown.
For information on using your system’s power management features, see Using
Power Management.

How to Shut Down a System

Using the init and shutdown commands are the primary ways to shut down a
system. Both commands perform a clean shutdown of the system, which means all file
system changes are written to the disk, and all system services, processes, and the
operating system are terminated normally.
Using a system’s stop key sequence or turning a system off and then on are not clean
shutdowns because system services are terminated abruptly. However, is it
sometimes necessary to use these actions in emergency situations. See Chapter 10 or
Chapter 11 for instructions on system recovery techniques.
The following table describes the various shutdown commands and provides
recommendations for using them.

TABLE 9–1 Shutdown Commands

Command Description This Command Is ...

shutdown An executable shell script that Recommended for servers running at

calls the init program to shut run level 3 because users are notified of
down the system. The system is the impending shut down as are the
brought to run level S by systems that are mounting resources
default. from the server being shut down.

init An executable that kills all Recommended for standalone systems

active process and syncs the when other users will not be affected. It
disks before changing run levels. provides a faster system shutdown
because users are not notified of the
impending shutdown.

124 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 9–1 Shutdown Commands (continued)

Command Description This Command Is ...

reboot An executable that syncs the Not recommended; use the init
disks and passes booting command instead.
instructions to the uadmin
system call, which, in turn,
stops the processor.

halt An executable that syncs the Not recommended because it doesn’t

disks and stops the processor. execute the /etc/rc0 script, which
stops all processes, syncs the disks, and
unmounts any remaining file systems.

Note - The /usr/sbin/shutdown command, not the /usr/ucb/shutdown

command, is used in this chapter and throughout this book.

When to Turn Off Power to Devices

Turning off power to all system devices is necessary when you need to:
4 Replace or add hardware
4 Move the system from one location to another
4 Prepare for an expected power outage or natural disaster like an approaching
electrical storm
System devices to power down include the CPU, the monitor, and external devices
such as disks, tapes, and printers.
The steps for turning off power to all devices are performed in addition to shutting
down the system.

Notifying Users of System Down Time

When the shutdown command is initiated, a warning followed by a final shutdown
message is broadcast to all users currently logged onto the system and all systems
that are mounting resources from the affected system.
This is why the shutdown command is recommended over the init command
when used on a server. When using either command, you might want to give users
more notice by sending a mail message about any scheduled system shutdown.

Shutting Down a System (Tasks) 125

 Use the who(1) command to determine which users on the system need to be
notified. This command is also useful for determining a system’s current run level,
which is described on “How to Determine a System’s Run Level” on page 110.

How to Determine Who Is Logged in to a System

1. Log into the system to be shut down.

2. Display logged-in users with the who command.

$ who

Example—Determining Who Is Logged in to a System

The following example displays the output of the who command.

$ who
1
holly console May 7 07:30
kryten pts/0 2 May 7 07:35 (starbug) 4
3
lister pts/1 May 7 07:40 (bluemidget)

1. Identifies the user name of the logged-in user.

2. Identifies the terminal line of the logged-in user.
3. Identifies the date and time the user logged in.
4. (Optional) Identifies the host name if a user is logged in from a remote system.

How to Shut Down a Server

1. Become superuser.

2. Find out if users are logged into the system.

# who

A list of all logged-in users is displayed. You might want to send mail or
broadcast a message to let users know that the system is being shut down.

3. Shut down the system by using the shutdown(1M) command.

# shutdown -iinit-state -ggrace-period -y

126 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Brings the system to an init state different from
−iinit-state
the default of S. The choices are 0, 1, 2, 5, and 6.

Indicates a time (in seconds) before the system is

−ggrace-period
shut down. The default is 60 seconds.

Continues to shut down the system without

−y
intervention; otherwise, you are prompted to
continue the shutdown process after 60 seconds.

4. If you are asked for confirmation, type y.

Do you want to continue? (y or n): y

If you used the shutdown -y command, you will not be prompted to continue.

5. Type the superuser password, if prompted.

Type Ctrl-d to proceed with normal startup,

(or give root password for system maintenance): xxx

6. After you have finished the system administration tasks, press Control-d to
return to the default run system level.

7. Use the following table to verify the system is at the run level specified in the
shutdown command.

If the System Was The SPARC Based System The IA Based System
Brought To ... Prompt Should Be ... Prompt Should Be ...

Run level S (single-user # #

state)

Run level 0 (power-down ok or > type any key to

state) continue

Run level 3 (multiuser hostname console login: hostname console login:

state with remote
resources shared)

Shutting Down a System (Tasks) 127

 SPARC: Example—Bringing a System to Run Level S (Server)
In the following example, the shutdown is used to bring a SPARC based system to
run level S (single-user state) in 3 minutes.

# who
root console Jul 14 13:53
# shutdown -g180 -y

Shutdown started. Wed Jul 14 13:55:55 MDT 1999

Broadcast Message from root (console) on earth Wed Jul 14 13:55:56...

The system earth will be shut down in 3 minutes
.
.
.
Broadcast Message from root (console) on earth Wed Jul 14 13:58:28...
The system earth will be shut down in 30 seconds
.
.
.
INIT: New run level: S
The system is coming down for administration. Please wait.
Unmounting remote filesystems: /vol nfs done.
Jul 14 13:59:15 earth /usr/sbin/vold[376]: problem unmounting /vol;
Print services stopped.
Jul 14 13:59:16 earth syslogd: going down on signal 15
Killing user processes: done.

INIT: SINGLE USER MODE

Type control-d to proceed with normal startup,

(or give root password for system maintenance): xxx
Entering System Maintenance Mode ...
#

SPARC: Example—Bringing a System to Run Level 0 (Server)

In the following example, the shutdown command is used to bring a SPARC based
system to run level 0 in 5 minutes without requiring additional confirmation.

# who
root console Jul 14 14:01
rimmer pts/0 Jul 14 14:03 (starbug)
pmorph pts/1 Jul 14 14:04 (bluemidget)
# shutdown -i0 -g300 -y
Shutdown started. Wed Jul 14 14:05:03 MDT 1999

Broadcast Message from root (console) on earth Wed Jul 14 14:05:03...

The system earth will be shut down in 5 minutes
.
.
.

(continued)

128 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

Changing to init state 0 - please wait

#
INIT: New run level: 0
The system is coming down. Please wait.
System services are now being stopped.
.
.
.
The system is down.
syncing file systems... done
Program terminated
Type help for more information
ok

See “How to Turn Off Power to All Devices” on page 132 if you are bringing the
system to run level 0 to turn off power to all devices.

SPARC: Example—Rebooting a System to Run Level 3 (Server)

In the following example, the shutdown command is used to reboot a SPARC based
system to run level 3 in two minutes without requiring additional confirmation.

# who
root console Jul 14 14:14
rimmer pts/0 Jul 14 14:15 (starbug)
pmorph pts/1 Jul 14 14:15 (bluemidget)
# shutdown -i6 -g120 -y
Shutdown started. Wed Jul 14 14:16:08 MDT 1999

Broadcast Message from root (console) on earth Wed Jul 14 14:16:08...

The system earth will be shut down in 2 minutes
.
.
.
Changing to init state 6 - please wait
#
INIT: New run level: 6
The system is coming down. Please wait.
.
.
.
The system is down.
syncing file systems... done
rebooting...
.
.
.

(continued)

Shutting Down a System (Tasks) 129

 (Continuation)

earth console login:

Where to Go From Here

Regardless of the reason for shutting down the system, you’ll probably want to return
to run level 3 where all file resources are available and users can log in. See Chapter
10 or Chapter 11 for instructions on bringing a system back to a multiuser state.

How to Shut Down a Standalone System

1. Become superuser.

2. Shut down the system by using the init(1M) command.

# init run-level

run-level Identifies the new run level.

3. Use the following table to verify the system is at the run level specified in the
init command.

If the System Was Brought The SPARC Based System The IA Based System
To ... Prompt Should Be ... Prompt Should Be ...

Run level S (single-user state) # #

Run level 2 (multiuser state) # #

Run level 0 (power-down ok or > type any key to

state) continue

Run level 3 (multiuser state hostname console hostname console

with remote resources shared) login: login:

130 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

IA: Example—Bringing a System to Run Level 0 (Standalone)
In the following example, the init command is used to bring an IA based
standalone system to the level where it is safe to turn off power.

# init 0
#
INIT: New run level: 0
The system is coming down. Please wait.
.

.
The system is down.
syncing file systems... [11] [10] [3] done
Type any key to continue

See “How to Turn Off Power to All Devices” on page 132 if you are bringing the
system to run level 0 to turn off power to all devices.

SPARC: Example—Bringing a System to Run Level S

(Standalone)
In the following example, the init is used to bring a SPARC based standalone
system to run level S (single-user state).

# init s
#
INIT: New run level: S
The system is coming down for administration. Please wait.
Unmounting remote filesystems: /vol nfs done.
Print services stopped.
syslogd: going down on signal 15
Killing user processes: done.
INIT: SINGLE USER MODE

Type Ctrl-d to proceed with normal startup,

(or give root password for system maintenance): xxx
Entering System Maintenance Mode
#

Where to Go From Here

Regardless of the reason for shutting down the system, you’ll probably want to return
to run level 3 where all file resources are available and users can log in. See Chapter
10 or Chapter 11 for instructions on bringing a system back to a multiuser state.

Shutting Down a System (Tasks) 131

 How to Turn Off Power to All Devices
1. Use the following table to determine which procedure to use for shutting down
the system.

If You Are Shutting Down a Standalone

If You Are Shutting Down a Server ... System ...

See “How to Shut Down a Server” on page See “How to Shut Down a Standalone
126. System” on page 130.

2. Turn off power to all devices after the system is shutdown. If necessary, also
unplug the power cables.

3. After power can be restored, use the following steps to turn on the system and
devices.
a. Plug in the power cables.

b. Turn on the monitor.

c. Turn on disk drives, tape drives, and printers.

d. Turn on the CPU.

The system is brought to run level 3 after the CPU is turned on.

132 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 10

SPARC: Booting a System (Tasks)

This chapter describes procedures for using the OpenBootTM PROM monitor and
procedures for booting a SPARC based system to different run levels.
This is a list of the step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “SPARC: How to Switch to the ok Prompt” on page 134
4 “SPARC: How to Find the PROM Release for a System” on page 134
4 “SPARC: How to Change the Default Boot Device” on page 134
4 “SPARC: How to Reset the System” on page 137
4 “SPARC: How to Boot a System to Run Level 3 (Multiuser State)” on page 138
4 “SPARC: How to Boot a System to Run Level S (Single-User State)” on page 139
4 “SPARC: How to Boot a System Interactively” on page 140
4 “SPARC: How to Boot a System Over the Network” on page 142
4 “SPARC: How to Boot a System for Recovery Purposes” on page 143
4 “SPARC: How to Stop the System for Recovery Purposes” on page 145
4 “SPARC: How to Force a Crash Dump and Reboot the System” on page 146
4 “SPARC: How to Boot the System With the Kernel Debugger (kadb)” on page 147
For overview information about the boot process, see Chapter 12. For information on
troubleshooting booting problems, see “What to Do If Rebooting Fails” in System
Administration Guide, Volume 2.
For step-by-step instructions on booting an IA based system, see Chapter 11.

133
 SPARC: Using the Boot PROM
System administrators typically use the PROM level to boot a system. Occasionally,
however, you might need to change the way the system works, such as resetting
which device to boot from or running hardware diagnostics, before the system is
brought to a multiuser state.
Changing the default boot device is necessary to add a new drive to the system
either permanently or temporarily, change the network boot strategy, or if you want
to temporarily boot a standalone system from the network.
See monitor(1M) or eeprom(1M) for a complete list of PROM commands.

SPARC: How to Switch to the ok Prompt

When the system is halted, the PROM monitor prompt is either the greater than sign
(>) or ok.
Switch from the > prompt to the ok prompt on SPARC based systems by typing the
following command.

> n
ok

All examples in this section use the ok prompt.

SPARC: How to Find the PROM Release for a

System
Display a system’s PROM release level with the banner command.

ok banner
Sun Ultra 5/10 UPA/PCI (UltraSPARC-IIi 333MHz), No Keyboard
OpenBoot 3.15, 128 MB memory installed, Serial #nnnnnnnn.
Ethernet address 8:0:20:a5:d1:3b, Host ID: nnnnnnnn.

Hardware configuration information, including the release number of the PROM, is

displayed. The PROM release level is indicated by the ROM Rev. number.

SPARC: How to Change the Default Boot Device

1. Become superuser.

134 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

2. Halt the system by using the init(1M) command.

# init 0

3. If the > PROM prompt is displayed, type n and press Return.

> n
ok

The ok PROM prompt is displayed.

4. Change the boot-device setting by using the setenv command.

ok setenv boot-device device[n]

boot-device Identifies the parameter for setting the device from

which to boot.

device[n] Identifies the boot-device value such as a disk or the

network. The n can be specified as the disk number.

Use the probe-scsi-all command if you need help identifying the disk
number.

5. Verify the default boot device change by using the printenv command.

ok printenv boot-device

6. Save the new boot-device value by using the reset command.

ok reset

The new boot-device setting is written to the PROM.

SPARC: Examples—Changing the Default Boot Device

In this example, the default boot device is set to disk.

SPARC: Booting a System (Tasks) 135

 # init 0
#
INIT: New run level: 0
.
.
.
The system is down.
syncing file systems... done
Program terminated
ok setenv boot-device disk
boot-device = disk
ok printenv boot-device
boot-device disk disk
ok reset
Sun Ultra 5/10 UPA/PCI (UltraSPARC-IIi 333MHz), No Keyboard
OpenBoot 3.15, 128 MB memory installed, Serial #nnnnnnnn.
Ethernet address 8:0:20:a5:d3:4b, Host ID: nnnnnnnn.

Boot device: disk File and args:

SunOS Release 5.8 Version 64-bit
.
.
.
pluto console login:

In this example the default boot device is set to the network.

# init 0
#
INIT: New run level: 0
.
.
.
The system is down.
syncing file systems... done
Program terminated
ok setenv boot-device net
boot-device = net
ok printenv boot-device
boot-device net disk
ok reset
Sun Ultra 5/10 UPA/PCI (UltraSPARC-IIi 333MHz), No Keyboard
OpenBoot 3.15, 128 MB memory installed, Serial #nnnnnnnn.
Ethernet address 8:0:20:a3:d54:4b, Host ID: nnnnnnnn.

Boot device: net File and args:

.
.
.
pluto console login:

136 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

SPARC: How to Reset the System
Run the reset command from the ok prompt.

ok reset

The self-test program, which runs diagnostic tests on the hardware, is executed and
the system is rebooted.

SPARC: Booting a System

The table below describes the boot scenarios covered in this chapter.

TABLE 10–1 Boot Type Descriptions

Booting the System ... Is Usually Done ... See ...

To run level 3 (multiuser After halting the system or performing

“SPARC: How to
state with NFS resources some system hardware maintenance
Boot a System to
shared) task. This is the default boot level where
Run Level 3
all resources are available and users can
(Multiuser State)”
log into the system.
on page 138

To run level S (single-user After performing some system

“SPARC: How to
state) maintenance task such as backing up a
Boot a System to
file system. At this level, only local file
Run Level S
systems are mounted and users cannot
(Single-User State)”
log into the system.
on page 139

Interactively After making temporary changes to a

“SPARC: How to
system file or the kernel for testing
Boot a System
purposes. This type of boot allows you to
Interactively” on
recover easily if there are problems with
page 140
the system file or kernel by supplying an
alternative pathname to these files when
prompted. Use the default settings for
the other system prompts.

Over the network To boot a system over the network. This

“SPARC: How to
procedure assumes the necessary setup
Boot a System
has been completed on the boot server.
Over the Network”
on page 142

SPARC: Booting a System (Tasks) 137

 TABLE 10–1 Boot Type Descriptions (continued)

Booting the System ... Is Usually Done ... See ...

From local CD-ROM or To repair an important system file that is

“SPARC: How to
the network for recovery preventing the system from booting
Boot a System for
purposes successfully. This type of boot is also
Recovery
used for installing (or upgrading) a new
Purposes” on page
release of the operating system.
143

Using kadb To troubleshoot system problems by

“SPARC: How to
running the kernel debugger.
Stop the System for
Recovery
Purposes” on page
145

If a system is turned off, turning it on starts the multiuser boot sequence. The
following procedures show how to boot to different run levels from the ok PROM
prompt.
Use the who -r command to verify that the system is brought to the specified run
level.
See Chapter 8 for a description of run levels.

SPARC: How to Boot a System to Run Level 3

(Multiuser State)
1. Boot to run level 3 by using the boot(1M) command.

ok boot

The automatic boot procedure displays a series of startup messages, and brings
the system to run level 3.

2. Verify the system boots to run level 3.

The login prompt is displayed when the boot process has finished successfully.

hostname console login:

138 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

SPARC: Example—Booting a System to Run Level 3
(Multiuser State)
The following example displays the messages from booting a system to run level 3.

ok boot
SPARCstation 10 (1 X 390Z50)
ROM Rev. 2.14, 32 MB memory installed, Serial #number.
Ethernet address number, Host ID: number.

Rebooting with command:

Boot device: /iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,8...
SunOS Release 5.8 Version Generic 32-bit
Copyright (c) 1983-2000 by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
configuring IPv4 interfaces: le0.
Hostname: earth
The system is coming up. Please wait.
checking ufs filesystems
/dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7: is clean.
NIS domainname is Solar.COM
starting rpc services: rpcbind keyserv ypbind done.
Setting netmask of le0 to 255.255.255.0
Setting default IPv4 interface for multicast: add net 224.0/
4: gateway earth
syslog service starting.
Print services started.
volume management starting.
The system is ready.

earth console login:

SPARC: How to Boot a System to Run Level S

(Single-User State)
1. Boot the system to run level S by using the boot -s command.

ok boot -s

2. Enter the superuser password when the following message is displayed.

INIT: SINGLE USER MODE

Type Ctrl-d to proceed with normal startup,

(or give root password for system maintenance): xxx

SPARC: Booting a System (Tasks) 139

 3. Use the who -r command to verify that the system is at run level S.

# who -r
. run-level 3 Jun 10 15:27 3 0

4. To bring the system up to multiuser state after the system maintenance task is
performed, press Control-d.

SPARC: Example—Booting a System to Run Level S

(Single-User State)
The following example displays a system booted to run level S.

ok boot -s
.
.
.
SunOS Release 5.8 Version Generic 32-bit
Copyright (c) 1983-2000 by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
configuring IPv4 interfaces: le0.
Hostname: earth

INIT: SINGLE USER MODE

Type control-d to proceed with normal startup,

(or give root password for system maintenance): xxx
Sun Microsystems Inc. SunOS 5.8 generic August 1999
# who -r
. run-level S Jul 14 11:37 S 0 ?
(Perform some maintenance task)
# Press <Control-d>

SPARC: How to Boot a System Interactively

1. Boot the system interactively by using the boot -a command.

ok boot -a

2. Answer the system prompts as described in the following table.

140 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 If the System Displays ... Do the Following ...

Enter filename [kernel/unix]: Provide the name of another kernel to use

for booting.
Or, press Return to use the default kernel
(/platform/‘uname -m‘/kernel/
unix).

Name of default directory for Provide the name of another kernel to use
modules [/platform/‘uname -m‘/ for booting.
kernel /kernel /usr/kernel]: Or, press Return to use the default kernel
(/platform/‘uname -m‘/kernel/
unix).

Name of system file [/etc/system]: Provide the name of an alternate system

file and press Return. Type /dev/null if
your /etc/system file has been damaged.
Or, press Return to use the default /etc/
system file.

root filesystem type [ufs]: Press Return to use the default root file
system type: UFS for local disk booting, or
NFS for network booting.

Enter physical name of root device Provide an alternate device name and
press Return.
[physical_device_name]:
Or, press Return to use the default physical
name of the root device.

3. If you are not prompted to answer the questions in the table above, verify that
you entered the boot -a command correctly.

SPARC: Example—Booting a System Interactively

In the following example, the default choices (shown in square brackets []) are
accepted.

ok boot -a
.
.
.
Rebooting with command: boot -a
Boot device: /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/disk@0,0:a File and args: -a
Enter filename [kernel/sparcv9/unix]: Return
Enter default directory for modules [/platform/SUNW,Ultra-5_10/kernel

(continued)

SPARC: Booting a System (Tasks) 141

 (Continuation)

/platform/sun4u/kernel /kernel /usr/kernel]: Return

Name of system file [etc/system]: Return
SunOS Release 5.8 Version Generic 64-bit
Copyright (c) 1983-2000 by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
root filesystem type [ufs]: Return
Enter physical name of root device
[/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/disk@0,0:a]: Return
configuring IPv4 interfaces: hme0.
Hostname: starbug
The system is coming up. Please wait.
checking ufs filesystems
.
.
.
The system is ready.
earth console login:

SPARC: How to Boot a System Over the Network

Any system can boot over the network if there is a boot server available. You might
want to boot a standalone system over the network temporarily if it cannot boot
from the local disk. See “SPARC: How to Change the Default Boot Device” on page
134 for information on changing or resetting the default boot device.
There are two network configuration boot strategies to choose from on sun4u
systems: RARP (Reverse Address Resolution Protocol and ONC+ RPC Bootparams
Protocol) or DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). The default network
boot strategy is set to RARP. You can use either one depending on whether a RARP
or DHCP boot server is available in your network.

Note - Sun Ultra systems must have PROM version 3.25 or later to use the DHCP
network boot strategy.

If both methods are available, you can specify which service to use in the boot
command temporarily, or save the network boot strategy across system reboots at the
PROM level, by setting up an NVRAM alias. The following nvalias command
example sets up a network device alias for booting DHCP by default on a Sun Ultra
10 system.

ok nvalias net /pci@1f,4000/network@1,1:dhcp

This alias means that when you type boot net, the system will boot using DHCP.

142 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Caution - You should not use the nvalias command to modify the NVRAMRC file
unless you are very familiar with the syntax of this command and the nvunalias
command. See the OpenBoot 3.x Command Reference Manual for information on
using these commands.

1. Determine the method for booting over the network and select one of the
following.
There must be a RARP or DHCP boot server already set up in your network for
either of these methods to boot successfully.
a. Boot the system over the network by using the DHCP method.

ok boot net[:dhcp]

If you have changed the PROM setting to boot DHCP by default, like in the
nvalias example above, you only have to specify boot net to boot using
the DHCP method.

b. Boot the system over the network by using the RARP method.

ok boot net[:rarp]

Since RARP is the default network boot strategy, you only have to specify
boot net:rarp if you have changed the PROM value to boot DHCP.

SPARC: How to Boot a System for Recovery

Purposes
This procedure is needed when an important file, such as /etc/passwd, has an
invalid entry and cause the boot process to fail.
If you need help identifying a system’s device names, refer to Chapter 26.
1. Follow the instructions below depending on whether you are booting from the
Solaris installation CD or the network.

SPARC: Booting a System (Tasks) 143

 If You Are Booting From ... Then ...

Solaris installation CD 1. Insert the Solaris installation CD into the

CD caddy.
2. Insert the CD caddy into the CD-ROM
drive.
3. Boot from the installation CD in
single-user mode:

ok boot cdrom -s

The network, and an installation server or Use the following command:

remote CD drive are available
ok boot net -s

2. Mount the file system that has the file with an invalid entry.

# mount /dev/dsk/device-name /a

3. Change to the newly mounted directory.

# cd /a/directory

4. Set the terminal type.

# TERM=sun
# export TERM

5. Remove the invalid entry from the file using an editor.

# vi filename

6. Change to the root (/) directory.

# cd /

144 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

7. Unmount the /a directory.

# umount /a

8. Reboot the system.

# init 6

9. Verify the system boots to run level 3.

The login prompt is displayed when the boot process has finished successfully.

hostname console login:

SPARC: Example—Booting a System for Recovery Purposes

The following example shows how to repair an important system file (in this case,
/etc/passwd) after booting from a local CD-ROM.

ok boot cdrom -s
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 /a
# cd /a/etc
# TERM=sun
# export TERM
# vi passwd
(Remove invalid entry)
# cd /
# umount /a
# init 6

SPARC: How to Stop the System for Recovery

Purposes
1. Type the abort key sequence for your system.
The monitor displays the ok PROM prompt.

ok

The specific stop key sequence depends on your keyboard type. For example, you
can press Stop-a or L1-a. On terminals, press the Break key.

SPARC: Booting a System (Tasks) 145

 2. Use the sync command to synchronize the disks.

ok sync

3. When you see the syncing file systems... message, press the abort key
sequence for your system again.

4. Type the appropriate boot(1M) command to start the boot process.

5. Verify the system is booted to the specified run level.

# who -r
. run-level 3 May 2 07:39 3 0 S

SPARC: Example—Stopping the System for Recovery Purposes

Press <Stop-a>
ok sync
syncing file systems...
Press <Stop-a>
ok boot

SPARC: Forcing a Crash Dump and Rebooting the

System
Saving crash dumps of the operating system is sometimes necessary for
troubleshooting purposes. The savecore feature and how it is set up is described in
“Managing System Crash Information” in System Administration Guide, Volume 2.
This section only describes how to reboot the system when the savecore feature is
enabled.

SPARC: How to Force a Crash Dump and Reboot

the System
1. Type the stop key sequence for your system. The specific stop key sequence
depends on your keyboard type. For example, you can press Stop-a or L1-a.
On terminals, press the Break key.
The monitor displays the ok PROM prompt.

146 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

2. Use the sync command at the ok prompt to synchronize the disk and write the
crash dump.

> n
ok sync

After the crash dump is written to disk, the system will continue to reboot.

3. Verify the system boots to run level 3.

The login prompt is displayed when the boot process has finished successfully.

hostname console login:

SPARC: Example—Forcing a Crash Dump and Rebooting the

System
Press <Stop-a>
ok sync

SPARC: How to Boot the System With the Kernel

Debugger (kadb)
1. Type the stop key sequence for your system. The specific stop key sequence
depends on your keyboard type. For example, you can press Stop-A or L1-A.
On terminals, press the Break key.
The monitor displays the ok PROM prompt.

2. Use the sync command at the ok prompt to synchronize the disk and write the
crash dump.

SPARC: Booting a System (Tasks) 147

 > n
ok sync

3. When you see the syncing file systems... message, press the abort key
sequence for your system again.

4. Boot the system by using the kernel debugger.

ok boot kadb

5. Identify kadb booting messages to verify that the system has booted using the
kernel debugger.

Rebooting with command: kadb

Boot device: /iommu/sbus/espdma@4,800000/esp@4,8800000/sd@3,0
.
.
.

SPARC: Example—Booting the System With the Kernel

Debugger (kadb)
Press <Stop-a>
ok sync
syncing file systems...
Press <Stop-a>
ok boot kadb

148 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 11

IA: Booting a System (Tasks)

This chapter describes the procedures for booting an IA based system.

This is a list of the step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “IA: How to Boot the Solaris Device Configuration Assistant” on page 151
4 “IA: How to Boot a System to Run Level 3 (Multiuser State)” on page 151
4 “IA: How to Boot a System to Run Level S (Single-User State)” on page 152
4 “IA: How to Boot a System Interactively” on page 154
4 “IA: How to Boot a System Over the Network” on page 156
4 “IA: How to Boot a System for Recovery Purposes” on page 157
4 “IA: How to Stop the System for Recovery Purposes” on page 160
4 “IA: How to Boot a System with the Kernel Debugger (kadb)” on page 160
4 “IA: How to Force a Crash Dump and Reboot the System” on page 161
For overview information about the boot process, see Chapter 12.
For step-by-step instructions on booting a SPARC based system, see Chapter 10.

IA: Booting a System

The following table describes the boot types covered in this chapter.

149
TABLE 11–1 Boot Type Descriptions

Booting the System ... Is Usually Done ... See ...

To run the Solaris Device After changing the hardware configuration of

“IA: How to Boot the
Configuration Assistant the system. This utility enables you to boot the
Solaris Device
Solaris system from a different boot device,
Configuration Assistant”
configure new or misconfigured hardware, or
on page 151
perform other device- or boot-related tasks.

To run level 3 (multiuser state) After shutting down the system or performing
“IA: How to Boot a
some system hardware maintenance task. This
System to Run Level 3
is the default boot level where all resources are
(Multiuser State)” on
available and users can log into the system.
page 151

To run level S (single-user state) After performing some system maintenance

“IA: How to Boot a
task such as backing up a file system. At this
System to Run Level S
level only some file systems are mounted and
(Single-User State)” on
users cannot log into the system.
page 152

Interactively After making temporary changes to the

“IA: How to Boot a
system file or the kernel for testing purposes.
System Interactively” on
This type of boot allows you to recover easily
page 154
if there are problems with the system file or
kernel by supplying an alternative pathname
to these files when prompted. Use the default
settings for the other system prompts.

Over the network To boot a system over the network. This

“IA: How to Boot a
procedure assumes the necessary setup has
System Over the
been completed on the boot server.
Network” on page 156

From local CD-ROM or the To repair an important system file that is

“IA: How to Boot a
network for recovery purposes preventing the system from booting
System for Recovery
successfully. This type of boot is also used for
Purposes” on page 157
installing (or upgrading) a new release of the
operating system.

To run the Solaris kernel To troubleshooting system problems.

“IA: How to Boot a
debugger (kadb)
System with the Kernel
Debugger (kadb)” on
page 160

To force a crash dump To troubleshoot system problems and saving

“IA: How to Force a
core dumps of the operating system.
Crash Dump and Reboot
the System” on page 161

150 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 11–1 Boot Type Descriptions (continued)

The following procedures use the reset button to restart the system. If your system
does not have a reset button, use the on/off switch to restart the system. You might
be able to press the Control-Alt-Del keys to interrupt system operation, depending
upon the state of the system.

IA: Booting the Solaris Device Configuration

Assistant
The Solaris Device Configuration Assistant is a program that enables you to perform
various hardware configuration and booting tasks. Two ways to access the Solaris
Device Configuration Assistant are from the:
4 Solaris Boot Diskette
4 Solaris Installation CD
In the following sections you might be requested to insert the Solaris Device
Configuration Assistant Boot Diskette to boot the Configuration Assistant. If your
system’s BIOS supports booting from the CD, you may, instead, insert the Solaris
installation CD to boot the Configuration Assistant.

IA: How to Boot the Solaris Device Configuration

Assistant
1. Insert the Solaris Device Configuration Boot Diskette or the Solaris Installation
CD in the appropriate drive.

2. Press any key to reboot the system if the system displays the Type any key
to reboot prompt. You can also use the reset button at this prompt. If the
system is shut down, turn the system on with the power (on/off) switch.

3. The first menu of the Configuration Assistant is displayed after a few minutes.

IA: How to Boot a System to Run Level 3

(Multiuser State)
1. Press any key to reboot the system if the system displays the Type any key
to reboot prompt. You can also use the reset button at this prompt. If the
system is shut down, turn the system on with the power (on/off) switch.

IA: Booting a System (Tasks) 151

 The Current Boot Parameters menu is displayed after a few minutes.

2. Type b to boot the system to run level 3. Press Enter.

If you do not make a selection within five seconds, the system is automatically
booted to run level 3.

3. Verify the system boots to run level 3.

The login prompt is displayed when the boot process has finished successfully.

hostname console login:

IA: Example—Booting a System to Run Level 3 (Multiuser

State)
Type any key to reboot
.
.
.
<<< Current Boot Parameters >>>
Boot path: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0:a
Boot args:
Type b [file-name] [boot-flags] <ENTER> to boot with options
or i <ENTER> to enter boot interpreter
or <ENTER> to boot with defaults

<<< timeout in 5 seconds >>>

Select (b)oot or (i)nterpreter: b

.
.
.
venus console login:

IA: How to Boot a System to Run Level S

(Single-User State)
1. Press any key to reboot the system if the system displays the Type any key
to reboot prompt. You can also use the reset button at this prompt. If the
system is shut down, turn the system on with the power (on/off) switch.
The Current Boot Parameters menu is displayed after a few minutes.

2. Type b -s to boot the system to run level S. Press Enter.

152 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 If you do not make a selection within five seconds, the system is automatically
booted to run level 3.

3. Type the superuser password, if prompted.

4. Verify the system is at run level S by using the who -r command.

# who -r
. run-level S Jul 19 14:37 S 0 3

5. Perform the maintenance task that needed the run level change to S.

6. Press Control-d to bring the system back to run level 3.

IA: Example—Booting a System to Run Level S (Single-User

State)
Type any key to reboot
.
.
.

<<< Current Boot Parameters >>>

Boot path: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0:a
Boot args:
Type b [file-name] [boot-flags] <ENTER> to boot with options
or i <ENTER> to enter boot interpreter
or <ENTER> to boot with defaults

<<< timeout in 5 seconds >>>

Select (b)oot or (i)nterpreter: b -s

.
.
.
INIT: SINGLE USER MODE

Type Ctrl-d to proceed with normal startup,

(or give root password for system maintenance): xxx
Entering System Maintenance Mode
.
.
.
# who -r

(continued)

IA: Booting a System (Tasks) 153

 (Continuation)

. run-level S Jul 19 14:37 S 0 3

(Perform some maintenance task)
# Press <Control-d>

IA: How to Boot a System Interactively

1. Press any key to reboot the system if the system displays the Type any key
to reboot prompt. You can also use the reset button at this prompt. If the
system is shut down, turn the system on with the power (on/off) switch.
The Primary Boot Subsystem menu is displayed after a few minutes.

2. Select the Solaris partition (if not marked as active) from the list and press
Enter. If you do not make a selection within 30 seconds, the active boot
partition is selected automatically.
The Current Boot Parameters menu is displayed after a few minutes.

3. Type b -a to boot the system interactively. Press Enter.

If you do not make a selection within five seconds, the system is automatically
booted to run level 3.

4. Answer the system prompts as described in the following table.

If the System Displays ... Do the Following ...

Enter default directory for Provide an alternate path for the modules
modules: [/platform/i86pc/kernel directory and press Enter, or press Enter to
/kernel /usr/kernel]: use the default modules directory path.

Name of system file [etc/system]: Provide the name of an alternate system

file and press Enter, or press Enter to use
the default /etc/system file. Type/dev/
null if your /etc/system file has been
damaged.

154 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 If the System Displays ... Do the Following ...

root filesystem type [ufs]: Press Enter to use the default root file
system type: UFS for local disk booting, or
NFS for network booting.

Enter physical name of root device Provide an alternate device name and
[physical_device_name]: press Enter, or press Enter to use the
default physical name of the root device
bootpath.

IA: Example—Booting a System Interactively

In the following example, the default choices (shown in square brackets []) are
accepted.

Type any key to reboot

.
.
.

<<< Current Boot Parameters >>>

Boot path: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0:a
Boot args:
Type b [file-name] [boot-flags] <ENTER> to boot with options
or i <ENTER> to enter boot interpreter
or <ENTER> to boot with defaults

<<< timeout in 5 seconds >>>>

Select (b)oot or (i)nterpreter: b -a
Enter default directory for modules [/platform/i86pc/kernel /kernel /usr/
kernel]: Enter
Name of system file [etc/system]:Enter
SunOS Release 5.8 Version Generic 32-bit
Copyright (c) 1983-2000 by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
root filesystem type [ufs]: Enter
Enter physical name of root device
[/pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0:a]: Enter
configuring IPv4 interfaces: dnet0.
Hostname: venus
(fsck messages)
The system is coming up. Please wait
(More messages)
venus console login:

IA: Booting a System (Tasks) 155

 IA: How to Boot a System Over the Network
Any system can boot over the network if there is a boot server available. You might
want to boot a standalone system over the network temporarily if it cannot boot
from the local disk.

The new menu, Set Network Configuration Strategy, on the Configuration Assistant’s
Boot Tasks Menu, enables you to select the appropriate boot strategy.

1. Determine whether you want to boot over the network using the RARP/
bootparams method or the DHCP method.
There are two network configuration strategies to choose from, RARP (Reverse
Address Resolution Protocol) or DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol).
The default network boot strategy is set to RARP. You can use either one
depending on whether a RARP or DHCP boot server is available in your network.

2. Insert the Configuration Assistant Boot Diskette or the Installation CD you

wish to boot from.

3. Press any key to reboot the system if the system displays the Type any key
to reboot prompt. You can also use the reset button at this prompt. If the
system is shut down, turn the system on with the power (on/off) switch.

4. Press F2_Continue at the Solaris Device Configuration Assistant screen to scan

for devices.
Device identification is performed and a screen that displays the identified
devices appears.

5. Press F2_Continue at the Identified Devices screen to load drivers.

Bootable drivers are loaded.

6. Press F4_Boot Tasks from the Boot Solaris menu.

7. Select Set Network Configuration Strategy and press F2_Continue.

8. Select either RARP or DHCP and press F2_Continue.

A screen that confirms your new network configuration strategy appears.
Your network configuration strategy selection is saved as the default network
boot method the next time this diskette is used for booting.

9. Press F3_Back to return to the Boot Solaris menu.

10. Select NET as the boot device from the Boot Solaris menu. Then press
F2_Continue to boot the network device.
The Solaris boot option screen is displayed.

156 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

IA: How to Boot a System for Recovery Purposes
Follow these steps to boot the system to repair a critical system resource. The
example shows you how to boot from a Solaris Installation CD or the network,
mount the root (/) file system on the disk, and repair the /etc/passwd file.

Substitute the device name of the file system to be repaired for the devicename
variable in the procedures below. If you need help identifying a system’s device
names, refer to Chapter 26.

Follow the instructions below to boot from the Solaris installation CD or the network.

1. Boot from the Solaris installation CD (or the network) to single-user mode.
a. Insert the Configuration Assistant Boot Diskette or the Installation CD you
wish to boot from.

b. Press any key to reboot the system if the system displays the Type any
key to reboot prompt. You can also use the reset button at this prompt. If
the system is shut down, turn the system on with the power (on/off) switch.

c. Press the F2 key (F2_Continue) at the Solaris Device Configuration Assistant

screen.
Device identification is performed and a screen that displays the identified
devices appears.

d. Press the F2 key (F2_Continue) at the Identified Devices screen.

Bootable drivers are loaded.

e. Press the F2 key (F2_Continue) at the Solaris Device Configuration Assistant

screen.
Device identification is performed and a screen that displays the identified
devices appears.

f. Press the F2 key (F2_Continue) at the Identified Devices screen.

Bootable drivers are loaded.

g. Select the CD-ROM drive or network device from the Boot Solaris menu.
Then press the F2 key (F2_Continue).
The Current Boot Parameters menu is displayed.

h. Type b -s at the prompt. Press Enter.

After a few minutes, the single-user mode # prompt is displayed.

2. Mount the root (/) file system that has the invalid passwd file.

# mount /dev/dsk/devicename /a

IA: Booting a System (Tasks) 157

 3. Change to the newly mounted etc directory.

# cd /a/etc

4. Make the necessary change to the passwd file using an editor.

# vi passwd

5. Change to the root (/) directory.

# cd /

6. Unmount the /a directory.

# umount /a

7. Reboot the system.

# init 6

8. Verify the system boots to run level 3.

The login prompt is displayed when the boot process has finished successfully.

hostname console login:

IA: Example—Booting a System for Recovery Purposes

Type any key to reboot

SunOS Secondary Boot version 3.00

Solaris Intel Platform Edition Booting System

Running Configuration Assistant...

Autobooting from Boot path: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0:a

(continued)

158 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

If the system hardware has changed, or to boot from a different

device, interrupt the autoboot process by pressing ESC.

Press ESCape to interrupt autoboot in 5 seconds.

.
.
.
Boot Solaris

Select one of the identified devices to boot the Solaris kernel and
choose Continue.

To perform optional features, such as modifying the autoboot and property

settings, choose Boot Tasks.

An asterisk (*) indicates the current default boot device.

> To make a selection use the arrow keys, and press Enter to mark it [X].

[ ] NET : DEC 21142/21143 Fast Ethernet

on Board PCI at Dev 3
[ ] DISK: (*) Target 0, QUANTUM FIREBALL1280A
on Bus Mastering IDE controller on Board PCI at Dev 7, Func 1
[ ] DISK: Target 1:ST5660A
on Bus Mastering IDE controller on Board PCI at Dev 7, Func 1
[ ] DISK: Target 0:Maxtor 9 0680D4
on Bus Mastering IDE controller on Board PCI at Dev 7, Func 1
[ ] CD : Target 1:TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-5602B 1546
on Bus Mastering IDE controller on Board PCI at Dev 7, Func 1

F2_Continue F3_Back F4_Boot Tasks F6_Help

.
.
.
<<< Current Boot Parameters >>>
Boot path: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0:a
Boot args: kernel/unix -r

Select the type of installation you want to perform:

1 Solaris Interactive
2 Custom JumpStart
3 Solaris Web Start

Enter the number of your choice followed by <ENTER> the key.

If you enter anything else, or if you wait for 30 seconds,

an interactive installation will be started.

Select type of installation: b -s

.
.

(continued)

IA: Booting a System (Tasks) 159

 (Continuation)

.
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /a
.
.
.
# cd /a/etc
# vi passwd
(Remove invalid entry)
# cd /
# umount /a
# init 6

IA: How to Stop the System for Recovery Purposes

If possible, stop the system by using one of the following commands:
4 If the system is running, become superuser and type init 0 to stop the system.
Press any key to reboot the system after the Type any key to reboot prompt
appears.
4 If the system is running, become superuser and type init 6 to reboot the system.

If the system doesn’t respond to any input from the mouse or keyboard, press the
reset key, if it exists, to reboot the system. Or you can use the power (on/off) switch
to reboot the system.

IA: How to Boot a System with the Kernel

Debugger (kadb)
1. Press any key to reboot the system if the system displays the Type any key
to reboot prompt. You can also use the reset button at this prompt. If the
system is shut down, turn the system on with the power (on/off) switch.

2. Type b kadb to boot the kernel debugger. Press Enter.

If you do not make a selection within five seconds, the system is automatically
booted to run level 3.

3. Verify the system boots to run level 3.

The login prompt is displayed when the boot process has finished successfully.

160 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 hostname console login:

4. Verify that you can access the kernel debugger by pressing F1-a.
The kadb[0]: prompt is displayed when you enter the kernel debugger.

IA: Example—Booting a System with the Kernel Debugger

(kadb)

Type any key to reboot

.
.
.
<<< Current Boot Parameters >>>
Boot path: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0:a
Boot args:
Type b [file-name] [boot-flags] <ENTER> to boot with options
or i <ENTER> to enter boot interpreter
or <ENTER> to boot with defaults

<<< timeout in 5 seconds >>>

Select (b)oot or (i)nterpreter: b kadb

.
.
.
naboo console login: (Enter login and password)
(Press F1-a to verify you can access the kernel debugger)

IA: Forcing a Crash Dump and Rebooting the

System
Saving core dumps of the operating system is sometimes necessary for
troubleshooting purposes. The savecore feature and how it is set up is described in
“Managing System Crash Information” in System Administration Guide, Volume 2.
This section only describes how to reboot the system when the savecore feature is
enabled.

IA: How to Force a Crash Dump and Reboot the

System
The system must be booted with the kernel debugger option, kadb, to get to the
kadb[0]: prompt and to enable forcing the crash dump.

IA: Booting a System (Tasks) 161

 Note - You must be in text mode to enter the kernel debugger (kadb), so exit any
window system (CDE or Open Windows) first.

1. Press F1–a.

kadb[0]:

The kadb[0]: prompt is displayed.

2. Type the following commands at the kadb[0]: prompt.

Press <F1-a>
kadb[0]: vfs_syncall/W ffffffff
kadb[0]: 0>eip
kadb[0]: :c
kadb[0]: :c
kadb[0]: :c

After the first :c is typed, the system panics, so you need to type :c again. The
system panics again, so type :c a third time to force the crash dump and reboot
the system.
After the crash dump is written to disk, the system continues to reboot.

3. Verify that the system has rebooted by logging in at the console login prompt.

162 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 12

The Boot Process (Reference)

This chapter describes the hardware used for booting on SPARC based and IA based
systems and a conceptual overview of the boot process on each platform.
This is a list of overview information in this chapter.
4 “SPARC: The Boot PROM” on page 163
4 “SPARC: The Boot Process” on page 164
4 “IA: The PC BIOS” on page 164
4 “IA: Boot Subsystems” on page 165
4 “IA: The Boot Process” on page 170
For instructions on booting a system, see Chapter 10 or Chapter 11.

SPARC: The Boot PROM

Each SPARC based system has a PROM (programmable read-only memory) chip
with a program called the monitor. The monitor controls the operation of the system
before the kernel is available. When a system is turned on, the monitor runs a quick
self-test procedure that checks things such as the hardware and memory on the
system. If no errors are found, the system begins the automatic boot process.

SPARC platform only - Some older systems might require PROM upgrades before
they will work with the Solaris system software. Contact your local service provider
for more information.

163
 SPARC: The Boot Process
The following table describes the boot process.

TABLE 12–1 Description of the Boot Process

Boot Phase Description

Boot PROM 1. The PROM displays system identification information and then runs
self-test diagnostics to verify the system’s hardware and memory.

2. Then the PROM loads the primary boot program, bootblk, whose
purpose is to load the secondary boot program located in the ufs file
system from the default boot device.

Boot Programs 3. The bootblk program finds and executes the secondary boot
program, ufsboot, and loads it into memory.

4. After the ufsboot program is loaded, the ufsboot program loads

the kernel.

Kernel 5. The kernel initializes itself and begins loading modules, using
Initialization ufsboot to read the files. When the kernel has loaded enough
modules to mount the root file system, it unmaps the ufsboot
program and continues, using its own resources.

6. The kernel creates a user process and starts the /sbin/init

process, which starts other processes by reading the /etc/inittab
file.

init 7. The /sbin/init process starts the run control (rc) scripts, which
execute a series of other scripts. These scripts (/sbin/rc*) check and
mount file systems, start various processes, and perform system
maintenance tasks.

IA: The PC BIOS

Before the kernel is started, the system is controlled by the read-only-memory (ROM)
Basic Input/Output System (BIOS), the firmware interface on a PC.

164 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Hardware adapters can have an onboard BIOS that displays the physical
characteristics of the device and can be used to access the device.
During the startup sequence, the PC BIOS checks for the presence of any adapter
BIOS, and if found, loads and executes each one. Each individual adapter’s BIOS
runs self-test diagnostics and displays device information.

IA: Boot Subsystems

At three times during the Solaris boot process, you can make the following choices
about a booting system:
4 Primary Boot Subsystem (Partition Boot Menu) - This first menu appears if
multiple operating environments exist on the disk. The menu enables you to boot
any of the operating environments installed. By default, the operating
environment designed as active is booted.
Note that if you choose to boot a non-Solaris operating environment, the next two
menus cannot be reached.
4 Interrupt the Autoboot Process - If the autoboot process is interrupted, you can
access the Configuration Assistant.
The Configuration Assistant enables you to boot the Solaris system from a
different boot device, configure new or misconfigured hardware, or perform other
device- or boot-related tasks.
4 Current Boot Parameters Menu - Two forms of this menu exist, one for a normal
Solaris boot and one for a Solaris installation boot:

4 The normal Current Boot Parameters menu enables you to boot the Solaris
system with options, or enter the boot interpreter.
4 The install Current Boot Parameters menu enables you to select the type of
installation to be performed, or customize the boot.

The following table summarizes the purpose of the primary IA boot interfaces. See
the sections that follow for a detailed description and example of each boot
subsystem.

The Boot Process (Reference) 165

 TABLE 12–2 Boot Subsystems

Boot Subsystem Purpose

Primary Boot Subsystem This menu appears if the disk you are booting from contains
multiple operating environments, including the Solaris
operating environment.

Secondary Boot Subsystem This menu appears each time you boot the Solaris release.
The Solaris release is booted automatically unless you
choose to run the Solaris Device Configuration Assistant by
interrupting the autoboot process.

Solaris Device Configuration There are two ways to access the Solaris Device
Assistant/Boot Diskette Configuration Assistant menus:
1. Use the Solaris Device Configuration Assistant Boot
Diskette or the Solaris Installation CD (on systems that
can boot from the CD-ROM drive) to boot the system.
2. Interrupt the autoboot process when booting Solaris
from an installed disk.

Current Boot Parameters This menu appears when you boot the Solaris release from
Menu the disk, CD-ROM, or the network. The menu presents a list
of boot options.

During the boot process, the boot subsystem menus allow you to customize boot
choices. If the system receives no response during the time-out periods, it continues
to boot automatically using default selections. You can stop the boot process when
each boot subsystem menu is displayed, or you can let it continue automatically.
The following section provides examples of each subsystem screen.

IA: Booting Solaris

During the device identification phase, the Configuration Assistant:
4 Scans for devices installed on the system
4 Displays the identified devices
4 Enables you to perform optional tasks such as selecting a keyboard type and
editing devices and their resources
During the Boot phase, the Configuration Assistant:
4 Displays a list of devices from which to boot. A device marked with an asterisk (*)
is the default boot device.
4 Enables you to perform optional tasks, such as editing autoboot and property
settings, and choosing the network configuration strategy.

166 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Examples of device identification during each phase are provided below. Device
output varies based on your system configuration.

IA: Menus Displayed During the Device

Identification Phase
Several menus are displayed as the Configuration Assistant attempts to identify
devices on the system.

IA: Configuration Assistant Screen

This screen appears each time you boot the Configuration Assistant and access the
menus. The Configuration Assistant runs every time the system is booted, although
the autoboot process bypasses the menus.

Solaris Device Configuration Assistant

The Solaris(TM) (Intel Platform Edition) Device Configuration Assistant

scans to identify system hardware, lists identified devices, and can
boot the Solaris software from a specified device. This program must be
used to install the Solaris operating environment, add a driver,
or change the hardware on the system.

> To perform a full scan to identify all system hardware, choose Continue.

> To diagnose possible full scan failures, choose Specific Scan.

> To add new or updated device drivers, choose Add Driver.

About navigation...
- The mouse cannot be used.
- If the keyboard does not have function keys or they do not respond,
press ESC. The legend at the bottom of the screen will change to
show the ESC keys to use for navigation.
- The F2 key performs the default action.

F2_Continue F3_Specific Scan F4_Add Driver F6_Help

IA: Bus Enumeration Screen

The Bus Enumeration screen appears briefly while the Configuration Assistant
gathers hardware configuration data for devices that can be detected automatically.

The Boot Process (Reference) 167

 Bus Enumeration

Determining bus types and gathering hardware configuration data ...

Please wait ...

IA: Scanning Devices Screen

The Scanning Devices screen appears while the Configuration Assistant manually
scans for devices that can only be detected with special drivers.

Scanning Devices

The system is being scanned to identify system hardware.

If the scanning stalls, press the system’s reset button. When the
system reboots, choose Specific Scan or Help.

Scanning: Floppy disk controller

#######################
| | | | | |
0 20 40 60 80 100

Please wait ...

IA: Identified Devices Screen

The Identified Devices screen displays which devices have been identified on the
system. From here, you can continue to the Boot Solaris menu or perform optional
tasks, such as set a keyboard configuration, view and edit devices, set up a serial
console, and save and delete configurations.

Identified Devices

The following devices have been identified on this system. To identify

devices not on this list or to modify device characteristics, such as
keyboard configuration, choose Device Tasks. Platform types may be
included in this list.

ISA: Floppy disk controller

ISA: Motherboard
ISA: PnP bios: 16550-compatible serial controller
ISA: PnP bios: 16550-compatible serial controller
ISA: PnP bios: Mouse controller
ISA: PnP bios: Parallel port
ISA: System keyboard (US-English)
PCI: Bus Mastering IDE controller

(continued)

168 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

PCI: Universal Serial Bus

PCI: VGA compatible display adapter

F2_Continue F3_Back F4_Device Tasks F6_Help

IA: Menus Displayed During the Boot Phase

During this phase, you can determine the way in which the system is booted.

IA: Boot Solaris Menu

The Boot Solaris menu allows you to select the device from which to boot the Solaris
release. You can also perform optional tasks, such as view and edit autoboot and
property settings. Once a boot device is selected and you choose Continue, the
Solaris kernel will begin to boot.

Boot Solaris
Select one of the identified devices to boot the Solaris kernel and
choose Continue.

To perform optional features, such as modifying the autoboot and property

settings, choose Boot Tasks.

An asterisk (*) indicates the current default boot device.

> To make a selection use the arrow keys, and press Enter to mark it [X].

[X] DISK: (*) Target 0:QUANTUM FIREBALL1280A

on Bus Mastering IDE controller on Board PCI at Dev 7, Func 1
[ ] DISK: Target 1:ST5660A
on Bus Mastering IDE controller on Board PCI at Dev 7, Func 1
[ ] DISK: Target 0:Maxtor 9 0680D4
on Bus Mastering IDE controller on Board PCI at Dev 7, Func 1
[ ] CD : Target 1:TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-5602B 1546
on Bus Mastering IDE controller on Board PCI at Dev 7, Func 1

F2_Continue F3_Back F4_Boot Tasks F6_Help

IA: Current Boot Parameters Menu

This menu appears each time you boot Solaris from the local disk. Let the five-second
timeout elapse if you want to boot the default Solaris kernel. If you want to boot with
different options, select an appropriate option before the timeout period elapses.

The Boot Process (Reference) 169

 <<< Current Boot Parameters >>>
Boot path: /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0:a
Boot args:
Type b [file-name] [boot-flags] <ENTER> to boot with options
or i <ENTER> to enter boot interpreter
or <ENTER> to boot with defaults

<<< timeout in 5 seconds >>>

Select (b)oot or (i)nterpreter:

IA: The Boot Process

The following table describes the boot process.

TABLE 12–3 Description of the Boot Process

Boot Phase Description

BIOS 1. When the system is turned on, the PC BIOS runs self-test
diagnostics to verify the system’s hardware and memory. The system
begins to boot automatically if no errors are found. If errors are found,
error messages are displayed describing recovery options.
Additional hardware devices’ BIOS are run at this time.

2. The BIOS boot program tries to read the first physical sector from
the boot device. This first disk sector on the boot device contains the
master boot record mboot, which is loaded and executed. If no mboot
file is found, an error message is displayed.

Boot Programs 3. mboot, which contains disk information needed to find the active
partition and the location of the Solaris boot program, pboot, loads
and executes pboot.

4. pboot loads bootblk, the primary boot program, whose purpose

is to load the secondary boot program located in the ufs file system.

5. If there is more than one bootable partition, bootblk reads the

fdisk table to locate the default boot partition, and builds and
displays a menu of available partitions. You have a 30–second interval
to select an alternate partition from which to boot. This step only
occurs if there is more than one bootable partition present on the
system.

170 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 12–3 Description of the Boot Process (continued)

Boot Phase Description

6. bootblk finds and executes the secondary boot program,

boot.bin or ufsboot, in the root file system. You have a 5–second
interval to interrupt the autoboot to start the Configuration Assistant.

7. The secondary boot program, boot.bin or ufsboot, starts a

command interpreter that executes the /etc/bootrc script, which
provides a menu of choices for booting the system. The default action
is to load and execute the kernel. You have a 5–second interval to
specify a boot option or start the boot interpreter.

Kernel 8. The kernel initializes itself and begins loading modules, using the
Initialization secondary boot program (boot.bin or ufsboot) to read the files.
When the kernel has loaded enough modules to mount the root file
system, it unmaps the secondary boot program and continues, using
its own resources.

9. The kernel creates a user process and starts the /sbin/init

process, which starts other processes by reading the /etc/inittab
file.

init 10. The /sbin/init process starts the run control (rc) scripts, which
execute a series of other scripts. These scripts (/sbin/rc*) check and
mount file systems, start various processes, and perform system
maintenance tasks.

The Boot Process (Reference) 171

172 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 13

Managing Removable Media Topics

This section provides instructions for using removable media in the Solaris
environment. This section contains these chapters.

Provides general information about using CDs and

Chapter 14
diskettes, including a comparison of automatic and
manual mounting.

Provides step-by-step instructions for using CDs from the

Chapter 15
command line, plus instructions for starting and stopping
Volume Management.

Provides step-by-step instructions for formatting and

Chapter 16
using diskettes from the command line.

Provides step-by-step instructions for formatting and

Chapter 17
using PCMCIA memory cards from the command line.

Provides a high-level description of how the Solaris

Chapter 18
environment creates special mount points and symbolic
links to provide easy access to diskettes and CDs.

173
174 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 14

Guidelines for Using CDs and Diskettes

(Overview)

This chapter provides general guidelines for using diskettes and CDs in the Solaris
environment.
This is a list of overview information in this chapter.
4 “Where to Find Managing Removable Media Tasks” on page 175
4 “Removable Media Features and Benefits” on page 176
4 “Comparison of Automatic and Manual Mounting” on page 176
4 “What You Can Do With Diskettes and CDs” on page 177

Where to Find Managing Removable

Media Tasks
Use these references to find step-by-step instructions for managing removable media.
4 Chapter 15
4 Chapter 16
4 Chapter 17
For information on using removable media with File Manager in the Common
Desktop Environment, see Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User’s Guide.

175
 Removable Media Features and Benefits
The Solaris environment gives users and software developers a standard interface for
dealing with diskettes and CDs. Referred to as Volume Management, this interface
provides three major benefits:

4 By automatically mounting diskettes and CDs, it simplifies their use. (For a

comparison between manual and automatic mounting, see Table 14–1.)

4 It enables you to access diskettes and CDs without having to become superuser.

4 It allows you to give other systems on the network automatic access to any
diskettes and CDs you insert into your system (see Chapter 15 and Chapter 16).

Comparison of Automatic and Manual

Mounting
The table below compares the steps involved in manual mounting (without Volume
Management) and automatic mounting (with Volume Management).

TABLE 14–1 Comparison of Manual and Automatic Mounting

Steps Manual Mounting Automatic Mounting

1 Insert media. Insert media.

2 Become superuser. For diskettes, use the volcheck

command.

3 Determine the location of the media Volume Management automatically

device. performs many of the tasks previously
required to manually mount and work
with CDs and diskettes.

4 Create a mount point.

5 Make sure you are not in the mount

point directory.

6 Mount the device using the proper

mount options.

176 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 14–1 Comparison of Manual and Automatic Mounting (continued)

Steps Manual Mounting Automatic Mounting

7 Exit the superuser account.

8 Work with files on media. Work with files on media.

9 Become superuser.

10 Unmount the media device.

11 Eject media. Eject media.

12 Exit the superuser account.

What You Can Do With Diskettes and

CDs
Essentially, Volume Management enables you to access diskettes and CDs just as
manual mounting does, but more easily and without the need for superuser access.
To make diskettes and CDs easier to work with, they are mounted in
easy-to-remember locations.

TABLE 14–2 How to Access Data on Diskettes and CDs

To Access ... Insert ... And Find the Files In ...

Files on a diskette The diskette and enter /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0

volcheck

Raw data on a The diskette and enter /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0

diskette volcheck

Files on a CD The CD and wait for a few /cdrom/cdrom0

seconds

If your system has more than one diskette or CD-ROM drive, see the table below for
their access points.

Guidelines for Using CDs and Diskettes (Overview) 177

 TABLE 14–3 Where to Access Diskettes and CDs

Media Device Access File Systems On ... Access Raw Data On ...

First diskette drive /floppy/floppy0 /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0

Second diskette drive /floppy/floppy1 /vol/dev/aliases/floppy1

First CD-ROM drive /cdrom/cdrom0 /vol/dev/aliases/cdrom0

Second CD-ROM /cdrom/cdrom1 /vol/dev/aliases/cdrom1

drive

178 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 15

Using CDs From the Command Line

(Tasks)

This chapter describes all the tasks required to use CDs in the Solaris environment
from the command line. This is a list of the step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “How to Load a CD” on page 181
4 “How to Examine the Contents of a CD” on page 181
4 “How to Copy Information From a CD” on page 181
4 “How to Find Out If a CD Is Still in Use” on page 182
4 “How to Eject a CD” on page 183
4 “How to Access CDs on Other Systems” on page 184
4 “How to Make Local CDs Available to Other Systems” on page 185
4 “How to Configure a System to Play Musical CDs” on page 188
4 “How to Prepare a System for a New CD-ROM Drive” on page 189
4 “How to Stop Volume Management” on page 190
4 “How to Restart Volume Management” on page 190

Using CDs Task Map

179
TABLE 15–1 Using CDs Task Map

Task Description For Instructions, Go To ...

1. Load the CD Insert the CD into the CD-ROM drive.

“How to Load a CD” on page
181

2. Examine Its Contents Optional. To examine the contents of the CD, “How to Examine the Contents
look in the appropriate directory under / of a CD” on page 181
cdrom.

3. Copy Files or Directories Optional. Copy files or directories from the “How to Copy Information
CD as you would from any other location in From a CD” on page 181
the file system.

4. Is CD Still in Use? Optional. Before ejecting the CD, find out if it “How to Find Out If a CD Is
is still in use. Still in Use” on page 182

5. Eject the CD When you finish, eject the CD from the

“How to Eject a CD” on page
CD-ROM drive.
183

Using CD Names
When working with CDs, you can identify them by name or with a designator from
the table below. For brevity, task descriptions use cdrom0, but you can replace this
with either the CD name or a different designator.

TABLE 15–2 How to Identify CDs

CD Alternate Name

First CD-ROM drive cdrom0

Second CD-ROM drive cdrom1

Third CD-ROM drive cdrom2

180 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How to Load a CD
Insert the CD. Shortly after the light stops flashing (about five to ten seconds), the
CD is mounted to /cdrom. To verify that the CD is mounted, perform the task “How
to Examine the Contents of a CD” on page 181.

Note - Most CDs are formatted to the ISO 9660 standard, which is portable, so most
CDs can be mounted by Volume Management. However, as described in Chapter 18,
UFS CDs are not portable between architectures, so they must be used on the
architecture for which they were designed. If you are having trouble mounting a CD,
particularly if it is an installation CD, make sure its UFS file system is appropriate
for your system’s architecture (check the label on the CD).

How to Examine the Contents of a CD

Use the ls -L command to view the contents of /cdrom directory.

$ ls -L [-l] /cdrom/cdrom0

Includes symbolic links in the output.

−L

Long format. Includes permissions and owners in the output.

−l

Example—Examining the Contents of a CD

The following example lists the contents of the CD loaded into the first CD-ROM
directory, /cdrom/cdrom0.

$ ls -L -l /cdrom/cdrom0
total 166
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 2048 Jul 21 05:18 MU
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 2048 Jul 21 05:18 Solaris_7_MU3
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 30952 Jul 21 05:18 backout_mu
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 49604 Jul 21 05:18 install_mu

How to Copy Information From a CD

You can access a CD’s files and directories just like any other file system. The only
significant restrictions are ownership and permissions. For instance, if you copy a file
from a CD into your file system, you’ll be the owner, but you won’t have write
permissions (because the file never had them on the CD); you’ll have to change the
permissions yourself.

Using CDs From the Command Line (Tasks) 181

 1. Make sure the CD is mounted.

$ ls /cdrom

The ls command displays the contents of a mounted CD. If no contents are

displayed, see “How to Load a CD” on page 181.

2. Copy the files or directories.

To Copy ... Use ...

A file cp

A directory cp -r

Example—Copying Information From a CD

The following example uses cp to copy a single file from the
/cdrom/solstice_sysmgt_2_3 directory into the system’s working directory
(denoted by the “.”).

$ cp /cdrom/solstice_sysmgt_2_3/README .
$ ls -l
-r--r--r-- 1 pmorph users 4618 May 9 08:09 README

Note that when a file or directory is copied from a CD into your file system, you
become its owner, but it retains the permissions it had on the CD:
-r--r--r--
To overwrite it, you’ll need to change the permissions with the chmod command. See
“Securing Files (Tasks)” in System Administration Guide, Volume 2 for more
information on using the chmod command.

How to Find Out If a CD Is Still in Use

1. Become superuser.

2. Identify the processes accessing the CD.

The fuser(1M) command lists the processes that are currently accessing the CD
that you specify.

# fuser -u [-k] /cdrom/cdrom0

182 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Displays the user of the CD.
−u

Kills the process accessing the CD.

−k

The fuser command might not always identify all the killed processes. To be sure,
run it again with the −u option.

Example—Finding Out If a CD Is Still in Use

In the following example, the processes 6400c and 6399c are accessing the
/cdrom/cdrom0 directory, and the process owners are root and smith,
respectively.

# fuser -u /cdrom/cdrom0
/cdrom/cdrom0: 6400c(root) 6399c(smith)

You can kill the processes individually (as superuser), or you can use the fuser
command with the −k option, which kills all the processes accessing that file system,
as shown in the following example.

# fuser -u -k /cdrom/cdrom0
/cdrom/cdrom0: 6400c(root)Killed 6399c(smith)Killed

How to Eject a CD
1. Make sure the CD is not being used.
Remember, a CD is “being used” if a shell or an application is accessing any of its
files or directories. If you are not sure whether you have found all users of a CD
(a shell hidden behind a desktop tool might be accessing it), use the fuser
command, as described in “How to Find Out If a CD Is Still in Use” on page 182.

2. Eject the CD.

# eject cdrom0

Using CDs From the Command Line (Tasks) 183

 How to Access CDs on Other Systems
You can access a CD on another system by mounting it manually into your file
system—provided the other system has shared its CD-ROM according to the
instructions in “How to Make Local CDs Available to Other Systems” on page 185.
1. Select an existing directory to serve as the mount point or create one.

$ mkdir directory

directory The name of the directory that you create to serve as a

mount point for the other system’s CD.

2. Find the name of the CD you want to mount.

$ showmount -e system-name
export list for system-name:
/cdrom/sol_8_sparc (everyone)

3. As superuser, mount the CD.

# mount -F nfs -o ro system-name:/cdrom/cd-name local-mount-point

system-name The name of the system whose CD you will mount.

cd-name The name of the CD you want to mount.

local-mount-point The local directory onto which you will mount the
remote CD.

4. Log out as superuser.

5. Verify that the CD is mounted by using the ls command to list the contents of
the mount point.

$ ls /cdrom

184 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Example—Accessing CDs on Other Systems
This example mounts the CD named sol_8_sparc from the remote system mars
onto the /cdrom directory of the local system.

$ showmount -e starbug
export list for starbug:
/cdrom/sol_8_sparc (everyone)
$ su
Password: password
# mount -F nfs -o ro starbug:/cdrom/sol_8_sparc /cdrom
# exit
$ ls /cdrom
cdrom0 sol_8_sparc

How to Make Local CDs Available to Other

Systems
You can configure your system to share its CD-ROM drives; in other words, make
any CDs in those drives available to other systems. (This does not apply to musical
CDs.) Once your CD-ROM drives are shared, other systems can access the CDs they
contain simply by mounting them, as described in “How to Access CDs on Other
Systems” on page 184.
1. Become superuser.

2. Find out whether the NFS daemon (nfsd) is running.

# ps -ef | grep nfsd

root 14533 1 17 10:46:55 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd -a 16
root 14656 289 7 14:06:02 pts/3 0:00 grep nfsd

If the daemon is running, a line for /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd will appear, as shown

above. If the daemon is not running, only the grep nfsd line will appear.

3. Select an option from the following table.

Using CDs From the Command Line (Tasks) 185

 If ... Then ...

nfsd is running Go to Step 8 on page 186

nfsd is not running Continue with Step 4 on page 186

4. Create a dummy directory for nfsd to share.

# mkdir / dummy-dir

dummy-dir Can be any directory name; for example, dummy. This

directory will not contain any files. Its only purpose is
to “wake up” the NFS daemon so that it notices your
shared CD-ROM.

5. Add the following entry into the /etc/dfs/dfstab file.

share -F nfs -o ro [-d comment] /dummy-dir

When you start the NFS daemon, it will see this entry, “wake up,” and notice the
shared CD-ROM drive. Note that the comment (preceded by −d) is optional.

6. Start the NFS daemon.

# /etc/init.d/nfs.server start

7. Verify that the NFS daemon is indeed running.

# ps -ef | grep nfsd

root 14533 1 17 10:46:55 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd -a 16
root 14656 289 7 14:06:02 pts/3 0:00 /grep nfsd

8. Eject any CD currently in the drive.

# eject cdrom0

186 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

9. Assign root write permissions to the /etc/rmmount.conf file.

# chmod 644 /etc/rmmount.conf

10. Add the following lines to the /etc/rmmount.conf file.

# File System Sharing

share cdrom*

These lines share any CD loaded into your system’s CD-ROM drive. You can,
however, limit sharing to a particular CD or series of CDs, as described in
share(1M).

11. Remove write permissions from the /etc/rmmount.conf file.

# chmod 444 /etc/rmmount.conf

This step returns the file to its default permissions.

12. Load a CD.

The CD you now load, and all subsequent CDs, will be available to other
systems. Remember to wait until the light on the drive stops blinking before you
verify this task.
To access the CD, the remote user must mount it by name, according to the
instructions in “How to Access CDs on Other Systems” on page 184.

13. Verify that the CD is indeed available to other systems by using the share
command.
If the CD is available, its share configuration will be displayed. (The shared
dummy directory will also be displayed.)

# share
- /dummy ro "dummy dir to wake up NFS daemon"
- /sol_7_sparc ro ""

Using CDs From the Command Line (Tasks) 187

 Example—Making Local CDs Available to Other Systems
The following example makes any CD loaded into the local system’s CD-ROM drive
available to other systems on the network.

# ps -ef | grep nfsd

root 10127 9986 0 08:25:01 pts/2 0:00 grep nfsd
root 10118 1 0 08:24:39 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd -a
# mkdir /dummy
# vi /etc/dfs/dfstab
(Add the following line:)
share -F nfs -o ro /dummy
# eject cdrom0
# chmod 644 /etc/rmmount.conf
# vi /etc/rmmount
(Add the following line to the File System Sharing section:)
share cdrom*
# chmod 444 /etc/rmmount.conf
(Load a CD.)
# share
- /dummy ro ""
- /cdrom/sol_7_sparc/s5 ro ""
- /cdrom/sol_7_sparc/s4 ro ""
- /cdrom/sol_7_sparc/s3 ro ""
- /cdrom/sol_7_sparc/s2 ro ""
- /cdrom/sol_7_sparc/s1 ro ""
- /cdrom/sol_7_sparc/s0 ro ""
#

How to Configure a System to Play Musical CDs

You can play musical CDs from a CD-ROM attached to your Solaris system. You’ll
need to access Workman, which is public domain software, and you must attach
external speakers or headphones independently to the CD-ROM drive; speakers
attached to the system hardware will not work.
Once you configure your system, you can play a musical CD simply by inserting it
into the CD-ROM drive. The Workman control panel is automatically displayed on
your desktop.
1. Become superuser.

2. Edit /etc/rmmount.conf.
Add the following line under # Actions, before the cdrom action, as shown in
the example below.

188 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # Actions
action cdrom action_workman.so path/workman workman-options

path The directory in which you have placed the Workman

software.

workman-options The options allowed by the Workman software.

Example—Configuring a System to Play Musical CDs

This example shows an /etc/rmmount.conf file modified to support the Workman
software.

# @(#)rmmount.conf 1.3 96/05/10 SMI

#
# Removable Media Mounter configuration file.
#

# File system identification

ident hsfs ident_hsfs.so cdrom
ident ufs ident_ufs.so cdrom floppy rmscsi pcmem
ident pcfs ident_pcfs.so floppy rmscsi pcmem

# Actions
action cdrom action_workman.so /usr/dist/exe/workman
action cdrom action_filemgr.so
action floppy action_filemgr.so
action rmscsi action_filemgr.so

# File System Sharing

share cdrom*
share floppy*

How to Prepare a System for a New CD-ROM

Drive
Preparing the system involves creating the /reconfigure file and rebooting the
system so that Volume Management recognizes the new CD-ROM drive.
1. Become superuser.

2. Create a file called /reconfigure.

Using CDs From the Command Line (Tasks) 189

 # touch /reconfigure

3. Reboot the system.

# init 6

Configuring Volume Management

Occasionally, you might want to manage diskettes or CDs without the help of Volume
Management. This section describes how to stop and restart Volume Management.

How to Stop Volume Management

1. Make sure no diskettes or CDs are being used.
If you are not sure whether you have found all users of the diskette or CD, use
the fuser command, as described in “How to Find Out If a CD Is Still in Use”
on page 182.

2. Become superuser.

3. Enter the volmgt stop command.

# /etc/init.d/volmgt stop
#

How to Restart Volume Management

1. Become superuser.

2. Enter the volmgt start command.

190 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

# /etc/init.d/volmgt start
volume management starting.

Using CDs From the Command Line (Tasks) 191

192 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 16

Formatting and Using Diskettes From

the Command Line (Tasks)

This chapter describes all the tasks required to format and use diskettes from the
command line in the Solaris environment. This is a list of the step-by-step
instructions in this chapter.
4 “How to Format a UFS Diskette” on page 197
4 “How to Place a UFS File System on a Diskette” on page 200
4 “How to Format a DOS Diskette” on page 201
4 “How to Load a Diskette” on page 205
4 “How to Examine the Contents of a Diskette” on page 207
4 “How to Copy or Move Information From a Diskette” on page 207
4 “How to Copy or Move Information to a Diskette” on page 208
4 “How to Find Out If a Diskette Is Still in Use” on page 209
4 “How to Eject a Diskette” on page 210
4 “How to Access Diskettes on Other Systems” on page 211
4 “How to Make Local Diskettes Available to Other Systems” on page 212

Formatting Diskettes Task Map

193
TABLE 16–1 Formatting Diskettes Task Map

Task Description For Instructions, Go To ...

1. Load Unformatted Insert the diskette into the drive and enter
“How to Load a Diskette” on
Diskette the volcheck command.
page 205

2. Format the Diskette Format the diskette for UFS.

“How to Format a UFS
Diskette” on page 197

Format the diskette for DOS.

“How to Format a DOS
Diskette” on page 201

3. Add a UFS File System UFS Only. Optional. To use the diskette for “How to Place a UFS File
files, add a UFS file system. To use for System on a Diskette” on page
characters, skip this step. 200

4. Eject the Diskette When finished formatting, always eject the

“How to Eject a Diskette” on
diskette, even if you are going to use it again
page 210
right away.

Using Diskette Names

When working with diskettes, you can identify them by name or with a designator
from Table 16–2. For brevity, task descriptions use floppy0, but you can replace this
with either the diskette name or a different designator.

TABLE 16–2 How to Identify Diskettes

Diskette Alternate Name

First diskette drive floppy0

Second diskette drive floppy1

Third diskette drive floppy2

194 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Note - Diskettes that are not named (that is, they have no “label”) are assigned the
default name of noname.

Hardware Considerations
A Solaris system can format diskettes for use on both Solaris and DOS systems.
However, the hardware platform imposes some limitations. They are summarized in
the table below.

Solaris On This Platform ... Can Format Diskettes For ...

SPARC based systems UFS

MS-DOS or NEC-DOS (PCFS)

IA based systems UFS

MS-DOS or NEC-DOS (PCFS)

Diskettes formatted for UFS are restricted to the hardware platform on which they
were formatted. In other words, a UFS diskette formatted on a SPARC based platform
cannot be used for UFS on an IA platform, nor can a diskette formatted on an IA
platform be used on a SPARC based platform. This is because the SPARC and IA
UFS formats are different. SPARC uses little-endian bit coding, IA uses big-endian.
A complete format for SunOS file systems consists of the basic “bit” formatting plus
the structure to support a SunOS file system. A complete format for a DOS file system
consists of the basic “bit” formatting plus the structure to support either an MS-DOS
or an NEC-DOS file system. The procedures required to prepare a diskette for each
type of file system are different. Therefore, before you format a diskette, consider
which procedure to follow. See “Formatting Diskettes Task Map” on page 193.
On a Solaris system (either SPARC or IA), you can format diskettes of seven different
densities (provided you have the appropriate drive).

Diskette Size Diskette Density Capacity

3.5” Extended Density 2.88 Mbytes

3.5” High Density (HD) 1.44 Mbytes

3.5” Medium Density (DD) 1.2 Mbytes

3.5” Low Density 720 Kbytes

Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks) 195
 Diskette Size Diskette Density Capacity

5.25” High Density (HD) 1.2 Mbytes

5.25” Medium Density (DD) 720 Kbytes

5.25” Low Density 360 Kbytes

By default, the diskette drive formats a diskette to a like density. In other words, a
1.44 Mbyte drive attempts to format a diskette for 1.44 Mbytes, whether the diskette
is in fact a 1.44 Mbyte diskette or not—unless you instruct it otherwise. You can tell a
1.44 Mbyte drive to format a diskette to, for instance, 720 Kbytes. You cannot,
however, instruct a 720 Kbyte drive to format a diskette to 1.44 Mbyte. In other
words, a diskette can be formatted to its capacity or lower, and a drive can format to
its capacity or lower.

To instruct a drive to format a diskette to a non-default density, use the fdformat

command as instructed in the following tasks, but use the appropriate density option
from the table below.

TABLE 16–3 Density Options

To Format A Diskette In A Drive With This Specify This fdformat Density

With This Density ... Default Density ... Option ...

2.88 Mbytes 2.88 Mbytes

−E

1.44 Mbytes 2.88 Mbytes

−H

1.44 Mbytes 1.44 Mbytes none

1.2 Mbytes 1.44 Mbytes

−t nec −M

720 Kbytes 1.44 Mbytes

−D or −t dos −D

1.2 Mbytes 1.2 Mbytes none

720 Kbytes 1.2 Mbytes

−D

720 Kbytes 720 Kbytes none

360 Kbytes 720 Kbytes

−D

196 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 16–3 Density Options (continued)

To view all the options to the fdformat command, either see fdformat(1) or enter
fdformat -z. The −z option displays all the options to the command.

If you don’t know the default density of your drive, begin the formatting process
with the default setting (that is, no density options) and observe the configuration
message. It will look something like this:

Formatting 1.44 M in /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unformatted

Press return to start formatting floppy.

The confirmation message indicates the drive’s default density. For instance, in the
example above, the default density of the drive is 1.44 Mbytes. If the density is not
what you expected, use Control-c to escape the formatting process and start over.

How to Format a UFS Diskette

As mentioned in “Hardware Considerations” on page 195, a UFS diskette formatted
on a SPARC based platform can only be used on another SPARC based platform, and
a UFS diskette formatted on an IA platform can only be used on an IA based system.

Caution - Formatting a diskette erases any pre-existing content.

1. Quit File Manager.

File Manager automatically displays a formatting window when you insert an
unformatted diskette. To avoid the window, quit from File Manager. If you prefer
to keep File Manager open, quit the formatting window when it appears.

2. Make sure the diskette is write-enabled.

On both 3.5-inch and 5.25 inch diskettes, write-protection is controlled by a small
tab in either the lower left or lower right corner. If you can see through the
square hole behind the tab, the diskette is write-protected. If the hole is covered
by the tab, the diskette is write-enabled. (If you need to eject the diskette to
examine it, simply type eject floppy in a shell.)

3. Insert the diskette.

Make sure the diskette is completely inserted.

4. Invoke formatting.

$ fdformat -v -U [density-options convenience-options]

Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks) 197
 Verifies whether the diskette was formatted correctly.
−v

Unmounts the diskette if it is mounted.

−U

density-options If the drive density is 1.44 Mbytes, density-options are:

—none— Formats a 1.44 Mbyte diskette.

Formats a 720 Kbyte diskette.

−D

Lists all the options to the fdformat command, but

does not format the diskette..

convenience-options

Ejects the diskette when done formatting.

−e

Forces formatting without asking for confirmation.

−f

Names the diskette. label must be eight characters or

−b label
less, upper or lower case.

Lists all the options to the fdformat command, but

−z
does not format the diskette.

Note - If you try to format a 720 Kbyte (DD) diskette for 1.44 Mbytes, fdformat
will not stop you unless you include the −v option. With the −v option,
fdformat will format the diskette, but the verification will catch the error and
notify you with the following message: fdformat: check diskette
density, I/O error

The fdformat command displays a confirmation message (unless you used the
−f option), indicating the type of formatting to be performed:

Formatting 1.44 M in /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unformatted

Press return to start formatting floppy.

5. Select one of the options in the table below.

198 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 To ... Press ...

Confirm the type of formatting Return (unless you used the −f option in
the previous step, in which case no
confirmation is necessary)

Cancel formatting Control-c

As the formatting progresses, a series of dots is displayed. As the verification

progresses, a series of Vs appears beneath the dots. When the series stops, the
formatting is complete.
The diskette is now ready for raw character operations such as tar and cpio.

Examples—Formatting a UFS Diskette

Following are several examples of UFS formatting. The first example formats a 1.44
Mbyte diskette on a 1.44 Mbyte drive:

$ fdformat -v -U
Formatting 1.44 M in /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unformatted
Press return to start formatting floppy. [ Return ]
.......................................................
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

The following example performs the same job, but assigns the diskette the name
myfiles:

$ fdformat -v -U -b myfiles
Formatting 1.44 M in /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unformatted
Press return to start formatting floppy. [ Return ]
.......................................................
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

The following example formats a 720Kbyte diskette on a 1.44 Mbyte drive, and
names it myfiles:

$ fdformat -v -U -D -b myfiles
Formatting 720 KB in /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unformatted
Press return to start formatting floppy. [ Return ]
.......................................................
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks) 199
 How to Place a UFS File System on a Diskette
Even though the procedure for adding a UFS file system is the same for UFS
diskettes formatted on IA platforms and SPARC platforms, a UFS diskette formatted
on a SPARC platform can only be used on another SPARC platform, and a UFS
diskette formatted on an IA platform can only be used on an IA platform.

1. Format the diskette for a UFS file system.

Use “How to Format a UFS Diskette” on page 197.

2. Create a SunOS file system on the diskette.

$ /usr/sbin/newfs -v /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0

Prints status messages.

−v

/vol/dev/aliases/floppy0 Indicates the location of the floppy.

The newfs(1M) command displays a message asking you to confirm the creation
of the file system.

3. Confirm the creation of the file system.

newfs: construct a new file system

/vol/dev/aliases/floppy0:(y/n)? y

A status message is displayed, indicating the particulars of the file system and the
diskette’s formatting.
The diskette is now ready to be used on a SPARC platform. However, before
Volume Management recognizes it, you must run the volrmmount command, as
described in the following steps.

4. Invoke the volrmmount command using the −i option to notify Volume

Management that the diskette is inserted.

$ volrmmount -i floppy0

5. Verify that the UFS file system is on the diskette by using the ls command on
the /floppy directory.

200 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 If the floppy0 subdirectory appears, the diskette has a UFS file system and has
been mounted properly.

$ ls /floppy
floppy0

Example—Placing a UFS File System on a Diskette

$ volcheck -v
media was found
$ /usr/sbin/newfs -v /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0
newfs: construct a new file system /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0: (y/n)? y
mkfs -F ufs /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0 2880 18 2 8192 1024 16 10 5 2048
t 0 -1 8 15
/vol/dev/aliases/floppy0: 2880 sectors in 80 cylinders of 2 tracks,
18 sectors
1.4MB in 5 cyl groups (16 c/g, 0.28MB/g, 128 i/g)
super-block backups (for fsck -F ufs -o b=#) at:
32, 640, 1184, 1792, 2336,
$ volrmmount -i floppy0
$ ls /floppy
floppy0

How to Format a DOS Diskette

You can format a DOS diskette on a SPARC or IA platform. The steps are similar,
except that instead of a SunOS file system being placed on the diskette, a DOS file
system, either MS-DOS or NEC-DOS, is put on the diskette.

Caution - Formatting a diskette erases any pre-existing content.

1. Quit File Manager.

File Manager automatically displays a formatting window when you insert an
unformatted diskette. To avoid the window, quit from File Manager. If you prefer
to keep File Manager open, quit the formatting window when it appears.

2. Make sure the diskette is not write-protected.

On both 3.5-inch and 5.25 inch diskettes, write-protection is controlled by a small
tab in either the lower left or lower right corner. If you can see through the
square hole behind the tab, the diskette is write-protected. If the hole is covered

Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks) 201
 by the tab, the diskette is write-enabled. (If you need to eject the diskette to
examine it, simply type eject floppy in a shell.)

3. Insert the diskette.

Make sure the diskette is completely inserted. It must drop down into the drive.

4. Invoke formatting.

$ fdformat -v -U [density-options convenience-options]

Verifies whether the diskette was formatted correctly.

−v

Unmounts the diskette if it is mounted.

−U

density-options If the drive density is 1.44 Mbytes, density-options are:

Formats at 1.44 Mbytes for MS-DOS.

−d

Formats at 720 Kbytes for MS-DOS.

−d −D

Formats at 1.2 Mbytes for NEC-DOS.

−t nec −M

Lists all the options to the fdformat command, but

does not format the diskette.

convenience-options

Ejects the diskette when done formatting.

−e

Does not ask for confirmation before formatting.

−f

Name for the diskette. label must be eight characters or

−b label
less, upper or lower case.

Lists all the options to the fdformat command, but

−z
does not format the diskette.

202 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Note - If you try to format a 720 Kbyte (DD) diskette for 1.44 Mbytes, fdformat
will not stop you unless you include the −v option. With the −v option,
fdformat will format the diskette, but the verification will catch the error and
notify you with the following message: fdformat: check diskette
density, I/O error

The fdformat command displays a confirmation message, indicating the type of

formatting to be performed:

Formatting 1.44 M in /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unformatted

Press return to start formatting floppy.

5. Select one of the options in the table below.

To ... Press ...

Confirm the type of formatting Return (unless you used the −f option in
the previous step, in which case no
confirmation is necessary)

Cancel formatting Control-c

As the formatting progresses, a series of dots is displayed. As the verification

progresses, a series of Vs appears beneath the dots. When the series stops, the
formatting is complete and the diskette is ready for use on a DOS system.

6. Run the volrmmount(1) command using the −i option to notify Volume

Management that the diskette is inserted.

$ volrmmount -i floppy0

Volume Management mounts the diskette under /floppy/floppy0.

Example—Formatting a DOS Diskette

The following example formats a 1.44 Mbyte MS-DOS diskette and assigns the
diskette the name myfiles:

Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks) 203
 $ fdformat -v -U -b myfiles
Formatting 1.44 M in /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unformatted
Press return to start formatting floppy. [ Return ]
......................................................
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Using Diskettes Task Map

TABLE 16–4 Using Diskettes Task Map

Task Description For Instructions, Go To

1. Load the Diskette Insert the diskette into its drive and enter the
“How to Load a Diskette” on
volcheck command.
page 205

2. Examine its Contents Optional. To examine the contents of the “How to Examine the Contents
diskette, look in the appropriate directory of a Diskette” on page 207
under /diskette.

3. Exchange Files Optional. Copy files or directories between “How to Copy or Move
the diskette and your file system. Information From a Diskette”
on page 207

“How to Copy or Move

Information to a Diskette” on
page 208

4. Is Diskette Still in Use? Optional. Before ejecting the diskette, find out “How to Find Out If a Diskette
if the diskette is still in use. Is Still in Use” on page 209

5. Eject the Diskette When you finish, eject the diskette from its
“How to Eject a Diskette” on
drive.
page 210

204 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How to Load a Diskette
1. Make sure the diskette is formatted.
If you aren’t sure, insert it and check the status messages in the console, as
described in Step 3 on page 205. If you need to format the diskette, go to “How
to Format a UFS Diskette” on page 197 or “How to Format a DOS Diskette” on
page 201.

2. Insert the diskette.

Make sure the diskette is completely inserted. It must drop down into the drive.
If the drive has a door, close it.

3. Notify Volume Management.

$ volcheck -v
media was found

Two status messages are possible:

Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks) 205
 media was found Volume Management detected the diskette and will
attempt to mount it in the /floppy directory.

If the diskette is formatted properly, no error messages

appear in the console.

If the diskette is not formatted, the “media was

found” message is still displayed, but the following
error messages appear in the Console:

fd0: unformatted diskette or no diskette in

the drive

fd0: read failed (40 1 0)

fd0: bad format

You must format the diskette before Volume

Management can mount it. Instructions are provided
on “How to Format a UFS Diskette” on page 197 (for
UFS) and “How to Format a DOS Diskette” on page
201 (for DOS).

no media was found Volume Management did not detect a diskette. Make
sure the diskette is inserted properly and run
volcheck(1) again. If unsuccessful, check the diskette;
it could be damaged. You can also try to mount the
diskette manually.

4. Verify that the diskette was mounted by listing its contents.

$ ls /floppy
floppy0 myfiles

As described earlier, floppy0 is a symbolic link to the actual name of the

diskette; in this case, myfiles. If the diskette has no name but is formatted
correctly, the system will refer to it as unnamed_floppy.
If nothing appears under the /floppy directory, the diskette was either not
mounted or is not formatted properly. To find out, run the mount command and
look for the line that begins with /floppy (usually at the end of the listing):
/floppy/name on /vol/dev/diskette0/name ...
If the line does not appear, the diskette was not mounted. Check the Console for
error messages.

206 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How to Examine the Contents of a Diskette
Use the ls -L command because some directories under /floppy are symbolic
links.

$ ls -L [-l] floppy0

Includes symbolic links in the output.

−L

Long format. Includes permissions and owners in the output.

−l

Example—Examining the Contents of a Diskette

The following example lists the contents of the diskette in the first floppy drive,
identified by floppy0.

$ ls -L -l /floppy/floppy0
-rwxrwxrwx 1 smith staff 362284 Nov 16 20:54 text.doc
-rwxrwxrwx 1 smith staff 24562 Nov 16 12:20 art.gif

How to Copy or Move Information From a

Diskette
Once you have inserted a diskette, you can access its files and directories just as you
would those of any other file system. The only significant restrictions are ownership
and permissions. For instance, if you are not the owner of a file on a diskette, you
won’t be able to overwrite that file on the diskette. Or, if you copy a file into your
file system, you’ll be the owner, but that file won’t have write permissions (because it
never had them on the diskette); you’ll have to change the permissions yourself.

1. Make sure the diskette is formatted and mounted.

$ ls /floppy
floppy0 diskette-name

If the diskette is properly formatted and mounted, its name and the symbolic link
will appear under /floppy.
If nothing appears under the /floppy directory, the diskette is not mounted. See
“How to Load a Diskette” on page 205. The diskette might also need to be

Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks) 207
 formatted. See “How to Format a UFS Diskette” on page 197 or “How to Format
a DOS Diskette” on page 201.

2. Copy the files or directories.

To Copy ... Use ...

A file cp

A directory cp -r

3. Verify the copy or move operation by using the ls command.

Examples—Copying or Moving Information From a Diskette

The first example below moves a file (readme.doc) from the diskette to the current
directory (indicated by the “.” symbol). The second example copies a file
(readme2.doc) from the diskette to the current directory. The third example copies
a directory (morefiles) and everything below it from the diskette to the current
directory.

$ mv /floppy/floppy0/readme.doc .
$ cp /floppy/floppy0/readme2.doc .
$ cp -r /floppy/floppy0/morefiles .

How to Copy or Move Information to a Diskette

1. Make sure the diskette is not write-protected.
On both 3.5-inch and 5.25 inch diskettes, write-protection is controlled by a small
tab in either the lower left or lower right corner. If you can see through the
square hole behind the tab, the diskette is write-protected. If the hole is covered
by the tab, the diskette is write-enabled.

2. Make sure the diskette is formatted and mounted.

208 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 $ ls /floppy
floppy0 diskette-name

If the diskette is properly formatted and mounted, its name and the symbolic
link, floppy0, will appear under /floppy.
If nothing appears under the /floppy directory, the diskette is not mounted. See
“How to Load a Diskette” on page 205. The diskette might also need to be
formatted. See “How to Format a UFS Diskette” on page 197 or “How to Format
a DOS Diskette” on page 201.

3. Move or copy the files or directories.

To ... Use ...

Copy a file cp

Copy a directory cp -r

Move a file or directory mv

4. Verify a move or copy operation by using the ls command.

Examples—Copying or Moving Information to a Diskette

The first example, below, moves a file (readme.doc) from the current directory to
the diskette loaded into the first floppy drive (indicated by /floppy/floppy0). The
second example copies a file (readme2.doc) from the current directory to the
diskette loaded into the second floppy drive (indicated by /floppy/floppy1). The
third example copies a directory (morefiles) and its contents from the
/home/smith/directory to the diskette loaded into the first floppy drive.

$ mv readme.doc /floppy/floppy0
$ cp readme2.doc /floppy/floppy1
$ cp -r /home/smith/morefiles /floppy/floppy0

How to Find Out If a Diskette Is Still in Use

1. Become superuser.

Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks) 209
 2. Invoke the fuser command.
The fuser command lists the processes that are currently accessing the CD that
you specify.

# fuser -u [-k] floppy0

Displays the user of the diskette.

−u

Kills the process accessing the diskette.

−k

Example—Finding Out If a Diskette Is Still In Use

In the following example, the processes 6400c and 6399c are accessing the
/floppy/floppy0 directory, and the process owners are root and smith,
respectively.

# fuser -u /floppy/floppy0
/floppy/floppy0: 6400c(root) 6399c(smith)

You can kill the processes individually (as superuser), or you can use the fuser
command with the −k option, which kills all the processes accessing that file system.
The fuser command might not always identify all the killed processes. To be sure,
run it again with the −u option.

# fuser -u -k /floppy/floppy0
/floppy/floppy0: 6400c(root)Killed 6399c(smith)Killed

How to Eject a Diskette

1. Make sure the diskette is not being used.
Remember, a diskette is “being used” if a shell or an application is accessing any
of its files or directories.
If you are not sure whether you have found all users of a diskette (a renegade
shell hidden behind a desktop tool might be accessing it), use the fuser
command, as described in “How to Find Out If a Diskette Is Still in Use” on page
209.

2. Eject the diskette.

210 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # eject floppy0

On a SPARC based system the floppy is physically ejected from its drive, but on
an IA based system, you’ll have to eject the diskette by hand. If you are running
Windows, look for an onscreen message that says you can now eject the diskette.
If the diskette is still in use, the following message appears:

/vol/dev/rdiskette0/noname: Device busy

In this case, return to Step 1 and make sure no one is using the diskette, then
eject it again.
If the diskette jams, eject it manually by inserting an unfolded paper clip about
an inch into the small hole in the front of the drive.

How to Access Diskettes on Other Systems

You can access a diskette on another system by mounting it manually into your file
system—provided the other system has shared its diskette drive according to the
instructions in “How to Make Local Diskettes Available to Other Systems” on page
212.
1. Select an existing directory to serve as the mount point, or create one.

$ mkdir directory

directory Is the name of the directory that you create to serve as

a mount point for the other system’s diskette.

2. Find the name of the diskette you want to mount.

When you manually mount a remote diskette, you cannot use the floppy0 or
floppy1 variables available with your local diskettes. You must use the exact
diskette name. To find it, use the ls command on the remote system’s /floppy
directory. If the automounter is running, you can simply cd to the system whose
diskette you want to mount and then use the ls command. If the automounter is
not running, you’ll have to use another method, such as logging in remotely.

3. As superuser, mount the diskette.

# mount -F nfs system-name:/floppy/diskette-name local-mount-point

Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks) 211
 system-name The name of the system whose diskette you will mount.

diskette-name The name of the diskette you want to mount.

local-mount-point The local directory onto which you will mount the
remote diskette.

4. Log out as superuser.

5. Verify that the diskette is mounted by using the ls command to list the
contents of the mount point.

$ ls /floppy

Example—Accessing Diskettes on Other Systems

This example mounts the diskette named myfiles from the remote system mars
onto the /floppy directory of the local system.

$ cd /net/mars
$ ls /floppy
floppy0 myfiles
$ su
Password: password
# mount -F nfs mars:/floppy/myfiles /floppy
# exit
$ ls /floppy
myfiles

How to Make Local Diskettes Available to Other

Systems
You can configure your system to share its diskettes; in other words, make any
diskettes in those drives available to other systems. Once your diskette drives are
shared, other systems can access the diskettes they contain simply by mounting
them, as described in “How to Access Diskettes on Other Systems” on page 211.
1. Become superuser.

2. Find out whether the NFS daemon (nfsd) is running.

212 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # ps -ef | grep nfsd
root 14533 1 17 10:46:55 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd -a 16
root 14656 289 7 14:06:02 pts/3 0:00 grep nfsd

If the daemon is running, a line for /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd will appear, as shown

above. If the daemon is not running, only the grep nfsd line will appear.

3. Select an option from the following table.

If ... Then ...

nfsd is running Go to Step 8 on page 214

nfsd is not running Continue with Step 4 on page 213

4. Create a dummy directory for nfsd to share.

# mkdir /dummy-dir

dummy-dir Can be any directory name; for example, dummy. This

directory will not contain any files. Its only purpose is
to “wake up” the NFS daemon so that it notices your
shared diskettes.

5. Add the following entry into /etc/dfs/dfstab.

share -F nfs -o ro [-d comment] /dummy-dir

When you start the NFS daemon, it will see this entry, “wake up,” and notice the
shared diskette drive. Note that the comment (preceded by −d) is optional.

6. Start the NFS daemon.

# /etc/init.d/nfs.server start

7. Verify that the NFS daemon is indeed running.

Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks) 213
 # ps -ef | grep nfsd
root 14533 1 17 10:46:55 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd -a 16
root 14656 289 7 14:06:02 pts/3 0:00 /grep nfsd

8. Eject any diskette currently in the drive.

# eject floppy0

9. Assign root write permissions to /etc/rmmount.conf.

# chmod 644 /etc/rmmount.conf

10. Add the following lines to /etc/rmmount.conf.

# File System Sharing

share floppy*

These lines share any diskette loaded into your system’s diskette drives.

11. Remove write permissions from /etc/rmmount.conf.

# chmod 444 /etc/rmmount.conf

This step returns the file to its default permissions.

12. Load a diskette.

---Insert the diskette---

# volcheck -v
media was found

The diskette you now load, and all subsequent diskettes, will be available to other
systems. To access the diskette, the remote user must mount it by name, according
to the instructions in “How to Access Diskettes on Other Systems” on page 211.

13. Verify that the diskette is available to other systems by using the share(1M)
command.

214 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 If the diskette is available, its share configuration will be displayed. (The shared
dummy directory will also be displayed.)

# share
- /dummy ro "dummy dir to wake up NFS daemon"
- /myfiles rw ""

Example—Making Local Diskettes Available to Other Systems

The following example makes any diskette loaded into the local system’s diskette
drive available to other systems on the network.

# ps -ef | grep nfsd

root 10127 9986 0 08:25:01 pts/2 0:00 grep nfsd
root 10118 1 0 08:24:39 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd -a
# mkdir /dummy
# vi /etc/dfs/dfstab
(Add the following line:)
share -F nfs -o ro /dummy
# eject floppy0
# chmod 644 /etc/rmmount.conf
# vi /etc/rmmount
(Add the following line to the File System Sharing section.)
share floppy*
# chmod 444 /etc/rmmount.conf
(Load a diskette.)
# volcheck -v
media was found
# share
- /dummy ro ""
- /floppy/myfiles rw ""

Formatting and Using Diskettes From the Command Line (Tasks) 215
216 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 17

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards From

the Command Line (Tasks)

This chapter describes all the tasks required to format and use PCMCIA memory
cards from the command line in the Solaris environment.
This is a list of the step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “How to Format a UFS PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 219
4 “How to Place a UFS File System on a PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 222
4 “How to Format a DOS PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 224
4 “How to Load a PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 227
4 “How to Examine the Contents of a PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 229
4 “How to Copy or Move Information From a PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 229
4 “How to Copy or Move Information to a PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 230
4 “How to Find Out If a PCMCIA Memory Card Is Still In Use” on page 232
4 “How to Eject a PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 232
4 “How to Access PCMCIA Memory Cards on Other Systems” on page 233
4 “How to Make Local PCMCIA Memory Cards Available to Other Systems” on
page 235

Formatting PCMCIA Memory Cards

Task Map

217
TABLE 17–1 Formatting PCMCIA Memory Cards Task Map

Task Description For Instructions, Go To ...

1. Load Unformatted Insert the PCMCIA memory card into the

“How to Load a PCMCIA
PCMCIA Memory Card drive and enter the volcheck command.
Memory Card” on page 227

2. Format the PCMCIA Format the PCMCIA memory card for UFS.
“How to Format a UFS
Memory Card
PCMCIA Memory Card” on
page 219

Format the PCMCIA memory card for DOS.

“How to Format a DOS
PCMCIA Memory Card” on
page 224

3. Add a UFS File System UFS Only. Optional. To use the PCMCIA “How to Place a UFS File
memory card for files, add a UFS file system. System on a PCMCIA Memory
To use for characters, skip this step. Card” on page 222

4. Eject the PCMCIA When finished formatting, always eject the

“How to Eject a PCMCIA
Memory Card PCMCIA memory card, even if you are going
Memory Card” on page 232
to use it again right away.

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards Names

When working with PCMCIA memory cards, you can identify them by name or with
a designator from the table below. For brevity, task descriptions use pcmem0, but you
can replace this with either the PCMCIA memory card’s name or a different
designator.

TABLE 17–2 How to Identify PCMCIA Memory Cards

PCMCIA Card Alternate Name

First PCMCIA drive pcmem0

Second PCMCIA drive pcmem1

Third PCMCIA drive pcmem2

218 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 17–2 How to Identify PCMCIA Memory Cards (continued)

Note - PCATA drives that are not named (that is, they have no “label”) are assigned
the default name of noname.

Hardware Considerations
A Solaris platform can format PCMCIA memory cards for use on both Solaris and
DOS platforms. However, the hardware platform imposes some limitations. They are
summarized in the table below.

Solaris On This Platform ... Can Format PCMCIA Memory Cards For ...

SPARC based systems UFS

MS-DOS or NEC-DOS (PCFS)

IA based systems UFS

MS-DOS or NEC-DOS (PCFS)

PCMCIA memory cards formatted for UFS are restricted to the hardware platform
on which they were formatted. In other words, a UFS PCMCIA memory card
formatted on a SPARC platform cannot be used for UFS on an IA platform. Likewise,
PCMCIA memory cards formatted on an IA platform cannot be used on a SPARC
platform. This is because the SPARC and IA UFS formats are different.

A complete format for UFS file systems consists of the basic “bit” formatting plus the
structure to support a UFS file system. A complete format for a DOS file system
consists of the basic “bit” formatting plus the structure to support either an MS-DOS
or an NEC-DOS file system. The procedures required to prepare a PCMCIA memory
card for each type of file system are different. Therefore, before you format a
PCMCIA memory card, consider which file system you are using. See “Formatting
PCMCIA Memory Cards Task Map” on page 217.

To view all the options to the fdformat command, either see fdformat(1) or enter
fdformat -z. The −z option displays all the options to the command.

How to Format a UFS PCMCIA Memory Card

As mentioned in the introduction, a UFS PCMCIA memory card formatted on a
SPARC based platform can be used only on another SPARC based platform, and a

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards From the Command Line (Tasks) 219
 UFS PCMCIA memory card formatted on an IA platform can be used only on an IA
platform running the Solaris Intel Platform Edition.

Caution - Formatting a PCMCIA memory card erases any pre-existing content.

1. Quit File Manager.

File Manager automatically displays a formatting window when you insert an
unformatted PCMCIA memory card. To avoid the window, quit File Manager. If
you prefer to keep File Manager open, quit the formatting window when it
appears.

2. Make sure the PCMCIA memory card is write-enabled.

Write-protection is controlled by a small slide switch in the end of the PCMCIA
memory card.

3. Insert the PCMCIA memory card.

Make sure the PCMCIA memory card is completely inserted.

4. Invoke formatting.

$ fdformat -v -U [convenience-options]

Verifies whether the PCMCIA memory card was

−v
formatted correctly.

Unmounts the PCMCIA memory card if it is mounted.

−U

convenience-options

Ejects the PCMCIA memory card when done

−e
formatting.

Forces formatting without asking for confirmation.

−f

Names the PCMCIA memory card. label must be eight

−b label
characters or less, upper or lower case.

Lists all the options to the fdformat command, but

−z
does not format the PCMCIA memory card.

The fdformat command displays a confirmation message (unless you used the
−f option), indicating the type of formatting to be performed:

220 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Formatting in /vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0

Press return to start formatting pcmem0.

5. Select one of the options in the table below.

To ... Press ...

Confirm the type of formatting Return (unless you used the −f option in
the previous step, in which case no
confirmation is necessary)

Cancel formatting Control-c

As the formatting progresses, a series of dots is displayed. As the verification

progresses, a series of Vs appears beneath the dots. When the series stops, the
formatting is complete.
The PCMCIA memory card is now ready for raw character operations such as
tar and cpio.

Examples—Formatting a UFS PCMCIA Memory Card

Following are examples of UFS formatting.

$ fdformat -v -U
Formatting in /vol/dev/aliases/unformatted
Press return to start formatting pcmem0. [ Return ]
.........................................................
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

The following example performs the same job, but assigns the PCMCIA memory
card the name myfiles:

$ fdformat -v -U -b myfiles
Formatting in /vol/dev/aliases/unformatted
Press return to start formatting pcmem0. [ Return ]
.........................................................
vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards From the Command Line (Tasks) 221
 How to Place a UFS File System on a PCMCIA
Memory Card
Even though the procedure for adding a UFS file system is the same for UFS
PCMCIA memory cards formatted on IA platforms and SPARC based platforms, a
UFS PCMCIA memory card formatted on a SPARC based platform can only be used
on another SPARC based platform, and a UFS PCMCIA memory card formatted on
an IA platform can only be used on a IA platform.

1. Format the PCMCIA memory card for a UFS file system.

Use the procedure “How to Format a UFS PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 219.

2. Use the newfs(1M) command and the full pathname to the Volume
Management directory to create a UFS file system on the PCMCIA memory card.

$ /usr/sbin/newfs -v /vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0

Prints status messages.

−v

/vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0 Indicates the location of the memory card.

The newfs(1M) command displays a message asking you to confirm the creation
of the file system.

3. Confirm the creation of the file system.

newfs: construct a new file system \

/vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0:(y/n)? y

A status message is displayed, indicating the particulars of the file system and the
PCMCIA memory card’s formatting:

mkfs -F ufs /vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0 2848 8 2 8192 1024 16 \

10 60 2048 t 0 -1 8 -1
/vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0: 2848 sectors in 128 cylinders of \
2 tracks, 8 sectors
1.0MB in 8 cyl groups (16 c/g, 0.12MB/g, 64 i/g)
super-block backups (for fsck -F ufs -o b=#) at:

(continued)

222 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

32, 304, 544, 816, 1056, 1328, 1568, 1840

The PCMCIA memory card is now ready to be used on a SPARC based platform.
However, before Volume Management recognizes the memory card, you must use
the volrmmount(1) command as described in the following step.

4. Use the volrmmount command with the −i option to notify Volume

Management that the memory card is inserted.

$ volrmmount -i pcmem0

The PCMCIA memory card should now be mounted under /pcmem/pcmem0.

5. Verify the UFS file system is on the PCMCIA card by using the ls command
on the /pcmem directory.
If the pcmem0 subdirectory appears, the PCMCIA memory card has a UFS file
system and has been mounted properly.

$ ls /pcmem
pcmem0

Example—Placing a UFS File System on a PCMCIA Memory

Card
$ volcheck -v
media was found
$ /usr/sbin/newfs -v /vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0
newfs: construct a new file system \
/vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0:(y/n)? y
mkfs -F ufs /vol/dev/aliases/pcmem0 ...

$ volrmmount -i pcmem0

media was found

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards From the Command Line (Tasks) 223
 How to Format a DOS PCMCIA Memory Card
You can format a DOS PCMCIA memory card on a SPARC or IA based platform.
The steps are similar, except that instead of a SunOS file system being placed on the
PCMCIA memory card, a DOS file system, either MS-DOS or NEC-DOS, is put on
the file system.

Caution - Formatting a PCMCIA memory card erases any pre-existing content.

1. Quit File Manager.

File Manager automatically displays a formatting window when you insert an
unformatted PCMCIA memory card. To avoid the window, quit File Manager. If
you prefer to keep File Manager open, quit the formatting window when it
appears.

2. Make sure the PCMCIA memory card is not write-protected.

Write-protection is controlled by a small slide switch in the end of the PCMCIA
memory card.

3. Insert the PCMCIA memory card.

Make sure the PCMCIA memory card is completely inserted. It must drop down
into the drive.

4. Invoke formatting.

$ fdformat -v -U [density-options convenience-options]

Verifies whether the PCMCIA memory card was

−v
formatted correctly.

Unmounts the PCMCIA memory card, if it is mounted.

−U

density-options If the drive density is 1.44 Mbytes, density-options are:

Formats for MS-DOS.

−d

Formats at 1.2 Mbytes for NEC-DOS.

−t nec −M

Lists all the options to the fdformat command, but

does not format the PCMCIA memory card.

convenience-options

224 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Ejects the PCMCIA memory card when done
−e
formatting.

Does not ask for confirmation before formatting.

−f

Name for the PCMCIA memory card. label must be

−b label
eight characters or less, upper or lower case.

Lists all the options to the fdformat command, but

−z
does not format the PCMCIA memory card.

Note - If you try to format a 720 Kbyte (DD) diskette for 1.44 Mbytes, fdformat
will not stop you unless you include the −v option. With the −v option,
fdformat will format the diskette, but the verification will catch the error and
notify you with the following message: fdformat: check diskette
density, I/O error

The fdformat command displays a confirmation message, indicating the type of

formatting to be performed:

Formatting 1.44 M in /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unformatted

Press return to start formatting floppy.

5. Select one of the options in the table below.

To ... Press ...

Confirm the type of formatting Return (unless you used the −f option in
the previous step, in which case no
confirmation is necessary)

Cancel formatting Control-c

As the formatting progresses, a series of dots is displayed. As the verification

progresses, a series of Vs appears beneath the dots. When the series stops, the
formatting is complete and the PCMCIA memory card is ready for use on a DOS
system.

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards From the Command Line (Tasks) 225
 6. Use the volrmmount command with the −i option to notify Volume
Management that the memory card is inserted.

$ volrmmount -i pcmem0

Volume Management mounts the PCMCIA memory card under /pcmem/pcmem0.

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards Task

Map
TABLE 17–3 Using PCMCIA Memory Cards Task Map

Task Description For Instructions, Go To

1. Load the PCMCIA Insert the PCMCIA memory card into its
“How to Load a PCMCIA
Memory Card drive and enter the volcheck command.
Memory Card” on page 227

2. Examine the Contents of a Optional. To examine the contents of the “How to Examine the Contents
PCMCIA Memory Card PCMCIA memory card, look in the of a PCMCIA Memory Card”
appropriate directory under / on page 229
PCMCIAmemorycard.

3. Exchange Files Optional. Copy files or directories between the “How to Copy or Move
PCMCIA memory card and your file system. Information From a PCMCIA
Memory Card” on page 229

“How to Copy or Move

Information to a PCMCIA
Memory Card” on page 230

226 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 17–3 Using PCMCIA Memory Cards Task Map (continued)

Task Description For Instructions, Go To

4. Is PCMCIA Memory Card Optional. Before ejecting the PCMCIA “How to Find Out If a
Still in Use? memory card, find out if the PCMCIA PCMCIA Memory Card Is Still
memory card is still in use. In Use” on page 232

5. Eject the PCMCIA When you finish, eject the PCMCIA memory
“How to Eject a PCMCIA
Memory Card card.
Memory Card” on page 232

How to Load a PCMCIA Memory Card

1. Make sure the PCMCIA memory card is formatted.
If you aren’t sure, insert it and check the status messages in the Console, as
described in “Using PCMCIA Memory Cards Task Map” on page 226. If you need
to format the PCMCIA memory card, go to “How to Format a UFS PCMCIA
Memory Card” on page 219 or “How to Format a DOS PCMCIA Memory Card”
on page 224.

2. Insert the PCMCIA memory card.

Make sure the PCMCIA memory card is completely inserted. It must drop down
into the drive. If the drive has a door, close it.

3. Notify Volume Management.

$ volcheck -v
media was found

Two status messages are possible:

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards From the Command Line (Tasks) 227
 media was Volume Management detected the PCMCIA memory card and will
found attempt to mount it in the /pcmem directory.

If the PCMCIA memory card is formatted properly, no error

messages appear in the Console.

If the PCMCIA memory card is not formatted, the “media was

found” message is still displayed, but the following error messages
appear in the Console:

fd0: unformatted diskette or no diskette in the drive

fd0: read failed (40 1 0)

fd0: bad format

You must format the PCMCIA memory card before Volume

Management can mount it. Instructions are provided on “How to
Format a UFS PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 219 (for UFS) and
“How to Format a DOS PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 224 (for
DOS).

no media was Volume Management did not detect a PCMCIA memory card.
found Make sure the PCMCIA memory card is inserted properly and run
volcheck again. If unsuccessful, check the PCMCIA memory card;
it could be damaged. You can also try to mount the PCMCIA
memory card manually.

4. Verify that the PCMCIA memory card was mounted by listing its contents.

$ ls /pcmem/pcmem0
pcmem0 myfiles

As described earlier, pcmem0 is a symbolic link to the actual name of the PCMCIA
memory card; in this case, myfiles. If the PCMCIA memory card has no name
but is formatted correctly, the system will refer to it as unnamed_floppy.
If nothing appears under the /pcmem directory, the PCMCIA memory card was
either not mounted or is not formatted properly. To find out, run the mount
command and look for the line that begins with /pcmem (usually at the end of
the listing):

/pcmem/name on /vol/dev/diskette0/name ...

If the line does not appear, the PCMCIA memory card was not mounted. Check
the Console for error messages.

228 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How to Examine the Contents of a PCMCIA
Memory Card
Use the ls -L command because some directories under /pcmem are symbolic links:

$ ls -L [-l] pcmem0

Includes symbolic links in the output.

−L

Long format. Includes permissions and owners in the output.

−l

Example—Displaying the Contents of a PCMCIA Memory

Card
The following example lists the contents of the PCMCIA memory card in the first
floppy drive, identified by pcmem0.

$ ls -L -l /pcmem/pcmem0
-rwxrwxrwx 1 smith staff 362284 Nov 16 20:54 text.doc
-rwxrwxrwx 1 smith staff 24562 Nov 16 12:20 art.gif

How to Copy or Move Information From a

PCMCIA Memory Card
Once you have inserted a PCMCIA memory card, you can access its files and
directories just as you would those of any other file system. The only significant
restrictions are ownership and permissions. For instance, if you are not the owner of
a file on a PCMCIA memory card, you won’t be able to overwrite that file on the
PCMCIA memory card. Or, if you copy a file into your file system, you’ll be the
owner, but that file won’t have write permissions (because it never had them on the
PCMCIA memory card); you’ll have to change the permissions yourself.
1. Make sure the PCMCIA memory card is formatted and mounted.

$ ls /pcmem
pcmem0 PCMCIAmemorycard-name

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards From the Command Line (Tasks) 229
 If the PCMCIA memory card is properly formatted and mounted, its name and
the symbolic link will appear under /pcmem.
If nothing appears under the /pcmem directory, the PCMCIA memory card is not
mounted. See “How to Load a PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 227. The
PCMCIA memory card might also need to be formatted. See “How to Format a
UFS PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 219 or “How to Format a DOS PCMCIA
Memory Card” on page 224.

2. Copy the files or directories.

To Copy ... Use ...

A file cp

A directory cp -r

3. Verify the copy or move operation by using the ls command.

Examples—Copying or Moving Information From a PCMCIA

Memory Card
The first example, below, moves a file (readme.doc) from the PCMCIA memory
card to the current directory (indicated by the “.” symbol). The second example
copies a file (readme2.doc) from the PCMCIA memory card to the current
directory. The third example copies a directory (morefiles) and everything below it
from the PCMCIA memory card to the current directory.

$ mv /pcmem/pcmem0/readme.doc .
$ cp /pcmem/pcmem0/readme2.doc .
$ cp -r /pcmem/pcmem0/morefiles .

How to Copy or Move Information to a PCMCIA

Memory Card
1. Make sure the PCMCIA memory card is not write-protected.
Write-protection is controlled by a small slide switch in the end of the PCMCIA
memory card.

2. Make sure the PCMCIA memory card is formatted and mounted.

230 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 $ ls /pcmem
pcmem0 PCMCIAmemory-card-name

If the PCMCIA memory card is properly formatted and mounted, its name and
the symbolic link, pcmem0, will appear under /pcmem.
If nothing appears under the /pcmem directory, the PCMCIA memory card is not
mounted. See “How to Load a PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 227. The
PCMCIA memory card might also need to be formatted. See “How to Format a
UFS PCMCIA Memory Card” on page 219 or “How to Format a DOS PCMCIA
Memory Card” on page 224.

3. Move or copy the files or directories.

To ... Use ...

Copy a file cp

Copy a directory cp -r

Move a file or directory mv

4. Verify the move or copy operation by using the ls command.

Examples—Copying or Moving Information to a PCMCIA

Memory Card
The first example, below, moves a file (readme.doc) from the current directory to
the PCMCIA memory card loaded into the first floppy drive (indicated by
/pcmem/pcmem0). The second example copies a file (readme2.doc) from the
current directory to the PCMCIA memory card loaded into the second floppy drive
(indicated by /pcmem/pcmem1). The third example copies a directory (morefiles)
and its contents from the /home/smith/directory to the PCMCIA memory card
loaded into the first floppy drive.

$ mv readme.doc /pcmem/pcmem0
$ cp readme2.doc /pcmem/pcmem1
$ cp -r /home/smith/morefiles /pcmem/pcmem0

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards From the Command Line (Tasks) 231
 How to Find Out If a PCMCIA Memory Card Is
Still In Use
1. Become superuser.

2. Invoke the fuser(1M) command.

The fuser command lists the processes that are currently accessing the CD that
you specify.

# fuser -u [-k] pcmem0

Displays the user of the PCMCIA memory card.

−u

Kills the process accessing the PCMCIA memory card.

−k

Example—Finding Out If a PCMCIA Memory Card Is Still in

Use
In the following example, the processes 6400c and 6399c are accessing the
/pcmem/pcmem0 directory, and the process owners are root and smith,
respectively.

# fuser -u /pcmem/pcmem0
/pcmem/pcmem0: 6400c(root) 6399c(smith)

You can kill the processes individually (as superuser), or you can use the fuser
command with the −k option, which kills all the processes accessing that file system:

# fuser -u -k /pcmem/pcmem0
/pcmem/pcmem0: 6400c(root)Killed 6399c(smith)Killed

The fuser command might not always identify all the killed processes. To be sure,
run it again with the −u option.

How to Eject a PCMCIA Memory Card

1. Make sure the PCMCIA memory card is not being used.
Remember, a PCMCIA memory card is “being used” if a shell or an application is
accessing any of its files or directories.

232 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 If you are not sure whether you have found all users of a PCMCIA memory card
(a renegade shell hidden behind a desktop tool might be accessing it), use the
fuser command, as described in “How to Find Out If a PCMCIA Memory Card
Is Still In Use” on page 232.

2. Eject the PCMCIA memory card.

# eject pcmem0

You’ll have to eject the PCMCIA memory card by hand. If you are running
Windows, look for an onscreen message that says you can now eject the PCMCIA
memory card.
If the PCMCIA memory card is still in use, the following message appears:

/vol/dev/pcmem/noname: Device busy

In this case, return to Step 1 and make sure no one is using the PCMCIA memory
card, then eject it again.

How to Access PCMCIA Memory Cards on Other

Systems
You can access a PCMCIA memory card on another system by mounting it manually
into your file system—provided the other system has shared its PCMCIA memory
card drive according to the instructions in “How to Make Local PCMCIA Memory
Cards Available to Other Systems” on page 235.

1. Select an existing directory to serve as the mount point or create one.

$ mkdir directory

directory The name of the directory that you create to serve as a

mount point for the other system’s PCMCIA memory
card.

2. Find the name of the PCMCIA memory card you want to mount.
When you manually mount a remote PCMCIA memory card, you cannot use the
pcmem0 or floppy1 variables available with your local PCMCIA memory cards.
You must use the exact PCMCIA memory card name. To find it, use the ls
command on the remote system’s /pcmem directory. If the automounter is
running, you can simply cd to the system whose PCMCIA memory card you

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards From the Command Line (Tasks) 233
 want to mount and then use the ls command. If the automounter is not running,
you’ll have to use another method, such as logging in remotely.

3. As superuser, mount the PCMCIA memory card.

# mount -F nfs system-name:/pcmem/PCMCIAmemory-card-name local-mount-point

system-name The name of the system whose PCMCIA memory card

you want to mount.

PCMCIAmemory-card-name The name of the PCMCIA memory card you want to

mount.

local-mount-point The local directory onto which you will mount the
remote PCMCIA memory card.

4. Log out as superuser.

5. Verify that the PCMCIA memory card is indeed mounted by using the ls
command to list the contents of the mount point.

$ ls /pcmem

Example—Accessing PCMCIA Memory Cards on Other

Systems
This example mounts the PCMCIA memory card named myfiles from the remote
system mars onto the /pcmem directory of the local system.

$ cd /net/mars
$ ls /pcmem
pcmem0 myfiles
$ su
Password: password
# mount -F nfs mars:/pcmem/myfiles /pcmem
# exit
$ ls /pcmem
myfiles

234 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How to Make Local PCMCIA Memory Cards
Available to Other Systems
You can configure your system to share its PCMCIA memory cards; in other words,
you can make any PCMCIA memory cards in those drives available to other systems.
Once your PCMCIA memory card drives are shared, other systems can access the
PCMCIA memory cards they contain simply by mounting them, as described in
“How to Access PCMCIA Memory Cards on Other Systems” on page 233.
1. Become superuser.

2. Find out whether the NFS daemon (nfsd) is running.

# ps -ef | grep nfsd

root 14533 1 17 10:46:55 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd -a 16
root 14656 289 7 14:06:02 pts/3 0:00 grep nfsd

If the daemon is running, a line for /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd will appear, as shown

above. If the daemon is not running, only the grep nfsd line will appear.

3. Select an option from the following table.

If ... Then ...

nfsd is running Go to Step 8 on page 236

nfsd is not running Continue with Step 4 on page 235

4. Create a dummy directory for nfsd to share.

# mkdir /dummy-dir

dummy-dir Can be any directory name; for example, dummy. This

directory will not contain any files. Its only purpose is
to “wake up” the NFS daemon so that it notices your
shared PCMCIA memory cards.

5. Add the following entry into the /etc/dfs/dfstab file.

share -F nfs -o ro [-d comment] /dummy-dir

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards From the Command Line (Tasks) 235
 When you start the NFS daemon, it will see this entry, “wake up,” and notice the
shared PCMCIA memory card drive. Note that the comment (preceded by −d) is
optional.

6. Start the NFS daemon.

# /etc/init.d/nfs.server start

7. Verify that the NFS daemon is indeed running.

# ps -ef | grep nfsd

root 14533 1 17 10:46:55 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd -a 16
root 14656 289 7 14:06:02 pts/3 0:00 grep nfsd

8. Eject any PCMCIA memory card currently in the drive.

# eject pcmem0

9. Assign write permissions to /etc/rmmount.conf.

# chmod 644 /etc/rmmount.conf

10. Add the following lines to /etc/rmmount.conf.

# File System Sharing

share floppy*

These lines share any PCMCIA memory card loaded into your system’s PCMCIA
memory card drives.

11. Remove write permissions from /etc/rmmount.conf.

# chmod 444 /etc/rmmount.conf

This step returns the file to its default permissions.

12. Load a PCMCIA memory card.

236 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 ---Insert the PCMCIA memory card---
# volcheck -v
media was found

The PCMCIA memory card you now load, and all subsequent PCMCIA memory
cards, will be available to other systems. To access the PCMCIA memory card, the
remote user must mount it by name, according to the instructions in “How to
Access PCMCIA Memory Cards on Other Systems” on page 233.

13. Verify that the PCMCIA memory card is indeed available to other systems by
using the share command.
If the PCMCIA memory card is available, its share configuration will be
displayed. (The shared dummy directory will also be displayed.)

# share
- /dummy ro "dummy dir to wake up NFS daemon"
- /myfiles rw ""

Example—Making Local PCMCIA Memory Cards Available to

Other Systems
The following example makes any PCMCIA memory card loaded into the local
system’s PCMCIA memory card drive available to other systems on the network.

# ps -ef | grep nfsd

root 10127 9986 0 08:25:01 pts/2 0:00 grep nfsd
root 10118 1 0 08:24:39 ? 0:00 /usr/lib/nfs/nfsd -a
# mkdir /dummy
# vi /etc/dfs/dfstab
(Add the following line:)
share -F nfs -o ro /dummy
# eject pcmem0
# chmod 644 /etc/rmmount.conf
# vi /etc/rmmount
(Add the following line to the File System Sharing section:)
share floppy*
# chmod 444 /etc/rmmount.conf
(Load a PCMCIA memory card.)
# volcheck -v
media was found
# share
- /dummy ro ""

(continued)

Using PCMCIA Memory Cards From the Command Line (Tasks) 237
 (Continuation)

- /pcmem/myfiles rw ""

238 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 18

How Volume Management Works

(Reference)

This chapter describes the mount points and symbolic links that Volume
Management creates to accommodate removable media.
This is a list of reference information in this chapter.
4 “Volume Management Mounts All Removable Media” on page 239
4 “Volume Management Provides Access to Diskettes” on page 240
4 “Volume Management Provides Access to CDs” on page 241
4 “Volume Management Supplies Convenient Mount Points for Easier Access ” on
page 242
4 “Volume Management Creates Two Sets of Symbolic Links” on page 244
4 “Volume Management Can Be Limited by UFS Formats” on page 245

Volume Management Mounts All

Removable Media
Volume Management provides access to all CD-ROM and diskette drives under
/vol/dev:

239
 /vol/dev

All CD-ROM and diskette drives can

be accessed through this directory

Volume Management Provides Access to

Diskettes
Volume Management provides access to a system’s diskette drive through
subdirectories of /vol/dev; namely, diskette0 and rdiskette0.
/vol/dev
Disk Drive

diskette0 rdiskette0

If a system has a second diskette drive, Volume Management creates a second pair of
directories named diskette1 and rdiskette1. For a third diskette drive, it would
create diskette2 and rdiskette2; and so on for additional drives.
The diskette directories provide access to file systems, and the rdiskette
directories provide access to raw characters. The diskettes themselves appear in
subdirectories beneath the drive directories. (In this and subsequent illustrations,
some nodes are "grayed out" to draw attention to the other nodes. There is no
structural significance to this convention; it is simply a means of highlighting.)

240 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Disk Drive /vol/dev

diskette0 rdiskette0

diskette-name diskette-name

Diskette

Volume Management Provides Access to

CDs
The arrangement for CDs is similar, except that the block and raw directories are
labelled /dsk and /rdsk, respectively, and the CD-ROM device is actually located
one directory beneath them.
/vol/dev

dsk rdsk
CD-ROM Drive

c0t6 c0t6

In the illustration above, the additional directory is named c0t6. That simply reflects
a particular system’s device naming conventions. The directory name on your system
could be different, though it would have the same format.
The CDs themselves, however, follow a convention similar to diskettes, in that they
are mounted beneath the directory belonging to their device:

How Volume Management Works (Reference) 241

 /vol/dev

dsk rdsk
CD-ROM Drive

c0t6 c0t6

CD-name /CD-name

CD

As a result of this arrangement, a system with one diskette drive and one CD-ROM
drive would have the following /vol/dev file system:
/vol/dev

diskette0 rdiskette0 dsk rdsk

(Actually, /vol/dev includes an additional subdirectory named aliases, but that
is described later in this section.)

Volume Management Supplies

Convenient Mount Points for Easier
Access
To make access more convenient, Volume Management uses two special mount
points, /floppy and /cdrom.
/

floppy cdrom

Volume Management mounts the /vol/dev/diskette0 and

/vol/dev/dsk/c0t6 directories onto /floppy and /cdrom:

242 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 /vol/dev

dsk

diskette0 c0t6

/
Mounted Mounted
for block access for block access

floppy cdrom

Disk Drive

CD-ROM

Because of these mount points, when you insert a diskette, you can access it under
/floppy/diskette-name. Likewise, when you insert a CD, you can access it under
/cdrom/cd-name.
/

floppy cdrom

diskette-name cd-name

However, these mount points depend on proper formatting. If a diskette is

formatted, the mount succeeds, but if it is unformatted, the mount fails and the
diskette is only available under /vol/dev/diskette0. You can format diskettes
according to the instructions in “How to Format a UFS Diskette” on page 197 or
“How to Format a DOS Diskette” on page 201.
If a system has multiple drives, they are mounted onto parallel directories such as
/floppy/floppy0, /floppy/floppy1, /cdrom/cdrom0, etc.

How Volume Management Works (Reference) 243

 Volume Management Creates Two Sets
of Symbolic Links
As an additional convenience, Volume Management creates two separate sets of
symbolic links:
4 One for file system access
4 One for raw device access

Symbolic Links for File System Access

The symbolic links for file system access simply link the directories
/floppy/floppy0 and /cdrom/cdrom0 to the diskette inserted into the first
diskette drive and the CD inserted into the first CD-ROM drive:
/floppy/floppy0 --> /floppy/name --> /vol/dev/diskette0/name
/cdrom/cdrom0 --> /cdrom/cd-name --> /vol/dev/dsk/c0t6d0/cd-name
These links enable you to access floppies and CDs without knowing their names.
You can use the link names, floppy0 or cdrom0, instead.
Diskettes and CDs inserted into subsequent drives would follow the naming
conventions summarized in Table 14–3.

Symbolic Links for Raw Device Access

To make raw device access more convenient, Volume Management creates the
aliases directory, under /vol/dev:
/vol/dev

aliases rdiskette0 rdsk

Beneath the aliases directory, Volume Management creates a set of symbolic links
similar to those used for block access. In other words, for character access, these
directories are equivalent:
/vol/dev/aliases/floppy0 --> /vol/dev/rdiskette0/diskette-name
/vol/dev/aliases/cdrom0 --> /vol/dev/rdsk/c0t6d0/cd-name

244 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Like the symbolic links for file system access, the purpose of these links is to enable
you to access a raw-character diskette or CD without knowing its name; in other
words, by using the /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0 and
/vol/dev/aliases/cdrom0 link names.
The example above shows only one symbolic link for diskettes and one for CDs. If
your system had two diskettes or two CDs, there would be one symbolic link for
each:
/vol/dev/aliases

floppy0 floppy1 cdrom0 cdrom1

Volume Management Can Be Limited

by UFS Formats
UFS formats are not portable between architectures, so they must be used on the
architecture for which they were formatted. For instance, a UFS CD formatted for a
SPARC platform cannot be recognized by an IA platform. Likewise, an IA UFS CD
cannot be mounted by Volume Management on a SPARC platform. The same
limitation applies to diskettes. (Actually, some architectures share the same bit
structure, so occasionally a UFS format specific to one architecture will be recognized
by another architecture, but the UFS file system structure was not designed to
guarantee this compatibility).
Therefore, Volume Management cannot recognize and mount IA UFS media on a
SPARC platform—or SPARC UFS media on an IA platform.
Most CDs are formatted according to the ISO 9660 standard (High Sierra File
System—HSFS), which imposes no limitations on Volume Management, so
incompatibility is seldom a problem with CDs.
With diskettes, UFS incompatibility can occur more often because formats can be
established by the user. Be aware that if you format a UFS diskette on one
architecture, you won’t be able to use it on a different architecture. (For instructions,
see “How to Format a UFS Diskette” on page 197).

What About Mixed Formats?

Some CDs, particularly installation CDs, contain mixed formats; that is, part UFS,
part ISO 9660. To accommodate the different formats, the CD is split into slices,

How Volume Management Works (Reference) 245

 which are similar in effect to partitions on hard disks. The 9660 portion is portable,
but the UFS portion is architecture-specific. Furthermore, to make the CD usable by
several different architectures (as in the case of installation, when different PROM
architectures might be used to boot the system), more than one UFS format is loaded
onto the CD:

Slice 0
UFS — SPARC

UFS — x86 Slice 1

IS0 9660 Slice 2

When Volume Management encounters this arrangement, it simply ignores the UFS
formats not specific to the local system’s architecture and mounts the appropriate
UFS slice and the ISO 9660 slice:
/vol/dev

CD-ROM Drive dsk

c0t6

CD-name

CD
S0 S2
UFS—SPA
IS0 9660

These slices appear as subdirectories both under /vol/dev/dsk/c0t6 and

/cdrom/cdrom0:

$ ls /cdrom/cdrom0
S0 S2
$ ls /vol/dev/dsk/c0t6
S0 S2

246 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 19

Managing Software Topics

This section provides instructions for managing Solaris software packages and
patches. This section contains these chapters.

Provides overview information about adding and removing

Chapter 20
software products in the Solaris operating environment.

Provides step-by-step instructions for installing and removing

Chapter 21
software packages on different client types.

Provides overview information and step-by-step instructions

Chapter 22
about adding and removing patches in the Solaris operating
environment.

247
248 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 20

Software Administration (Overview)

Software administration involves adding and removing software from standalone

systems, servers, and their clients. This chapter describes background and other
useful information about installing and managing software. This chapter does not
describe installing the Solaris software, which has its own installation and setup
procedures.
This is a list of the overview information in this chapter.
4 “Where to Find Software Administration Tasks” on page 249
4 “Overview of Software Packages” on page 250
4 “Tools for Managing Software” on page 251
4 “What Happens When You Add or Remove a Package” on page 252
4 “What You Should Know Before Adding or Removing Packages” on page 253
4 “Guidelines for Client Software Administration” on page 253
4 “Guidelines for Removing Packages” on page 253
4 “Avoiding User Interaction When Adding Packages” on page 254

Where to Find Software Administration

Tasks
Use this table to find step-by-step instructions for administering software.

249
 For Information On ... See ...

Installing Solaris software

Solaris 8 (SPARC Platform Edition) Installation
Guide or Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Installation
Guide

Adding or removing Solaris

Chapter 21
software packages after installation

Adding or removing Solaris patches

Chapter 22
after installation

Troubleshooting software
administration problems “Troubleshooting Software Administration
Problems” in System Administration Guide, Volume 2

What’s New in Software Management?

This Solaris release includes a new software management tool, Solaris Product
Registry. Once the Solaris 8 release is installed, Product Registry provides a list of all
software installed using Solaris Web Start 3.0 or the Solaris package management
commands. To view the Product Registry, type /usr/bin/prodreg at the command
line.

See “Adding and Removing Software With the Product Registry” in Solaris 8
(SPARC Platform Edition) Installation Guide or “Adding and Removing Software
After Installing Solaris 8” in Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Installation Guide for
more information.

Overview of Software Packages

Software administration involves installing or removing software products. Sun and
its third-party vendors deliver products in a form called a software package. (The
term packaging generically refers to the method for distributing and installing
software products to systems where the products will be used.) In its simplest form,
you can think of a package as a collection of files and directories in a defined format.
This format conforms to the Application Binary Interface (ABI), which is a
supplement to the System V Interface Definition. The Solaris operating environment

250 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

provides a set of utilities that interpret this format and provide the means to install
or remove a package or to verify its installation.

Tools for Managing Software

There are three tools for adding and removing software from a system after the
Solaris release is installed on a system:

This Tool Enables You To Add,

Remove, And Display Package
Information... And You Can ...

Package commands (pkgadd, pkgrm, Incorporate these commands into scripts, set up
pkginfo) optional files to avoid user interaction or perform
special checks, and copy software packages to
spool directories. If you’re already familiar with
adding and removing packages with these
commands, it’s probably easiest for you to
continue using them.

Admintool View the online help that provides general

information on using this graphical interface tool.
If you’re unfamiliar with software package
naming conventions, you’re uncomfortable using
command line options, and you’re managing
software only on one system at time, it’s probably
easiest for you to use Admintool to add and
remove software.

Solaris Product Registry Launch an installer to add products.

The table below describes the advantages of using Admintool rather than the
pkgadd and pkgrm commands to manage software.

TABLE 20–1 Admintool Software Management Capabilities

Software Management Tasks Performed With Admintool?

Add and remove packages on standalone or Yes

server systems

Easily view all installed software Yes

Software Administration (Overview) 251

 TABLE 20–1 Admintool Software Management Capabilities (continued)

Software Management Tasks Performed With Admintool?

Easily view and select packages from an Yes

installation media

Add packages to a spool directory No

Eliminate user interaction by using an No

administration file

In previous Solaris releases, Software Manager (accessed with the swmtool

command) was the graphical tool for adding and removing software. If you use the
swmtool command on a Solaris 2.5 or compatible system, it will start Admintool.

What Happens When You Add or

Remove a Package
The pkgadd and pkgrm commands or Admintool are used to add and remove
software. Admintool is a graphical front-end to the pkgadd and pkgrm commands.
When you add a package, the pkgadd command uncompresses and copies files from
the installation media to a local system’s disk. When you remove a package, the
pkgrm command deletes all files associated with that package, unless those files are
also shared with other packages.
Package files are delivered in package format and are unusable as they are delivered.
The pkgadd command interprets the software package’s control files, and then
uncompresses and installs the product files onto the system’s local disk.
Although the pkgadd and pkgrm commands do not log their output to a standard
location, they do keep track of the product installed or removed. The pkgadd and
pkgrm commands store information about a package that has been installed or
removed in a software product database.
By updating this database, the pkgadd and pkgrm commands keep a record of all
software products installed on the system.

252 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

What You Should Know Before Adding
or Removing Packages
Before installing or removing packages on your system, you should know:

4 Package naming conventions – Sun packages always begin with the prefix SUNW,
as in SUNWvolr, SUNWadmap, and SUNWab2m. Third-party packages usually begin
with a prefix that corresponds to the company’s stock symbol.

4 What software is already installed – You can use the product registry, Admintool,
or the pkginfo command to determine the software already installed on a
system.

4 How servers and clients share software – Clients might have software that resides
partially on a server and partially on the client. If this is the case, adding software
for the client requires adding packages to both the server and the client. (The
section below describes in more detail how to manage client software.)

Guidelines for Client Software

Administration
Managing software on a standalone system is fairly straightforward, after you’re
familiar with the package installation tools and conventions. You install the software
package on a system’s local disk and that software is then available for use.
However, managing software on client systems can be more difficult—especially
when the software resides partially on the server and partially on the client. (For
example, a piece of software might have a package with files that are installed on the
client’s root file system and a package with files that are installed on the /usr file
system, which the client typically mounts from a server.)

Guidelines for Removing Packages

Because the pkgadd and pkgrm commands update information in a software
products database, it is important when you remove a package to use the pkgrm
command—even though you might be tempted to use the rm command instead. For
example, you could use the rm command to remove a binary executable file, but that
is not the same as using pkgrm to remove the software package that includes that

Software Administration (Overview) 253

 binary executable. Using the rm command to remove a package’s files will corrupt
the software products database. (If you really only want to remove one file, you can
use the removef command, which will update the software product database
correctly. See removef(1M) for more information.)

If you intend to keep multiple versions of a package (for example, multiple versions
of a document processing application), install new versions into a different directory
than the already installed package. The directory where a package is installed is
referred to as the base directory, and you can manipulate the base directory by
setting the basedir keyword in a special file called an administration file. See
“Avoiding User Interaction When Adding Packages” on page 254 and admin(4) for
more information on use of an administration file and setting the base directory.

Note - If you use the upgrade option when installing the Solaris software, the Solaris
installation software consults the software product database to determine the
products already installed on the system.

Avoiding User Interaction When

Adding Packages
Using an Administration File
When you use the pkgadd -a command, the pkgadd command consults a special
administration file for information about how the installation should proceed.
Normally, pkgadd performs several checks and prompts the user for confirmation
before actually adding the specified package. You can, however, create an
administration file that indicates to pkgadd it should bypass these checks and install
the package without user confirmation.

The pkgadd command, by default, looks in the current working directory for an
administration file. If pkgadd doesn’t find an administration file in the current
working directory, pkgadd looks in the /var/sadm/install/admin directory for
the specified administration file. The pkgadd command also accepts an absolute path
to the administration file.

Caution - Use administration files judiciously. You should know where a package’s
files are installed and how a package’s installation scripts run before using an
administration file to avoid the checks and prompts pkgadd normally provides.

This is an example of an administration file that will prevent pkgadd from

prompting the user for confirmation before installing the package.

254 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 mail=
instance=overwrite
partial=nocheck
runlevel=nocheck
idepend=nocheck
rdepend=nocheck
space=nocheck
setuid=nocheck
conflict=nocheck
action=nocheck
basedir=default

Besides using administration files to avoid user interaction when adding packages,
you can use them in several other ways. For example, you can use an administration
file to quit a package installation (without user interaction) if there’s an error or to
avoid interaction when removing packages with the pkgrm command.
You can also assign a special installation directory for a package. (It would make
sense to do this if you wanted to maintain multiple versions of a package on a
system.) To do this, set an alternate base directory in the administration file (using
the basedir keyword), which specifies where the package will be installed. See
admin(4) for more information.

Using a Response File

A response file contains your answers to specific questions asked by an
interactive package. An interactive package includes a request script that asks you
questions prior to package installation, such as whether or not optional pieces of the
package should be installed.
If you know that the package you want to install is an interactive package, prior to
installation, and you want to store your answers to prevent user interaction during
future installations of this package, you can use the pkgask command to save your
response. See pkgask(1M) for more information on this command.
Once you have stored your responses to the questions asked by the request script,
you can use the pkgadd -r command to install the package without user interaction.

Software Administration (Overview) 255

256 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 21

Software Administration (Tasks)

This chapter describes how to install, remove, and administer software packages
with Solaris commands and the Admintool graphical interface.
This is a list of step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “How to Add Packages to a Standalone System” on page 258
4 “How to Add a Package to a Spool Directory” on page 261
4 “How to Check the Integrity of an Installed Package” on page 264
4 “How to List Information About All Installed Packages” on page 263
4 “How to Display Detailed Information About a Package” on page 265
4 “How to Remove a Package” on page 266
4 “How to Remove a Spooled Package” on page 267
4 “How to Add Packages With Admintool” on page 267
4 “How to Remove Packages With Admintool” on page 269

Commands for Handling Software

Packages
The table below shows commands to use for adding, removing, and checking the
installation of software packages after the Solaris release is installed.

257
 TABLE 21–1 Commands for Adding and Removing Packages

Command Description

prodreg.1 Installs a software package with an installer

Installs a software package

pkgadd(1M)

Removes a software package

pkgrm(1M)

Checks the installation of a software package

pkgchk(1M)

Lists software package information

pkginfo(1)

Displays software package parameter values

pkgparam(1)

Known Problem With Adding and

Removing Packages
There is a known problem with adding or removing some packages developed
before the Solaris 2.5 release. If adding or removing a package fails during user
interaction, or if you are prompted for user interaction and your responses are
ignored, set the following environment variable:

NONABI_SCRIPTS=TRUE

Adding Packages
How to Add Packages to a Standalone System
1. Log in as superuser.

2. Remove any already installed packages with the same names as the ones you
are adding.

258 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 This ensures that the system keeps a proper record of software that has been
added and removed. There might be times when you want to maintain multiple
versions of the same application on the system. For strategies on how to do this,
see “Guidelines for Removing Packages” on page 253, and for task information,
see “How to Remove a Package” on page 266.

3. Add a software package to the system.

# pkgadd -a admin-file-d device-name pkgid ...

(Optional) Specifies an administration file pkgadd

−a admin-file
should consult during the installation. (For details
about using an administration file, see “Using an
Administration File” on page 254 in the previous
chapter.)

Specifies the absolute path to the software packages.

−d device-name
device-name can be the path to a device, a directory, or a
spool directory. If you do not specify the path where
the package resides, the pkgadd command checks the
default spool directory (/var/spool/pkg). If the
package is not there, the package installation fails.

pkgid (Optional) Is the name of one or more packages

(separated by spaces) to be installed. If omitted, the
pkgadd command installs all available packages.

If pkgadd encounters a problem during installation of the package, it displays a

message related to the problem, followed by this prompt:

Do you want to continue with this installation?

Respond with yes, no, or quit. If more than one package has been specified,
type no to stop the installation of the package being installed. pkgadd continues
to install the other packages. Type quit to stop the installation.

4. Verify that the package has been installed successfully, using the pkgchk
command.

# pkgchk -v pkgid

If pkgchk determines there are no errors, it returns a list of installed files.

Otherwise, it reports the error.

Software Administration (Tasks) 259

 Example—Installing Software From a Mounted CD
The following example shows a command to install the SUNWaudio package from a
mounted Solaris 8 CD. The example also shows use of the pkgchk command to
verify that the package files were installed properly.

# pkgadd -d /cdrom/sol_8_sparc/s0/Solaris_8/Product SUNWaudio

.
.
.
Installation of <SUNWaudio> was successful.
# pkgchk -v SUNWaudio
/usr
/usr/bin
/usr/bin/audioconvert
/usr/bin/audioplay
/usr/bin/audiorecord

Example—Installing Software From a Remote Package Server

If the packages you want to install are available from a remote system, you can
manually mount the directory containing the packages (in package format) and
install packages on the local system. The following example shows the commands to
do this. In this example, assume the remote system named package-server has
software packages in the /latest-packages directory. The mount command
mounts the packages locally on /mnt, and the pkgadd command installs the
SUNWaudio package.

# mount -F nfs -o ro package-server:/latest-packages /mnt

# pkgadd -d /mnt SUNWaudio
.
.
.
Installation of <SUNWaudio> was successful.

If the automounter is running at your site, you do not need to mount the remote
package server manually. Instead, use the automounter path (in this case,
/net/package-server/latest-packages) as the argument to the -d option.

# pkgadd -d /net/package-server/latest-packages SUNWaudio

.
.
.
Installation of <SUNWaudio> was successful.

The following example is similar to the previous one, except it uses the -a option
and specifies an administration file named noask-pkgadd, which is illustrated in
“Avoiding User Interaction When Adding Packages” on page 254. In this example,

260 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

assume the noask-pkgadd administration file is in the default location,
/var/sadm/install/admin.

# pkgadd -a noask-pkgadd -d /net/package-server/latest-packages SUNWaudio

.
.
.
Installation of <SUNWaudio> was successful.

Using a Spool Directory

For convenience, you can copy frequently installed packages to a spool directory. If
you copy packages to the default spool directory, /var/spool/pkg, you do not
need to specify the source location of the package (−d device-name argument) when
using the pkgadd command. The pkgadd command, by default, looks in the
/var/spool/pkg directory for any packages specified on the command line. Note
that copying packages to a spool directory is not the same as installing the packages
on a system.

How to Add a Package to a Spool Directory

1. Log in as superuser to the server or standalone system.

2. Remove any already spooled packages with the same names as the ones you
are adding.
For information on removing spooled packages, see “How to Remove a Spooled
Package” on page 267.

3. Add a software package to a spool directory.

# pkgadd -d device-name -s spooldir pkgid ...

Software Administration (Tasks) 261

 Specifies the absolute path to the software packages.
−d device-name
device-name can be the path to a device, a directory, or a
spool directory.

Specifies the name of the spool directory where the

−s spooldir
package will be spooled. You must specify a spooldir.

pkgid (Optional) Is the name of one or more packages

(separated by spaces) to be added to the spool directory.
If omitted, pkgadd copies all available packages.

4. Verify that the package has been copied successfully to the spool directory,
using the pkginfo command.

$ pkginfo -d spooldir| grep pkgid

If pkgid is copied correctly, the pkginfo command returns a line of information

about it. Otherwise, pkginfo returns the system prompt.

Example—Setting Up a Spool Directory From a Mounted CD

The following example shows a command to copy the SUNWaudio and SUNWab2m
packages from a mounted SPARC Solaris 8 CD to the default spool directory
(/var/spool/pkg).

# pkgadd -d /cdrom/sol_8_sparc/s0/Solaris_8/Product -s /var/spool/pkg SUNWaudio

Transferring <SUNWaudio> package instance

Example—Setting Up a Spool Directory From a Remote

Package Server
If packages you want to copy are available from a remote system, you can manually
mount the directory containing the packages (in package format) and copy them to a
local spool directory. The following example shows the commands to do this. In the
following example, assume the remote system named package-server has
software packages in the /latest-packages directory. The mount command
mounts the package directory locally on /mnt, and the pkgadd command copies the
SUNWman package from /mnt to the default spool directory (/var/spool/pkg).

# mount -F nfs -o ro package-server:/latest-packages /mnt

# pkgadd -d /mnt -s /var/spool/pkg SUNWman
Transferring <SUNWman> package instance

262 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

If the automounter is running at your site, you do not have to mount the remote
package server manually. Instead, use the automounter path (in this case,
/net/package-server/latest-packages) as the argument to the −d option.

# pkgadd -d /net/package-server/latest-packages -s /var/spool/pkg SUNWman

Transferring <SUNWman> package instance

Example—Installing a Package From the Default Spool

Directory
The following example shows a command to install the SUNWman package from the
default spool directory. (When no options are used with pkgadd, it searches
/var/spool/pkg for the named packages.)

# pkgadd SUNWman
.
.
.
Installation of <SUNWman> was successful.

Checking the Installation of Packages

You use the pkgchk command to check installation completeness, path name, file
contents, and file attributes of a package. See pkgchk(1M) for more information on
all the options.

Use the pkginfo command to display information about the packages that are
installed on the system.

How to List Information About All Installed

Packages
List information about installed packages with the pkginfo command.

$ pkginfo

Example—Listing All Packages Installed

The following example shows the pkginfo command to list all packages installed
on a local system, whether that system is a standalone or server. The output shows
the primary category, package name, and a description of the package.

Software Administration (Tasks) 263

 $ pkginfo
system SUNWaccr System Accounting, (Root)
system SUNWaccu System Accounting, (Usr)
system SUNWadmap System administration applications
system SUNWadmc System administration core libraries
.
.
.

How to Check the Integrity of an Installed Package

1. Log in to a system as superuser.

2. Check the status of an installed package with the pkgchk command.

# pkgchk [ -a -c -v ] pkgid ...

# pkgchk -dspooldir pkgid ...

Specifies to audit only the file attributes (that is, the

−a
permissions), rather than the file attributes and contents, which
is the default for pkgchk.

Specifies to audit only the file contents, rather than the file
−c
contents and attributes, which is the default for pkgchk.

Specifies verbose mode, which displays file names as pkgchk

−v
processes them.

Specifies the absolute path of the spool directory.

−d spooldir

pkgid (Optional) Is the name of one or more packages (separated by

spaces). If you do not specify a pkgid, pkgchk checks all the
software packages installed on the system. If omitted, pkgchk
displays all available packages.

Example—Checking the Contents of an Installed Package

The following example shows how to check the contents of a package.

# pkgchk -c SUNWadmfw

264 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

If pkgchk determines there are no errors, it returns the system prompt. Otherwise, it
reports the error.

Example—Checking the File Attributes of an Installed Package

The following example shows how to check the file attributes of a package.

# pkgchk -a SUNWadmfw

If pkgchk determines there are no errors, it returns the system prompt. Otherwise, it
reports the error.

Example—Checking Packages Installed in a Spool Directory

The following example shows how to check a software package copied to a spool
directory (/export/install/packages).

# pkgchk -d /export/install/packages
## checking spooled package <SUNWadmap>
## checking spooled package <SUNWadmfw>
## checking spooled package <SUNWadmc>
## checking spooled package <SUNWsadml>

Note - The checks made on a spooled package are limited because not all
information can be audited until a package is installed.

How to Display Detailed Information About a

Package
List information about installed packages with the pkginfo -l command.

$ pkginfo -l pkgid ...

Specifies to display output in long format, which includes

−l
all available information about the package.

pkgid (Optional) Is the name of one or more packages

(separated by spaces). If omitted, pkginfo displays
information about all available packages.

Software Administration (Tasks) 265

 Example—Displaying Detailed Information About a Package
$ pkginfo -l SUNWcar
PKGINST: SUNWcar
NAME: Core Architecture, (Root)
CATEGORY: system
ARCH: sparc.sun4u
VERSION: 11.8.0,REV=1999.09.18.11.52
BASEDIR: /
VENDOR: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
DESC: core software for a specific hardware platform group
PSTAMP: humbolt19990821191439
INSTDATE: Sep 18 1999 11:53
HOTLINE: Please contact your local service provider
STATUS: completely installed
FILES: 95 installed pathnames
31 shared pathnames
35 directories
49 executables
11307 blocks used (approx)

Removing Packages From Servers and

Standalone Systems
Caution - Always use the pkgrm command to remove installed packages. Do not
use the rm command, which will corrupt the system’s record-keeping of installed
packages.

How to Remove a Package

1. Log in to the system as superuser.

2. Remove an installed package.

# pkgrm pkgid ...

pkgid (Optional) Is the name of one or more packages (separated

by spaces). If omitted, pkgrm removes all available packages.

266 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How to Remove a Spooled Package
1. Log in as superuser.

2. Remove a package from a spool directory with the pkgrm -s command.

# pkgrm -s spooldir pkgid ...

Specifies the name of the spool directory where the

−s spooldir
package was spooled.

pkgid (Optional) Is the name of one or more packages

(separated by spaces). If no pkgid is supplied, pkgrm
prompts the user to remove each package listed in the
spool directory. If omitted, pkgrm removes all available
packages.

Adding and Removing Packages Using

Admintool
The Solaris operating environment includes Admintool, which is a graphical user
interface for performing several administration tasks, including adding and
removing software packages. Specifically, you can use Admintool to:
4 Add software packages to a local system
4 Remove software packages from a local system
4 View software already installed on the local system
4 Customize software packages to be installed
4 Specify an alternate installation directory for a software package

How to Add Packages With Admintool

1. Log in to the installed system and become superuser.
At the shell prompt, type:

$ su

Software Administration (Tasks) 267

 Unless you are a member of the UNIX sysadmin group (group 14), you must
become superuser on your system to add or remove software packages with
Admintool.

2. Load a CD into the CD-ROM drive.

Volume Manager will automatically mount the CD.

3. Start Admintool.

# admintool &

The Users window is displayed.

4. Choose Software from the Browse menu.

The Software window is displayed.

5. Choose Add from the Edit menu.

The Set Source Media window might appear. If so, specify the path to the
installation media and click OK. The default path is a mounted SPARC Solaris CD.
The Add Software window is displayed.

6. Select the software you want to install on the local system.

In the Software portion of the window, click the check boxes corresponding to the
software you want to install.

268 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

7. Click Add.
A Command Tool window appears for each package being installed, displaying
the installation output.
The Software window refreshes to display the packages just added.

How to Remove Packages With Admintool

1. Log in to the installed system and become superuser.
At the shell prompt, type:

$ su

Unless you are a member of the UNIX sysadmin group (group 14), you must
become superuser on your system to add or remove software packages with
Admintool.

2. Start Admintool.

# admintool &

3. Choose Software from the Browse menu.

The Software window is displayed.

Software Administration (Tasks) 269

 4. Select the software you want to remove from the local system.

5. Choose Delete from the Edit menu.

A warning pop-up window is displayed to confirm whether you really want to
delete the software.

6. Click Delete to confirm that you want to remove the software.

For each package that is being deleted, a Command Tool window is displayed that
asks for confirmation, again, before deleting the software. Type y, n, or q. If you
choose to delete the software, the output from the removal process is displayed.

270 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 22

Patch Administration (Overview)

For the purpose of this discussion, patch administration involves installing or

removing Solaris patches from a running Solaris system. It might also involve
removing (called backing out) unwanted or faulty patches.
This is a list of the overview information in this chapter.
4 “What Is a Patch?” on page 271
4 “Tools For Managing Patches” on page 272
4 “Patch Distribution” on page 272
4 “Patch Numbering” on page 274
4 “What Happens When You Install a Patch” on page 274
4 “What Happens When You Remove a Patch” on page 275

What Is a Patch?
In its simplest form, you can think of a patch as a collection of files and directories
that replace or update existing files and directories that are preventing proper
execution of the software. The existing software is derived from a specified package
format, which conforms to the Application Binary Interface. (For details about
packages, see Chapter 20.)

271
 Tools For Managing Patches
There are two utilities for managing patches:
4 patchadd - use to install directory-format patches to a Solaris system.
4 patchrm - use to remove patches installed on a Solaris system. This command
restores the file system to its state before a patch was applied.
Detailed information about how to install and back out a patch is provided in
patchadd(1M) and patchrm(1M). Each patch also contains a README file that
contains specific information about the patch.
Before installing patches, you might want to know more about patches that have
previously been installed. The table below describes commands that provide useful
information about patches already installed on a system.

TABLE 22–1 Helpful Commands for Patch Administration

Command Function

showrev -p Shows all patches applied to a system.

pkgparam pkgid PATCHLIST Shows all patches applied to the package identified by
pkgid.

pkgparam pkgid PATCH_INFO_patch-number Shows the installation date and name of the host from
which the patch was applied. pkgid is the name of the
package: for example, SUNWadmap.

patchadd -R client_root_path −p Shows all patches applied to a client, from the server’s
console.

patchadd −p Shows all patches applied to a system.

Patch Distribution
All Sun customers can access security patches and other recommended patches via
the World Wide Web or anonymous ftp. Sun customers who have purchased a
service contract can access an extended set of patches and a complete database of

272 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

patch information. This information is available via the World Wide Web,
anonymous ftp, and it is regularly distributed on a CD-ROM (See the table below).

TABLE 22–2 Customer Patch Access Information

If You Are ... Then ...

A Sun Service customer You have access to the SunSolve database of patches and
patch information. These are available via the World Wide
Web or anonymous ftp, as described in “Patch Access Via
the World Wide Web” on page 273 and “Patch Access Via
ftp” on page 274.
These patches are updated nightly. You also receive a patch
CD-ROM every 6 to 8 weeks.

Not a Sun Service customer You have access to a general set of security patches and
other recommended patches. These are available via the
World Wide Web or anonymous ftp, as described in “Patch
Access Via the World Wide Web” on page 273 and “Patch
Access Via ftp” on page 274.

What You Need to Access Sun Patches

You can access Sun patches via the World Wide Web or anonymous ftp. If you have
purchased a Sun service contract, you will also be able to get patches from the patch
CD-ROM that is regularly distributed.
To access patches on the World Wide Web, you need a machine that is:
4 Connected to the Internet
4 Capable of running Web browsing software such as Netscape
To access patches via anonymous ftp, you need a machine that is:
4 Connected to the Internet
4 Capable of running the ftp program

Patch Access Via the World Wide Web

To access patches via the World Wide Web, use this uniform resource locator (URL):
http://www.sun.com
After reaching the Sun home page, click on the Sales and Service button and
navigate your way to the SunSolve patch database.

Patch Administration (Overview) 273

 The patch database for publicly available patches are labeled “Public patch access.”
The patch database for the comprehensive set of patches and patch information
available to contract customers is labeled “Contract customer patch access.” You will
be prompted for a password to access this contract customer database.
You can also access publicly available patches using this URL:
http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/sun-info/sun-patches/
Scroll to the bottom of this list to display the Solaris patch reports at this site.

Patch Access Via ftp

To access patches via ftp, you can use the ftp command to connect to either the
sunsolve1.sun.com (provided by Sun Service) or sunsite.unc.edu (maintained
by the University of North Carolina). When ftp prompts you for a login, enter
anonymous as the login name. Use your complete email address when prompted for
a password. After the connection is complete, you can find publicly available patches
in the /pubs/patches directory.

Note - To transfer patches, you will need to change the ftp transfer mode to binary.
To do this, enter bin at the ftp prompt.

Patch Numbering
Patches are identified by unique alphanumeric strings, with the patch base code first,
a hyphen, and a number that represents the patch revision number. For example,
patch 106925–02 is a SunOS 5.7 patch for the glm device driver.

What Happens When You Install a Patch

When you install a patch, the patchadd command calls the pkgadd command to
install the patch packages from the patch directory to a local system’s disk. More
specifically, patchadd:
4 Determines the Solaris version number of the managing host and the target host
4 Updates the patch package’s pkginfo file with information about patches
obsoleted by the patch being installed, other patches required by this patch, and
patches incompatible with this patch

274 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

During the patch installation, patchadd keeps a log of the patch installation in
/var/sadm/patch/patch-number/log for the Solaris 2.4 release and compatible
versions.
The patchadd command will not install a patch under the following conditions:
4 The package is not fully installed on the host
4 The patch packages architecture differs from the system’s architecture
4 The patch packages version does not match the installed package’s version
4 There is already an installed patch with the same base code and a higher version
number
4 The patch is incompatible with another, already installed patch. (Each installed
patch keeps this information in its pkginfo file)
4 The patch being installed requires another patch that is not installed

What Happens When You Remove a

Patch
When you back out a patch, the patchrm command restores all files modified by
that patch, unless:
4 The patch was installed with patchadd -d (which instructs patchadd not to
save copies of files being updated or replaced)
4 The patch has been obsoleted by a later patch
4 The patch is required by another patch
The patchrm command calls pkgadd to restore packages that were saved from the
initial patch installation.
During the patch removal process, patchrm keeps a log of the back out process in
/tmp/backoutlog.process_id. This log file is removed if the patch backs out
successfully.

Patch Administration (Overview) 275

276 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 23

Managing Devices Topics

This section provides instructions for managing devices in the Solaris environment.
This section contains these chapters.

Provides a high-level overview of device configuration.

Chapter 24

Provides step-by-step instructions for configuring devices.

Chapter 25

Provides an overview of device naming conventions and

Chapter 26
instructions for accessing devices.

277
278 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 24

Device Management (Overview)

The chapter provides overview information about managing peripheral devices in

the Solaris environment.
This is a list of overview information in this chapter.
4 “Where to Find Device Management Tasks” on page 281
4 “About Device Drivers” on page 281
4 “Automatic Configuration of Devices” on page 282
4 “Displaying Device Configuration Information” on page 283
For information about accessing devices, see Chapter 26.
Device management in the Solaris environment usually includes adding and
removing peripheral devices from systems, possibly adding a third-party device
driver to support a device, and displaying system configuration information.

What’s New in Device Management?

This section provides information about new Solaris 8 features related to device
management.

SCSI and PCI Hot-Plugging

The cfgadm command is updated in this release to provide SCSI and PCI
hot-plugging for supported SCSI and PCI controllers on SPARC based and IA based
systems.

279
 Hot plugging is the ability to physically add, remove, or replace system components
while the system is running. Dynamic reconfiguration, available on certain SPARC
servers, allows a service provider to remove and replace hot-pluggable system I/O
boards in a running system, eliminating the time lost in rebooting. Also, if a
replacement board is not immediately available, the system administrator can use
dynamic reconfiguration to shut down a failing board while allowing the system to
continue operation.
See your SPARC hardware manufacturer’s documentation for information about
whether dynamic reconfiguration is supported on your system. See the Solaris 8
(Intel Platform Edition) Hardware Compatibility List to verify whether your PCI
controller supports hot-plugging.
Chapter 25 describes how to use the cfgadm command to hot-plug SCSI or PCI
controllers.

Improved Device Configuration (devfsadm)

The devfsadm command manages the special device files in the /dev and
/devices directories. By default, devfsadm attempts to load every driver in the
system and attach to all possible device instances. Then it creates the device files in
the /devices directory and the logical links in the /dev directory. In addition to
managing the /dev and /devices directories, devfsadm also maintains the
path_to_inst(4) instance database.
In previous Solaris releases, device configuration was handled by drvconfig, which
managed the physical device entries in the /devices directory, and five link
generators, devlinks, disks, tapes, ports, and audlinks, which managed the
logical device entries in the /dev directory.
These utilities were not aware of hot-pluggable devices nor were they flexible
enough for devices with multiple instances. For compatibility purposes, drvconfig
and the other link generators are symbolic links to the devfsadm utility. See Chapter
25 for information about hot-pluggable devices.
Both reconfiguration boot processing and updating the /dev and /devices
directories in response to dynamic reconfiguration events is handled by devfsadmd,
the daemon version of the devfsadm command. This daemon is started from the
/etc/rc* scripts when a system is booted.
Since devfsadmd automatically detects device configuration changes generated by
any reconfiguration event, there is no need to run this command interactively.
See devfsadm(1M) for more information.

280 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Where to Find Device Management
Tasks
The following table describes where to find step-by-step procedures for adding serial
devices, such as printers and modems, and peripheral devices, such as a disk,
CD-ROM, or tape drive, to your system.

TABLE 24–1 Where to Find Instructions for Adding a Device

For Information On ... See the Following

Adding a disk
Chapter 30 or Chapter 31

Adding a CD-ROM or tape device

“How to Add a Peripheral Device” on page 290

Adding a modem
“Managing Terminals and Modems (Overview)” in
System Administration Guide, Volume 2

Adding a printer
“Print Management (Overview)” in System
Administration Guide, Volume 2

About Device Drivers

A computer typically uses a wide range of peripheral and mass-storage devices. Your
system, for example, probably has a SCSI disk drive, a keyboard and a mouse, and
some kind of magnetic backup medium. Other commonly used devices include
CD-ROM drives, printers and plotters, light pens, touch-sensitive screens, digitizers,
and tablet-and-stylus pairs.
The Solaris software does not directly communicate with all these devices. Each type
of device requires different data formats, protocols, and transmission rates.
A device driver is a low-level program that allows the operating system to
communicate with a specific piece of hardware. The driver serves as the operating
system’s “interpreter” for that piece of hardware.

Device Management (Overview) 281

 Automatic Configuration of Devices
The kernel, consisting of a small generic core with a platform-specific component
and a set of modules, is configured automatically in the Solaris environment.
A kernel module is a hardware or software component that is used to perform a
specific task on the system. An example of a loadable kernel module is a device driver
that is loaded when the device is accessed.
The platform-independent kernel is /kernel/genunix. The platform-specific
component is /platform/‘uname -m‘/kernel/unix.
The kernel modules are described in the following table.

TABLE 24–2 Description of Kernel Modules

Location This Directory Contains ...

/platform/‘uname -m‘ /kernel Platform-specific kernel components

/kernel Kernel components common to all platforms

that are needed for booting the system

/usr/kernel Kernel components common to all platforms

within a particular instruction set

The system determines what devices are attached to it at boot time. Then the kernel
configures itself dynamically, loading needed modules into memory. At this time,
device drivers are loaded when devices, such as disk and tape devices, are accessed
for the first time. This process is called autoconfiguration because all kernel modules
are loaded automatically when needed.
You can customize the way in which kernel modules are loaded by modifying the
/etc/system file. See system(4) for instructions on modifying this file.

Features and Benefits

The benefits of autoconfiguration are:
4 Main memory is used more efficiently because modules are loaded when needed.
4 There is no need to reconfigure the kernel when new devices are added to the
system.

282 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

4 Drivers can be loaded and tested without having to rebuild the kernel and reboot
the system.
The autoconfiguration process is used by a system administrator when adding a new
device (and driver) to the system. At this time, the administrator performs a
reconfiguration boot so the system will recognize the new device.

What You Need for Unsupported Devices

Device drivers needed to support a wide range of standard devices are included in
the Solaris environment. These drivers can be found in the /kernel/drv and
/platform/‘uname -m‘/kernel/drv directories.
However, if you’ve purchased an unsupported device, the manufacturer should
provide the software needed for the device to be properly installed, maintained, and
administered.
At a minimum, this software includes a device driver and its associated
configuration (.conf) file. The .conf files reside in the drv directories. In addition,
the device might be incompatible with Solaris utilities, and might require custom
maintenance and administrative utilities.
Contact your device manufacturer for more information.

Displaying Device Configuration

Information
Three commands are used to display system and device configuration information:

Displays system configuration information, including total

prtconf(1M) amount of memory and the device configuration as described
by the system’s device hierarchy. The output displayed by this
command depends upon the type of system.

Displays device configuration information including system

sysdef(1M) hardware, pseudo devices, loadable modules, and selected
kernel parameters.

Displays system diagnostic messages as well as a list of devices

dmesg(1M) attached to the system since the last reboot.

See “Device Naming Conventions” on page 312 for information on the device names
used to identify devices on the system.

Device Management (Overview) 283

 driver not attached Message
The following driver-related message might be displayed by the prtconf and
sysdef commands:

device, instance #number (driver not attached)

This message does not always mean that a driver is unavailable for this device. It
means that no driver is currently attached to the device instance because there is no
device at this node or the device is not in use. Drivers are loaded automatically
when the device is accessed and unloaded when the device is not in use.

Identifying a System’s Devices

Use the output of prtconf and sysdef commands to identify which disk, tape, and
CD-ROM devices are connected to the system. The output of these commands
display the driver not attached messages next to the device instances. Since
these devices are always being monitored by some system process, the driver not
attached message is usually a good indication that there is no device at that device
instance.
For example, the following prtconf output identifies a device at instance #3 and
instance #6, which is probably a disk device at target 3 and a CD-ROM device at
target 6 of the first SCSI host adapter (esp, instance #0).

$ /usr/sbin/prtconf
.
.
.

esp, instance #0
sd (driver not attached)
st (driver not attached)
sd, instance #0 (driver not attached)
sd, instance #1 (driver not attached)
sd, instance #2 (driver not attached)
sd, instance #3
sd, instance #4 (driver not attached)
sd, instance #5 (driver not attached)
sd, instance #6
.
.
.

The same device information can be gleaned from the sysdef output.

284 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How to Display System Configuration Information
Use the prtconf command to display system configuration information.

# /usr/sbin/prtconf

Use the sysdef command to display system configuration information including

pseudo devices, loadable modules, and selected kernel parameters.

# /usr/sbin/sysdef

Examples—Displaying System Configuration Information

The following prtconf output is displayed on a SPARC based system.

# prtconf
System Configuration: Sun Microsystems sun4u
Memory size: 128 Megabytes
System Peripherals (Software Nodes):
SUNW,Ultra-5_10
packages (driver not attached)
terminal-emulator (driver not attached)
deblocker (driver not attached)
obp-tftp (driver not attached)
disk-label (driver not attached)
SUNW,builtin-drivers (driver not attached)
sun-keyboard (driver not attached)
ufs-file-system (driver not attached)
chosen (driver not attached)
openprom (driver not attached)
client-services (driver not attached)
options, instance #0
aliases (driver not attached)
memory (driver not attached)
virtual-memory (driver not attached)
pci, instance #0
pci, instance #0
ebus, instance #0
auxio (driver not attached)
power, instance #0
SUNW,pll (driver not attached)
se, instance #0
su, instance #0
su, instance #1
ecpp (driver not attached)
fdthree, instance #0
.
.
.

The following sysdef output is displayed from an IA based system.

Device Management (Overview) 285

 # sysdef
* Hostid
*
29f10b4d
*
* i86pc Configuration
*
*
* Devices
*
+boot (driver not attached)
memory (driver not attached)
aliases (driver not attached)
chosen (driver not attached)
i86pc-memory (driver not attached)
i86pc-mmu (driver not attached)
openprom (driver not attached)
options, instance #0
packages (driver not attached)
delayed-writes (driver not attached)
itu-props (driver not attached)
isa, instance #0
motherboard (driver not attached)
pnpADP,1542, instance #0
asy, instance #0
asy, instance #1
lp, instance #0 (driver not attached)
fdc, instance #0
fd, instance #0
fd, instance #1 (driver not attached)
kd (driver not attached)
kdmouse (driver not attached)
.
.
.

How to Display Device Information

Display device information with the dmesg command.

# /usr/sbin/dmesg

The dmesg output is displayed as messages on the system console and identifies
which devices are connected to the system since the last reboot.

Examples—Displaying Device Information

The following dmesg output is displayed from a SPARC based system.

286 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

# dmesg
date starbug genunix: [ID 540533 kern.notice] SunOS Release
5.8 Generic 64-bit
date starbug genunix: [ID 223299 kern.notice] Copyright
(c) 1983-2000 by S
un Microsystems, Inc.
date starbug genunix: [ID 678236 kern.info] Ethernet address
= 8:0:20:a6:d
4:5b
date starbug genunix: [ID 897550 kern.info] Using default
device instance
data
date starbug unix: [ID 389951 kern.info] mem = 131072K
(0x8000000)
date starbug unix: [ID 930857 kern.info] avail mem = 121724928
date starbug rootnex: [ID 466748 kern.info] root nexus
= Sun Ultra 5/10 UP
A/PCI (UltraSPARC-IIi 333MHz)
.
.
.
#

The following dmesg output is displayed from an IA based system.

# dmesg
date naboo genunix: [ID 540533 kern.notice] SunOS Release
5.8 Version Generic 32-bit
date naboo genunix: [ID 223299 kern.notice] Copyright (c)
1983-2000 by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
date naboo genunix: [ID 897550 kern.info] Using default
device instance data
date naboo unix: [ID 168242 kern.info] mem = 32380K (0x1f9f000)
date naboo unix: [ID 930857 kern.info] avail mem = 19390464
date naboo rootnex: [ID 466748 kern.info] root nexus =
i86pc
date naboo rootnex: [ID 349649 kern.info] pci0 at root:
space 0 offset 0
date naboo genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] pci0 is /pci@0,0
date naboo genunix: [ID 678236 kern.info] Ethernet address
= 00:a0:24:89:b0:72
date naboo gld: [ID 944156 kern.info] elx0: 3COM EtherLink
III:
type "ether" mac address 00:a0:24:89:b0:72
date naboo pci: [ID 370704 kern.info] PCI-device: pci10b7,5950@c,
elx0
date naboo genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] elx0 is /pci@0,0/pci10b7,5950@c
.
.
.

Device Management (Overview) 287

288 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 25

Configuring Devices

The chapter provides instructions for configuration devices in the Solaris

environment.
This is a list of step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “How to Add a Peripheral Device” on page 290
4 “How to Add a Device Driver” on page 291
4 “How to Display Configuration Information for all Devices” on page 296
4 “How to Unconfigure a SCSI Controller” on page 297
4 “How to Configure a SCSI Controller” on page 298
4 “How to Configure a SCSI Device” on page 298
4 “How to Disconnect a SCSI Controller” on page 299
4 “SPARC: How to Add a SCSI Device to a SCSI Bus” on page 301
4 “SPARC: How to Replace an Identical Device on a SCSI Controller” on page 303
4 “SPARC: How to Remove a SCSI Device” on page 304
4 “IA: How to Display PCI Slot Configuration Information” on page 306
4 “IA: How to Remove a PCI Adapter Card” on page 307
4 “IA: How to Add a PCI Adapter Card” on page 308
For information about accessing devices, see Chapter 26.
Adding, removing, or replacing devices in the Solaris environment can be done
while the system is still running, if the system components support hot plugging, or
the system must be rebooted to reconfigure devices if the system components do not
support hot plugging.

289
 Adding a Peripheral Device to a System
Adding a new peripheral device usually involves:
4 Shutting down the system
4 Connecting the device to the system
4 Rebooting the system
Use the procedure below to add the following devices to a system:
4 CD-ROM
4 Secondary disk drive
4 Tape drive
4 SBUS card
In some cases, you might have to add a third-party device driver to support the new
device.

How to Add a Peripheral Device

1. Become superuser.

2. Follow steps 2 and 3 of “How to Add a Device Driver” on page 291 if you need
to add a device driver to support the device.

3. Create the /reconfigure file.

# touch /reconfigure

The /reconfigure file will cause the Solaris software to check for the presence
of any newly installed devices the next time you turn on or boot your system.

4. Shut down the system.

# shutdown -i0 -g30 -y

290 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 -i0 Brings the system to the 0 init state, which is the appropriate
state for turning the system power off for adding and
removing devices.

-g30 Shuts the system down in 30 seconds. The default is 60

seconds.

-y Continues the system shutdown without user intervention;

otherwise, you are prompted to continue the shutdown
process.

5. Turn off power to the system after it is shut down.

On SPARC based Platforms ... On Intel based Platforms ...

It is safe to turn off power if the ok or > It is safe to turn off power if the type any
prompt is displayed. key to continue prompt is displayed.

Refer to the hardware installation guide that accompanies your system for the
location of the power switch.

6. Turn off power to all external devices.

For location of power switches on any peripheral devices, refer to the hardware
installation guides that accompany your peripheral devices.

7. Install the peripheral device, making sure the device you are adding has a
different target number than the other devices on the system.
You often will find a small switch located at the back of the disk for this purpose.
Refer to the hardware installation guide that accompanies the peripheral device
for information on installing and connecting the device.

8. Turn on the power to the system.

The system will boot to multiuser mode and the login prompt will be displayed.

9. Verify that the peripheral device has been added by attempting to access the
device. See Chapter 26 for information on accessing the device.

How to Add a Device Driver

This procedure assumes that the device has already been added to the system. If not,
see “Adding a Peripheral Device to a System” on page 290.

Configuring Devices 291

 1. Become superuser.

2. Place the tape, diskette, or CD-ROM into the drive.

3. Install the driver.

# pkgadd -d device package-name

Identifies the device path name.

−d device

package-name Identifies the package name that contains the device

driver.

4. Verify that the package has been added correctly by using the pkgchk
command. The system prompt returns with no response if the package is
installed correctly.

# pkgchk packagename
#

Example—Adding a Device Driver

The following example installs and verifies a package called XYZdrv.

# pkgadd XYZdrv
(licensing messages displayed)
.
.
.
Installing XYZ Company driver as <XYZdrv>
.
.
.
Installation of <XYZdrv> was successful.
# pkgchk XYZdrv
#

292 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Dynamic Reconfiguration and
Hot-Plugging
Hot-plugging is the ability to physically add, remove, or replace system components
while the system is running. Dynamic reconfiguration refers to the ability to hot-plug
system components and also the general ability to move system resources—both
hardware and software—around in the system or disable them in some way without
physically removing them from the system.
In this Solaris release, you can hot-plug SCSI devices on SPARC and IA based
platforms and PCI adapter cards on IA based systems with the cfgadm command.
Features of the cfgadm command include:
4 Displaying system component status
4 Testing system components
4 Changing component configurations
4 Displaying configuration help messages
The benefit of using the cfgadm command to reconfigure systems components is
that you can add, remove, or replace components while the system is running. An
added benefit is that the cfgadm command guides you through the steps needed to
add, remove, or replace system components. See cfgadm(1M) and “SCSI Hot
Plugging With the cfgadm Command” on page 296 for step-by-step instructions on
hot-plugging SCSI components. See “IA: PCI Hot-Plugging With the cfgadm
Command” on page 306 for step-by-step instructions on hot-plugging PCI adapter
cards on IA based systems.

Note - Not all SCSI and PCI controllers support hot-plugging with the cfgadm
command. For a list of PCI hardware that supports hot-plugging, please refer to the
Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Hardware Compatibility List.

As part of Sun’s high availability strategy, this feature is expected to be used in

conjunction with additional layered products, such as alternate pathing or fail-over
software, which provide fault tolerance in the event of a device failure.
Without any high availability software, you can replace a failed device by manually
stopping the appropriate applications, unmounting non-critical file systems, and then
proceeding with the add or remove operations.

Attachment Points
The cfgadm displays information about attachment points, which are locations in the
system where dynamic reconfiguration operations can occur.

Configuring Devices 293

 An attachment point consists of:
4 An occupant, which represents a hardware resource that may be configured into
the system, and
4 A receptacle, which is the location that accepts the occupant.
Attachment points are represented by logical and physical attachment point IDs
(ap_ids). The physical ap_id is the physical pathname of the attachment point. The
logical ap_id is a user-friendly alternative for the physical ap_id. Refer to
cfgadm(1M) for more information on ap_ids.
The logical ap_id for a SCSI Host Bus Adapter (HBA), or SCSI controller, is usually
represented by the controller number, such as c0.
In cases where no controller number has been assigned to a SCSI HBA, then an
internally-generated unique identifier is provided. An example of a unique identifier
for a SCSI controller is:
fas1:scsi
The logical ap_id for a SCSI device usually looks like this:
HBA-logical-apid::device-identifier
In the example below, c0 is the logical ap_id for the SCSI HBA:
c0::dsk/c0t3d0
The device identifier is typically derived from the logical device name for the device
in the /dev directory. For example, a tape device with logical device name,
/dev/rmt/1, has the following logical ap_id:
c0::rmt/1
If a logical ap_id of a SCSI device cannot be derived from the logical name in the
/dev directory, then an internally-generated unique identifier is provided. An
example of an identifier for the tape device listed above is:
c0::st4
Refer to cfgadm_scsi(1M) for more information on SCSI ap_ids.
The cfgadm command represents all resources and dynamic reconfiguration
operations in terms of a common set of states (such as configured, unconfigured) and
set of operations (connect, configure, unconfigure, and so on). Refer to cfgadm(1M)
for more information on these generic states and operations.
The receptacle and occupant states for the SCSI HBA attachment points are:

294 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Receptacle State Description Occupant State Description

empty N/A to SCSI HBA configured One or more devices

configured on the
bus

disconnected Bus quiesced unconfigured No devices

configured

connected Bus active

Receptacle and occupant state mappings for SCSI device attachment points are:

Receptacle State Description Occupant State Description

empty N/A to SCSI devices configured Device is configured

disconnected Bus quiesced unconfigured Device is not

configured

connected Bus active

The condition of SCSI attachment points are unknown unless there is special
hardware to indicate otherwise. See the instructions below on displaying SCSI
component configuration information.

IA: Detaching PCI Adapter Cards

A PCI adapter card hosting non-vital system resources can be removed if the device
driver supports hot-plugging. A PCI adapter card is not detachable if it is a vital
system resource. For a PCI adapter card to be detachable:
4 The device driver must support hot-plugging.
4 Critical resources must be accessible through an alternate pathway.
For example, if a system has only one ethernet card installed in it, the ethernet card
cannot be detached without losing network connection. This replacement requires
additional layered software support to keep the network connection active.

IA: Attaching PCI Adapter Cards

A PCI adapter card can be added to the system as long as:
4 There are slots available.

Configuring Devices 295

 4 The device driver supports hot-plugging for this adapter card.

See “IA: PCI Hot-Plugging With the cfgadm Command” on page 306 for
step-by-step instructions on adding or removing a PCI adapter card.

SCSI Hot Plugging With the cfgadm

Command
The following section describes various SCSI hot plugging tasks with the cfgadm
command.

The procedures in this section use specific devices as examples to illustrate how to
use the cfgadm command to hot plug SCSI components. The device information that
you supply, and is displayed with the cfgadm command, depends on your system
configuration.

How to Display Configuration Information for all

Devices
SCSI controllers c0 and c1 and the devices attached to them provide examples of the
type of device configuration information that can be displayed with the cfgadm
command.

Note - If the SCSI device is not supported by the cfgadm command, it does not
display in the cfgadm command output.

1. Become superuser.

2. Display information about attachment points on the system.

# cfgadm -l
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected configured unknown

In this example, c0 and c1 represent two SCSI controllers.

3. Display information about a system’s SCSI controllers and their attached

devices.

296 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t4d0 unavailable connected unconfigured unknown

Note - The cfgadm -l commands displays info about SCSI HBAs but not SCSI
devices. Use the cfgadm -al command to display information about SCSI
devices such as disk and tapes.

In the following examples, only SCSI attachment points are listed. The attachment
points displayed on your system will depend on your system configuration.

How to Unconfigure a SCSI Controller

SCSI controller c1 provides an example of unconfiguring a SCSI controller.
1. Become superuser.

2. Unconfigure a SCSI controller.

# cfgadm -c unconfigure c1

3. Verify the SCSI controller is unconfigured.

# cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected unconfigured unknown

Notice that the Occupant column specifies unconfigured, indicating that the
SCSI bus has no configured occupants.

Configuring Devices 297

 How to Configure a SCSI Controller
SCSI controller c1 provides an example of configuring a SCSI controller.
1. Become superuser.

2. Configure a SCSI controller.

# cfgadm -c configure c1

3. Verify the SCSI controller is configured.

# cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t4d0 unavailable connected unconfigured unknown

The previous unconfigure procedure removed all devices on the SCSI bus. Now
all the devices are configured back into the system.

How to Configure a SCSI Device

SCSI disk c1t4d0 provides an example of configuring a SCSI device.
1. Become superuser.

2. Identify the device to be configured.

cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t4d0 unavailable connected unconfigured unknown

3. Configure a specific SCSI device.

298 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # cfgadm -c configure c1::dsk/c1t4d0

4. Verify the SCSI device is configured.

# cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t4d0 disk connected configured unknown

How to Disconnect a SCSI Controller

Disconnecting a SCSI device must be done with caution, particularly when dealing
with controllers for disks containing critical file systems such as root (/), usr, var,
and the swap partition. The dynamic reconfiguration software cannot detect all cases
where a system hang may result. Use this command with caution.
SCSI controller c1 provides an example of disconnecting a SCSI device.
1. Become superuser.

2. Verify the device is connected before disconnecting it.

# cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t4d0 disk connected configured unknown

3. Disconnect a SCSI controller.

Configuring Devices 299

 # cfgadm -c disconnect c1
WARNING: Disconnecting critical partitions may cause system hang.
Continue (yes/no)? y

Caution - This command suspends all I/O activity on the SCSI bus until the
cfgadm -c connect command is used. The cfgadm command does some basic
checking to prevent critical partitions from being disconnected, but it cannot detect
all cases. Inappropriate use of this command may result in a system hang and could
require a system reboot.

4. Verify the SCSI bus is disconnected.

# cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 unavailable disconnected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t10d0 unavailable disconnected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t4d0 unavailable disconnected configured unknown

The controller and all the devices attached to it are disconnected from the system.

How to Connect a SCSI Controller

SCSI controller c1 provides an example of connecting a SCSI controller.
1. Become superuser.

2. Verify the device is disconnected before connecting it.

300 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 unavailable disconnected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t10d0 unavailable disconnected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t4d0 unavailable disconnected configured unknown

3. Connect a SCSI controller.

# cfgadm -c connect c1

4. Verify the SCSI controller is connected.

# cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t4d0 disk connected configured unknown

SPARC: How to Add a SCSI Device to a SCSI Bus

SCSI controller c1 provides an example of how to add a SCSI device to a SCSI bus.

Note - When adding devices, the ap_id of the SCSI HBA (controller) to which the
device is attached is specified, not the ap_id of the device itself.

1. Become superuser.

2. Identify the current SCSI configuration.

Configuring Devices 301

 # cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknown

3. Add a SCSI device to a SCSI bus.

# cfgadm -x insert_device c1
Adding device to SCSI HBA: /devices/sbus@1f,0/SUNW,fas@1,8800000
This operation will suspend activity on SCSI bus: c1
Continue (yes/no)? y
SCSI bus quiesced successfully.
It is now safe to proceed with hotplug operation.
Enter y if operation is complete or n to abort (yes/no)? y

a. Type y at the Continue (yes/no)? prompt to proceed.

I/O activity on the SCSI bus will be suspended while the hot-plug operation
is in progress.

b. Connect the device and then power it on.

c. Type y at the Enter y if operation is complete or n to abort

(yes/no)? prompt after the new device has been inserted.

4. Verify the device has been added.

# cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t4d0 disk connected configured unknown

A new disk has been added to controller c1.

302 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

SPARC: How to Replace an Identical Device on a
SCSI Controller
SCSI disk c1t4d0 provides an example of replacing an identical device on a SCSI
controller.

1. Become superuser.

2. Identify the current SCSI configuration.

# cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t4d0 disk connected configured unknown

3. Replace a device on the SCSI bus with another device of the same type.

# cfgadm -x replace_device c1::dsk/c1t4d0

Replacing SCSI device: /devices/sbus@1f,0/SUNW,fas@1,8800000/sd@4,0
This operation will suspend activity on SCSI bus: c1
Continue (yes/no)? y
SCSI bus quiesced successfully.
It is now safe to proceed with hotplug operation.
Enter y if operation is complete or n to abort (yes/no)? y

a. Type y at the Continue (yes/no)? prompt to proceed.

I/O activity on the SCSI bus will be suspended while the hot-plug operation
is in progress.

b. Power off the device to be removed and remove it. Add the replacement
device, which should be of the same type and at the same address (target
and lun) as the device to be removed. Then power it on.

c. Type y at the Enter y if operation is complete or n to abort

(yes/no)? prompt after the device has been replaced.

4. Verify the device has been replaced.

Configuring Devices 303

 # cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t4d0 disk connected configured unknown

SPARC: How to Remove a SCSI Device

SCSI disk c1t4d0 provides an example of removing a device on a SCSI controller.
1. Become superuser.

2. Identify the current SCSI configuration.

# cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t4d0 disk connected configured unknown

3. Remove a SCSI device from the system.

# cfgadm -x remove_device c1::dsk/c1t4d0

Removing SCSI device: /devices/sbus@1f,0/SUNW,fas@1,8800000/sd@4,0
This operation will suspend activity on SCSI bus: c1
Continue (yes/no)? y
SCSI bus quiesced successfully.
It is now safe to proceed with hotplug operation.
Enter y if operation is complete or n to abort (yes/no)? y

a. Type y at the Continue (yes/no)? prompt to proceed.

I/O activity on the SCSI bus will be suspended while the hot-plug operation
is in progress.

b. Power off the device to be removed and remove it.

304 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 c. Type y at the Enter y if operation is complete or n to abort
(yes/no)? prompt after the device has been removed.

4. Verify the device has been removed from the system.

# cfgadm -al
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
c0 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c0::dsk/c0t0d0 disk connected configured unknown
c0::rmt/0 tape connected configured unknown
c1 scsi-bus connected configured unknown
c1::dsk/c1t3d0 disk connected configured unknown

SPARC: Troubleshooting SCSI Configuration

Problems
Error Message

cfgadm: Component system is busy, try again: failed to offline:

device path
Resource Information
------------------ --------------------------
/dev/dsk/c1t0d0s0 mounted filesystem "/file-system"

Cause

You attempted to remove or replace a device with a mounted file system.

Solution

Unmount the file system listed in the error message and try the cfgadm operation
again.

Configuring Devices 305

 IA: PCI Hot-Plugging With the cfgadm
Command
The following section describes different hot-plugging operations and then provides
step-by-step instructions for hot-plugging PCI adapter cards on IA based systems.
In the following examples, only PCI attachment points are listed, for brevity. The
attachment points displayed on your system will depend on your system
configuration.

IA: How to Display PCI Slot Configuration

Information
The cfgadm(1M) command displays the status of PCI hot-pluggable devices and
slots on a system.
1. Become superuser.

2. Display PCI slot configuration information.

# cfgadm
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
pci1:hpc0_slot0 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot1 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot2 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot3 ethernet/hp connected configured ok
pci1:hpc0_slot4 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
# cfgadm -s "cols=ap_id:type:info" pci
Ap_Id Type Information
pci1:hpc0_slot0 unknown Slot 7
pci1:hpc0_slot1 unknown Slot 8
pci1:hpc0_slot2 unknown Slot 9
pci1:hpc0_slot3 ethernet/hp Slot 10
pci1:hpc0_slot4 unknown Slot 11

The logical ap_id, pci1:hpc0_slot0, is the logical ap_id for that particular
hot-pluggable slot, Slot 7, (physical identification of this slot). The component hpc0
indicates the hot-pluggable adapter card for this slot and pci1 indicates the PCI bus
instance. The Type field indicates the type of PCI adapter card present in the slot.

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IA: How to Remove a PCI Adapter Card
1. Become superuser.

2. Determine which slot the adapter card is in.

# cfgadm
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
pci1:hpc0_slot0 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot1 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot2 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot3 ethernet/hp connected configured ok
pci1:hpc0_slot4 unknown empty unconfigured unknown

3. Stop the application that has the device open.

For example, if this is an ethernet card, use ifconfig(1M) to bring down the
interface and unplumb the interface.

4. Unconfigure the device.

# cfgadm -c unconfigure pci1:hpc0_slot3

5. Confirm the device has been unconfigured.

# cfgadm
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
pci1:hpc0_slot0 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot1 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot2 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot3 ethernet/hp connected unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot4 unknown empty unconfigured unknown

6. Disconnect the power to the slot.

# cfgadm -c disconnect pci1:hpc0_slot3

7. Confirm the device has been disconnected.

Configuring Devices 307

 # cfgadm
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
pci1:hpc0_slot0 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot1 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot2 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot3 ethernet/hp disconnected unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot4 unknown empty unconfigured unknown

8. Open the slot latches and remove the board.

IA: How to Add a PCI Adapter Card

1. Become superuser.

2. Identify the hot-pluggable slot and open latches.

3. Insert the adapter card into a hot-pluggable slot.

4. Determine which slot the adapter card is in once it is inserted and the latches
are closed.

# cfgadm
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
pci1:hpc0_slot0 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot1 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot2 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot3 ethernet/hp disconnected unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot4 unknown empty unconfigured unknown

5. Connect the power to the slot.

# cfgadm -c connect pci1:hpc0_slot3

6. Confirm the slot is connected.

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 # cfgadm
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
pci1:hpc0_slot0 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot1 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot2 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot3 ethernet/hp connected unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot4 unknown empty unconfigured unknown

7. Configure the PCI hot-pluggable adapter card.

# cfgadm -c configure pci1:hpc0_slot3

8. Verify the configuration of the adapter card in the slot.

# cfgadm
Ap_Id Type Receptacle Occupant Condition
pci1:hpc0_slot0 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot1 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot2 unknown empty unconfigured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot3 ethernet/hp connected configured unknown
pci1:hpc0_slot4 unknown empty unconfigured unknown

9. Configure any supporting software if this is a new device.

For example, if this is an ethernet card, use the ifconfig(1m) command to set
up the interface.

IA: Troubleshooting PCI Configuration Problems

Error Message

cfgadm: Configuration operation invalid: invalid transition

Cause

An invalid transition was attempted.

Configuring Devices 309

 Solution

Check whether the cfgadm -c command was issued appropriately. Use cfgadm to
check the current receptacle and occupant state and make sure the ap_id is correct.

Error Message

cfgadm: Attachment point not found

Cause

Specified attachment point was not found.

Solution

Check whether the attachment point is correct. Use cfgadm to display a list of
available attachment points. Also check the physical path to see if the attachment
point is still there.

Note - In addition to the cfgadm command, several other commands are helpful
during hot-plug operations. The prtconf(1M) command displays whether or not
Solaris recognizes the hardware. After inserting hardware, use the prtconf
command to verify that the hardware is recognized. After a configure operation, use
the prtconf -D command to verify the driver is attached to the newly installed
hardware device.

310 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 26

Accessing Devices (Overview)

This chapter provides information about how system administrators access the
devices on their systems.
This is a list of overview information in this chapter.
4 “Accessing Devices” on page 311
4 “Logical Disk Device Names” on page 312
4 “Logical Tape Device Names” on page 316
4 “Logical CD-ROM Device Names” on page 316
For overview information about configuring devices, see Chapter 24.

Accessing Devices
System administrators need to know how to specify device names when using
commands to manage disks, file systems, and other devices. In most cases, system
administrators use logical device names to represent devices connected to the
system. Both logical and physical device names are represented on the system by
logical and physical device files.

How Device Information Is Created

When a system is booted for the first time, a device hierarchy is created to represent
all the devices connected to the system. The kernel uses the device hierarchy
information to associate drivers with their appropriate devices, and provides a set of

311
 pointers to the drivers that perform specific operations. See the OpenBoot 3.x
Command Reference Manual for more information on device hierarchy.

Device Naming Conventions

Devices are referenced in three ways in the Solaris environment.
4 Physical device name – Represents the full device pathname in the device
information hierarchy. Physical device names are displayed by using the following
commands:

4 dmesg
4 format
4 sysdef
4 prtconf

Physical device files are found in the /devices directory.

4 Instance name – Represents the kernel’s abbreviation name for every possible
device on the system. For example, sd0 and sd1 represent the instance names of
two disk devices. Instance names are mapped in the /etc/path_to_inst file
and are displayed by using the following commands:

4 dmesg
4 sysdef
4 prtconf

4 Logical device name – Used by system administrators with most file system
commands to refer to devices. See Table 26–1 for a list of file commands that use
logical device names. Logical device files in the /dev directory are symbolically
linked to physical device files in the /devices directory.

Logical Disk Device Names

Logical device names are used to access disk devices when you:
4 Add a new disk to the system
4 Move a disk from one system to another
4 Access (or mount) a file system residing on a local disk
4 Back up a local file system
Many administration commands take arguments that refer to a disk slice or file
system.

312 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Refer to a disk device by specifying the subdirectory to which it is symbolically
linked (either /dev/dsk or /dev/rdsk), followed by a string identifying the
particular controller, disk, and slice.

/dev/[r]dsk/cwtxdysz

Controller, Target, Drive, and Slice Identifiers

Disk Subdirectory

Specifying the Disk Subdirectory

Disk and file administration commands require the use of either a raw (or character)
device interface, or a block device interface. The distinction is made by how data is
read from the device.
Raw device interfaces transfer only small amounts of data at a time. Block device
interfaces include a buffer from which large blocks of data are read at once.
Different commands require different interfaces.
4 When a command requires the raw device interface, specify the /dev/rdsk
subdirectory. (The “r” in rdsk stands for “raw.”)
4 When a command requires the block device interface, specify the /dev/dsk
subdirectory.
4 When you’re not sure whether a command requires use of /dev/dsk or
/dev/rdsk, check the man page for that command.
The following table shows which interface is required for a few commonly used disk
and file system commands.

TABLE 26–1 Device Interface Type Required by Some Frequently Used Commands

Command Interface Type Example of Use

Block df /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s6
df(1M)

Raw fsck -p /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0

fsck(1M)

Block mount /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s7 /export/home

mount(1M)

Accessing Devices (Overview) 313

 TABLE 26–1 Device Interface Type Required by Some Frequently Used
Commands (continued)

Command Interface Type Example of Use

Raw newfs /dev/rdsk/c0t0d1s1

newfs(1M)

Raw prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2

prtvtoc(1M)

Specifying the Slice

The string you use to identify a specific slice on a specific disk depends on the
controller type, either direct or bus-oriented. The following table describes the
different types of direct or bus-oriented controllers on different platforms.

TABLE 26–2 Controller Types

Direct controllers Bus-Oriented Controllers

Xylogics (SPARC) SCSI (SPARC/IA)

IDE (IA) IPI (SPARC)

The conventions for both types of controllers are explained in the following
subsections.

Note - Controller numbers are assigned automatically at system initialization. The

numbers are strictly logical and imply no direct mapping to physical controllers.

SPARC: Disks With Direct Controllers

To specify a slice on a disk with a direct controller on a SPARC based system, follow
the naming convention shown in the figure below.

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cxdysz

Slice Number (0 to 7)
Drive Number

Logical Controller Number

To indicate the whole disk, specify slice 2 (2).

If you have only one controller on your system, x will always be 0.

IA: Disks With Direct Controllers

To specify a slice on a disk with an IDE controller on an IA based system, follow the
naming convention shown in the figure below.
cwdx[sy,pz]

Slice Number (0 to 7) or fdisk Partition Number (0 to 4)

Drive Number

Logical Controller Number

To indicate the entire Solaris fdisk partition, specify slice 2 (s2).

If you have only one controller on your system, w will always be 0.

SPARC: Disks With Bus-Oriented Controllers

To specify a slice on a disk with a bus-oriented controller (SCSI, for instance) on a
SPARC based system, follow the naming convention shown in the following figure.
cwtxdysz

Slice Number (0 to 7)

Drive Number

Physical Bus Target Number

Logical Controller Number

If you have only one controller on your system, w will always be 0.

For SCSI controllers, x is the target address as set by the switch on the back of the
unit, and y is the logical unit number (LUN) of the drive attached to the target. If the
disk has an embedded controller, y is usually 0.
To indicate the whole disk, specify slice 2 (s2).

Accessing Devices (Overview) 315

 IA: Disks With SCSI Controllers
To specify a slice on a disk with a SCSI controller on an IA based system, follow the
naming convention shown in the following figure.
cvtwdx[sy,pz]

Slice Number (0 to 7) or fdisk Partition Number (0 to 4)

Drive Number

Physical Bus Target Number

Logical Controller Number

If you have only one controller on your system, v will always be 0.

For SCSI controllers, w is the target address as set by the switch on the back of the
unit, and x is the logical unit number (LUN) of the drive attached to the target. If the
disk has an embedded controller, x is usually 0.
To indicate the entire Solaris fdisk partition, specify slice 2 (s2).

Logical Tape Device Names

Logical tape device files are found in the /dev/rmt/* directory as symbolic links
from the /devices directory.
/dev/rmt/xy

Tape Density (l,m,h,c,u)

Logical Unit Number (0-n)
Raw Magnetic Tape Device
The first tape device connected to the system is 0 (/dev/rmt/0), which might be
one of the following types: QIC-11, QIC-24, QIC-150, or Exabyte. Tape density values
(l, m, h, c, and u) are described in Chapter 47.

Logical CD-ROM Device Names

The logical device name that represents the first CD-ROM device on a system is
/dev/dsk/c0t6d0s0.

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Since CD-ROMs are managed by Volume Management, the logical CD-ROM device
name is usually not used unless you want to mount the CD manually. See Chapter
14 for information on accessing your CD-ROM device.

Accessing Devices (Overview) 317

318 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 27

Managing Disks Topics

This section provides instructions for managing disks in the Solaris environment.
This section contains these chapters.

Provides an overview of Solaris disk slices and an

Chapter 28
introduction to the format utility.

Provides step-by-step instructions for formatting a disk,

Chapter 29
examining disk labels, and repairing a defective disk
sector.

Provides step-by-step instructions for adding a disk to a

Chapter 30
SPARC based system.

Provides step-by-step instructions for adding a disk to

Chapter 31
an IA based system.

Provides a description of the format utility’s menu and

Chapter 32
commands. This chapter also includes information about
the format.dat file, rules for providing input to
format commands, and instructions on using the help
facility.

319
320 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 28

Disk Management (Overview)

This overview chapter provides conceptual information about Solaris disk slices and
introduces the format utility.
This is a list of the overview information in this chapter.
4 “Disk Terminology” on page 322
4 “About Disk Slices” on page 323
4 “SPARC: Disk Slices” on page 323
4 “IA: Disk Slices” on page 324
4 “Determining Which Slices to Use” on page 327
4 “The format Utility” on page 328
4 “Guidelines for Using the format Utility” on page 330
4 “Formatting a Disk” on page 331
4 “About Disk Labels” on page 332
4 “Partition Table” on page 332
For instructions on how to add a disk drive to your system, see Chapter 30 or
Chapter 31.

What’s New in Disk Management?

This section describes features introduced in the Solaris 8 release.

321
 IA: Support for Large Disks
This Solaris release fully uses disks larger than 8 Gbytes because of improved BIOS
interfaces. Previously, the following limitations impacted IA based systems running
the Solaris Intel Platform Edition:
4 On IDE disks, only the first 8 Gbytes could be used by the system.
4 On either SCSI or IDE disks, only the first 8 Gbytes could only be used for the root
(/) slice.
Both of these restrictions have been removed on systems with improved BIOSes.
See Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Installation Guide for more information.

Where to Find Disk Management Tasks

Use these references to find step-by-step instructions for managing disks.
4 Chapter 30
4 Chapter 31

Introduction
Managing disks in the Solaris environment usually involves setting up the system
and running the Solaris installation program to create the appropriate disk slices and
install the operating system. Occasionally, you might need to use the format utility
to add a new disk drive or replace a defective one.

Disk Terminology
Before you can effectively use the information in this section, you should be familiar
with basic disk architecture. In particular, you should be familiar with the following
terms:
4 Track
4 Cylinder
4 Sector
4 Disk controller

322 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

4 Disk label
4 Device drivers
If you are unfamiliar with these terms, refer to the glossary (for a brief definition) or
product information from the disk’s manufacturer.

About Disk Slices

Files stored on a disk are contained in file systems. Each file system on a disk is
assigned to a slice—a group of cylinders set aside for use by that file system. Each
disk slice appears to the operating system (and to the system administrator) as
though it were a separate disk drive.
See Chapter 34 for information about file systems.

Note - Slices are sometimes referred to as partitions. This book uses slice but certain
interfaces, such as the format utility, refer to slices as partitions.

When setting up slices, remember these rules:

4 Each disk slice holds only one file system.
4 No file system can span multiple slices.
Slices are set up slightly differently on SPARC and IA platforms. The table below
summarizes the differences:

TABLE 28–1 Slice Differences on Platforms

SPARC Platforms IA Platforms

Whole disk is devoted to Solaris environment Disk is divided into fdisk partitions, one
per operating environment

Disk is divided into eight slices, numbered The Solaris fdisk partition is divided into
0-7 10 slices, numbered 0-9

SPARC: Disk Slices

On SPARC based systems, Solaris defines eight disk slices and assigns to each a
conventional use. These slices are numbered 0 through 7. The table below
summarizes the contents of the eight Solaris slices on a SPARC based system.

Disk Management (Overview) 323

 TABLE 28–2 SPARC: Customary Disk Slices

Usually Found on
Client or Server
Slice File System Systems? Purpose

0 root Both Holds files and directories that make up

the operating system.

1 swap Both Provides virtual memory, or swap space.

Swap space is used when running
programs are too large to fit in a
computer’s memory. The Solaris operating
environment then “swaps” programs from
memory to the disk and back as needed.

2 — both Refers to the entire disk, by convention. It

is defined automatically by the format
and the Solaris installation programs. The
size of this slice should not be changed.

3 /export Server only Holds alternative versions of the operating

system. These alternative versions are
required by client systems whose
architectures differ from that of the server.
Clients with the same architecture type as
the server obtain executables from the /
usr file system, usually slice 6.

4 /export/ Server only Provides virtual memory space for client

swap systems.

5 /opt Both Holds application software added to a

system. If a slice is not allocated for this
file system during installation, the /opt
directory is put in slice 0.

6 /usr Both Holds operating system commands—also

known as executables— designed to be run
by users. This slice also holds
documentation, system programs (init
and syslogd, for example) and library
routines.

7 /home or Both Holds files created by users.

/export/
home

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IA: Disk Slices
On IA based systems, disks are divided into fdisk partitions. An fdisk partition is
a section of the disk reserved for a particular operating environment, such as Solaris.
Solaris places ten slices, numbered 0-9, on a Solaris fdisk partition as shown in the
following table.

TABLE 28–3 IA: Customary Disk Slices

Usually Found on
Client or Server
Slice File System Systems? Purpose

0 root Both Holds the files and directories that

make up the operating system.

1 swap Both Provides virtual memory, or swap

space. Swap space is used when
running programs are too large to
fit in a computer’s memory. The
Solaris operating environment
then “swaps” programs from
memory to the disk and back as
needed.

2 — Both Refers to the entire disk, by

convention. It is defined
automatically by the format
utility and the Solaris installation
programs. The size of this slice
should not be changed.

3 /export Server only Holds alternative versions of the

operating system. These
alternative versions are required
by client systems whose
architectures differ from that of
the server.

4 /export/swap Server only Provides virtual memory space

for the client systems.

5 /opt Both Holds application software added

to a system. If a slice is not
allocated for this file system
during installation, the /opt
directory is put in slice 0.

Disk Management (Overview) 325

 TABLE 28–3 IA: Customary Disk Slices (continued)

Usually Found on
Client or Server
Slice File System Systems? Purpose

6 /usr Both Holds operating system

commands—also known as
executables—that are run by users.
This slice also holds
documentation, system programs
(init and syslogd, for
example) and library routines.

7 /home or / Both Holds files created by users.

export/home

8 — Both Contains information necessary

for Solaris to boot from the hard
disk. It resides at the beginning of
the Solaris partition (although the
slice number itself does not
indicate this), and is known as the
boot slice.

9 — Both Provides an area reserved for

alternate disk blocks. Slice 9 is
known as the alternate sector
slice.

Using Raw Data Slices

The SunOS operating system stores the disk label in block 0, cylinder 0 of each disk.
This means that using third-party database applications that create raw data slices
must not start at block 0, cylinder 0, or the disk label will be overwritten and the
data on the disk will be inaccessible.
Do not use the following areas of the disk for raw data slices, which are sometimes
created by third-party database applications:
1. Block 0, cylinder 0, where the disk label is stored.
2. Avoid cylinder 0 entirely for improved performance.
3. Slice 2, which represents the entire disk.

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Slice Arrangements on Multiple Disks
Although a single disk that is large enough can hold all slices and their
corresponding file systems, two or more disks are often used to hold a system’s
slices and file systems.

Note - A slice cannot be split between two or more disks. However, multiple swap
slices on separate disks are allowed.

For instance, a single disk might hold the root (/) file system, a swap area, and the
/usr file system, while a separate disk is provided for the /export/home file
system and other file systems containing user data.
In a multiple disk arrangement, the disk containing the operating system software
and swap space (that is, the disk holding the root (/) or /usr file systems or the
slice for swap space) is called the system disk. Disks other than the system disk are
called secondary disks or non-system disks.
Locating a system’s file systems on multiple disks allows you to modify file systems
and slices on the secondary disks without having to shut down the system or reload
operating system software.
Having more than one disk also increases input-output (I/O) volume. By distributing
disk load across multiple disks, you can avoid I/O bottlenecks.

Determining Which Slices to Use

When you set up a disk’s file systems, you choose not only the size of each slice, but
also which slices to use. Your decisions about these matters depend on the
configuration of the system to which the disk is attached and the software you want
to install on the disk.
The system configurations are:
4 Servers
4 Standalone systems
Each system configuration requires the use of different slices. The table below lists
these requirements.

Disk Management (Overview) 327

 TABLE 28–4 System Configurations and Slice Requirements

Standalone
Slice Servers Systems

0 root root

1 swap swap

2 — —

3 /export —

4 /export/swap —

5 /opt /opt

6 /usr /usr

7 /export/home /home

See “Overview of System Types” on page 96 for more information about system
configurations.

Note - The Solaris installation program provides slice size recommendations based
on the software you select for installation.

The format Utility

Read the following information if you want to see a conceptual view of the format
utility and it uses before proceeding to the “how-to” or reference sections.

Definition
The format utility is a system administration tool used to prepare hard disk drives
for use on your Solaris system. The format utility cannot be used on diskette drives,
CD-ROM drives, or tape drives.

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Features and Benefits
The table below shows the features and associated benefits that the format utility
provides.

TABLE 28–5 Features and Benefits of the format Utility

Feature Benefit

Searches your system for all Reports:

attached disk drives 4 Target location
4 Disk geometry
4 Whether the disk is formatted
4 If the disk has mounted partitions

Retrieves disk labels Used in repair operations

Repairs defective sectors Allows administrators to repair disk drives with recoverable
errors instead of sending the drive back to the manufacturer

Formats and analyzes a disk Creates sectors on the disk and verifies each sector

Partitions a disk Divides a disk so individual file systems can be created on

separate slices

Labels a disk Writes disk name and configuration information to the disk
for future retrieval (usually for repair operations)

All of the options of the format utility are fully described in Chapter 32.

When to Use the format Utility

Disk drives are partitioned and labeled by the Solaris installation program as part of
installing the Solaris release. You might need to use the format utility when:
4 Displaying slice information
4 Dividing a disk into slices
4 Adding a disk drive to an existing system
4 Formatting a disk drive
4 Repairing a disk drive

Disk Management (Overview) 329

 The main reason a system administrator uses the format utility is to divide a disk
into disk slices. These steps are covered in Chapter 30 and Chapter 31.
See the section below for guidelines on using the format utility.

Guidelines for Using the format Utility

TABLE 28–6 The format Utility Guidelines

Use format To
... Considerations ... Where to Go ...

Format a disk 4 Any existing data will be destroyed

when a disk is reformatted. “How to Format a Disk”
4 The need for formatting a disk drive has on page 342
dropped as more and more
manufacturers ship their disk drives
formatted and partitioned. You might not
need to use the format utility when
adding a disk drive to an existing
system.
4 If a disk has been relocated and is
displaying a lot of disk errors, you can
attempt to reformat it, which will
automatically remap any bad sectors.

Replace a 4 Data from the damaged system disk

must be restored from a backup medium; Chapter 30 or Chapter 31
system disk
otherwise the system will have to be or if the system must be
reinstalled by using the installation reinstalled, Solaris 8
program. Advanced Installation
Guide

Divide a disk 4 Any existing data will be destroyed

when a disk with existing slices is Chapter 30 or Chapter 31
into slices
repartitioned and relabeled.
4 Existing data must be copied to backup
media before the disk is repartitioned
and restored after the disk is relabeled.

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TABLE 28–6 The format Utility Guidelines (continued)

Use format To
... Considerations ... Where to Go ...

Add a 4 Any existing data must be restored from

backup media if the secondary disk is Chapter 30 or Chapter 31
secondary disk
to an existing reformatted or repartitioned.
system

Repair a disk 4 Some customer sites prefer to replace

rather than repair defective drives. If Chapter 32
drive
your site has a repair contract with the
disk drive manufacturer, you might not
need to use the format utility to repair
disk drives.
4 Repairing a disk drive usually means
that a bad sector is added to a defect list.
New controllers remap bad sectors
automatically with no system
interruption.
4 If the system has an older controller, you
might need to remap a bad sector and
restore any lost data.

Formatting a Disk
In most cases, disks are formatted by the manufacturer or reseller and do not need to
be reformatted when you install the drive. To determine whether or not a disk is
formatted, use the format utility. See “How to Determine if a Disk is Formatted” on
page 341 for more information.
If you determine that a disk is not formatted, use the format utility to format the
disk.

Formatting a disk accomplishes two steps:

4 Preparing disk media for use

4 Compiling a list of disk defects based on a surface analysis

Caution - Formatting is a destructive process—it overwrites data on the disk. For

this reason, disks are usually formatted only by the manufacturer or reseller. If you
think disk defects are causing recurring problems, you can use the format utility to
do a surface analysis, but be careful to use only the commands that do not destroy
data. See “How to Format a Disk” on page 342 for details.

Disk Management (Overview) 331

 A small percentage of total disk space available for data is used to store defect and
formatting information. This percentage varies according to disk geometry, and
decreases as the disk ages and develops more defects.
Formatting might take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours, depending on
the type and size of the disk.

About Disk Labels

A special area of every disk is set aside for storing information about the disk’s
controller, geometry, and slices. That information is called the disk’s label. Another
term used to described the disk label is the VTOC (Volume Table of Contents). To
label a disk means to write slice information onto the disk. You usually label a disk
after changing its slices.
If you fail to label a disk after creating slices, the slices will be unavailable because
the operating system has no way of “knowing” about the slices.

Partition Table
An important part of the disk label is the partition table which identifies a disk’s
slices, the slice boundaries (in cylinders), and total size of the slices. A disk’s
partition table can be displayed using the format utility. The table below describes
partition table terminology.

TABLE 28–7 Partition Table Terminology

Partition Term Value Description

Number 0-7 Partition or (slice number). Valid numbers

are 0-7.

Tag 0=UNASSIGNED 1=BOOT A numeric value that usually describes the

2=ROOT 3=SWAP 4=USR file system mounted on this partition.
5=BACKUP 7=VAR
8=HOME

Flags

wm The partition is writable and mountable.

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TABLE 28–7 Partition Table Terminology (continued)

Partition Term Value Description

wu rm The partition is writable and unmountable.

This is the default state of partitions
dedicated for swap areas. However, the
mount command does not check the “not
mountable” flag.

rm The partition is read only and mountable.

Partition flags and tags are assigned by convention and require no maintenance.
See “How to Display Disk Slice Information” on page 344 or “How to Examine a
Disk Label” on page 348 for more information on displaying the partition table.

Examples—Partition Tables
The following partition table example is displayed from a 1.05-Gbyte disk using the
format utility:

Total disk cylinders available: 2036 + 2 (reserved cylinders)

Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks

0 root wm 0 - 300 148.15MB (301/0/0) 303408
1 swap wu 301 - 524 110.25MB (224/0/0) 225792
2 backup wm 0 - 2035 1002.09MB (2036/0/0) 2052288
3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
6 usr wm 525 - 2035 743.70MB (1511/0/0) 1523088
7 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0

The partition table contains the following information:

Column Name Description

Part Partition (or slice number). See Table 28–7 for a description of this
column.

Tag Partition tag. See Table 28–7 for a description of this column.

Flags Partition flag. See Table 28–7 for a description of this column.

Disk Management (Overview) 333

 Column Name Description

Cylinders The starting and ending cylinder number for the slice.

Size The slice size in Mbytes.

Blocks The total number of cylinders and the total number of sectors per
slice in the far right column.

The following example displays a disk label using the prtvtoc command.

# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0
* /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0 partition map
*
* Dimensions:
* 512 bytes/sector
* 72 sectors/track
* 14 tracks/cylinder
* 1008 sectors/cylinder
* 2038 cylinders
* 2036 accessible cylinders
*
* Flags:
* 1: unmountable
* 10: read-only
*
* First Sector Last
* Partition Tag Flags Sector Count Sector Mount Directory
0 2 00 0 303408 303407 /
1 3 01 303408 225792 529199
2 5 00 0 2052288 2052287
6 4 00 529200 1523088 2052287 /usr

The disk label includes the following information:

Dimensions – This section describes the physical dimensions of the disk drive.

Flags – This section describes the flags listed in the partition table section. See Table
28–7 for a description of partition flags.

Partition (or Slice) Table – This section contains the following information:

Column Name Description

Partion Partition (or slice number). See Table 28–7 for a description of
this column.

Tag Partition tag. See Table 28–7 for a description of this column.

334 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Column Name Description

Flags Partition flag. See Table 28–7 for a description of this column.

First Sector The first sector of the slice.

Sector Count The total number of sectors in the slice.

Last Sector The last sector number in the slice.

Mount Directory The last mount point directory for the file system.

Dividing a Disk Into Slices

The format utility is most often used by system administrators to divide a disk into
slices. The steps are:
4 Determining which slices are needed
4 Determining the size of each slice
4 Using the format utility to divide the disk into slices
4 Labeling the disk with new slice information
4 Creating the file system for each slice
The easiest way to divide a disk into slices is to use the modify command from the
partition menu. The modify command allows you to create slices by specifying
the size of each slice in megabytes without having to keep track of starting cylinder
boundaries. It also keeps tracks of any disk space remainder in the “free hog” slice.

Using the Free Hog Slice

When you use the format utility to change the size of one or more disk slices, you
designate a temporary slice that will expand and shrink to accommodate the resizing
operations.
This temporary slice donates, or “frees,” space when you expand a slice, and
receives, or “hogs,” the discarded space when you shrink a slice. For this reason, the
donor slice is sometimes called the free hog.
The donor slice exists only during installation or when you run the format utility.
There is no permanent donor slice during day-to-day, normal operations.

Disk Management (Overview) 335

 See “SPARC: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk” on page 367 or “IA: How
to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk” on page 386 for information on using the free
hog slice.

336 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 29

Administering Disks (Tasks)

This chapter contains disk administration procedures. Many of the procedures

described in this chapter are optional if you are already familiar with how disks are
managed on systems running the Solaris release.
This is a list of step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “How to Identify the Disks on a System” on page 339
4 “How to Determine if a Disk is Formatted” on page 341
4 “How to Format a Disk” on page 342
4 “How to Display Disk Slice Information” on page 344
4 “How to Label a Disk” on page 346
4 “How to Examine a Disk Label” on page 348
4 “How to Recover a Corrupted Disk Label” on page 349
4 “How to Create a format.dat Entry” on page 353
4 “How to Automatically Configure a SCSI Drive” on page 355
4 “How to Identify a Defective Sector by Using Surface Analysis” on page 357
4 “How to Repair a Defective Sector” on page 359
For overview information about disk management, see Chapter 28.

Administering Disks Task Map

337
TABLE 29–1 Administering Disks Task Map

Task Description For Instructions, Go To

1. Identify the Disks on a If you are not sure of the types of disks on a
“How to Identify the Disks on
System system, use the format utility to identify the
a System” on page 339
disk types.

2. Format the Disk Determine whether a disk is already

“How to Determine if a Disk is
formatted by using the format utility.
Formatted” on page 341

In most cases, disks are already formatted.

“How to Format a Disk” on
Use the format utility if you need to format
page 342
a disk.

3. Display Slice Information Display slice information by using the

“How to Display Disk Slice
format utility.
Information” on page 344

4. Label the Disk Create the disk label by using the format
“How to Label a Disk” on page
utility.
346

5. Examine the Disk Label Examine the disk label by using the
“How to Examine a Disk
prtvtoc command.
Label” on page 348

6. Create a format.dat Create a format.dat entry to support a

“How to Create a format.dat
Entry third-party disk.
Entry” on page 353

7. Repair a Defective Disk Identify a defective disk sector by using the

“How to Identify a Defective
Sector format utility.
Sector by Using Surface
Analysis” on page 357

8. If Necessary, Fix a Fix a defective disk sector by using the

“How to Repair a Defective
Defective Disk Sector format utility.
Sector” on page 359

338 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Identifying Disks on a System
Use the format utility to discover the types of disks that are connected to a system.
You can also use the format utility to verify that a disk is known to the system. See
Chapter 32 for information on using the format utility.

How to Identify the Disks on a System

1. Become superuser.

2. Identify the disks that are recognized on the system with the format utility.

# format

The format utility displays a list of disks that it recognizes under AVAILABLE
DISK SELECTIONS.

Examples—Identifying the Disks on a System

The following format output is from a system with two disks.

# format
Searching for disks...done
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c0t1d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@1,0
1. c0t3d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@3,0
Specify disk (enter its number):

The format output associates a disk’s physical and local device name to the disk’s
marketing name which appears in angle brackets <>. This is an easy way to identify
which local device names represent the disks connected to your system. See Chapter
26 for a description of local and physical device names.
The following example uses a wildcard to display the disks connected to a second
controller.

# format /dev/rdsk/c2*
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. /dev/rdsk/c2t0d0s0 <SUN2.1G cyl 2733 alt 2 hd 19 sec 80>
/io-unit@f,e0200000/sbi@0,0/QLGC,isp@2,10000/sd@0,0
1. /dev/rdsk/c2t1d0s0 <SUN2.1G cyl 2733 alt 2 hd 19 sec 80>
/io-unit@f,e0200000/sbi@0,0/QLGC,isp@2,10000/sd@1,0
2. /dev/rdsk/c2t2d0s0 <SUN2.1G cyl 2733 alt 2 hd 19 sec 80>

Administering Disks (Tasks) 339

 (Continuation)

/io-unit@f,e0200000/sbi@0,0/QLGC,isp@2,10000/sd@2,0
3. /dev/rdsk/c2t3d0s0 <SUN2.1G cyl 2733 alt 2 hd 19 sec 80>
/io-unit@f,e0200000/sbi@0,0/QLGC,isp@2,10000/sd@3,0
4. /dev/rdsk/c2t5d0s0 <SUN2.1G cyl 2733 alt 2 hd 19 sec 80>
/io-unit@f,e0200000/sbi@0,0/QLGC,isp@2,10000/sd@5,0
Specify disk (enter its number):

The following example identifies the disks on a SPARC based system.

# format
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c0t3d0 <SUN2.1G cyl 2733 alt 2 hd 19 sec 80>
/iommu@0,10000000/sbus@0,10001000/espdma@5,8400000/esp@5,8800000/
sd@3,0
Specify disk (enter its number):

The format output identifies that disk 0 (target 3) is connected to the first SCSI host
adapter (espdma@...), which is connected to the first SBus device (sbus@0...).
The output also associates both the physical and logical device name to the disk’s
marketing name, SUN02.1G.
The following example identifies the disks on an IA based system.

# format
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c0d0 <DEFAULT cyl 615 alt 2 hd 64 sec 63>
/pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ata@0/cmdk@0,0
1. c0d1 <DEFAULT cyl 522 alt 2 hd 32 sec 63>
/pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ata@0/cmdk@1,0
2. c1d0 <DEFAULT cyl 817 alt 2 hd 256 sec 63>
/pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ata@1/cmdk@0,0
Specify disk (enter its number):

The format output identifies that disk 0 is connected to the first PCI host adapter
(pci-ide@7...), which is connected to the ATA device (ata...). The format
output on an IA based system does not identify disks by their marketing names.

Where to Go From Here

Check the following table if the format utility did not recognize the disk.

340 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 If the Disk ... Then ...

Is newly added and you didn’t perform a Go to Chapter 30 or Chapter 31.

reconfiguration boot

Is a third-party disk Go to “Creating a format.dat Entry”

on page 353.

Label was corrupted by a system problem, such as Go to “How to Label a Disk” on page
a power failure 346.

Is not properly connected to the system Connect the disk to the system using
your disk hardware documentation.

Formatting a Disk
Disks are formatted by the manufacturer or reseller and usually do not need to be
reformatted when you install the drive.
A disk must be formatted before:
4 You can write data to it. However, most disks are already formatted.
4 You can use the Solaris installation program to install the system.

Caution - Formatting is a destructive process—it overwrites data on the disk. For this
reason, disks are usually formatted only by the manufacturer or reseller. If you think
disk defects are causing recurring problems, you can use the format utility to do a
surface analysis, but be careful to use only the commands that do not destroy data.

How to Determine if a Disk is Formatted

1. Become superuser.

2. Enter the format utility.

# format

3. Enter the number of the disk that you want to check from the list displayed on
your screen.

Specify disk (enter its number): 0

Administering Disks (Tasks) 341

 4. Verify that the disk you chose is formatted by identifying the following
message.

[disk formatted]

Example—Determining if a Disk Is Formatted

The following example shows that disk c0t3d0 is formatted.

# format
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c0t1d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@1,0
1. c0t3d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@3,0
Specify disk (enter its number): 0
selecting c0t1d0
[disk formatted]

How to Format a Disk

1. Become superuser.

2. Enter the format utility.

# format

3. Enter the number of the disk that you want to format from the list displayed
on your screen.

Specify disk (enter its number): 0

Warning - Do not select the system disk. Formatting your system disk deletes your
operating system and any data that you might have on this disk.

4. To begin formatting the disk, enter format at the format> prompt. Confirm
the command by typing y.

342 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 format> format
Ready to format. Formatting cannot be interrupted
and takes 23 minutes (estimated). Continue? yes

5. Verify that the disk format is successful by identifying the following messages.

Beginning format. The current time Tue ABC xx xx:xx:xx xxxx

Formatting...
done

Verifying media...
pass 0 - pattern = 0xc6dec6de
2035/12/18

pass 1 - pattern = 0x6db6db6d

2035/12/18

Total of 0 defective blocks repaired.

Example—Formatting a Disk
The following example formats the disk c0t3d0.

# format
Searching for disks...done
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c0t1d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@1,0
1. c0t3d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@3,0
Specify disk (enter its number):1
Selecting c0t3d0
[disk formatted]
format> format
Ready to format. Formatting cannot be interrupted
and takes 23 minutes (estimated). Continue? yes
Beginning format. The current time is Wed Jul 14 10:03:34 1999
Formatting ...
done
Verifying media...
pass 0 - pattern = 0xc6dec6de
2035/12/18

(continued)

Administering Disks (Tasks) 343

 (Continuation)

pass 1 - pattern = 0x6db6db6d

2035/12/18

Total of 0 defective blocks repaired.

format>

Displaying Disk Slices

You can use the format utility to check whether or not a disk has the appropriate
disk slices. If you determine that a disk does not contain the slices you want to use,
use the format utility to re-create them and label the disk. See “SPARC: How to
Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk” on page 367 or “IA: How to Create Disk Slices
and Label a Disk” on page 386 for information on creating disk slices.

Note - The format utility uses the term partition in place of slice.

How to Display Disk Slice Information

1. Become superuser.

2. Enter the format utility.

# format

3. Identify the disk for which you want to display slice information by selecting a
disk listed under AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS.

Specify disk (enter its number):1

4. Enter the partition menu by typing partition at the format> prompt.

format> partition

5. Display the slice information for the current disk drive by typing print at the
partition> prompt.

344 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 partition> print

6. Exit the format utility by typing q at the partition> prompt and typing q at
the format> prompt.

partition> q
format> q
#

7. Verify displayed slice information by identifying specific slice tags and slices.
If the screen output shows that no slice sizes are assigned, the disk probably does
not have slices.

Examples—Displaying Disk Slice Information

The following example displays slice information for disk /dev/dsk/c0t3d0.

# format
Searching for disks...done
Specify disk (enter its number):1
Selecting c0t3d0
format> partition
partition> print
Current partition table (original):
Total disk cylinders available: 2036 + 2 (reserved cylinders)

Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks

0 root wm 0 - 300 148.15MB (301/0/0) 303408
1 swap wu 301 - 524 110.25MB (224/0/0) 225792
2 backup wm 0 - 2035 1002.09MB (2036/0/0) 2052288
3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
6 usr wm 525 - 2035 743.70MB (1511/0/0) 1523088
7 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
partition> q
format> q
#

See Chapter 28 for a detailed description of the slice information displayed in these
examples.
The following example displays the slice information on disk /dev/dsk/c0t0d0.

Administering Disks (Tasks) 345

 # format
Searching for disks...done
Specify disk (enter its number): 0
selecting c0t0d0
[disk formatted]
format> partition
partition> print
Current partition table (original):
Total disk cylinders available: 817 + 2 (reserved cylinders)

Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks

0 unassigned wm 3 - 816 6.26GB (814/0/0) 13128192
1 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
2 backup wm 0 - 816 6.28GB (817/0/0) 13176576
3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
6 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
7 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
8 boot wu 0 - 0 7.88MB (1/0/0) 16128
9 alternates wu 1 - 2 15.75MB (2/0/0) 32256
partition> q
format> q

Creating and Examining a Disk Label

Labeling a disk is usually done during system installation or when you are creating
new disk slices. You might need to relabel a disk if the disk label is corrupted (for
example, from a power failure).
The format utility will attempt to automatically configure any unlabeled SCSI disk. If
format is able to automatically configure an unlabeled disk, it will display a message
like the following:

c1t0d0:configured with capacity of 404.65MB

How to Label a Disk

1. Become superuser.

2. Enter the format utility.

# format

346 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

3. Enter the number of the disk that you want to label from the list displayed on
your screen.

Specify disk (enter its number):1

4. Use the table below to determine how to label the disk.

If the Disk Was Labeled and You Want to

If the Disk Is Unlabeled and Was Change the Type, or Format Was Not Able
Successfully Configured ... to Automatically Configure the Disk ...

Format will ask if you want to label the You must specify the disk type. Go to steps
disk. Go to step 5 to label the disk. 6-7 to set the disk type and label the disk.

5. Label the disk by typing y at the Label it now? prompt.

Disk not labeled. Label it now? y

The disk is now labeled. Go to step 10 to exit the format utility.

6. Enter type at the format> prompt.

format> type

Format displays the Available Drive Types menu.

7. Select a disk type from the list of possible disk types.

Specify disk type (enter its number)[12]: 12

8. Label the disk. If the disk is not labeled, the following message is displayed.

Disk not labeled. Label it now? y

Otherwise you are prompted with this message:

Ready to label disk, continue? y

9. Use the verify command from the format main menu to verify the disk label.

format> verify

Administering Disks (Tasks) 347

 10. Exit the format utility by typing q at the format> prompt.

partition> q
format> q
#

Example—Labeling a Disk
The following example automatically configures and labels a 1.05-Gbyte disk.

# format
c1t0d0: configured with capacity of 1002.09MB

AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:

0. c0t3d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@1,0
1. c1t0d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@1,0
Specify disk (enter its number): 1
Disk not labeled. Label it now? yes
format> verify
#

How to Examine a Disk Label

Examine disk label information by using the prtvtoc(1M) command. See Chapter
28 for a detailed description of the disk label and the information displayed by the
prtvtoc command.
1. Become superuser.

2. Display the disk label information by using the prtvtoc command.

# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/device-name

device-name Raw disk device you want to examine.

348 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Example—Examining a Disk Label
The following example shows the disk label information for disk /dev/rdsk/
c0t1d0s0.

# prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0
* /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0 partition map
*
* Dimensions:
* 512 bytes/sector
* 72 sectors/track
* 14 tracks/cylinder
* 1008 sectors/cylinder
* 2038 cylinders
* 2036 accessible cylinders
*
* Flags:
* 1: unmountable
* 10: read-only
*
* First Sector Last
* Partition Tag Flags Sector Count Sector Mount Directory
0 2 00 0 303408 303407 /
1 3 01 303408 225792 529199
2 5 00 0 2052288 2052287
6 4 00 529200 1523088 2052287 /usr
#

Recovering a Corrupted Disk Label

Sometimes a power or system failure will cause a disk’s label to become
unrecognizable. This doesn’t always mean that the slice information or the disk’s
data will have to be recreated or restored.
The first step to recovering a corrupted disk label is to label the disk with the correct
geometry and disk type information. This can be done through the normal disk
labeling method, either automatic configuration or manual disk type specification.
If format recognizes the disk type, the next step is to search for a backup label to
label the disk. Labeling the disk with the backup label will label the disk with the
correct partitioning information, the disk type, and disk geometry.

How to Recover a Corrupted Disk Label

1. Boot the system to single-user mode. If necessary, boot the system from a local
CD-ROM or the network in single-user mode to access the disk.
See Chapter 10 or Chapter 11 for information on booting the system.

Administering Disks (Tasks) 349

 2. Use the format utility to relabel the disk.

# format

At this point, format attempts to automatically configure any unlabeled SCSI

disk. If format is able to configure the unlabeled and corrupted disk, it will
display:

cwtxdy: configured with capacity of abcMB

The format utility then displays the list of disks on the system.

3. Enter the number of the disk that you need to recover from the list displayed
on your screen.

Specify disk (enter its number): 1

4. Use the table below to determine how to label the disk.

If the Disk was Successfully Configured If the Disk was not Successfully
... Configured ...

Follow steps 5 and 6. Then go to step 12. Follow steps 7-11. Then go to step 12.

5. Search for the backup label by using the verify command.

format> verify
Warning: Could not read primary label.
Warning: Check the current partitioning and ’label’ the disk or
use the ’backup’ command.
Backup label contents:
Volume name = < >
ascii name = <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
pcyl = 2038
ncyl = 2036
acyl = 2
nhead = 14
nsect = 72
Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks
0 root wm 0 - 300 148.15MB (301/0/0) 303408
1 swap wu 301 - 524 110.25MB (224/0/0) 225792
2 backup wm 0 - 2035 1002.09MB (2036/0/0) 2052288
3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0

(continued)

350 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

6 usr wm 525 - 2035 743.70MB (1511/0/0) 1523088

7 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0

6. If format was able to find a backup label and the backup label contents appear
satisfactory, use the backup command to label the disk with the backup label.

format> backup
Disk has a primary label, still continue? y

Searching for backup labels...found.

Restoring primary label

The disk label has been recovered. Go to step 12.

7. If format was not able to automatically configure the disk, specify the disk
type using the type command.

format> type

The format utility displays the Available Drives Type menu.

8. Select 0 to automatically configure the disk, or select a disk type from the list
of possible disk types.

Specify disk type (enter its number)[12]: 12

9. If the disk was successfully configured, reply with no when format asks if
you want to label the disk.

Disk not labeled. Label it now? no

10. Use the verify command to search for backup labels.

Administering Disks (Tasks) 351

 format> verify
Warning: Could not read primary label.
Warning: Check the current partitioning and ’label’ the disk
or use the ’backup’ command.
.
.
.

11. If format was able to find a backup label and the backup label contents appear
satisfactory, use the backup command to label the disk with the backup label.

format> backup
Disk has a primary label, still continue? y
Searching for backup labels...found.
Restoring primary label

The disk label has been recovered.

12. Exit the format utility by typing q.

format> q

13. Verify the file systems on the recovered disk by using the fsck command.
See Chapter 39 for information about using the fsck command.

Adding a Third-Party Disk

The Solaris environment supports many third-party disks. However, you might need
to supply either a device driver, a format.dat entry, or both of these.
If the third-party disk was designed to work with standard SunOS operating
system-compatible device drivers, creating an appropriate format.dat entry should
be enough to allow the disk to be recognized by the format utility. In other cases,
you’ll need to load a third-party device driver to support the disk.

352 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Note - Sun cannot guarantee that its format utility will work properly with all
third-party disk drivers. If the disk driver is not compatible with the Solaris format
utility, the disk drive vendor should supply you with a custom format program.

This section discusses what to do if some of this software support is missing.

Typically, this occurs when you invoke the format utility and find that the disk type
is not recognized.

Supply the missing software as described in this section, and then refer to the
appropriate configuration procedure for adding system disks or secondary disks in
Chapter 30 or Chapter 31.

Creating a format.dat Entry

Unrecognized disks cannot be formatted without precise information about the disk’s
geometry and operating parameters. This information is supplied in the
/etc/format.dat file.

Note - SCSI-2 drives do not require a format.dat entry. Starting with the Solaris
2.3 release, the format utility automatically configures the SCSI-2 drivers if the
drives are powered on during a reconfiguration boot. See “How to Automatically
Configure a SCSI Drive” on page 355 for step-by-step instructions on configuring a
SCSI disk drive automatically.

If your disk was not recognized, use a text editor to create an entry in format.dat
for the disk. You’ll need to gather all the pertinent technical specifications about the
disk and its controller before you start. This information should have been provided
with the disk. If not, contact the disk manufacturer or your supplier. See Chapter 32
for more information on adding an entry to the /etc/format.dat file.

How to Create a format.dat Entry

1. Become superuser.

2. Make a copy of the /etc/format.dat file.

# cp /etc/format.dat /etc/format.dat.gen

3. Modify the /etc/format.dat file to include an entry for the third-party disk
using the format.dat information described in Chapter 32.
Use the disk’s hardware product documentation to gather the required
information.

Administering Disks (Tasks) 353

 Automatically Configuring SCSI Disk
Drives
In Solaris 2.3 release and compatible versions, the format utility automatically
configures SCSI disk drives even if that specific type of drive is not listed in the
/etc/format.dat file. This feature enables you to format, slice, and label any disk
driver compliant with SCSI-2 specification for disk device mode sense pages.
The following steps are involved in configuring a SCSI drive using autoconfiguration:
4 Shutting down the system
4 Attaching the SCSI disk drive to the system
4 Turning on the disk drive
4 Performing a reconfiguration boot
4 Using the format utility to automatically configure the SCSI disk drive
After the reconfiguration boot, invoke the format utility. The format utility will
attempt to configure the disk and, if successful, alert the user that the disk was
configured. See “How to Automatically Configure a SCSI Drive” on page 355 for
step-by-step instructions on configuring a SCSI disk drive automatically.
Here are the default slice rules that format uses to create the partition table.

TABLE 29–2 SCSI Disk Slice Rules

Disk Size Root File System Swap Slice

0 - 180 Mbytes 16 Mbytes 16 Mbytes

180 Mbytes - 280 Mbytes 16 Mbytes 32 Mbytes

280 Mbytes - 380 Mbytes 24 Mbytes 32 Mbytes

380 Mbytes - 600 Mbytes 32 Mbytes 32 Mbytes

600 Mbytes - 1.0 Gbytes 32 Mbytes 64 Mbytes

1.0 Gbytes - 2.0 Gbytes 64 Mbytes 128 Mbytes

More than 2.0 Gbytes 128 Mbytes 128 Mbytes

In all cases, slice 6 (for the /usr file system) gets the remainder of the space on the
disk.

354 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Here’s an example of a format-generated partition table for a 1.3-Gbyte SCSI disk
drive.

Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks

0 root wm 0 - 96 64.41MB (97/0/0)
1 swap wu 97 - 289 128.16MB (193/0/0)
2 backup wu 0 - 1964 1.27GB (1965/0/0)
6 usr wm 290 - 1964 1.09GB (1675/0/0)

See Chapter 32 for more information about using SCSI automatic configuration.

How to Automatically Configure a SCSI Drive

1. Become superuser.

2. Create the /reconfigure file that will be read when the system is booted.

# touch /reconfigure

3. Shut down the system.

# shutdown -i0 -g30 -y

Brings the system down to init state 0 (zero), the power-down state.
−i0

Notifies logged-in users that they have n seconds before the system
−g30
begins to shut down.

Specifies the command should run without user intervention.

−y

The ok or > prompt is displayed after the operating environment is shut down.

4. Turn off power to the system and all external peripheral devices.

5. Make sure the disk you are adding has a different target number than the other
devices on the system.
You will often find a small switch located at the back of the disk for this purpose.

6. Connect the disk to the system and check the physical connections.
Refer to the disk’s hardware installation guide for installation details.

Administering Disks (Tasks) 355

 7. Turn on the power to all external peripherals.

8. Turn on the power to the system.

The system will boot and display the login prompt.

9. Login as superuser, invoke the format utility, and select the disk to be
configured automatically.

# format
Searching for disks...done
c1t0d0: configured with capacity of 1002.09MB
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c0t1d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@1,0
1. c0t3d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@3,0
Specify disk (enter its number): 1

10. Reply yes to the prompt to label the disk.

Replying y will cause the disk label to be generated and written to the disk by
the autoconfiguration feature.

Disk not labeled. Label it now? y

11. Verify the disk label with the verify command.

format> verify

12. Exit the format utility.

format> q

356 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Repairing a Defective Sector
If a disk on your system has a defective sector, you can repair it by using the
instructions in the following procedures. You might become aware of defective
sectors when you:
4 Run surface analysis on a disk.
See “The analyze Menu” on page 396 for more information on the analysis
functionality of the format utility.
The defective area reported while your system is running might not be accurate.
Since the system does disk operations many sectors at a time, it is often hard to
pinpoint exactly which sector caused a given error. Use “How to Identify a
Defective Sector by Using Surface Analysis” on page 357 to find the exact sector(s).
4 Get multiple error messages from the disk driver concerning a particular portion
of the disk while your system is running.
Messages related to disk errors look like the following:

WARNING: /io-unit@f,e0200000/sbi@0,0/QLGC,isp@1,10000/sd@3,0 (sd33):

Error for command ’read’ Error Level: Retryable
Requested Block 126, Error Block: 179
Sense Key: Media Error
Vendor ’name’:
ASC = 0x11 (unrecovered read error), ASCQ = 0x0, FRU = 0x0

The above console message indicates that block 179 might be bad. Relocate the
bad block by using the format utility’s repair command or use the analyze
command with the repair option enabled.

How to Identify a Defective Sector by Using

Surface Analysis
1. Become superuser.

2. Unmount the file system in the slice that contains the defective sector.
See mount(1M) for more information.

# umount /dev/dsk/device-name

3. Enter the format utility by typing format.

# format

Administering Disks (Tasks) 357

 4. Select the affected disk.

Specify disk (enter its number):1

selecting c0t2d0:
[disk formatted]
Warning: Current Disk has mounted partitions.

5. Enter the analyze menu by typing analyze at the format> prompt.

format> analyze

6. Set up the analysis parameters by typing setup at the analyze> prompt. Use
the parameters shown here:

analyze> setup
Analyze entire disk [yes]? n
Enter starting block number [0, 0/0/0]: 12330
Enter ending block number [2052287, 2035/13/71]: 12360
Loop continuously [no]? y
Repair defective blocks [yes]? n
Stop after first error [no]? n
Use random bit patterns [no]? n
Enter number of blocks per transfer [126, 0/1/54]: 1
Verify media after formatting [yes]? y
Enable extended messages [no]? n
Restore defect list [yes]? y
Create defect label [yes]? y

7. Use the read command to find the defect.

analyze> read
Ready to analyze (won’t harm SunOS). This takes a long time,
but is interruptible with Control-C. Continue? y
pass 0
2035/12/1825/7/24
pass 1
Block 12354 (18/4/18), Corrected media error (hard data ecc)
25/7/24
^C

(continued)

358 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

Total of 1 defective blocks repaired.

How to Repair a Defective Sector

1. Become superuser.

2. Enter the format utility and select the disk that contains the defective sector.

# format
Searching for disks...done
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c0t2d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@2,0
1. c0t3d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@3,0
Specify disk (enter its number): 1
selecting c0t3d0
[disk formatted]
format>

3. Enter the repair command at the format> prompt.

format> repair

4. Enter the defective block number.

Enter absolute block number of defect: 12354

Ready to repair defect, continue? y
Repairing block 12354 (18/4/18)...ok.
format>

If you are unsure of the format used to identify the defective sector, see “How to
Identify a Defective Sector by Using Surface Analysis” on page 357 for more
information.

Administering Disks (Tasks) 359

 Tips and Tricks for Managing Disks
Use the following tips to help you manage disks more efficiently.

Debugging format Sessions

Invoke format -M to enable extended and diagnostic messages for using the
format utility with SCSI devices only.
In this example, the series of numbers below Inquiry: represent the hexadecimal
value of the inquiry data displayed to the right of the numbers.

# format -M
Searching for disks...done
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c0t1d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@1,0
1. c0t3d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@3,0

Specify disk (enter its number): 0

selecting c0t3d0
[disk formatted]
format> inquiry
Inquiry:
00 00 02 02 8f 00 00 12 53 45 41 47 41 54 45 20 ........NAME....
53 54 31 31 32 30 30 4e 20 53 55 4e 31 2e 30 35 ST11200N SUN1.05
38 33 35 38 30 30 30 33 30 32 30 39 00 00 00 00 835800030209....
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00 43 6f 70 79 72 69 67 68 74 20 28 63 29 20 31 .Copyright (c) 1
39 39 32 20 53 65 61 67 61 74 65 20 41 6c 6c 20 992 NAME All
72 69 67 68 74 73 20 72 65 73 65 72 76 65 64 20 rights reserved
30 30 30 000
Vendor: name
Product: ST11200N SUN1.05
Revision: 8358
format>

Label Multiple Disks by Using the prtvtoc and

fmthard Commands
Use the prtvtoc and fmthard commands to label multiple disks with the same
disk geometry.

360 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Use this for loop in a script to copy a disk label from one disk and replicate it on
multiple disks.

# for i in x y z
> do
> prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/cwtxdysz | fmthard -s - /dev/rdsk/cwt${i}d0s2
> done

Example—Labeling Multiple Disks

In this example, the disk label from c2t0d0s0 is copied to four other disks.

# for i in 1 2 3 5
> do
> prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c2t0d0s0 | fmthard -s - /dev/rdsk/c2t${i}d0s2
> done
fmthard: New volume table of contents now in place.
fmthard: New volume table of contents now in place.
fmthard: New volume table of contents now in place.
fmthard: New volume table of contents now in place.
#

Administering Disks (Tasks) 361

362 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 30

SPARC: Adding a Disk (Tasks)

This chapter provides the procedures for adding a disk to a SPARC based system.
This is a list of the step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “SPARC: How to Connect a System Disk and Boot” on page 365
4 “SPARC: How to Connect a Secondary Disk and Boot” on page 365
4 “SPARC: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk” on page 367
4 “SPARC: How to Create File Systems” on page 371
4 “SPARC: How to Install a Boot Block on a System Disk” on page 372
For overview information about disk management, see Chapter 28. For step-by-step
instructions on adding a disk to an IA based system, see Chapter 31.

SPARC: About System and Secondary

Disks
A system disk contains the root (/) or /usr file systems, or both. If the disk
containing either of these file systems becomes damaged, you have two ways to
recover:
4 You can reinstall the entire Solaris environment.
4 Or, you can replace the system disk and restore your file systems from a backup
medium.
A secondary disk doesn’t contain the root (/) and /usr file systems. It usually
contains space for user files. You can add a secondary disk to a system for more disk

363
 space or you can replace a damaged secondary disk. If you replace a secondary disk
on a system, you can restore the old disk’s data on the new disk.

SPARC: Adding a System or Secondary

Disk Task Map
TABLE 30–1 SPARC: Adding a System or Secondary Disk Task Map

Task Description For Instructions, Go To

1. Connect the Disk and Boot System Disk “SPARC: How to Connect a
System Disk and Boot” on page
Connect the new disk and boot from a local
365
or remote Solaris CD.

Secondary Disk “SPARC: How to Connect a

Connect the new disk and perform a Secondary Disk and Boot” on
reconfiguration boot, so the system will page 365
recognize the disk.

2. Create Slices and Label Create disk slices and label the disk if it has
“SPARC: How to Create Disk
the Disk not already been done by the disk
Slices and Label a Disk” on
manufacturer.
page 367

3. Create File Systems Create UFS file systems on the disk slices
“SPARC: How to Create File
with the newfs command. You must create
Systems” on page 371
the root (/) or /usr file system (or both) for
a system disk.

4. Restore File Systems Restore the root (/) or /usr file system (or
Chapter 44
both) on the system disk. If necessary, restore
file systems on the secondary disk.

5. Install Boot Block System Disk Only. Install the boot block on the “SPARC: How to Install a Boot
root (/) file system, so the system can boot. Block on a System Disk” on
page 372

364 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

SPARC: How to Connect a System Disk and Boot
This procedure assumes that the system is shut down.
1. Disconnect the damaged system disk from the system.

2. Make sure the disk you are adding has a different target number than the other
devices on the system.
You will often find a small switch located at the back of the disk for this purpose.

3. Connect the replacement system disk to the system and check the physical
connections.
Refer to the disk’s hardware installation guide for installation details.

4. Follow the instructions in the table below depending on whether you are
booting from a local or remote Solaris CD.

If You Are Booting From ... Then ...

A Solaris CD from a local CD-ROM drive 1. Make sure the CD is in the CD-ROM drive.
2. Boot from the CD to single-user mode:
ok boot cdrom -s

A Solaris CD from a CD-ROM drive over Boot from the net to single-user mode:
the network
ok boot net -s

After a few minutes, the root prompt (#) is displayed.

Where to Go From Here

After you boot the system, you can create slices and a disk label on the disk. Go to
“SPARC: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk” on page 367.

SPARC: How to Connect a Secondary Disk and

Boot
1. Become superuser.

2. If the disk type is unsupported by the Solaris software, add the device driver
for the disk by following the instructions included with the hardware.

SPARC: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 365

 If necessary, see “How to Create a format.dat Entry” on page 353 for
information on creating a format.dat entry for the disk.

3. Create the /reconfigure file that will be read when the system is booted.

# touch /reconfigure

The /reconfigure file will cause the SunOS software to check for the presence
of any newly installed peripheral devices when you power on or boot your
system later.

4. Shut down the system.

# shutdown -i0 -g30 -y

-i0 Brings the system down to init state 0 (zero), the power-down state.

-gn Notifies logged-in users that they have n seconds before the system
begins to shut down.

-y Specifies the command should run without user intervention.

The ok or > prompt is displayed after the operating environment is shut down.

5. Turn off power to the system and all external peripheral devices.

6. Make sure the disk you are adding has a different target number than the other
devices on the system.
You will often find a small switch located at the back of the disk for this purpose.

7. Connect the disk to the system and check the physical connections.
Refer to the disk’s hardware installation guide for installation details.

8. Turn on the power to all external peripherals.

9. Turn on the power to the system.

The system will boot and display the login prompt.

Where to Go From Here

After you boot the system, you can create slices and a disk label on the disk. Go to
“SPARC: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk” on page 367.

366 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

SPARC: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a
Disk
1. Become superuser.

2. Start the format(1M) utility.

# format

A list of available disks is displayed.

3. Enter the number of the disk that you want to repartition from the list
displayed on your screen.

Specify disk (enter its number): disk-number

disk-number Is the number of the disk that you want to repartition.

4. Go into the partition menu (which lets you set up the slices).

format> partition

5. Display the current partition (slice) table.

partition> print

6. Start the modification process.

partition> modify

7. Set the disk to all free hog.

Choose base (enter number) [0]? 1

See “Using the Free Hog Slice” on page 335 for more information about the free
hog slice.

8. Create a new partition table by answering y when prompted to continue.

SPARC: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 367

 Do you wish to continue creating a new partition table based on
above table[yes]? y

9. Identify the free hog partition (slice) and the sizes of the slices when prompted.
When adding a system disk, you must set up slices for:
4 root (slice 0) and swap (slice 1) and/or
4 /usr (slice 6)
After you identify the slices, the new partition table is displayed.

10. Make the displayed partition table the current partition table by answering y
when asked.

Okay to make this the current partition table[yes]? y

If you don’t want the current partition table and you want to change it, answer
no and go to Step 6 on page 367.

11. Name the partition table.

Enter table name (remember quotes): "partition-name"

partition-name Is the name for the new partition table.

12. Label the disk with the new partition table when you have finished allocating
slices on the new disk.

Ready to label disk, continue? yes

13. Quit the partition menu.

partition> q

14. Verify the disk label using the verify command.

format> verify

368 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

15. Quit the format menu.

format> q

SPARC: Example—Creating Disk Slices and Labeling a System

Disk
The following example uses the format utility to divide a 1-Gbyte disk into three
slices: one for the root (/) file system, one for the swap area, and one for the /usr
file system.

# format
Searching for disks...done
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c0t1d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@1,0
1. c0t3d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@3,0
Specify disk (enter its number): 0
selecting c0t1d0
[disk formatted]
format> partition
partition> print
partition> modify
Select partitioning base:
0. Current partition table (original)
1. All Free Hog
Choose base (enter number) [0]? 1

Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks

0 root wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
1 swap wu 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
2 backup wu 0 - 2035 1002.09MB (2036/0/0) 2052288
3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
6 usr wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
7 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
Do you wish to continue creating a new partition
table based on above table[yes]? yes
Free Hog partition[6]? 6
Enter size of partition ‘0’ [0b, 0c, 0.00mb]: 200mb
Enter size of partition ‘1’ [0b, 0c, 0.00mb]: 200mb
Enter size of partition ‘3’ [0b, 0c, 0.00mb]:
Enter size of partition ‘4’ [0b, 0c, 0.00mb]:
Enter size of partition ‘6’ [0b, 0c, 0.00mb]:
Enter size of partition ‘7’ [0b, 0c, 0.00mb]:

Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks

0 root wm 0 - 406 200.32MB (407/0/0) 410256
1 swap wu 407 - 813 200.32MB (407/0/0) 410256
2 backup wu 0 - 2035 1002.09MB (2036/0/0) 2052288

(continued)

SPARC: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 369

 (Continuation)

3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
6 usr wm 814 - 2035 601.45MB (1222/0/0) 1231776
7 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0

Okay to make this the current partition table[yes]? yes

Enter table name (remember quotes): "disk0"
Ready to label disk, continue? yes
partition> quit
format> verify
format> quit

SPARC: Example—Creating Disk Slices and Labeling a

Secondary Disk
The following example uses the format utility to divide a 1-Gbyte disk into one
slice for the /export/home file system.

# format
Searching for disks...done
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c0t1d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@1,0
1. c0t3d0 <SUN1.05 cyl 2036 alt 2 hd 14 sec 72>
/iommu@f,e0000000/sbus@f,e0001000/espdma@f,400000/esp@f,800000/sd@3,0
Specify disk (enter its number): 0
selecting c0t1d0
[disk formatted]
format> partition
partition> print
partition> modify
Select partitioning base:
0. Current partition table (original)
1. All Free Hog
Choose base (enter number) [0]? 1

Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks

0 root wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
1 swap wu 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
2 backup wu 0 - 2035 1002.09MB (2036/0/0) 2052288
3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
6 usr wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
7 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
Do you wish to continue creating a new partition
table based on above table[yes]? y

(continued)

370 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

Free Hog partition[6]? 7

Enter size of partition ’0’ [0b, 0c, 0.00mb, 0.00gb]:
Enter size of partition ’1’ [0b, 0c, 0.00mb, 0.00gb]:
Enter size of partition ’3’ [0b, 0c, 0.00mb, 0.00gb]:
Enter size of partition ’4’ [0b, 0c, 0.00mb, 0.00gb]:
Enter size of partition ’5’ [0b, 0c, 0.00mb, 0.00gb]:
Enter size of partition ’6’ [0b, 0c, 0.00mb, 0.00gb]:
Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks
0 root wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
1 swap wu 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
2 backup wu 0 - 2035 1002.09MB (2036/0/0) 2052288
3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
6 usr wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
7 unassigned wm 0 - 2035 1002.09MB (2036/0/0) 2052288
Okay to make this the current partition table[yes]? yes
Enter table name (remember quotes): "home"
Ready to label disk, continue? y
partition> q
format> verify
format> q
#

Where to Go From Here

After you create disk slices and label the disk, you can create file systems on the
disk. Go to “SPARC: How to Create File Systems” on page 371.

SPARC: How to Create File Systems

1. Become superuser.

2. Create a file system for each slice with the newfs(1M) command.

# newfs /dev/rdsk/cwtxdysz

/dev/rdsk/cwtxdysx Raw device for the file system to be created.

See Chapter 35 for more information about the newfs command.

3. Verify the new file system by mounting it on an unused mount point.

SPARC: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 371

 # mount /dev/dsk/cwtxdysz /mnt
# ls
lost+found

Where to Go From Here

If You Are Adding A ... Then ...

System Disk You need to restore the root (/) and /usr file systems on the
disk. Go to Chapter 44.
After the root (/) and /usr file systems are restored, install
the boot block. Go to “SPARC: How to Install a Boot Block
on a System Disk” on page 372.

Secondary Disk You might need to restore file systems on the new disk. Go
to Chapter 44.

If you are not restoring file systems on the new disk, you are
finished adding a secondary disk. See Chapter 36 for
information on making the file systems available to users.

SPARC: How to Install a Boot Block on a System

Disk
1. Become superuser.

2. Install a boot block on a system disk using the installboot(1M) command.

# installboot /usr/platform/‘uname -i‘/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/cwtxdys0

/usr/platform/‘uname -i‘/lib/fs /ufs/ Boot block code.

bootblk

/dev/rdsk/cwtxdys0 Raw device of the root (/) file

system.

3. Verify the boot blocks are installed by rebooting the system to run level 3.

372 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # init 6

SPARC: Example—Installing a Boot Block on a System Disk

The following example installs the boot block on a SPARCstation 10.

# installboot /usr/platform/sun4m/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0

SPARC: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 373

374 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 31

IA: Adding a Disk (Tasks)

This chapter provides the procedures for adding a disk on an IA based system. This
is a list of the step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “IA: How to Connect a System Disk and Boot” on page 377
4 “IA: How to Connect a Secondary Disk and Boot” on page 378
4 “IA: How to Create a Solaris fdisk Partition” on page 379
4 “IA: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk” on page 386
4 “IA: How to Create File Systems” on page 388
4 “IA: How to Install a Boot Block on a System Disk” on page 389
For overview information about disk management, see Chapter 28. For step-by-step
instructions on adding a disk to a SPARC based system, see Chapter 30.

IA: About System and Secondary Disks

A system disk contains the root (/) or /usr file systems, or both. If the disk
containing either of these file systems becomes damaged, you have two ways to
recover:
4 You can reinstall the entire Solaris environment.
4 Or, you can replace the system disk and restore your file systems from a backup
medium.
A secondary disk doesn’t contain the root (/) and /usr file systems. It usually
contains space for user files. You can add a secondary disk to a system for more disk
space or you can replace a damaged secondary disk. If you replace a secondary disk
on a system, you can restore the old disk’s data on the new disk.

375
 IA: Adding a System or Secondary Disk
Task Map
TABLE 31–1 IA: Adding a System or Secondary Disk Task Map

Task Description For Instructions, Go To

1. Connect the Disk and Boot System Disk “IA: How to Connect a System
Disk and Boot” on page 377
Connect the new disk and boot from a local
or remote Solaris CD.

Secondary Disk “IA: How to Connect a

Connect the new disk and perform a Secondary Disk and Boot” on
reconfiguration boot, so the system will page 378
recognize the disk.

2. Create Slices and Label Create disk slices and label the disk if it has
“IA: How to Create a Solaris
the Disk not already been done by the disk
fdisk Partition” on page 379
manufacturer.
and “IA: How to Create Disk
Slices and Label a Disk” on
page 386

3. Create File Systems Create UFS file systems on the disk slices
“IA: How to Create File
with the newfs command. You must create
Systems” on page 388
the root (/) or /usr file system (or both) for
a system disk.

4. Restore File Systems Restore the root (/) or /usr file system (or
Chapter 44
both) on the system disk. If necessary, restore
file systems on the secondary disk.

5. Install Boot Block System Disk Only. Install the boot block on the “IA: How to Install a Boot
root (/) file system, so the system can boot. Block on a System Disk” on
page 389

IA: Guidelines for Creating an fdisk Partition

Follow these guidelines when setting up the fdisk partition.

376 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

4 The disk can be divided into a maximum of four fdisk partitions. One of these
partitions must be a Solaris partition.

4 The Solaris partition must be made the active partition on the disk. The active
partition is the one whose operating system will be booted by default at system
start-up.

4 Solaris fdisk partitions must begin on cylinder boundaries.

4 Solaris fdisk partitions must begin at cylinder 1, not cylinder 0, on the first disk
because additional boot information, including the master boot record, is written
in sector 0.

4 The Solaris fdisk partition can be the entire disk or you might want to make it
smaller to allow room for a DOS partition. You can also make a new fdisk
partition on a disk without disturbing existing partitions (if there is enough room
to create a new one).

x86 platform only - Solaris slices are sometimes called partitions. This user guide
uses the term slice, but some Solaris documentation and programs might refer to a
slice as a partition. To avoid confusion, Solaris documentation tries to distinguish
between fdisk partitions (which are supported only on SolarisTM (Intel Platform
Edition) and the divisions within the Solaris fdisk partition, which might be called
slices or partitions.

IA: How to Connect a System Disk and Boot

This procedure assumes that the system is down.
1. Disconnect the damaged system disk from the system.

2. Make sure the disk you are adding has a different target number than the other
devices on the system.
You will often find a small switch located at the back of the disk for this purpose.

3. Connect the replacement system disk to the system and check the physical
connections.
Refer to the disk’s hardware installation guide for installation details. Also, refer
to the Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Device Configuration Guide about
hardware configuration requirements specific to the disk.

4. Follow steps a-e if you are booting from a local or remote Solaris CD.
If you are booting from the network, skip step a.
a. Insert the Solaris installation CD into the CD-ROM drive.

b. Insert the Solaris boot diskette into the primary diskette drive (DOS drive
A).

IA: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 377

 c. Press any key to reboot the system if the system displays the Type any
key to reboot prompt. Or, use the reset button to restart the system if the
system is shut down.
The Boot Solaris screen is displayed after a few minutes.

d. Select the CD-ROM drive or net(work) as the boot device from the Boot
Solaris screen.
The Current Boot Parameters screen is displayed.

e. Boot the system in single-user mode.

Select the type of installation: b -s

After a few minutes, the root prompt (#) is displayed.

IA: Where to Go From Here

After you boot the system, you can create slices and a disk label on the disk. Go to
“IA: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk” on page 386.

IA: How to Connect a Secondary Disk and Boot

1. Become superuser.

2. If the disk is unsupported by the Solaris software, add the device driver for the
disk by following the instructions included with the hardware.

3. Create the /reconfigure file that will be read when the system is booted.

# touch /reconfigure

The /reconfigure file will cause the SunOS software to check for the presence
of any newly installed peripheral devices when you power on or boot your
system later.

4. Shut down the system.

# shutdown -i0 -g30 -y

378 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Brings the system down to init state 0 (zero), the power-down state.
−i0

Notifies logged-in users that they have n seconds before the system
−gn
begins to shut down.

Specifies the command should run without user intervention.

−y

The Type any key to reboot prompt is displayed.

5. Turn off power to the system and all external peripheral devices.

6. Make sure the disk you are adding has a different target number than the other
devices on the system.
You will often find a small switch located at the back of the disk for this purpose.

7. Connect the disk to the system and check the physical connections.
Refer to the disk’s hardware installation guide for installation details. Also, refer
to the Solaris 8 (Intel Platform Edition) Device Configuration Guide for hardware
configuration requirements specific to the disk.

8. Turn on the power to all external peripherals.

9. Turn on the power to the system.

The system will boot and display the login prompt.

IA: Where to Go From Here

After you boot the system, you can create slices and a disk label on the disk. Go to
“IA: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk” on page 386.

IA: How to Create a Solaris fdisk Partition

1. Make sure you have read “IA: Guidelines for Creating an fdisk Partition” on
page 376.

2. Become superuser.

3. Start the format(1M) utility.

# format

IA: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 379

 4. Enter the number of the disk on which to create a Solaris fdisk partition from
the list displayed on your screen.

Specify disk (enter its number): disk-number

disk-number Is the number of the disk on which to create a Solaris fdisk

partition.

5. Go into the fdisk menu.

format> fdisk

The fdisk menu displayed is dependent upon whether the disk has existing
fdisk partitions. Determine the next step using the following table.

If You Want To ... Go To ... See ...

Create a Solaris fdisk partition to Step 6

“IA: Example—Creating a
span the entire disk.
Solaris fdisk Partition That
Spans the Entire Drive” on
page 383

Create a Solaris fdisk partition Step 7

“IA: Example—Creating a
and preserve existing non-Solaris
Solaris fdisk Partition and
fdisk partition(s).
Preserving an Existing fdisk
Partition” on page 384

Create a Solaris fdisk partition Step 7

“IA: Example—Creating a
and additional non-Solaris fdisk
Solaris fdisk Partition and an
partition(s).
Additional fdisk Partition” on
page 385

6. Create and activate a Solaris fdisk partition spanning the entire disk by
specifying y at the prompt. Then go to step 14.

The recommended default partitioning for your disk is:

a 100% ‘‘SOLARIS System’’ partition.

(continued)

380 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

To select this, please type ‘‘y’’. To partition your disk

differently, type ‘‘n’’ and the ‘‘fdisk’’ program will
let you select other partitions. y

7. Specify n at the prompt if you do not want the Solaris fdisk partition to span
the entire disk.

To select this, please type "y". To partition your disk

differently, type "n" and the "fdisk" program will let you
select other partitions. n
Total disk size is 2694 cylinders
Cylinder size is 765 (512 byte) blocks
Cylinders
Partition Status Type Start End Length %
========= ====== ======== ===== === ====== ===
THERE ARE NO PARTITIONS CURRENTLY DEFINED SELECT ONE OF THE
FOLLOWING:

1. Create a partition
2. Change Active (Boot from) partition
3. Delete a partition
4. Exit (Update disk configuration and exit)
5. Cancel (Exit without updating disk configuration)
Enter Selection:

8. Select option 1, Create a partition, to create an fdisk partition.

Total disk size is 2694 cylinders

Cylinder size is 765 (512 byte) blocks
Cylinders
Partition Status Type Start End Length %
========= ====== ======== ===== === ====== ===
THERE ARE NO PARTITIONS CURRENTLY DEFINED SELECT ONE OF THE
FOLLOWING:

1. Create a partition
2. Change Active (Boot from) partition
3. Delete a partition
4. Exit (Update disk configuration and exit)
5. Cancel (Exit without updating disk configuration)

(continued)

IA: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 381

 (Continuation)

Enter Selection: 1

9. Create a Solaris fdisk partition by selecting 1(=Solaris).

Indicate the type of partition you want to create

(1=SOLARIS, 2=UNIX, 3=PCIXOS, 4=Other, 8=DOSBIG)
(5=DOS12, 6=DOS16, 7=DOSEXT, 0=Exit) ? 1

10. Identify the percentage of disk to be reserved for the Solaris fdisk partition.
Keep in mind the size of any existing fdisk partitions when calculating this
percentage.

Indicate the percentage of the disk you want this partition

to use (or enter "c" to specify in cylinders). nn

11. Activate the Solaris fdisk partition by typing y at the prompt.

Do you want this to become the Active partition? If so, it will be

activated each time you reset your computer or when you turn it on
again. Please type "y" or "n". y

The Enter Selection: prompt is displayed after the fdisk partition is

activated.

12. Select option 1, Create a partition, to create another fdisk partition.

See steps 9-11 for instructions on creating an fdisk partition.

13. Update the disk configuration and exit the fdisk menu from the selection
menu.

382 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Selection: 4

14. Relabel the disk using the label command.

WARNING: Solaris fdisk partition changed - Please relabel the disk

format> label
Ready to label disk, continue? yes
format>

15. Quit the format menu.

format> quit

IA: Where to Go From Here

After you create a Solaris fdisk partition on the disk, you can create slices on the
disk. Go to “IA: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk” on page 386.

IA: Example—Creating a Solaris fdisk Partition That Spans

the Entire Drive
The following example uses the format’s utility’s fdisk option to create a Solaris
fdisk partition that spans the entire drive.

# format
Searching for disks...done
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c0d0 <DEFAULT cyl 2466 alt 2 hd 16 sec 63>
/pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@0/cmdk@0,0
1. c0d1 <DEFAULT cyl 522 alt 2 hd 32 sec 63>
/pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@0/cmdk@1,0
2. c1d0 <DEFAULT cyl 13102 alt 2 hd 16 sec 63>
/pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ide@1/cmdk@0,0
Specify disk (enter its number): 0
selecting c0d0
Controller working list found
[disk formatted]
format> fdisk
The recommended default partitioning for your disk is:

a 100% "SOLARIS System" partition.

(continued)

IA: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 383

 (Continuation)

To select this, please type "y". To partition your disk

differently, type "n" and the "fdisk" program will let you
select other partitions. y

WARNING: Solaris fdisk partition changed - Please relabel the disk

format> label
Ready to label disk, continue? yes
format> quit

IA: Example—Creating a Solaris fdisk Partition and

Preserving an Existing fdisk Partition
The following example describes how to create a Solaris fdisk partition on a disk
that has an existing DOS-BIG fdisk partition.

format> fdisk
Total disk size is 2694 cylinders
Cylinder size is 765 (512 byte) blocks
Cylinders
Partition Status Type Start End Length %
========= ====== ======== ===== === ====== ===
1 DOS-BIG 1 538 538 20
SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
1. Create a partition
2. Change Active (Boot from) partition
3. Delete a partition
4. Exit (Update disk configuration and exit)
5. Cancel (Exit without updating disk configuration)
Enter Selection: 1
Indicate the type of partition you want to create
(1=SOLARIS, 2=UNIX, 3=PCIXOS, 4=Other, 8=DOSBIG)
(5=DOS12, 6=DOS16, 7=DOSEXT, 0=Exit) ?1
Indicate the percentage of the disk you want this partition
to use (or enter "c" to specify in cylinders). 80
Do you want this to become the Active partition? If so, it will be
activated each time you reset your computer or when you turn it on
again. Please type "y" or "n". y
Partition 2 is now the Active partition Total disk size is 2694
cylinders
Cylinder size is 765 (512 byte) blocks
Cylinders
Partition Status Type Start End Length %
========= ====== ======== ===== === ====== ===
1 DOS-BIG 1 538 538 20
2 Active SOLARIS 539 2693 2155 80
SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
1. Create a partition
2. Change Active (Boot from) partition

(continued)

384 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

3. Delete a partition
4. Exit (Update disk configuration and exit)
5. Cancel (Exit without updating disk configuration)
Enter Selection: Selection: 4
WARNING: Solaris fdisk partition changed - Please relabel the disk
format> label
Ready to label disk, continue? yes
format> q

IA: Example—Creating a Solaris fdisk Partition and an

Additional fdisk Partition

This following example describes how to create a Solaris fdisk partition and a
DOSBIG fdisk partition.

format> fdisk
The recommended default partitioning for your disk is:
a 100% "SOLARIS System" partition.
To select this, please type "y". To partition your disk
differently, type "n" and the "fdisk" program will let you
select other partitions. n
Total disk size is 2694 cylinders
Cylinder size is 765 (512 byte) blocks
Cylinders
Partition Status Type Start End Length %
========= ====== ======== ===== === ====== ===
THERE ARE NO PARTITIONS CURRENTLY DEFINED SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
1. Create a partition
2. Change Active (Boot from) partition
3. Delete a partition
4. Exit (Update disk configuration and exit)
5. Cancel (Exit without updating disk configuration)
Enter Selection: 1
Indicate the type of partition you want to create
(1=SOLARIS, 2=UNIX, 3=PCIXOS, 4=Other, 8=DOSBIG)
(5=DOS12, 6=DOS16, 7=DOSEXT, 0=Exit) ?8
Indicate the percentage of the disk you want this partition
to use (or enter "c" to specify in cylinders). 20
Do you want this to become the Active partition? If so, it will be
activated each time you reset your computer or when you turn it on
again. Please type "y" or "n". n
Total disk size is 2694 cylinders
Cylinder size is 765 (512 byte) blocks
Cylinders
Partition Status Type Start End Length %
========= ====== ======== ===== === ====== ===
1 DOS-BIG 1 538 538 20
SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

(continued)

IA: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 385

 (Continuation)

1. Create a partition
2. Change Active (Boot from) partition
3. Delete a partition
4. Exit (Update disk configuration and exit)
5. Cancel (Exit without updating disk configuration)Enter
Selection: 1
Indicate the type of partition you want to create
(1=SOLARIS, 2=UNIX, 3=PCIXOS, 4=Other, 8=DOSBIG)
(5=DOS12, 6=DOS16, 7=DOSEXT, 0=Exit) ?1
Indicate the percentage of the disk you want this partition
to use (or enter "c" to specify in cylinders). 80
Do you want this to become the Active partition? If so, it will be
activated each time you reset your computer or when you turn it on
again. Please type "y" or "n". y
Partition 2 is now the Active partition Total disk size is 2694
cylinders
Cylinder size is 765 (512 byte) blocks
Cylinders
Partition Status Type Start End Length %
========= ====== ======== ===== === ====== ===
1 DOS-BIG 1 538 538 20
2 Active SOLARIS 539 2693 2155 80

SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

1. Create a partition
2. Change Active (Boot from) partition
3. Delete a partition
4. Exit (Update disk configuration and exit)
5. Cancel (Exit without updating disk configuration)
Enter Selection: 4
format> q

IA: How to Create Disk Slices and Label a Disk

1. Become superuser.

2. Start the format utility.

# format

3. Enter the number of the disk that you want to repartition from the list
displayed on your screen.

Specify disk (enter its number): disk-number

386 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 disk-number Is the number of the disk that you want to repartition.

4. Go into the partition menu (which lets you set up the slices).

format> partition

5. Display the current partition (slice) table.

partition> print

6. Start the modification process.

partition> modify

7. Set the disk to all free hog.

Choose base (enter number) [0]? 1

See “Using the Free Hog Slice” on page 335 for more information about the free
hog slice.

8. Create a new partition table by answering yes when prompted to continue.

Do you wish to continue creating a new partition

table based on above table[yes]? yes

9. Identify the free hog partition (slice) and the sizes of the slices when prompted.
When adding a system disk, you must set up slices for:
4 root (slice 0) and swap (slice 1) and/or
4 /usr (slice 6)
After you identify the slices, the new partition table is displayed.

10. Make the displayed partition table the current partition table by answering
yes when asked.

IA: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 387

 Okay to make this the current partition table[yes]? yes

If you don’t want the current partition table and you want to change it, answer
no and go to Step 6 on page 387.

11. Name the partition table.

Enter table name (remember quotes): "partition-name"

partition-name Is the name for the new partition table.

12. Label the disk with the new partition table when you have finished allocating
slices on the new disk.

Ready to label disk, continue? yes

13. Quit the partition menu.

partition> quit

14. Verify the new disk label with verify command.

format> verify

15. Quit the format menu.

format> quit

IA: Where to Go From Here

After you create disk slices and label the disk, you can create file systems on the
disk. Go to “IA: How to Create File Systems” on page 388.

IA: How to Create File Systems

1. Become superuser.

2. Create a file system for each slice with the newfs(1M) command.

388 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # newfs /dev/rdsk/cwtxdysz

/dev/rdsk/cwtxdysz Raw device for the file system to be created.

See Chapter 36 for more information about the newfs command.

3. Verify the new file system by mounting it on an unused mount point.

# mount /dev/dsk/cwtxdysz /mnt

# ls /mnt
lost+found

IA: Where to Go From Here

If You Are Adding A ... Then ...

System Disk You need to restore the root (/) and /usr file systems on the
disk. Go to Chapter 44.
After the root (/) and /usr file systems are restored, install
the boot block. Go to “IA: How to Install a Boot Block on a
System Disk” on page 389.

Secondary Disk You might need to restore file systems on the new disk. Go
to Chapter 44.

If you are not restoring file systems on the new disk, you are
finished adding a secondary disk. See Chapter 36 for
information on making the file systems available to users.

IA: How to Install a Boot Block on a System Disk

1. Become superuser.

2. Install the boot block.

IA: Adding a Disk (Tasks) 389

 # installboot /usr/platform/‘uname -i‘/lib/fs/ufs/pboot /usr/platform/‘uname -i‘
/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/cwtxdys2

/usr/platform/‘uname -i‘/lib/ Is the partition boot file.

fs/ufs/pboot

/usr/platform/‘uname -i‘/lib/ Is the boot block code.

fs/ufs/bootblk

/dev/rdsk/cwtxdys2 Is the raw device name that represents the

whole disk.

3. Verify the boot blocks are installed by rebooting the system to run level 3.

# init 6

IA: Example—Installing a Boot Block on a System Disk

# installboot /usr/platform/i86pc/lib/fs/ufs/pboot
/usr/platform/i86pc/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/c0t6d0s2

390 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 32

The format Utility (Reference)

This chapter describes the format utility’s menu and commands.

This is a list of the overview information in this chapter.
4 “Requirements or Restrictions for Using the format Utility” on page 391
4 “Format Menu and Command Descriptions” on page 392
4 “Files Used by format (format.dat)” on page 399
4 “Associated format Man Pages” on page 406
4 “Rules for Input to format Commands” on page 404
See Chapter 28 for a conceptual overview of when to use the format utility.

Requirements or Restrictions for Using

the format Utility
You must be superuser to use the format utility. If you are not superuser, you will
see the following error message when you try to use format.

% format
Searching for disk...done
No permission (or no disk found)!

391
 Recommendations for Preserving
Information When Using format
4 Back up all files on the disk drive before doing anything else.
4 Save all your defect lists in files by using format’s dump command. The file name
should include the drive type, model number, and serial number.
4 Save the paper copies of the manufacturer’s defect list shipped with your drive.

Format Menu and Command

Descriptions
The format main menu looks like the following:

FORMAT MENU:
disk - select a disk
type - select (define) a disk type
partition - select (define) a partition table
current - describe the current disk
format - format and analyze the disk
repair - repair a defective sector
label - write label to the disk
analyze - surface analysis
defect - defect list management
backup - search for backup labels
verify - read and display labels
save - save new disk/partition definitions
inquiry - show vendor, product and revision
volname - set 8-character volume name
quit
format>

The table below describes the format main menu items.

392 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 32–1 The format Main Menu Item Descriptions

Command or
Item Menu? Allows You To ...

disk Command Choose the disk that will be used in subsequent

operations (known as the current disk). All of the
system’s drives are listed.

type Command Identify the manufacturer and model of the current

disk. A list of known drive types is displayed.
Choose the Auto configure option for all SCSI-2
disk drives.

partition Menu Create and modify slices. See “The partition

Menu” on page 394 for more information.

current Command Display the following information about the current

disk:
4 Device name and type
4 Number of cylinders, alternate cylinders, heads
and sectors
4 Physical device name

format Command Format the current disk, using one of these sources
of information in this order:
1. Information found in the format.dat file
2. Information from the automatic configuration
process
3. Information you enter at the prompt if there is
no format.dat entry

fdisk Menu Run the fdisk program to create a Solaris fdisk

partition.

repair Command Repair a specific block on the disk.

label Command Write a new label to the current disk.

analyze Menu Run read, write, compare tests. See “The analyze
Menu” on page 396 for more information.

defect Menu Retrieve and print defect lists. See “The defect
Menu” on page 398 for more information.

backup Command Search for backup labels.

The format Utility (Reference) 393

 TABLE 32–1 The format Main Menu Item Descriptions (continued)

Command or
Item Menu? Allows You To ...

verify Command Print the following information about the disk:

4 Device name and type
4 Number of cylinders, alternate cylinders, heads
and sectors
4 Partition table

save Command Save new disk and partition information.

inquiry Command Print the vendor, product name, and revision level
of the current drive (SCSI disks only).

volname Command Label the disk with a new eight-character volume

name.

quit Command Exit the format menu.

The partition Menu

The partition menu looks like this.

format> partition
PARTITION MENU:
0 - change ‘0’ partition
1 - change ‘1’ partition
2 - change ‘2’ partition
3 - change ‘3’ partition
4 - change ‘4’ partition
5 - change ‘5’ partition
6 - change ‘6’ partition
7 - change ‘7’ partition
select - select a predefined table
modify - modify a predefined partition table
name - name the current table
print - display the current table
label - write partition map and label to the disk
quit
partition>

The table below describes the partition menu items.

394 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 32–2 The partition Menu Item Descriptions

The Command ... Allows You To ...

change ‘x’ partition Specify new slice:

4 Identification tag
4 Permission flags
4 Starting cylinder
4 Size

select Choose a predefined slice table.

modify Change all the slices in the slice table. This command is
preferred over the individual change ‘x’ partition
commands.

name Specify a name for the current slice table.

print View the current slice table.

label Write the slice map and label to the current disk.

quit Exit the partition menu.

IA: The fdisk Menu

The fdisk menu appears on IA based systems only and looks like this.

format> fdisk
Total disk size is 1855 cylinders
Cylinder size is 553 (512 byte) blocks
Cylinders
Partition Status Type Start End Length %
========= ====== ======== ===== === ====== ===
1 DOS-BIG 0 370 371 20
2 Active SOLARIS 370 1851 1482 80

SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:

1. Create a partition
2. Change Active (Boot from) partition
3. Delete a partition
4. Exit (Update disk configuration and exit)
5. Cancel (Exit without updating disk configuration)

(continued)

The format Utility (Reference) 395

 (Continuation)

Enter Selection:

The table below describes the fdisk menu items.

TABLE 32–3 IA: The fdisk Menu Item Descriptions

The Command ... Allows You To ...

Create a partition Create an fdisk partition. You must create a separate

partition for each operating environment such as Solaris or
DOS. There is a maximum of 4 partitions per disk. You will
be prompted for the size of the fdisk partition as a
percentage of the disk.

Change Active Specify which partition will be used for booting. This
partition identifies where the first stage boot program will look for the
second stage boot program.

Delete a partition Delete a previously created partition. This command will

destroy all the data in the partition.

Exit Write a new version of the partition table and exit the fdisk
menu.

Cancel Exit the fdisk menu without modifying the partition table.

The analyze Menu

The analyze menu looks like this.

format> analyze

ANALYZE MENU:
read - read only test (doesn’t harm SunOS)
refresh - read then write (doesn’t harm data)
test - pattern testing (doesn’t harm data)
write - write then read (corrupts data)
compare - write, read, compare (corrupts data)
purge - write, read, write (corrupts data)
verify - write entire disk, then verify (corrupts data)

(continued)

396 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

print - display data buffer

setup - set analysis parameters
config - show analysis parameters
quit
analyze>

The table below describes the analyze menu items.

TABLE 32–4 The analyze Menu Item Descriptions

The Command ... Allows You To ...

read Read each sector on this disk. Repairs defective blocks as a default.

refresh Read then write data on the disk without harming the data. Repairs
defective blocks as a default.

test Write a set of patterns to the disk without harming the data. Repairs
defective blocks as a default.

write Write a set of patterns to the disk then read the data on the disk back.
Destroys existing data on the disk. Repairs defective blocks as a default.

compare Write a set of patterns to the disk, read the data back, and compare it to
the data in the write buffer. Destroys existing data on the disk. Repairs
defective blocks as a default.

purge Remove all data from the disk so that the data can’t be retrieved by
any means. Data is removed by writing three distinct patterns over the
entire disk (or section of the disk), then writing an hex-bit pattern if the
verification passes.
Repairs defective blocks as a default.

verify Write unique data to each block on the entire disk in the first pass.
Read and verify the data in the next pass. Destroys existing data on the
disk. Repairs defective blocks as a default.

print View the data in the read/write buffer.

The format Utility (Reference) 397

 TABLE 32–4 The analyze Menu Item Descriptions (continued)

The Command ... Allows You To ...

setup Specify the following analysis parameters

Analyze entire disk? yes

Starting block number: depends on drive
Ending block number: depends on drive
Loop continuously? no
Number of passes: 2
Repair defective blocks? yes
Stop after first error? no
Use random bit patterns? no
Number of blocks per transfer: 126 (0/n/nn)
Verify media after formatting? yes
Enable extended messages? no
Restore defect list? yes
Restore disk label? yes

Defaults are shown in bold.

config View the current analysis parameters.

quit Exit the analyze menu.

The defect Menu

The defect menu looks like this.

format> defect

DEFECT MENU:
primary - extract manufacturer’s defect list
grown - extract manufacturer’s and repaired defects lists
both - extract both primary and grown defects lists
print - display working list
dump - dump working list to file
quit
defect>

The table below describes the defect menu items.

398 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 32–5 The defect Menu Item Descriptions

The Command ... Allows You To ...

primary Read the manufacturer’s defect list from the disk drive and update the
in-memory defect list.

grown Read the grown defect list (defects that have been detected during
analysis) and update the in-memory defect list.

both Read both the manufacturer’s and grown defect list and update the
in-memory defect list.

print View the in-memory defect list.

dump Save the in-memory defect list to a file.

quit Exit the defect menu.

Files Used by format (format.dat)

The format data file, /etc/format.dat, contains:
4 Disk types
4 Default slice tables
The format.dat file shipped with the Solaris operating environment supports
many standard disks. If your disk drive is not listed in the format.dat file, you can
choose to add an entry for it or allow format to prompt you for the information it
needs while it is performing operations.
Adding an entry to the format.dat file can save time if the disk drive will be used
throughout your site. To use the format.dat file on other systems, copy the file to
each system that will use the specific disk drive you added to the format.dat file.
You should modify the data file for your system if you have one of the following:
4 A disk that is not supported by the Solaris operating environment
4 A disk with a slice table that is different from the Solaris operating environment
default configuration

The format Utility (Reference) 399

 Note - Do not alter default entries. If you want to alter the default entries, copy the
entry, give it a different name, and make the modification to avoid confusion.

Structure of the format.dat File

The format.dat contains specific disk drive information used by the format
utility. Three items are defined in the format.dat file:
4 Search paths
4 Disk types
4 Slice tables

Syntax of the format.dat File

The following syntax rules apply to the data file:
4 The pound sign (#) is the comment character. Any text on a line after a pound
sign is not interpreted by format.
4 Each definition in the format.dat file appears on a single logical line. If the
definition is more than one line long, all but the last line of the definition must
end with a backslash (\).
4 A definition consists of a series of assignments that have an identifier on the left
side and one or more values on the right side. The assignment operator is the
equal sign (=). The assignments within a definition must be separated by a colon
(:).
4 White space is ignored by format. If you want an assigned value to contain white
space, enclose the entire value in double quotes ("). This will cause the white
space within the quotes to be preserved as part of the assignment value.
4 Some assignments can have multiple values on the right hand side. Separate
values by a comma.

Keywords in the format.dat File

The data file contains disk definitions that are read in by format when it is started.
Each definition starts with one of the following keywords: search_path,
disk_type, and partition, which are described in the table below.

400 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 32–6 format.dat Keyword Descriptions

Keyword Use

search_path This keyword is no longer used in the format.dat file. Starting with the Solaris 2.0
release, the format utility searchs the logical device hierarchy (/dev) so there is no need
to set this keyword to find a system’s disks.

disk_type Defines the controller and disk model. Each disk_type definition contains information
concerning the physical geometry of the disk. The default data file contains definitions for
the controllers and disks that the Solaris operating environment supports. You need to add
a new disk_type only if you have an unsupported disk. You can add as many
disk_type definitions to the data file as you want.

partition Defines a slice table for a specific disk type. The slice table contains the slice information,
plus a name that lets you refer to it in format. The default data file contains default slice
definitions for several kinds of disk drives. Add a slice definition if you recreated slices on
any of the disks on your system. Add as many slice definitions to the data file as you need.

Disk Type (format.dat)

disk_type defines the controller and disk model. Each disk_type definition
contains the physical geometry of the disk. The default data file contains definitions
for the controllers and disks that the Solaris operating environment supports. You
need to add a new disk_type only if you have an unsupported disk. You can add
as many disk_type definitions to the data file as you want.
The keyword itself is assigned the name of the disk type. This name appears in the
disk’s label, and is used to identify the disk type whenever format is run. Enclose
the name in double quotes to preserve any white space in the name. The table below
describes the identifiers that must also be assigned values in all disk_type
definitions.

TABLE 32–7 Required disk_type Identifiers

Identifier Description

ctlr Valid controller type for the disk type. Currently, the supported values
for this assignment are SCSI and ISP-80 (IPI controller).

ncyl The number of data cylinders in the disk type. This determines how
many logical cylinders of the disk the system will be allowed to access.

The format Utility (Reference) 401

 TABLE 32–7 Required disk_type Identifiers (continued)

Identifier Description

acyl The number of alternate cylinders in the disk type. These cylinders are
used by format to store information such as the defect list for the drive.
You should always leave at least two cylinders for alternates.

pcyl The number of physical cylinders in the disk type. This number is used
to calculate the boundaries of the disk media. This number is usually
equal to ncyl plus acyl.

nhead The number of heads in the disk type. This number is used to calculate
the boundaries of the disk media.

nsect The number of data sectors per track in the disk type. This number is
used to calculate the boundaries of the disk media. Note that this is only
the data sectors, any spares are not reflected in the assignment.

rpm The rotations per minute of the disk type. This information is put in the
label and later used by the file system to calculate the optimal placement
of file data.

Other assignments might be necessary depending on the controller. The table below
describes the assignments required for SCSI controllers.

TABLE 32–8 disk_type Identifiers for SCSI Controllers

Identifier Description

fmt_time A number indicating how long it takes to format a given drive. See the
controller manual for more information.

cache A number that controls the operation of the onboard cache while format is
operating. See the controller manual for more information.

trks_zone A number that specified how many tracks you have per defect zone, to be
used in alternate sector mapping. See the controller manual for more
information.

asect The number assigned to this parameter specifies how many sectors are
available for alternate mapping within a given defect zone. See the controller
manual for more information.

Below are some examples of disk_type definitions:

402 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 disk_type = "SUN1.3G" \
: ctlr = SCSI : fmt_time = 4 \
: trks_zone = 17 : asect = 6 : atrks = 17 \
: ncyl = 1965 : acyl = 2 : pcyl = 3500 : nhead = 17 : nsect = 80 \
: rpm = 5400 : bpt = 44823

disk_type = "SUN2.1G" \
: ctlr = SCSI : fmt_time = 4 \
: ncyl = 2733 : acyl = 2 : pcyl = 3500 : nhead = 19 : nsect = 80 \
: rpm = 5400 : bpt = 44823

disk_type = "SUN2.9G" \
: ctlr = SCSI : fmt_time = 4 \
: ncyl = 2734 : acyl = 2 : pcyl = 3500 : nhead = 21 : nsect = 99 \
: rpm = 5400

Partition or Slice Tables (format.dat)

A partition definition keyword is assigned the name of the slice table. Enclose the
name in double quotes to preserve any white space in the name. The table below
describes the identifiers that must be assigned values in all slice tables.

TABLE 32–9 Required Identifiers for Slice Tables

Identifier Description

disk The name of the disk_type that this slice table is defined for. This name
must appear exactly as it does in the disk_type definition.

ctlr The disk controller type this slice table can be attached to. Currently, the
supported values for this assignment are ISP-80 for IPI controllers and SCSI
for SCSI controllers. The controller type specified here must also be defined
for the disk_type chosen above.

The other assignments in a slice definition describe the actual slice information. The
identifiers are the numbers 0 through 7. These assignments are optional. Any slice
not explicitly assigned is set to 0 length. The value of each of these assignments is a
pair of numbers separated by a comma. The first number is the starting cylinder for
the slice, and the second is the number of sectors in the slice. Below are some
examples of slice definitions:

partition = "SUN1.3G" \
: disk = "SUN1.3G" : ctlr = SCSI \
: 0 = 0, 34000 : 1 = 25, 133280 : 2 = 0, 2672400 : 6 = 123, 2505120

partition = "SUN2.1G" \
: disk = "SUN2.1G" : ctlr = SCSI \

(continued)

The format Utility (Reference) 403

 (Continuation)

: 0 = 0, 62320 : 1 = 41, 197600 : 2 = 0, 4154160 : 6 = 171, 3894240

partition = "SUN2.9G" \
: disk = "SUN2.9G" : ctlr = SCSI \
: 0 = 0, 195426 : 1 = 94, 390852 : 2 = 0, 5683986 : 6 = 282, 5097708

Specifing the Location of a format Data File

The format utility learns of the location of your data file by the following methods.
1. If a filename is given with the -x command line option, that file is always used as
the data file.
2. If the -x option is not specified, then format looks in the current directory for a
file named format.dat. If the file exists, it is used as the data file.
3. If neither of these methods yields a data file, format uses /etc/format.dat as
the data file. This file is shipped with the Solaris operating environment and
should always be present.

Rules for Input to format Commands

When using the format utility, you need to provide various kinds of information.
This section describes the rules for this information. See “Using format Help” on
page 406 for information on using format’s help facility when inputting data.

Inputting Numbers to format Commands

Several places in format require an integer as input. You must either specify the
data or select one from a list of choices. In either case, the help facility causes
format to print the upper and lower limits of the integer expected. Simply enter the
number desired. The number is assumed to be in decimal format unless a base is
explicitly specified as part of the number (for example, 0x for hexadecimal).
The following are examples of integer input:

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 Enter number of passes [2]: 34
Enter number of passes [34] Oxf

Specifying Block Numbers to format Commands

Whenever you are required to specify a disk block number, there are two ways to
input the information:
4 Block number as an integer
4 Block number in the cylinder/head/sector format
You can specify the information as an integer representing the logical block number.
You can specify the integer in any base, but the default is decimal. The maximum
operator (a dollar sign, $) can also be used here to let format select the appropriate
value. Logical block format is used by the SunOS disk drivers in error messages.
The other way to specify a block number is by the cylinder/head/sector designation.
In this method, you must specify explicitly the three logical components of the block
number: the cylinder, head, and sector values. These values are still logical, but they
allow you to define regions of the disk related to the layout of the media.
If any of the cylinder/head/sector numbers are not specified, the appropriate value
is assumed to be zero. You can also use the maximum operator in place of any of the
numbers and let format select the appropriate value. Below are some examples of
cylinder, head, and sector entries:

Enter defective block number: 34/2/3

Enter defective block number: 23/1/
Enter defective block number: 457//
Enter defective block number: 12345
Enter defective block number: Oxabcd
Enter defective block number: 334/$/2
Enter defective block number: 892//$

The format utility always prints block numbers, in both of the above formats. Also,
the help facility shows you the upper and lower bounds of the block number
expected, in both formats.

Specifying format Command Names

Command names are needed as input whenever format is displaying a menu
prompt. You can abbreviate the command names, as long as what you enter is
sufficient to uniquely identify the command desired.
For example, use p to enter the partition menu from the format menu. Then
enter p to display the current slice table.

The format Utility (Reference) 405

 format> p
PARTITION MENU:
0 - change ‘0’ partition
1 - change ‘1’ partition
2 - change ‘2’ partition
3 - change ‘3’ partition
4 - change ‘4’ partition
5 - change ‘5’ partition
6 - change ‘6’ partition
7 - change ‘7’ partition
select - select a predefined table
modify - modify a predefined partition table
name - name the current table
print - display the current table
label - write partition map and label to the disk
quit
partition> p

Specifying Disk Names to format Commands

There are certain times in format when you must name something. In these cases,
you are free to specify any string you want for the name. If the name has white
space in it, the entire name must be enclosed in double quotes ("). Otherwise, only
the first word of the name is used.

Using format Help

The format utility provides a help facility you can use whenever format is
expecting input. You can request help about what information is expected by
entering a question mark (?). The format utility displays a brief description of what
type of input is needed.
If you enter a ? at a menu prompt, a list of available commands is displayed.

Associated format Man Pages

The man pages associated with the format utility is format(1M), which describes
the basic format utility capabilities and provides descriptions of all command line
variables, and format.dat(4), which describes disk drive configuration information
for the format utility.

406 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 33

Managing File Systems Topics

This section provides instructions for managing file systems in the Solaris operating
environment. This section contains these chapters.

Provides a high-level overview of file system concepts,

Chapter 34
including descriptions of the types of file systems,
commonly used administration commands, and the
basics of mounting and unmounting file systems.

Provides step-by-step procedures to create a UFS file

Chapter 35
system, create and preserve a temporary file system
(TMPFS), and create a loopback file system (LOFS).

Provides step-by-step procedures to determine what file

Chapter 36
systems are mounted, how to mount files listed in the /
etc/vfstab file, and how to mount UFS, NFS, and
PCFS (DOS) file systems.

Provides overview information and step-by-step

Chapter 37
instructions for using the Cache File System (CacheFSTM ).

Provides step-by-step procedures for configuring

Chapter 38
additional swap space, monitoring swap resources,
creating swap files and making them available, and
removing extra swap space.

407
 Provides information on how the file system state is
Chapter 39
recorded, what is checked by the fsck program, how to
modify automatic boot checking, and how to use the
fsck program.

Provides file system reference information, including

Chapter 40
default directories for the root (/) and /usr file
systems, default directories contained within the /
kernel directory, and specifics for the mkfs and newfs
commands.

408 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 34

Managing File Systems (Overview)

This is a list of the overview information in this chapter.

4 “What’s New in File Systems?” on page 409
4 “Types of File Systems” on page 416
4 “File System Administration Commands” on page 419
4 “The Default Solaris File Systems” on page 421
4 “Swap Space” on page 422
4 “The UFS File System” on page 423
4 “Mounting and Unmounting File Systems” on page 425
4 “Determining a File System’s Type” on page 430

What’s New in File Systems?

This section describes new file system features.

The /var/run File System

A new TMPFS-mounted file system, /var/run, is the repository for temporary
system files that are not needed across system reboots in this Solaris release and
future releases. The /tmp directory continues to be repository for non-system
temporary files.

409
 Because /var/run is mounted as a memory-based file system rather than a
disk-based file system, updates to this directory do not cause unnecessary disk traffic
that would interfere with systems running power management software.
The /var/run directory requires no administration. You may notice that it is not
unmounted with the umount -a or the umountall command.
For security reasons, /var/run is owned by root.

Mount Table Changes (/etc/mnttab)

In previous Solaris releases, /etc/mnttab was a text-based file that stored
information about mounted file systems. The downside of being a file was that it
could get out of sync with the actual state of mounted file systems.
Now the /etc/mnttab file is a MNTFS file system that provides read-only
information directly from the kernel about mounted file systems for the local system.
Note the following mnttab behavior changes:
4 Programs or scripts attempting to write to /etc/mnttab will fail.
4 The mount -m option for faking mnttab entries no longer works.
No administration is required for the /etc/mnttab mount table.
See mnttab(4) for more information.

Using the Universal Disk Format (UDF)

File System
The UDF file system, the industry-standard format for storing information on the
optical media technology called DVD (Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc), is
included in this Solaris release.
The UDF file system is provided as dynamically loadable, 32–bit and 64–bit modules,
with system administration utilities for creating, mounting, and checking the file
system on both SPARC and IA platforms. The Solaris UDF file system works with
supported ATAPI and SCSI DVD drives, CD-ROM devices, and disk and diskette
drives. In addition, the Solaris UDF file system is fully compliant with the UDF 1.50
specification.
The UDF file system support is provided in the following new packages:
4 SUNWudfr — 32–bit kernel component
4 SUNWudfrx — 64–bit kernel component

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4 SUNWudf — /usr component

UDF Features and Benefits

In this Solaris release, the UDF file system provides the following features:
4 Ability to access the industry standard CD-ROM and DVD-ROM media when they
contain a UDF file system.
4 Flexibility in exchanging information across platforms and operating systems.
4 A mechanism for implementing new applications rich in broadcast-quality video,
high-quality sound along with the richness in interactivity using the DVD video
specification based on UDF format.
The following features are not included in this UDF file system release:
4 Support for write-once media, CD-RW, and DVD-RAM, with either the sequential
disk-at-once and incremental recording.
4 UFS components such as quotas, ACLs, transaction logging, file system locking,
and file system threads, which are not part of the UDF 1.50 specification.

Hardware and Software Requirements

The UDF file system requires the following:
4 The Solaris 7 11/99 or the Solaris 8 release
4 Supported SPARC or Intel platforms
4 Supported CD-ROM or DVD-ROM device

UDF Compatibility Issues

This first Solaris UDF file system implementation provides:
4 Support for industry-standard read-write UDF version 1.50.
4 Fully internationalized file system utilities.

How to Connect a DVD-ROM Device

1. Become superuser.

2. Create the /reconfigure file.

# touch /reconfigure

Managing File Systems (Overview) 411

 3. Shut down the system and turn off power.

# init 0

4. Connect the DVD-ROM device.

5. Turn on power to the system.

How to Access Files on a DVD-ROM Device

1. Verify the DVD-ROM device is automatically mounted.

$ ls /cdrom

Note - If the system has both a CD-ROM and DVD-ROM device, the CD-ROM
might be named /cdrom/cdrom0 and the DVD-ROM might be named
/cdrom/cdrom1. If the system only has a DVD-ROM device, then try using
/cdrom/cdrom0.

2. Display content with ls command.

$ ls /cdrom/cdrom1
Copyright filea fileb

Automatic display with the CDE file manager is not implemented yet. All other
CDE file manager functions—drag and drop for copying and imagetool
features—are available.

How to Display UDF File System Parameters

Display UDF file system parameters by using the mkfs command.
1. Become superuser.

2. Display UDF file system parameters.

412 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # mkfs -F udfs -m /dev/rdsk/device-name

How to Create a UDF File System

Create a UDF file system by using the mkfs command.
1. Become superuser.

2. Create a UDF file system.

# mkfs -F udfs /dev/rdsk/device-name

3. Verify the UDF file system is created by mounting it. See “How to Mount a
UDF File System” on page 414 for more information.

See mkfs_udfs(1M) for more information.

How to Identify the UDF File System Type

Identify the UDF file system type by using the fstyp command.
1. Become superuser.

2. Determine whether a file system is a UDF file system.

# fstyp -v /rdev/dsk/device-name

How to Check a UDF File System

Check the integrity of a UDF file system by using the fsck command.
1. Become superuser.

2. Check a UDF file system.

# fsck -F udfs /dev/rdsk/device-name

See fsck_udfs(1M) for more information.

Managing File Systems (Overview) 413

 How to Mount a UDF File System
Mount a UDF file system.
1. Become superuser.

2. Mount a UDF file system.

# mount -F udfs /dev/dsk/device-name /mount-point

3. Verify the UDF file system is mounted.

# ls /mount-point

See mount_udfs(1M) for more information.

How to Unmount a UDF File System

Unmount a UDF file system.
1. Become superuser.

2. Unmount a UDF file system.

# umount /dev/dsk/device-name

How to Label a Device with a UDF File System

and Volume Name
Create a file system and volume name for a UDF file system.
1. Become superuser.

2. Create a file system and volume name for the UDF file system.

# labelit -F UDFS /dev/rdsk/device-name fsname volume

See labelit_udfs(1M) for more information.

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Overview of File Systems
A file system is a structure of directories used to organize and store files. The term
file system is used to describe:
4 A particular type of file system: disk-based, network-based, or virtual
4 The entire file tree from the root directory downward
4 The data structure of a disk slice or other media storage device
4 A portion of a file tree structure that is attached to a mount point on the main file
tree so that it is accessible
Usually, you can tell from context which meaning is intended.
The Solaris operating environment uses the virtual file system (VFS) architecture,
which provides a standard interface for different file system types. The VFS
architecture enables the kernel to handle basic operations, such as reading, writing,
and listing files; and makes it easier to add new file systems.
Administering file systems is one of your most important system administration
tasks. Read this chapter for file system background and planning information. Refer
to other chapters in the System Administration Guide for instructions about the
following tasks:

For This Task ... See ...

Creating new file systems

Chapter 35 and Chapter 37

Making local and remote files available to

Chapter 36
users

Connecting and configuring new disk

Chapter 28
devices

Designing and implementing a backup

Chapter 42
schedule and restoring files and file systems
as needed

Checking for and correcting file system

Chapter 39
damage

Managing File Systems (Overview) 415

 Types of File Systems
The Solaris operating environment supports three types of file systems:
4 Disk-based
4 Network-based
4 Virtual
To identify the type for a particular file system, see “Determining a File System’s
Type” on page 430.

Disk-Based File Systems

Disk-based file systems are stored on physical media such as hard disks, CD-ROMs,
and diskettes. Disk-based file systems can be written in different formats. The
available formats are:

Disk-Based File
System Format Description

UFS UNIX file system (based on the BSD Fast File system that was
provided in the 4.3 Tahoe release). UFS is the default disk-based
file system for the Solaris operating environment.
Before you can create a UFS file system on a disk, the disk must
be formatted and divided into slices. See Chapter 28 for complete
information on formatting disks and dividing disks into slices.

HSFS High Sierra, Rock Ridge, and ISO 9660 file system. High Sierra is
the first CD-ROM file system; ISO 9660 is the official standard
version of the High Sierra File System. The HSFS file system is
used on CD-ROMs, and is a read-only file system. Solaris HSFS
supports Rock Ridge extensions to ISO 9660, which, when present
on a CD-ROM, provide all UFS file system features and file types
except for writability and hard links.

PCFS PC file system, which allows read/write access to data and

programs on DOS-formatted disks written for DOS-based personal
computers.

UDF The UDF file system, the industry-standard format for storing
information on the optical media technology called DVD (Digital
Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc).

Each type of disk-based file system is customarily associated with a particular media
device:

416 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

4 UFS with hard disk
4 HSFS with CD-ROM
4 PCFS with diskette
4 UDF with DVD
These associations are not, however, restrictive. For example, CD-ROMs and
diskettes can have UFS file systems created on them.

Network-Based File Systems

Network-based file systems can be accessed over the network. Typically,
network-based file systems reside on one system, typically a server, and are accessed
by other systems across the network. NFSTM is the only available network-based or
distributed computing file system.
With NFS, you can administer distributed resources (files or directories) by exporting
them from a server and mounting them on individual clients. See “The NFS
Environment” on page 428 for more information.

Virtual File Systems

Virtual file systems are memory-based file systems that provide access to special
kernel information and facilities. Most virtual file systems do not use file system disk
space. However, the Cache File System (CacheFS) uses a file system on the disk to
contain the cache, and some virtual file systems, such as the Temporary File System
(TMPFS), use the swap space on a disk.

The Cache File System

The Cache File System (CacheFSTM ) can be used to improve performance of remote
file systems or slow devices such as CD-ROM drives. When a file system is cached,
the data read from the remote file system or CD-ROM is stored in a cache on the
local system. See Chapter 37 for detailed information on setting up and
administering CacheFS File Systems.

The Temporary File System

The Temporary File System (TMPFS) uses local memory for file system reads and
writes, which is typically much faster than a UFS file system. Using TMPFS can
improve system performance by saving the cost of reading and writing temporary
files to a local disk or across the network. For example, temporary files are created
when you compile a program, and the operating system generates a lot of disk or

Managing File Systems (Overview) 417

 network activity while manipulating these files. Using TMPFS to hold these
temporary files can significantly speed up their creation, manipulation, and deletion.
Files in TMPFS file systems are not permanent. They are deleted when the file
system is unmounted and when the system is shut down or rebooted.
TMPFS is the default file system type for the /tmp directory in the Solaris operating
environment. You can copy or move files into or out of the /tmp directory, just as
you would in a UFS file system.
The TMPFS file system uses swap space as a temporary backing store. If a system
with a TMPFS file system does not have adequate swap space, two problems can
occur:
4 The TMPFS file system can run out of space, just as a regular file system can fill
up.
4 Because TMPFS allocates swap space to save file data (if necessary), some
programs might not execute because there is not enough swap space.
See Chapter 35 for information about creating TMPFS file systems. See Chapter 38
for information about increasing swap space.

The Loopback File System

The Loopback File System (LOFS) lets you create a new virtual file system, so you
can access files by using an alternative path name. For example, you can create a
loopback mount of root (/) on /tmp/newroot, which will make the entire file
system hierarchy look like it is duplicated under /tmp/newroot, including any file
systems mounted from NFS servers. All files will be accessible either with a path
name starting from root (/), or with a path name starting from /tmp/newroot.
See Chapter 35 for information on how to create LOFS file systems.

The Process File System

The Process File System (PROCFS) resides in memory. It contains a list of active
processes, by process number, in the /proc directory. Information in the /proc
directory is used by commands like ps. Debuggers and other development tools can
also access the address space of the processes by using file system calls.

Caution - Do not delete the files in the /proc directory. Deleting processes from the
/proc directory will not kill them. Remember, /proc files do not use disk space, so
there is little reason to delete files from this directory.

The /proc directory does not require system administration.

418 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Additional Virtual File Systems
These additional types of virtual file systems are listed for your information. They do
not require administration.

Virtual File System Description

FIFOFS (first-in first-out) Named pipe files that give processes common access to
data

FDFS (file descriptors) Provides explicit names for opening files using file
descriptors

NAMEFS Used mostly by STREAMS for dynamic mounts of file

descriptors on top of files

SPECFS (special) Provides access to character special and block devices

SWAPFS File system used by the kernel for swapping

File System Administration Commands

Most file system administration commands have both a generic and a file
system–specific component. You should use the generic commands whenever
possible, which call the file system–specific component. The table below lists the
generic file system administrative commands, which are located in the /usr/sbin
directory.

TABLE 34–1 Generic File System Administrative Commands

Command Description

Clears inodes
clri(1M)

Reports the number of free disk blocks and files

df(1M)

Lists file names and statistics for a file system

ff(1M)

Managing File Systems (Overview) 419

 TABLE 34–1 Generic File System Administrative Commands (continued)

Command Description

Checks the integrity of a file system and repairs any damage

fsck(1M) found

Debugs the file system

fsdb(1M)

Determines the file system type

fstyp(1M)

Lists or provides labels for file systems when copied to tape (for
labelit(1M) use by the volcopy command only)

Makes a new file system

mkfs(1M)

Mounts local and remote file systems

mount(1M)

Mounts all file systems specified in the virtual file system table
mountall(1M) (/etc/vfstab)

Generates a list of path names with their i-numbers

ncheck(1M)

Unmounts local and remote file systems

umount(1M)

Unmounts all file systems specified in a virtual file system table

umountall(1M) (/etc/vfstab)

Makes an image copy of a file system

volcopy(1M)

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How the File System Commands Determine the
File System Type
The generic file system commands determine the file system type by following this
sequence:
1. From the −F option, if supplied.
2. By matching a special device with an entry in /etc/vfstab file (if special is
supplied). For example, fsck first looks for a match against the fsck device
field; if no match is found, it then checks the special device field.
3. By using the default specified in /etc/default/fs for local file systems and in
/etc/dfs/fstypes for remote file systems.

Manual Pages for Generic and Specific Commands

Both the generic and specific commands have manual pages in the man Pages(1M):
System Administration Commands. The specific manual page is a continuation of the
generic manual page. To look at a specific manual page, append an underscore and
the file system type abbreviation to the generic command name. For example, to see
the specific manual page for mounting a UFS file system, type man mount_ufs.

The Default Solaris File Systems

The Solaris file system is hierarchical, starting with the root directory (/) and
continuing downwards through a number of directories. The Solaris installation
process enables you to install a default set of directories and uses a set of
conventions to group similar types of files together. The table below provides a
summary of the default Solaris file systems, and shows the type of each file system.
The root (/) and /usr file systems are both needed to run a system. Some of the
most basic commands from the /usr file system (like mount) are included in the
root (/) file system so that they are available when the system boots or is in
single-user mode and /usr is not mounted. See Chapter 40 for more detailed
information on the default directories for the root (/) and /usr file systems.

Managing File Systems (Overview) 421

 TABLE 34–2 The Default Solaris File Systems

File System or File System

Directory Type Description

root (/) UFS The top of the hierarchical file tree. The root directory
contains the directories and files critical for system
operation, such as the kernel, the device drivers, and
the programs used to boot the system. It also contains
the mount point directories where local and remote
file systems can be attached to the file tree.

/usr UFS System files and directories that can be shared with
other users. Files that run only on certain types of
systems are in the /usr directory (for example,
SPARC executables). Files (such as man pages) that can
be used on all types of systems are in /usr/share.

/export/home NFS, UFS The mount point for users’ home directories, which
or /home store users work files. By default /home is an
automounted file system. On standalone systems, /
home might be a UFS file system on a local disk slice.

/var UFS System files and directories that are likely to change or
grow over the life of the local system. These include
system logs, vi and ex backup files, and uucp files.

/opt NFS, UFS Mount point for optional, third-party software. On

some systems, /opt might be a UFS file system on a
local disk slice.

/tmp TMPFS Temporary files, cleared each time the system is

booted or the /tmp file system is unmounted.

/proc PROCFS A list of active processes, by number.

Swap Space
The Solaris operating environment uses some disk slices for temporary storage rather
than for file systems. These slices are called swap slices, or swap space. Swap space is
used as virtual memory storage areas when the system does not have enough
physical memory to handle current processes.

422 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Since many applications rely on swap space, it is important to know how to plan for,
monitor, and add more swap space when needed. For an overview about swap space
and instructions for adding swap space, see Chapter 38.

The UFS File System

UFS is the default disk-based file system in Solaris operating environment. Most of
the time, when you administer a disk-based file system, you will be administering
UFS file systems. UFS provides the following features:

UFS Feature Description

State flags Show the state of the file system: clean, stable, active,
logging, or unknown. These flags eliminate unnecessary
file system checks. If the file system is “clean,” “stable,”
or “logging,” file system checks are not run.

Extended fundamental types 32-bit user ID (UID), group ID (GID), and device numbers.
(EFT)

Large file systems A UFS file system can be as large as 1 Tbyte (terabyte).
The Solaris operating environment does not provide
striping, which is required to make a logical slice large
enough for a 1-Tbyte file system. However, the SolsticeTM
DiskSuiteTM software, available from Sun, provides this
capability.

Large files By default, a UFS file system can have regular files larger
than 2 Gbytes (gigabytes). You must explicitly use the
nolargefiles mount option to enforce a 2 Gbyte
maximum file size limit. This limit was removed in the
Solaris 2.6 release.

See Chapter 40 for detailed information about the UFS file system.

Parts of a UFS File System

When you create a UFS file system, the disk slice is divided into cylinder groups,
which are made up of one or more consecutive disk cylinders. The cylinder groups
are then further divided into addressable blocks to control and organize the structure
of the files within the cylinder group. Each type of block has a specific function in
the file system. See “The Structure of UFS File System Cylinder Groups” on page 538
for more detailed information about each type of block.

Managing File Systems (Overview) 423

 If you want to customize a file system using arguments with the newfs command or
the mkfs command, see Chapter 40 for information about altering these parameters.

UFS Logging
UFS logging is the process of storing transactions (changes that make up a complete
UFS operation) in a log before the transactions are applied to the UFS file system.
Once a transaction is stored, the transaction can be applied to the file system later.
At reboot, the system discards incomplete transactions, but applies the transactions
for completed operations. The file system remains consistent because only completed
transactions are ever applied. This is true even when a system crashes, which
normally interrupts system calls and introduces inconsistencies into a UFS file
system.
UFS logging provides two advantages. It prevents file systems from becoming
inconsistent, therefore eliminating the need to run fsck. And, because fsck can be
bypassed, UFS logging reduces the time required to reboot a system if it crashes, or
after an unclean halt (see “What fsck Checks and Tries to Repair” on page 510 for
details on unclean halts). UFS logging can significantly reduce the boot time on
systems that have large file systems, which usually take a long time to read and
verify with fsck.
The log created by UFS logging is continually flushed as it fills up. The log is totally
flushed when the file system is unmounted or as a result of the lockfs -f
command.
UFS logging is not enabled by default. To enable UFS logging, you must specify the
−o logging option with the mount command in the /etc/vfstab file or when
mounting the file system. The log is allocated from free blocks on the file system,
and it is sized approximately 1 Mbyte per 1 Gbyte of file system, up to a maximum
of 64 Mbytes. Logging can be enabled on any UFS, including the root (/) file system.
Also, the fsdb command has been updated with new debugging commands to
support UFS logging.

Planning UFS File Systems

When laying out file systems, you need to consider possible conflicting demands.
Here are some suggestions:
4 Distribute the work load as evenly as possible among different I/O systems and
disk drives. Distribute /export/home and swap space evenly across disks.
4 Keep pieces of projects or members of groups within the same file system.
4 Use as few file systems per disk as possible. On the system (or boot) disk, you
should have three file systems: /, /usr, and swap space. On other disks, create
one or, at most, two file systems; one being additional swap space, preferably.

424 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Fewer, roomier file systems cause less file fragmentation than many small,
over-crowded file systems. Higher-capacity tape drives and the ability of ufsdump
to handle multiple volumes make it easier to back up larger file systems.
4 If you have some users who consistently create very small files, consider creating a
separate file system with more inodes. However, most sites do not need to be
concerned about keeping similar types of user files in the same file system.
See Chapter 35 for information on default file system parameters as well as
procedures for creating new UFS file systems.

Mounting and Unmounting File Systems

Before you can access the files on a file system, you need to mount the file system.
Mounting a file system attaches that file system to a directory (mount point) and
makes it available to the system. The root (/) file system is always mounted. Any
other file system can be connected or disconnected from the root (/) file system.
When you mount a file system, any files or directories in the underlying mount point
directory are unavailable as long as the file system is mounted. These files are not
permanently affected by the mounting process, and they become available again
when the file system is unmounted. However, mount directories are typically empty,
because you usually do not want to obscure existing files.
For example, the figure below shows a local file system, starting with a root (/) file
system and subdirectories sbin, etc, and opt.

Managing File Systems (Overview) 425

 /

sbin etc opt

fs opt SUNWleo
mount

rc0

shutdown group
ufs
system

ttydefs
mount

Figure 34–1 Sample root (/) File System

Now, say you wanted to access a local file system from the /opt file system that
contains a set of unbundled products.
First, you must create a directory to use as a mount point for the file system you
want to mount, for example, /opt/unbundled. Once the mount point is created,
you can mount the file system (by using the mount command), which makes all of
the files and directories in /opt/unbundled available, as shown in the figure below.
See Chapter 36 for detailed instructions on how to perform these tasks.

/
Mount Point

File System
sbin etc opt

fs opt SUNWleo unbundled

mount
rc0
group app1 app2
shutdown
ufs
system file1 file1

ttydefs file2 file2

mount
file3 file3

Figure 34–2 Mounting a File System

426 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 The Mounted File System Table
Whenever you mount or unmount a file system, the /etc/mnttab (mount table) file
is modified with the list of currently mounted file systems. You can display the
contents of this file with the cat or more commands, but you cannot edit it. Here is
an example of an /etc/mnttab file:

$ more /etc/mnttab
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 / ufs rw,intr,largefiles,onerror=panic,suid,dev=2200000 938557523
/proc /proc proc dev=3180000 938557522
fd /dev/fd fd rw,suid,dev=3240000 938557524
mnttab /etc/mnttab mntfs dev=3340000 938557526
swap /var/run tmpfs dev=1 938557526
swap /tmp tmpfs dev=2 938557529
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7 /export/
home ufs rw,intr,largefiles,onerror=panic,suid,dev=2200007 938557529
$

The Virtual File System Table

It would be a very time-consuming and error-prone task to manually mount file
systems every time you wanted to access them. To fix this, the virtual file system
table (the /etc/vstab file) was created to maintain a list of file systems and how to
mount them. The /etc/vfstab file provides two important features: you can
specify file systems to automatically mount when the system boots, and you can
mount file systems by using only the mount point name, because the /etc/vfstab
file contains the mapping between the mount point and the actual device slice name.
A default /etc/vfstab file is created when you install a system depending on the
selections you make when installing system software; however, you can edit the
/etc/vfstab file on a system whenever you want. To add an entry, the main
information you need to specify is the device where the file system resides, the name
of the mount point, the type of the file system, whether you want it to mount
automatically when the system boots (by using the mountall command), and any
mount options.
The following is an example of an /etc/vfstab file. Comment lines begin with #.
This example shows an /etc/vfstab file for a system with two disks (c0t0d0 and
c0t3d0).

$ more /etc/vfstab
#device device mount FS fsck mount mount
#to mount to fsck point type pass at boot options
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 / ufs 1 no -
/proc - /proc proc - no -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s1 - - swap - no -
swap - /tmp tmpfs - yes -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s6 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6 /usr ufs 2 no -
/dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7 /test ufs 2 yes -

(continued)

Managing File Systems (Overview) 427

 (Continuation)

In the above example, the last entry specifies that a UFS file system on the
/dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 slice will be automatically mounted on the /test mount
point when the system boots. Note that, for root (/) and /usr, the mount at boot
field value is specified as no, because these file systems are mounted by the kernel as
part of the boot sequence before the mountall command is run.
See Chapter 36 for descriptions of each of the /etc/vfstab fields and information
on how to edit and use the file.

The NFS Environment

NFS is a distributed file system service that can be used to share resources (files or
directories) from one system, typically a server, with other systems across the
network. For example, you might want to share third-party applications or source
files with users on other systems.
NFS makes the actual physical location of the resource irrelevant to the user. Instead
of placing copies of commonly used files on every system, NFS allows you to place
one copy on one system’s disk and let all other systems access it across the network.
Under NFS, remote files are virtually indistinguishable from local ones.
A system becomes an NFS server if it has resources to share over the network. A
server keeps a list of currently shared resources and their access restrictions (such as
read/write or read-only).
When you share a resource, you make it available for mounting by remote systems.
You can share a resource in these ways:
4 By using the share or shareall command
4 By adding an entry to the /etc/dfs/dfstab (distributed file system table) file
and rebooting the system
See Chapter 36 for information on how to share resources. See System Administration
Guide, Volume 3 for a complete description of NFS.

428 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

AutoFS
You can mount NFS file system resources by using a client-side service called
automounting (or AutoFS), which enables a system to automatically mount and
unmount NFS resources whenever you access them. The resource remains mounted
as long as you remain in the directory and are using a file. If the resource is not
accessed for a certain period of time, it is automatically unmounted.
AutoFS provides the following features:
4 NFS resources don’t need to be mounted when the system boots, which saves
booting time.
4 Users don’t need to know the root password to mount and unmount NFS
resources.
4 Network traffic might be reduced, since NFS resources are only mounted when
they are in use.
The AutoFS service is initialized by automount, which is run automatically when a
system is booted. The automount daemon, automountd, runs continuously and is
responsible for the mounting and unmounting of the NFS file systems on an
as-needed basis. By default, the Solaris operating environment automounts /home.
AutoFS works with file systems specified in the name service. This information can be
maintained in NIS, NIS+, or local /etc files. With AutoFS, you can specify multiple
servers to provide the same file system. This way, if one of the servers is down,
AutoFS can try to mount from another machine. You can specify which servers are
preferred for each resource in the maps by assigning each server a weighting factor.
See System Administration Guide, Volume 3 for complete information on how to set
up and administer AutoFS.

The Cache File System (CacheFS)

If you want to improve the performance and scalability of an NFS or CD-ROM file
system, you should use the Cache File System (CacheFS). CacheFS is a general
purpose file system caching mechanism that improves NFS server performance and
scalability by reducing server and network load.
Designed as a layered file system, CacheFS provides the ability to cache one file
system on another. In an NFS environment, CacheFS increases the client per server
ratio, reduces server and network loads, and improves performance for clients on
slow links, such as Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP). You can also combine CacheFS
with the AutoFS service to help boost performance and scalability.
See Chapter 37 for detailed information about CacheFS.

Managing File Systems (Overview) 429

 Deciding How to Mount File Systems
The table below provides guidelines on mounting file systems based on how you use
them.

TABLE 34–3 Determining How to Mount File Systems

If You Need to Mount ... Then You Should Use ...

Local or remote file systems infrequently The mount command entered manually
from the command line.

Local file systems frequently The /etc/vfstab file, which will mount
the file system automatically when the
system is booted in multi-user state.

Remote file systems frequently, such as home 4 The /etc/vfstab file, which will
directories automatically mount the file system
when the system is booted in multi-user
state.
4 AutoFS, which will automatically mount
or unmount the file system when you
change into (mount) or out of (unmount)
the directory.
To enhance performance, you can also cache
the remote file systems by using CacheFS.

You can mount a CD-ROM containing a file system by simply inserting it into the
drive (Volume Management will automatically mount it). You can mount a diskette
containing a file system by inserting it into the drive and running the volcheck
command. See Chapter 14 for more information.

Determining a File System’s Type

You can determine a file system’s type by using the following:
4 The FS type field in the virtual file system table (/etc/vfstab file)
4 The /etc/default/fs file for local file systems
4 The /etc/dfs/fstypes file for NFS file systems

How to Determine a File System’s Type

This procedure works whether the file system is mounted or not.

430 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Determine a file system’s type by using the grep command.

$ grep mount-point fs-table

mount-point Specifies the mount point name of the file system for
which you want to know the type. For example, the /
var directory.

fs-table Specifies the absolute path to the file system table in

which to search for the file system’s type. If the file
system is mounted, fs-table should be /etc/mnttab.
If it isn’t mounted, fs-table should be /etc/vfstab.

Information for the mount point is displayed.

Note - If you have the raw device name of a disk slice, you can use the fstyp(1M)
command to determine a file system’s type (if the disk slice contains a file system).

Example—Determining a File System’s Type

The following example uses the /etc/vfstab to determine the type of the
/export file system.

$ grep /export /etc/vfstab

/dev/dsk/c0t3d0s6 /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s6 /export ufs 2 yes -
$

The following example uses the /etc/mnttab file to determine the file system type
of the currently mounted diskette (mounted by volume management).

$ grep /floppy /etc/mnttab

/vol/dev/diskette0/unnamed_floppy /floppy/
unnamed_floppy pcfs rw,nohidden,
nofoldcase,dev=16c0009 89103376
$

Managing File Systems (Overview) 431

432 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 35

Creating File Systems (Tasks)

This chapter describes how to create UFS, TMPFS, and LOFS file systems. For UFS
file systems, this chapter shows you how to create a file system on a hard disk using
the newfs command. Because TMPFS and LOFS are virtual file systems, you
actually “access” them by mounting them.
This is a list of the step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “How to Create a UFS File System” on page 435
4 “How to Create a TMPFS File System” on page 437
4 “How to Create a LOFS File System” on page 438

Note - For instructions on how to create UFS and DOS file systems on removable
media, see Chapter 14.

Creating a UFS File System

Before you can create a UFS file system on a disk, the disk must be formatted and
divided into slices. A disk slice is a physical subset of a disk that is composed of a
single range of contiguous blocks. A slice can be used either as a raw device that
provides, for example, swap space, or to hold a disk-based file system. See Chapter
28 for complete information on formatting disks and dividing disks into slices.
Logical volume management products, like Solstice DiskSuite, create more
sophisticated meta devices, that expand beyond single slice or single disk boundaries.
See Solstice DiskSuite 4.2.1 User’s Guide for more information about meta devices.

433
 Note - Solaris device names use the term slice (and the letter s in the device name)
to refer to the slice number. Slices are also called “partitions.”

You need to create UFS file systems only occasionally, because the Solaris operating
environment automatically creates them as part of the installation process. You need
to create (or re-create) a UFS file system when you:

4 Add or replace disks

4 Change the existing partitioning structure
4 Do a full restoration of a file system
The newfs command is the standard way to create UFS file systems. The
newfs(1M) command is a convenient front-end to the mkfs(1M) command, which
actually creates the new file system. The newfs command reads parameter defaults,
such as tracks per cylinder and sectors per track, from the disk label that will contain
the new file system, and the options you choose are passed to the mkfs command to
build the file system.

File System Parameters

To make a new file system on a disk slice, you almost always use the newfs
command. The table below shows the default parameters used by the newfs
command.

TABLE 35–1 Default Parameters Used by the newfs Command

Parameter Default Value

Block size 8 Kbytes

Fragment size 1 Kbyte

Minimum free space ((64 Mbytes/partition size) * 100), rounded down to the
nearest integer and limited to between 1% and 10%,
inclusively

Rotational delay Zero

Optimization type Time

Number of inodes 1 for each 2 Kbytes of data space

434 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How to Create a UFS File System
1. Make sure you have met the following prerequisites:
4 The disk must be formatted and divided into slices before you can create UFS
file systems on it. See Chapter 28 for complete information on formatting disks
and dividing disks into slices.
4 You need to know the device name of the slice that will contain the file system.
See Chapter 29 for information on finding disks and disk slice numbers.
4 If you are re-creating an existing UFS file system, unmount it.
4 You must be superuser.

2. Create the UFS file system.

# newfs [-N] [-b size] [-i bytes] /dev/rdsk/device-name

Displays what parameters newfs would pass to mkfs

−N
without actually creating the file system. This is a good
way to test the newfs command.

Specifies the file system block size, either 4096 or 8192

−b size
bytes per block. The default is 8192.

Specifies the number of bytes per inode. The default

−i bytes
varies depending on the disk size. See newfs(1M) for
more information.

device-name Specifies the disk device name on which to create the new
file system.

The system asks for confirmation.

Caution - Be sure you have specified the correct device name for the slice before
performing the next step. If you specify the wrong slice, you will erase its contents
when the new file system is created. This might cause the system to panic.

3. To verify the creation of the UFS file system, check the new file system with
the fsck(1M) command.

# fsck /dev/rdsk/device-name

Creating File Systems (Tasks) 435

 device-name Specifies the name of the disk device containing the new
file system.

The fsck command checks the consistency of the new file system, reports
problems it finds, and prompts you before repairing the problems. See Chapter 39
for more information on fsck.

Example—Creating a UFS File System

The following example creates a UFS file system on /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s7.

# newfs /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s7
/dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s7: 725760 sectors in 720 cylinders of 14 tracks, 72 sectors
354.4MB in 45 cyl groups (16 c/g, 7.88MB/g, 3776 i/g)
super-block backups (for fsck -F ufs -o b=#) at:
32, 16240, 32448, 48656, 64864, 81072, 97280, 113488, 129696, 145904, 162112,
178320, 194528, 210736, 226944, 243152, 258080, 274288, 290496, 306704,
322912, 339120, 355328, 371536, 387744, 403952, 420160, 436368, 452576,
468784, 484992, 501200, 516128, 532336, 548544, 564752, 580960, 597168,
613376, 629584, 645792, 662000, 678208, 694416, 710624,
#

Where to Go From Here

To mount the file system and make it available, go to Chapter 36.

Creating a Temporary File System

(TMPFS)
The Temporary File System (TMPFS) uses local memory for file system reads and
writes, which is typically much faster than a UFS file system. Using TMPFS file
systems can improve system performance by saving the cost of reading and writing
temporary files to a local disk or across the network. Files in TMPFS file systems do
not survive across reboots or unmounts.
If you create multiple TMPFS file systems, be aware that they all use the same
system resources. Files created under one TMPFS file system use up the space
available for any other TMPFS, unless you limit TMPFS sizes using the −o size
option of the mount command.
See the tmpfs(7FS) man page for more information.

436 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How to Create a TMPFS File System
1. Become superuser.

2. If necessary, create the directory where you want to mount the TMPFS file
system and set permissions and ownership as necessary.

3. Create a TMPFS file system.

To set up the system to automatically create a TMPFS file system when it boots,
see “Example—Creating a TMPFS File System at Boot Time” on page 437.

# mount -F tmpfs [-o size=number ] number swap mount-point

Specifies the size of the TMPFS file system in Mbytes.

−o size=number

mount-point The directory on which the TMPFS file system is mounted.

4. Look at the output from the mount command to verify that the TMPFS file
system has been created.

# mount -v

Example—Creating a TMPFS File System

The following example creates a new directory, /export/reports, and mounts a
TMPFS file system at that point, limiting it to 50 Mbytes.

# mkdir /export/reports
# chmod 777 /export/reports
# mount -F tmpfs -o size=50 swap /export/reports

Example—Creating a TMPFS File System at Boot Time

You can set up the system to automatically create a TMPFS file system when it boots
by adding an entry to the /etc/vfstab file. The following example shows an entry
in the /etc/vfstab file that will create a TMPFS file system on /export/test
when the system boots. Since the size=number option is not specified, the size of the
TMPFS file system on /export/test is limited only by the available system
resources.

Creating File Systems (Tasks) 437

 swap - /export/test tmpfs - yes -

For more information the /etc/vfstab file, see “The /etc/vfstab Field
Descriptions” on page 446.

Creating a Loopback File System (LOFS)

A LOFS file system is a virtual file system that provides an alternate path to an
existing file system. When other file systems are mounted onto a LOFS file system,
the original file system does not change.
See the lofs(7FS) man page for more information.

Caution - Be careful when creating LOFS file systems. Because these are virtual file
systems, the potential for confusing both users and applications is enormous.

How to Create a LOFS File System

1. Become superuser.

2. Create the directory where you want to mount the LOFS file system and give it
the appropriate permissions and ownership.

3. Create a LOFS file system.

To set up the system to automatically create a TMPFS file system when it boots,
see “Example—Creating a LOFS File System at Boot Time” on page 439.

# mount -F lofs loopback-directory mount-point

loopback-directory Specifies the file system to be mounted on the loopback

mount point.

mount-point Specifies the directory on which to mount the LOFS file

system.

4. Look at the output from the mount command to verify that the LOFS file
system has been created.

438 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # mount -v

Example—Creating a LOFS File System

The following example illustrates how to mount and test new software as a loopback
file system without actually having to install it.

# mkdir /tmp/newroot
# mount -F lofs /new/dist /tmp/newroot/usr/local
# chroot /tmp/newroot command

Example—Creating a LOFS File System at Boot Time

You can set up the system to automatically create a LOFS file system when it boots
by adding an entry to the end of the /etc/vfstab file. The following example
shows an entry in the /etc/vfstab file that will create a LOFS file system for the
root (/) file system on /tmp/newroot.

/ - /tmp/newroot lofs - yes -

Caution - Make sure the loopback entries are the last entries in the /etc/vfstab
file. Otherwise, if the /etc/vfstab entry for a loopback file system precedes the file
systems to be included in it, the loopback file system cannot be created.

For more information the /etc/vfstab file, see “The /etc/vfstab Field
Descriptions” on page 446.

Creating File Systems (Tasks) 439

440 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 36

Mounting and Unmounting File

Systems (Tasks)

This chapter describes how to mount and unmount file systems. This is a list of the
step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “How to Determine Which File Systems Are Mounted” on page 445
4 “How to Add an Entry to the /etc/vfstab File” on page 447
4 “How to Mount a File System (/etc/vfstab File)” on page 449
4 “How to Mount All File Systems (/etc/vfstab File)” on page 449
4 “How to Mount a UFS File System” on page 451
4 “How to Mount an NFS File System” on page 454
4 “IA: How to Mount a System V (S5FS) File System” on page 454
4 “IA: How to Mount a PCFS (DOS) File System From a Hard Disk” on page 455
4 “How to Stop All Processes Accessing a File System” on page 457
4 “How to Unmount a File System” on page 458
4 “How to Unmount All File Systems (/etc/vfstab File)” on page 459

Mounting File Systems

After you create a file system, you need to make it available to the system so you can
use it. You make a file system available by mounting it, which attaches the file
system to the system directory tree at the specified mount point. The root (/) file
system is always mounted. Any other file system can be connected or disconnected
from the root (/) file system.

441
 The table below provides guidelines on mounting file systems based on how you use
them.

TABLE 36–1 Determining How to Mount File Systems

If You Need to Mount ... Then You Should Use ...

Local or remote file systems infrequently The mount command entered manually
from the command line.

Local file systems frequently The /etc/vfstab file, which will mount
the file system automatically when the
system is booted in multi-user state.

Remote file systems frequently, such as home 4 The /etc/vfstab file, which will
directories automatically mount the file system
when the system is booted in multi-user
state.
4 AutoFS, which will automatically mount
or unmount the file system when you
change into (mount) or out of (unmount)
the directory.
To enhance performance, you can also cache
the remote file systems by using CacheFS.

You can mount a CD-ROM containing a file system by simply inserting it into the
drive (Volume Management will automatically mount it). You can mount a diskette
containing a file system by inserting it into the drive and running the volcheck(1)
command. See Chapter 14 for more information.

Commands Used to Mount and Unmount File

Systems
The table below lists the commands in the /usr/sbin directory that you use to
mount and unmount file systems.

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TABLE 36–2 Commands for Mounting and Unmounting File Systems

Command Description

Mounts file systems and remote resources.

mount(1M)

Mounts all file systems specified in the /etc/vfstab file. The

mountall(1M) mountall command is run automatically when entering
multiuser run states.

Unmounts file systems and remote resources.

umount(1M)

Unmounts all file systems specified in the /etc/vfstab file.

umountall(1M)

The mount commands will not mount a read/write file system that has known
inconsistencies. If you receive an error message from the mount or mountall
command, you might need to check the file system. See Chapter 39 for information
on how to check the file system.
The umount commands will not unmount a file system that is busy. A file system is
considered busy if a user is accessing a file or directory in the file system, if a
program has a file open in that file system, or if the file system is shared.

Commonly Used Mount Options

The table below describes the commonly used mount options that you can specify
with the −o option of the mount command. If you specify multiple options, separate
them with commas (no spaces). For example, −o ro,nosuid.
For a complete list of mount options for each file system type, refer to the specific
mount command man pages (for example, mount_ufs(1M)).

Mounting and Unmounting File Systems (Tasks) 443

 TABLE 36–3 Commonly Used −o Mount Options

Option File System Description

bg | fg NFS If the first attempt fails, retries in the

background (bg) or in the foreground (fg).
This option is safe for non-critical vfstab
entries. The default is fg.

hard | soft NFS Specifies the procedure if the server does not
respond. soft indicates that an error is
returned. hard indicates that the retry request
is continued until the server responds. The
default is hard.

intr | nointr NFS Specifies whether keyboard interrupts are

delivered to a process that is hung while
waiting for a response on a hard-mounted file
system. The default is intr (interrupts
allowed).

largefiles | UFS Enables you to create files larger than 2 Gbytes.

nolargefiles The largefiles option means that a file
system mounted with this option might contain
files larger than 2 Gbytes, but it is not a
requirement. The default is largefiles. If the
nolargefiles option is specified, the file
system could not be mounted on a system
running Solaris 2.6 or compatible versions.

logging | UFS Enables logging for the file system. UFS logging
nologging is the process of storing transactions (changes
that make up a complete UFS operation) into a
log before the transactions are applied to the
UFS file system. Logging helps prevent UFS
file systems from becoming inconsistent, which
means fsck can be bypassed. Bypassing fsck
reduces the time to reboot a system if it crashes,
or after a system is shutdown uncleanly.
The log is allocated from free blocks on the file
system, and is sized approximately 1 Mbyte
per 1 Gbyte of file system, up to a maximum of
64 Mbytes. The default is nologging.

noatime UFS Suppresses access time updates on files, except

when they coincide with updates to the ctime
or mtime. See stat(2). This option reduces
disk activity on file systems where access times
are unimportant (for example, a Usenet news
spool). The default is normal access time
(atime) recording.

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 TABLE 36–3 Commonly Used −o Mount Options (continued)

Option File System Description

remount All Changes the mount options associated with an

already-mounted file system. This option can
generally be used with any option except ro,
but what can be changed with this option is
dependent on the file system type.

retry=n NFS Retries the mount operation when it fails. n is

the number of times to retry.

ro | rw CacheFS, NFS, Specifies read/write or read-only. If you do not

PCFS, UFS, S5FS specify this option, the default is read/write.
The default option for HSFS is ro.

suid | nosuid CacheFS, HSFS, Allows or disallows setuid execution. The

NFS, S5FS, UFS default is to allow setuid execution.

How to Determine Which File Systems Are

Mounted
You can determine which file systems are mounted by using the mount command.

$ mount [ -v ]

Displays the list of mounted file systems in verbose mode.

−v

Example—Determining Which File Systems Are Mounted

$ mount
/ on /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/onerror=panic on ...
/usr on /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s6 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/onerror=panic on ...
/proc on /proc read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:09:48 1999
/dev/fd on fd read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:09:51 1999
/etc/mnttab on mnttab read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:10:06 1999
/var/run on swap read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:10:06 1999
/tmp on swap read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:10:09 1999
/export/home on /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/onerror=panic ...
$

Mounting and Unmounting File Systems (Tasks) 445

 Mounting File Systems (/etc/vfstab
File)
The /etc/vfstab Field Descriptions
An entry in the /etc/vfstab file has seven fields, which are described in the table
below.

TABLE 36–4 /etc/vfstab Field Descriptions

Field Name Description

device to mount
4 The block device name for a local UFS file system (for example, /
dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0).
4 The resource name for a remote file system (for example,
myserver:/export/home). For more information about NFS, see
System Administration Guide, Volume 3.
4 The block device name of the slice on which to swap (for example,
/dev/dsk/c0t3d0s1).
4 The /proc directory for the proc file system type.

device to fsck The raw (character) device name that corresponds to the UFS file
system identified by the device to mount field (for example, /dev/
rdsk/c0t0d0s0). This determines the raw interface that is used by
fsck. Use a dash (-) when there is no applicable device, such as for a
read-only file system or a remote file system.

mount point Identifies where to mount the file system (for example, /usr).

FS type The type of file system identified by the device to mount field.

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TABLE 36–4 /etc/vfstab Field Descriptions (continued)

Field Name Description

fsck pass The pass number used by fsck to decide whether to check a file
system. When the field contains a dash (-), the file system is not
checked.
When the field contains a zero, UFS file systems are not checked but
non-UFS file systems are checked. When the field contains a value
greater than zero, the file system is always checked.
All file systems with a value of 1 in this field, are checked one at a
time in the order they appear in the vfstab file. When fsck is run on
multiple UFS file systems that have fsck pass values greater than one
and the preen option (−o p) is used, fsck automatically checks the file
systems on different disks in parallel to maximize efficiency.
Otherwise, the value of the pass number does not have any effect.
The fsck pass field does not explicitly specify the order in which file
systems are checked, other than as described above.

mount at boot Set to yes or no for whether the file system should be automatically
mounted by mountall when the system is booted. Note that this field
has nothing to do with AutoFS. The root (/), /usr and /var file
systems are not mounted from the vfstab file initially. This field
should always be set to no for these file systems and for virtual file
systems such as /proc and /dev/fd.

mount options A list of comma-separated options (with no spaces) that are used in
mounting the file system. Use a dash (-) to indicate no options. See
Table 36–3 for a list of commonly used mount options.

Note - You must have an entry in each field in the /etc/vfstab file. If there is no
value for the field, be sure to enter a dash (-), otherwise the system might not boot
successfully. Similarly, white space should not be used in a field value.

How to Add an Entry to the /etc/vfstab File

1. Become superuser.
Also, there must be a mount point on the local system to mount a file system. A
mount point is a directory to which the mounted file system is attached.

2. Edit the /etc/vfstab file and add an entry.

Mounting and Unmounting File Systems (Tasks) 447

 Note - Since the root (/) file system is mounted read-only by the kernel during
the boot process, only the remount option (and options that can be used in
conjunction with remount) affect the root (/) entry in the /etc/vfstab file.

See Table 36–4 for detailed information about the /etc/vfstab field entries.
Make sure that you:
4 Separate each field with white space (a space or a tab).
4 Enter a dash (-) if a field has no contents.

3. Save the changes.

Examples—Adding an Entry to the /etc/vfstab File

The following example mounts the disk slice /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 as a UFS file
system attached to the mount point directory /files1 with the default mount
options (read/write). It specifies the raw character device /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7 as
the device to fsck. The fsck pass value of 2 means that the file system will be
checked, but not sequentially.

#device device mount FS fsck mount mount

#to mount to fsck point type pass at boot options
#
/dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7 /files1 ufs 2 yes -

The following example mounts the directory /export/man from the system pluto
as an NFS file system on mount point /usr/man. It does not specify a device to
fsck or a fsck pass because it’s an NFS file system. In this example, mount
options are ro (read-only) and soft. For greater reliability, specify the hard
mount option for read/write NFS file systems.

#device device mount FS fsck mount mount

#to mount to fsck point type pass at boot options
pluto:/export/man - /usr/man nfs - yes ro,soft

The following example mounts the root (/) file system on a loopback mount point
named /tmp/newroot. It specifies yes for mount at boot, no device to fsck,
and no fsck pass number. LOFS file systems must always be mounted after the
file systems used to make up the LOFS file system.

448 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

#device device mount FS fsck mount mount
#to mount to fsck point type pass at boot options
#
/ - /tmp/
newroot lofs - yes -

How to Mount a File System (/etc/vfstab File)

1. Become superuser.
Also, there must be a mount point on the local system to mount a file system. A
mount point is a directory to which the mounted file system is attached.

2. Mount a file system listed in the /etc/vfstab file.

# mount mount-point

mount-point Specifies an entry in the mount point or device to

mount field in the /etc/vfstab file. It is usually easier
to specify the mount point.

Example—Mounting a File System (/etc/vfstab File)

The following example mounts the /usr/dist file system listed in the
/etc/vfstab file.

# mount /usr/dist

How to Mount All File Systems (/etc/vfstab

File)
1. Become superuser.
Also, there must be a mount point on the local system to mount a file system. A
mount point is a directory to which the mounted file system is attached.

2. Mount the file systems listed in the /etc/vfstab file.

# mountall [-l | -r] [-F fstype]

If no options are specified, all file systems listed in the /etc/vfstab file with
yes in the mount at boot field are mounted.

Mounting and Unmounting File Systems (Tasks) 449

 Mounts all the local file systems listed in the /etc/
−l
vfstab file with yes in the mount at boot field.

Mounts all the remote file systems listed in the /etc/

−r
vfstab file with yes in the mount at boot field.

Mounts all file systems of the specified type listed in the /

−F fstype
etc/vfstab file with yes in the mount at boot field.

All the file systems with a device to fsck entry are checked and fixed, if
necessary, before mounting.

Examples—Mounting All File Systems (/etc/vfstab File)

The following example shows the messages displayed if file systems are already
mounted when you use the mountall command.

# mountall
/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7 already mounted
mount: /tmp already mounted
mount: /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7 is already mounted, /export/home is busy,
or the allowable number of mount points has been exceeded

The following example mounts all the local systems listed in the /etc/vfstab file.

# mountall -l
# mount
/ on /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/onerror=panic on ...
/usr on /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s6 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/onerror=panic on ...
/proc on /proc read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:09:48 1999
/dev/fd on fd read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:09:51 1999
/etc/mnttab on mnttab read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:10:06 1999
/var/run on swap read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:10:06 1999
/tmp on swap read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:10:09 1999
/export/home on /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/onerror=panic on ...

The following example mounts all the remote file systems listed in the
/etc/vfstab file.

450 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # mountall -r
# mount
/ on /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/
onerror=panic on ...
/usr on /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s6 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/
onerror=panic on ...
/proc on /proc read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:09:48 1999
/dev/fd on fd read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:09:51 1999
/etc/mnttab on mnttab read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:10:06 1999
/var/run on swap read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:10:06 1999
/tmp on swap read/write/setuid on Fri Sep 10 16:10:09 1999
/export/home on /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7 read/write/setuid/intr/largefiles/
onerror=panic on ...
/usr/dist on mars:/usr/dist remote/read/write/
setuid on Tue Sep 14 15:32:18 1999

Mounting File Systems (mount

Command)
How to Mount a UFS File System

1. Become superuser.
Also, there must be a mount point on the local system to mount a file system. A
mount point is a directory to which the mounted file system is attached.

2. Mount the UFS file system by using the mount command.

# mount [-o mount-options] /dev/dsk/device-name mount-point

Mounting and Unmounting File Systems (Tasks) 451

 Specifies mount options that you can use to mount a UFS
−o mount-options
file system. See Table 36–3 or mount_ufs(1M) for a list
of options.

/dev/dsk/device-name Specifies the disk device name for the slice holding the file
system (for example, /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7). See “How
to Display Disk Slice Information” on page 344 to get slice
information for a disk.

mount-point Specifies the directory on which to mount the file system.

Example—Mounting a UFS File System

The following example mounts /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 on the /files1 directory.

# mount /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 /files1

Example—Mounting a UFS File System With Logging Enabled

UFS logging eliminates file system inconsistency, which can significantly reduce the
time of system reboots. The following example mounts /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 on the
/files1 directory with logging enabled.

# mount -o logging /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 /files1

How to Remount a UFS File System Without

Large Files
When you mount a file system, the largefiles option is selected by default, which
enables you to create files larger than 2 Gbytes. Once a file system contains large
files, you cannot remount the file system with the nolargefiles option or mount it
on a system running Solaris 2.6 or compatible versions, until you remove any large
files and run fsck to reset the state to nolargefiles.
This procedure assumes that the file system is in the /etc/vfstab file.

1. Become superuser.

2. Make sure there are no large files in the file system.

452 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # cd mount-point
# find . -xdev -size +20000000 -exec ls -l {} \;

mount-point Specifies the mount point of the file system you want to
check for large files.

If large files exist within this file system, they must be removed or moved to
another file system.

3. Unmount the file system.

# umount mount-point

4. Reset the file system state.

# fsck mount-point

5. Remount the file system with the nolargefiles option.

# mount -o nolargefiles mount-point

Example—Mounting a File System Without Large Files

The following example checks the /datab file system and remounts it with the
nolargefiles option.

# cd /datab
# find . -xdev -size +20000000 -exec ls -l {} \;
# umount /datab
# fsck /datab
# mount -o nolargefiles /datab

Mounting and Unmounting File Systems (Tasks) 453

 How to Mount an NFS File System
1. Become superuser.
Also, there must be a mount point on the local system to mount a file system. A
mount point is a directory to which the mounted file system is attached.

2. Make sure the resource (file or directory) is available from a server.

To mount an NFS file system, the resource must be made available on the server
by using the share command. See System Administration Guide, Volume 3 for
information on how to share resources.

3. Mount the NFS file system by using the mount command.

# mount -F nfs [-o mount-options] server:/directory mount-point

Specifies mount options that you can use to mount an

−o mount-options
NFS file system. See Table 36–3 for the list of commonly
used mount options or mount_nfs(1M) for a complete
list of options.

server:/directory Specifies the server’s host name that contains the shared
resource, and the path to the file or directory to mount.

mount-point Specifies the directory on which to mount the file system.

Example—Mounting an NFS File System

The following example mounts the /export/packages directory on /mnt from the
server pluto.

# mount -F nfs pluto:/export/packages /mnt

IA: How to Mount a System V (S5FS) File System

1. Become superuser.
Also, there must be a mount point on the local system to mount a file system. A
mount point is a directory to which the mounted file system is attached.

2. Mount the S5FS file system by using the mount command.

# mount -F s5fs [-o mount-options] /dev/dsk/device_name mount-point

454 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Specifies mount options that you can use to mount a S5FS
−o mount-options
file system. See Table 36–3 for the list of commonly used
mount options or mount_s5fs(1M) for a complete list of
options.

/dev/dsk/device-name Specifies the disk device name of the slice holding the file
system (for example, /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7). See “How
to Display Disk Slice Information” on page 344 to get slice
information for a disk.

mount-point Specifies the directory on which to mount the file system.

IA: Example—Mounting an S5FS File System

The following example mounts /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 on the /files1 directory.

# mount -F s5fs /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 /files1

IA: How to Mount a PCFS (DOS) File System

From a Hard Disk
Use the following procedure to mount a PCFS (DOS) file system from a hard disk.
1. Become superuser.
Also, there must be a mount point on the local system to mount a file system. A
mount point is a directory to which the mounted file system is attached.

2. Mount the PCFS file system by using the mount command.

# mount -F pcfs [-o rw | ro] /dev/dsk/device-name:logical-drive mount-point

Mounting and Unmounting File Systems (Tasks) 455

 Specifies that you can mount a PCFS file system read/
−o rw | ro
write or read-only. If you do not specify this option, the
default is read/write.

/dev/dsk/device-name Specifies the device name of the whole disk (for example,
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0p0).

logical-drive Specifies either the DOS logical drive letter (c through z)

or a drive number 1 through 24. Drive c is equivalent to
drive 1 and represents the Primary DOS slice on the drive;
all other letters or numbers represent DOS logical drives
within the Extended DOS slice.

mount-point Specifies the directory on which to mount the file system.

Note that the device-name and logical-drive must be separated by a colon.

IA: Examples—Mounting a PCFS (DOS) File System From a

Hard Disk
The following example mounts the logical drive in the Primary DOS slice on the
/pcfs/c directory.

# mount -F pcfs /dev/dsk/c0t0d0p0:c /pcfs/c

The following example mounts the first logical drive in the Extended DOS slice
read-only on /mnt.

# mount -F pcfs -o ro /dev/dsk/c0t0d0p0:2 /mnt

Unmounting File Systems

Unmounting a file system removes it from the file system mount point, and deletes
the entry from the /etc/mnttab file. Some file system administration tasks cannot
be performed on mounted file systems. You should unmount a file system when:
4 It is no longer needed or has been replaced by a file system that contains more
current software.
4 You need to check and repair it using the fsck command. See Chapter 39 for
more information about the fsck command.

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 It is a good idea to unmount a file system before doing a complete backup. See
Chapter 43 for more information about doing backups.

Note - File systems are automatically unmounted as part of the system shutdown
procedure.

Prerequisites
The prerequisites to unmounting file systems are:
4 You must be superuser.
4 A file system must be available for unmounting. You cannot unmount a file
system that is busy. A file system is considered busy if a user is accessing a
directory in the file system, if a program has a file open in that file system, or if it
is being shared. You can make a file system available for unmounting by:

4 Changing to a directory in a different file system.

4 Logging out of the system.
4 Using the fuser command to list all processes accessing the file system and to
stop them if necessary. See “How to Stop All Processes Accessing a File
System” on page 457 for more details.
Notify users if you need to unmount a file system they are using.
4 Unsharing the file system

Verifying an Unmounted File System

To verify that you unmounted a file system or a number of file systems, look at the
output from the mount command. This is described in “How to Determine Which
File Systems Are Mounted” on page 445.

How to Stop All Processes Accessing a File System

1. Become superuser.

2. List all the processes that are accessing the file system, so you know which
processes you are going to stop.

# fuser -c [ -u ] mount-point

Mounting and Unmounting File Systems (Tasks) 457

 Reports on files that are mount points for file systems and
−c
any files within those mounted file systems.

Displays the user login name for each process ID.

−u

mount-point The name of the file system for which you want to stop
processes.

3. Stop all processes accessing the file system.

Note - You should not stop a user’s processes without warning.

# fuser -c -k mount-point

A SIGKILL is sent to each process using the file system.

4. Verify that there are no processes accessing the file system.

# fuser -c mount-point

Example—Stopping All Processes Accessing a File System

The following example stops process 4006c that is using the /export/home file
system.

# fuser -c /export/home
/export/home: 4006c
# fuser -c -k /export/home
/export/home: 4006c
# fuser -c /export/home
/export/home:

How to Unmount a File System

Use the following procedure to unmount a file system (except /, /usr, or /var):

458 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Note - The root (/), /usr, and /var file systems are special cases. The root (/) file
system can be unmounted only during a shutdown, since the system needs the root
(/) file system to function.

1. Make sure you have met the prerequisites listed on “Prerequisites” on page 457.

2. Unmount the file system.

# umount mount-point

mount-point The name of the file system that you want to unmount.
This can either be the directory name where the file
system is mounted, the device name path of the file
system, the resource for an NFS file system, or the
loopback directory for LOFS file systems.

Examples—Unmounting a File System

The following example unmounts a local home file system.

# umount /export/home

The following example unmounts the file system on slice 7.

# umount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7

How to Unmount All File Systems (/etc/vfstab

File)
Use the following procedure to unmount all the file systems listed in the
/etc/vfstab file, except for the /, /proc, /var, and /usr file systems.
1. Make sure you have met the prerequisites listed on “Prerequisites” on page 457.

2. Unmount all the file systems listed in the /etc/vfstab file.

# umountall

All systems that are unmounted, except those that are busy.

Mounting and Unmounting File Systems (Tasks) 459

 3. For the file systems that were busy and not unmounted, make them available
to be unmounted as described in “How to Stop All Processes Accessing a File
System” on page 457.

4. Repeat Step 2 as needed until all file systems are unmounted.

460 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 37

The Cache File System (Tasks)

The Cache File System (CacheFS) is a general purpose file system caching
mechanism that improves NFS server performance and scalability by reducing server
and network load. Designed as a layered file system, CacheFS provides the ability to
cache one file system on another. In an NFS environment, CacheFS increases the
client per server ratio, reduces server and network loads and improves performance
for clients on slow links, such as Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP).
The following is a list of the step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “How CacheFS Works” on page 462
4 “Setting Up a Cached File System Task Map” on page 463
4 “How to Create a Cache” on page 464
4 “How to Specify a File System to Be Mounted in a Cache With mount” on page
465
4 “How to Mount a File System in a Cache by Editing the /etc/vfstab File” on
page 468
4 “How to Mount a File System in a Cache With AutoFS” on page 469
4 “How to Modify File Systems in a Cache” on page 471
4 “How to Display Information About Cached File Systems” on page 472
4 “How to Specify Consistency Checking on Demand” on page 473
4 “How to Delete a Cached File System” on page 473
4 “How to Check the Integrity of Cached File Systems” on page 475
4 “CacheFS Statistics” on page 489
4 “Prerequisites for Setting Up and Viewing the CacheFS Statistics” on page 489
4 “Setting Up CacheFS Statistics Task Map” on page 490
4 “How to Set Up the Logging Process” on page 491

461
 4 “Viewing the Cache Size” on page 492
4 “How to View the Working Set (Cache) Size” on page 492
4 “Viewing the Statistics” on page 494
4 “How to View Cache Statistics” on page 494
4 “The Cache Structure and Behavior” on page 495
4 “Consistency Checking of Cached File Systems With the Back File System” on
page 496
4 “Consistency Checking on Demand” on page 496

How CacheFS Works

You create a cache, using the cfsadmin(1M) command, on the client so that file
systems you specify to be mounted in the cache can be accessed by the user locally
instead of across the network. The figure below shows the relationship of the
components involved in using CacheFS.
The back file system is the file system that you specify to be mounted in the cache,
which can be either NFS or HSFS (High Sierra File System). When the user attempts
to access files that are part of the back file system, those files are placed in the cache.
To the user, the initial request to access a file might seem slow, but subsequent uses
of the same file will be faster.

Note - You can mount only file systems that are shared. See share(1M) for
information on sharing file systems.

462 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Server

Back file
system

Network

Client

Cached file
systems

Figure 37–1 How CacheFS Works

Setting Up a Cached File System Task

Map
TABLE 37–1 Setting Up a Cached File System Task Map

Task Description For Instructions, Go To

1. Create a Cache Use the cfsadmin command to create a

“How to Create a Cache” on
cache.
page 464

2. Mount File Systems in the Mount a file system in a cache by using the
“How to Specify a File System
Cache mount command.
to Be Mounted in a Cache With
mount” on page 465

The Cache File System (Tasks) 463

TABLE 37–1 Setting Up a Cached File System Task Map (continued)

Task Description For Instructions, Go To

Cache a file system by editing the /etc/

“How to Mount a File System
vfstab file.
in a Cache by Editing the
/etc/vfstab File” on page
468

Cache a file system by using AutoFS.

“How to Mount a File System
in a Cache With AutoFS” on
page 469

Creating a Cache
The following procedure describes how to create a cache directory.

How to Create a Cache

1. Become superuser.

2. Create a cache using the cfsadmin -c command.

# cfsadmin -c cache-directory

cache-directory Indicates the name of the directory where the cache

resides. For more information, see cfsadmin(1M).

Note - After you have created the cache, do not perform any operations within
the cache directory itself. This causes conflicts within the CacheFS software.

Example—Creating a Cache
The following example creates a cache in the /local/mycache directory by using
the default cache parameter values.

464 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # mkdir /local
# cfsadmin -c /local/mycache

Specifying a File System to Be Mounted

in the Cache
You specify file systems to be mounted in the cache so that users can locally access
files in the file system you’ve specified. The files do not actually get placed in the
cache until the user accesses the files.
The table below describes three ways to mount cached file systems:

To Mount A Cached File System By ... You Need To Do This ...

Using the mount(1M) command Every time the system reboots in order to
access the same file system.

Editing the /etc/vfstab file Only once. The /etc/vfstab file remains
unchanged after the system reboots.

Using AutoFS Only once. AutoFS maps remain unchanged

after the system reboots.

Choose the method of mounting file systems that best suits your environment.

Note - Caching of the root (/) and /usr file systems is not supported in CacheFS. To
cache the root (/) and /usr file systems, you must purchase the Solstice AutoClient
product. For more information about the AutoClient product, see the Solstice
AutoClient 2.1 Administration Guide.

How to Specify a File System to Be Mounted in a

Cache With mount
1. Become superuser.

2. Create a mount point.

The mount point allows user access to the file system specified under that mount
point. You can create the mount point from anywhere. The CacheFS options used

The Cache File System (Tasks) 465

 with the mount command, as shown in the next step, will determine that the
mount point you created will be cached in the cache directory you specified.

3. Mount a file system in a cache with the mount command.

# mount -F cachefs -o backfstype=fstype,cachedir=cache-directory[, options]

back-filesystem mount-point

fstype Indicates the file system type of the back file system (can
be either NFS or HSFS).

cache-directory Indicates the name of the directory where the cache

resides. This is the same name you specified when you
created the cache in “How to Create a Cache” on page 464.

options Specifies other mount options that you can include when
mounting a file system in a cache. See
mount_cachefs(1M) for a list of CacheFS mount options.

back-filesystem The mount point of the back file system to cache. If the
back file system is an NFS file system, you must specify
the host name of the server from which you are mounting
the file system and the name of the file system to cache
(separated by a colon). For example, merlin: /usr/openwin.

mount-point Indicates the directory where the file system is mounted.

4. Verify that the cache you created was actually mounted by using the
cachefsstat(1M) command, as follows:

# cachefsstat mount-point

For example:

# cachefsstat /docs
/docs
cache hit rate: 100% (0 hits, 0 misses)
consistency checks: 1 (1 pass, 0 fail)
modifies: 0

(continued)

466 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

garbage collection: 0

The mount point is the cached file system you created. For more information
about the cachefsstat command, see “CacheFS Statistics” on page 489.
If the file system was not mounted in the cache, you will receive an error message
similar to the following:

# cachefsstat mount-point
cachefsstat: mount-point: not a cachefs mountpoint

Examples—Specifying a File System to be Mounted in a

Cache With mount
The following example creates the mount point /docs, and mounts the NFS file
system merlin:/docs as a cached file system named /docs in the cache named
/local/mycache.

# mkdir /docs
# mount -F cachefs -o backfstype=nfs,cachedir=/local/mycache merlin:/docs /docs

The following example makes a CD-ROM (HSFS file system) available as a cached
file system named /docs. Because you cannot write to the CD-ROM, the ro
argument is specified to make the cached file system read-only. You must specify the
backpath option because Volume Management automatically mounts the CD-ROM
when it is inserted. The mount point is in the /cdrom directory and is determined
by the name of the CD-ROM. The special device to mount is the same as the value
for the backpath command.

The Cache File System (Tasks) 467

 # mount -F cachefs -o backfstype=hsfs,cachedir=/local/mycache,ro backpath=/cdrom/cdrom_name
/cdrom/cdrom_name /docs

The following example uses the demandconst option to specify consistency

checking on demand for the NFS cached file system /docs, whose back file system
is merlin:/docs. See “Consistency Checking of Cached File Systems With the Back
File System” on page 496 for more information.

# mount -F cachefs -o backfstype=nfs,cachedir=/local/mycache,demandconst merlin:/docs /docs

How to Mount a File System in a Cache by

Editing the /etc/vfstab File
1. Become superuser.

2. Using an editor, specify the file systems to be mounted in the /etc/vfstab

file:

#device device mount FS fsck mount mount

#to mount to fsck point type pass at boot options
#
/dev/dsk/devicename /dev/rdsk/devicename
/mount-point cachefs 2 yes -

This line represents the new entry.

3. Mount the cached file system using the mount command, as follows:

# mount /mount-point

or reboot.

Example—Mounting a File System in a Cache by Editing the

/etc/vfstab File
The following example shows the /etc/vfstab entry for the cache file system.

468 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

#device device mount FS fsck mount mount
#to mount to fsck point type pass at boot options
#
/dev/dsk/c0t1d0s0 /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s0 /usr/local cachefs 2 yes -

The /usr/local directory is mounted in the cache directory.

# mount /usr/local

How to Mount a File System in a Cache With

AutoFS
You can mount a file system in a cache with AutoFS by specifying the
−fstype=cachefs mount option in your automount map. Note that CacheFS
mount options (for example, backfstype and cachedir) are also specified in the
automount map. See automount(1M) for details on automount maps. Also see
System Administration Guide, Volume 3.
1. Become superuser.

2. Using an editor, add the following line to the auto_direct map:

/mount-point -fstype=cachefs,cachedir=/directory,backfstype=nfs
server:/file-system

3. Using an editor, add the following line to the auto_master map:

/-

The /- entry is a pointer to check the auto_direct map.

4. Reboot the system.

5. Verify that the entry was made correctly by changing to the file system you
mounted in the cache, and then list the contents, as follows:

The Cache File System (Tasks) 469

 # cd filesystem
# ls filesystem

For more information about AutoFS and how to edit the maps, refer to the AutoFS
chapter of the System Administration Guide, Volume 3.

Example—Mounting a File System in a Cache With AutoFS

The following auto_master entry automatically mounts the cache file system in the
/docs directory.

/docs -fstype=cachefs,cachedir=/local/mycache,backfstype=nfs
merlin:/docs

Maintaining a Cached File System Task

Map
TABLE 37–2 Maintaining a Cached File System Task Map

Task Description For Instructions, Go To

1. Modify the Cache Modify the cache behavior.

“How to Modify File Systems
in a Cache” on page 471

2. Display Cache Information Display information about cached file

“How to Display Information
systems by using the cfsadmin command.
About Cached File Systems” on
page 472

3. Perform Consistency Perform consistency checking on demand by

“How to Specify Consistency
Checking using the cfsadmin command.
Checking on Demand” on page
473

470 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 37–2 Maintaining a Cached File System Task Map (continued)

Task Description For Instructions, Go To

4. Delete a Cache Delete cached file systems by using the

“How to Delete a Cached File
umount command and the cfsadmin
System” on page 473
command.

5. Check File System Check the integrity of cached file systems by

“How to Check the Integrity of
Integrity using the fsck_cachefs command.
Cached File Systems” on page
475

Maintaining the Cache

After you set up the cache, you can perform the following maintenance tasks on it:
4 Modify file systems in the cache (by unmounting, deleting, recreating, and
remounting the cache)
4 Display cache information
4 Check cache consistency
4 Delete a file system from the cache
4 Check cached file system integrity

Note - If you are using the /etc/vfstab file to mount file systems, you modify the
cache by editing the file systems options in the /etc/vfstab file. If you are using
AutoFS, you modify the cache by editing the file systems options in the AutoFS maps.

How to Modify File Systems in a Cache

For information on how to modify specific options of a file system, refer to Chapter
36. When you modify a file system in the cache, you need to delete the cache and
then recreate it. You might also need to reboot your machine in single user mode,
depending on how your file systems are shared and accessed.
The following example shows some of the steps involved in this procedure.

The Cache File System (Tasks) 471

 Example—Modifying File Systems in a Cache

In the following example, the cache is deleted, then re-created, and then mounted
again with the demandconst option specified for the file system /docs. This
example shows the steps including rebooting to single user mode. You might have
other commands you prefer to use to accomplish some of the tasks shown in this
example.

# shutdown -g30 -y
.
.
.
Type Cntrl-d to proceed with normal startup,
(or give root password for system maintenance):
# enter password:
.
.
.
Here is where you might be prompted from system to run fsck on the
file system where the cache is located.

# fsck /local
# mount /local
# cfsadmin -d all /local/mycache
# cfsadmin -c /local/mycache
# init 6
.
.
.
console login:
password:
# mount -F cachefs -o backfstype=nfs,cachedir=/local/cache1, demandconst merlin:/docs /docs
#

If you did not successfully remount the file system in the cache, the system displays
an error message similar to the following:

cachefsstat: /doc: not a cachefs mount point

How to Display Information About Cached File

Systems
1. Become superuser.

2. Display information about all file systems cached under a specified cache.

# cfsadmin -l cache-directory

cache-directory is the name of the directory where the cache resides.

472 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Example—Displaying Information About Cached File Systems
The following example shows information about the cache directory named
/local/mycache. In this example, the file system /docs is cached in
/local/mycache. The last line displays the name of the cached file system.

# cfsadmin -l /local/mycache
cfsadmin: list cache FS information
maxblocks 90%
minblocks 0%
threshblocks 85%
maxfiles 90%
minfiles 0%
threshfiles 85%
maxfilesize 3MB
merlin:_docs:_docs
#

How to Specify Consistency Checking on Demand

1. Become superuser.

2. Mount the file system in the cache specifying the demandconst option of the
mount command, as follows:

# mount -F cachefs -o backfstype=nfs,cachedir=/directory,demandconst

server:/file-system /mount-point

3. To initiate consistency checking on a specific cached file system, use the

cfsadmin -s command as follows:

# cfsadmin -s /mount-point

For more information about consistency checking, see “Consistency Checking of

Cached File Systems With the Back File System” on page 496.

How to Delete a Cached File System

1. Become superuser.

The Cache File System (Tasks) 473

 2. Unmount the cached file system.

# umount mount-point

mount-point specifies the cached file system that you want to delete.

3. Determine the cache ID from the cfsadmin -l output, as follows:

# cfsadmin -l cache-directory
cfsadmin: list cache FS information
maxblocks 90%
minblocks 0%
threshblocks 85%
maxfiles 90%
minfiles 0%
threshfiles 85%
maxfilesize 3MB
cache-ID
#

4. Delete a cached file system from a specified cache.

# cfsadmin -d cache-id cache-directory

cache-id Indicates the name of the cached file system, which is the
last line of the cfsadmin -l output. See “How to Display
Information About Cached File Systems” on page 472 for
more information. You can delete all the cached file
systems in a particular cache by specifying all for
cache-id.

cache-directory Specifies the directory where the cache resides.

5. Verify that the file system has been deleted.

The cache ID of the file system you just deleted should be missing from the
output of the following command. Refer to cfsadmin(1M) for more information
about the fields specified in the command output.

474 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 # cfsadmin -l cache-directory
cfsadmin: list cache FS information
maxblocks 90%
minblocks 0%
threshblocks 85%
maxfiles 90%
minfiles 0%
threshfiles 85%
maxfilesize 3MB
#

Examples—Deleting a Cached File System

The following example unmounts a cached file system and deletes the cached file
system from the cache.

# umount /docs
# cfsadmin -d merlin:_docs:_docs /local/mycache

The following example deletes all the cached file systems in the /local/mycache
cache. This also deletes the cache.

# cfsadmin -d all /local/mycache

How to Check the Integrity of Cached File Systems

Use the fsck command to check the integrity of cached file systems. The CacheFS
version of fsck automatically corrects problems without requiring user interaction.
You should not need to run fsck manually for cached file systems; fsck is run
automatically at boot time or when the file system is mounted. If you want to
manually check the integrity, you can use the following procedure.
See fsck_cachefs(1M) for more information.
1. Become superuser.

2. Check the cached file systems under a specified cache.

# fsck -F cachefs [-m -o noclean] cache-directory

The Cache File System (Tasks) 475

 Causes fsck to check the cached file systems without
−m
making any repairs.

Forces a check on the cached file systems only. Does not

−o noclean
make any repairs.

cache-directory Indicates the name of the directory where the cache

resides.

Example—Checking the Integrity of Cached File Systems

The following example checks the cached file systems that are part of the
/local/mycache cache.

# fsck -F cachefs /local/mycache

#

Managing Your Cache File Systems

With cachefspack
For general use, CacheFS operates automatically, without requiring any action from
the user. Files are cached on a most recently used basis. With the packing feature, you
can take a more active role in managing your cache by ensuring that certain files or
directories are always updated in the cache.
Packing enables you to specify files and directories to be loaded in the cache. It
ensures that current copies of these files are available in the cache.
The packing list contains the names of specific files and directories. It can also contain
other packing lists. This saves you having to specify individual files and directories
in case you have many items to pack in your cache.
The cachefspack command provides you with added control of your CacheFS file
systems, employing the packing functionality.

How to Pack Files in the Cache

Pack files in the cache using the cachefspack command.

$ cachefspack -p filename

476 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Specifies that you want the file or files packed. This is also
−p
the default.

filename Specifies the name of the file or directory you want packed
in the cache. When you specify a directory, all of its
subdirectories are also packed. For more information, see
cachefspack(1M).

Examples—Packing Files in the Cache

The following example shows the file projects specified to be packed in the cache.

$ cachefspack -p projects

The following example shows several files specified to be packed in the cache.

$ cachefspack -p projects updates master_plan

The following example shows a directory specified to be packed in the cache.

$ cachefspack -p /usr/openwin/bin

Packing Lists
One of the features of the cachefspack command is the ability to pack packing
lists. This saves the time of having to specify each individual file that you want
packed in the cache.
A packing list contains files or directories to be packed in the cache. If a directory is
in the packing list, all of its subdirectories and files will also be packed.

How to Create a Packing List

To create a packing list, open a file by using vi or the editor of your choice. The
packing list file format uses the same format as the filesync command. See
filesync(1) for more information.

Example—Creating a Packing List

The following example shows the contents of a packing list file.

BASE /home/ignatz
LIST plans

The Cache File System (Tasks) 477

 (Continuation)

LIST docs
IGNORE *.ps

4 The path identified with the BASE statement is the directory where you have items
you wish to pack.

4 The two LIST statements identify specific files within that directory to pack.

4 The IGNORE statement identifies the file type of .ps, which you do not wish to
pack.

How to Pack Files in the Cache as Specified in a

Packing List
To pack files using the packing list, use the cachefspack -f command, as follows:

$ cachefspack -f packing-list

This means you want the software to read the packing list and pack files based on
the information specified in the packing list.

Specifies that you want to use a packing list.

−f

packing-list Specifies the name of the packing list.

Example—Packing Files in the Cache as Specified in a Packing

List
This examples uses the list.pkg file as the packing list for the cachefspack
command.

$ cachefspack -f list.pkg

How to Specify Files in the Packing List to be

Treated as Regular Expressions
To specify that one or more files in the packing list should be treated as regular
expressions (not as literal file names), use the −r option with the −f option of the
cachefspack command. The −r option cannot be used alone.

478 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 $ cachefspack -rf packing_list

where packing_list contains a LIST command defined as follows:

LIST *.doc

Specifies that you want the file or files defined in the LIST
−r
command treated as regular expressions, and not as literal
file names.

Specifies that you want the packing list packed in the cache.
−f

packing_list Indicates the name of the packing list that contains the LIST
command with the file or files you want treated as regular
expressions.

Example—Specifying Files in the Packing List to be Treated as

Regular Expressions
The following example shows the packing list list.pkg specified to be packed in
the cache. list.pkg contains a LIST command that defines a regular expression.

$ cachefspack -rf list.pkg

The software will pack the file list.pkg into the cache and treat the file names
defined in the LIST command as regular expressions, and not as literal file names.

How to Pack Files From a Shared Directory

1. To pack files from a shared directory, and to ensure that you pack only those
files that you own, define the LIST command within the packing list file as
follows:

LIST !find . -user your_user_name -print

2. Pack the packing list in the cache using the cachefspack -sf command.

$ cachefspack -sf packing_list

The Cache File System (Tasks) 479

 Adjusts the output of the find command to be suitable for
−s
the packing list.

Specifies a packing list to read.

−f

filename Specifies the name of the packing list to read.

Note - The −s option must be used with the −f option. The −s option cannot be
used alone.

Example—Packing Files From a Shared Directory

The following example shows how to define a LIST command in the packing list to
pack only the files from the base directory that you own:

LIST !find . -user jones -print

The following example shows how you would then specify packing the packing list.

$ cachefspack -sf /projects/proj_1

Unpacking Files
You might need to remove, or unpack, a file from the cache. Perhaps you have some
files or directories that are a higher priority than others, so you need to unpack the
less critical files. For example, you finished up a project and have archived the files
associated with that project. You are now working on a new project, and therefore, a
new set of files.

How to Unpack Files or Packing Lists From the

Cache
Unpack files or packing lists from the cache using the −u or −U option of the
cachefspack command.

$ cachefspack -u filename | -U cache-directory

480 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Specifies that you want the file or files unpacked. You must
−u
specify a filename with this option.

filename Specifies the name of the file or packing list you want
unpacked in the cache. For more information about the
cachefspack command, see the man page.

Specifies that you want to unpack all files in the cache.

−U

Examples—Unpacking Files or Packing Lists From the Cache

The following example shows the file /usr/openwin/bin/xlogo specified to be
unpacked from the cache.

$ cachefspack -u /usr/openwin/bin/xlogo

The following example shows several files specified to be unpacked from the cache.

$ cd /usr/openwin/bin
$ cachefspack -u xlogo xview xcolor

You can also unpack a packing list, which is a file that contains the path to a
directory of files, as follows:

$ cachefspack -uf list.pkg

The following example uses the -U option to specify all files in a cache directory to
be unpacked.

$ cachefspack -U /local/mycache

You cannot unpack a cache that does not have at least one file system mounted. With
the -U option, if you specify a cache that does not contain mounted file systems, you
will see output similar to the following:

$ cachefspack -U /local/mycache
cachefspack: Could not unpack cache /local/mycache, no mounted
filesystems in the cache.

The Cache File System (Tasks) 481

 Displaying Packed Files Information
You might want to view information about the files that you’ve specified to be
packed, and what their packing status is.

How to Display Packed Files Information

To display packed files information, use cachefspack -i command.

$ cachefspack -i[v] cached-filename-or-directory

Specifies you want to view information about your packed

−i
files.

The verbose option.

−v

cached-filename-or-directory Specifies the name of the file or directory for which to

display information.

Example—Displaying Packed Files Information

The following example shows that a file called doc_file is successfully packed.

$ cachefspack -i doc_file
cachefspack: file doc_file marked packed YES, packed YES

The following example shows a directory called /usr/openwin, which contains a

subdirectory bin. The subdirectory bin has three files: xterm, textedit, and
resize. Although the files xterm and resize are specified to be packed, they are
not. The file textedit is successfully packed.

$ cd /usr/openwin
$ cachefspack -i bin
.
.
.
cachefspack: file /bin/xterm marked packed YES, packed NO
cachefspack: file /bin/textedit marked packed YES,
packed YES
cachefspack: file /bin/resize marked packed YES,
packed NO
.

(continued)

482 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

.
.

If you use the −iv options in combination, you will get additional information as to
whether or not the file or directory specified has been flushed from the cache. For
example:

$ cd /usr/openwin
$ cachefspack -iv bin
.
.
.
cachefspack: file /bin/xterm marked packed YES, packed NO,
nocache YES
cachefspack: file /bin/textedit marked packed YES,
packed YES, nocache NO
cachefspack: file /bin/resize marked packed YES,
packed NO
nocache NO
.
.
.

The last line of the example above shows that the directory contents have not been
flushed from the cache.

Viewing Help on the cachefspack

Command
You can print out a brief help summary of all the cachefspack options and what
they mean by using the -h option as follows:

$ cachefspack -h
Must select 1 and only 1 of the following 5 options
-d Display selected filenames
-i Display selected filenames packing status
-p Pack selected filenames
-u Unpack selected filenames
-U Unpack all files in directory ’dir’

-f Specify input file containing rules

-h Print usage information

The Cache File System (Tasks) 483

 (Continuation)

-r Interpret strings in LIST rules as regular expressions

-s Strip ’./’ from the beginning of a pattern name
-v Verbose option
files - a list of filenames to be packed/unpacked

cachefspack Errors
You might see the following error messages when you use the cachefspack
command.

cachefspack: pathname - can’t open directory: permission denied

Cause

You might not have the correct permissions to access the file or directory.

Action

Set the correct permissions.

cachefspack: pathname - can’t open directory: no such file

or
directory

Cause

You might not have the correct file or directory.

Action

Check for a possible typo.

cachefspack: pathname - can’t open directory: stale NFS file handle

Cause

The file or directory might have been moved or deleted from the server at the time
you attempted to access it.

484 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Action

Verify that the file or directory on the server is still accessible.

cachefspack: pathname - can’t open directory: interrupted

system
call

Cause

You might have pressed Control-c inadvertently while issuing the command.

Action

Reissue the command.

cachefspack: pathname - can’t open directory: I/O error

Cause

A hardware problem.

Action

Check your hardware connections.

cachefspack: error opening dir

Cause

You might not have the correct file or directory. The path identified after the BASE
command in the file format could be a file and not a directory. The path specified
must be a directory.

Action

Check for a possible typo. Check the path identified after the BASE command in your
file format. Make sure it is a directory, and not a file.

cachefspack: unable to get shared objects

Cause

The executable might be corrupt or it’s a format that is not recognizable.

The Cache File System (Tasks) 485

 Action

No corrective action can be taken.

cachefspack: filename - can’t pack file: permission denied

Cause

You might not have the correct permissions to access the file or directory.

Action

Set the correct permissions.

cachefspack: filename - can’t pack file: no such file or directory

Cause

You might not have the correct file or directory.

Action

Check for a possible typo.

cachefspack: filename- can’t pack file: stale NFS file handle

Cause

The file or directory might have been moved or deleted from the server at the time
you attempted to access it.

Action

Verify that the file or directory on the server is still accessible.

cachefspack: filename- can’t pack file: interrupted system call

Cause

You might have pressed Control-c inadvertently while issuing the command.

Action

Reissue the command.

cachefspack: filename- can’t pack file: I/O error

Cause

A hardware problem.

486 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Action

Check your hardware connections.

cachefspack: filename- can’t pack file: no space left on device.

Cause

You are out of disk space. The cache is at maximum capacity.

Action

You need to increase disk space. Increase the size of the cache.

cachefspack: filename - can’t unpack file: permission denied

Cause

You might not have the correct permissions to access the file or directory.

Action

Set the correct permissions.

cachefspack: filename - can’t unpack file: no such file or directory

Cause

You might not have the correct file or directory.

Action

Check for a possible typo.

cachefspack: filename- can’t unpack file: stale NFS file handle

Cause

The file or directory might have been moved or deleted from the server at the time
you attempted to access it.

Action

Verify that the file or directory on the server is still accessible.

cachefspack: filename - can’t unpack file: interrupted system call

Cause

You might have pressed Control-c inadvertently while issuing the command.

The Cache File System (Tasks) 487

 Action

Reissue the command.

cachefspack: filename- can’t unpack file I/O error

Cause

A hardware problem.

Action

Check your hardware connections.

cachefspack: only one ‘d’, ‘i’, ‘p’, or ‘u’ option allowed

Cause

You entered more than one of the above options in a command session.

Action

Select one option for the command session.

cachefspack: can’t find environment variable.

Cause

You forgot to set a corresponding environment variable to match the $ in your

configuration file.

Action

Define the environment variable in the proper location.

cachefspack: skipping LIST command - no active base

Cause

A LIST command is present in your configuration file that has no corresponding

BASE command.

Action

Define the BASE command.

488 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CacheFS Statistics
CacheFS statistics enable you to:
4 Determine an appropriate cache size
4 Observe the performance of the cache
These two pieces of information will help you determine the trade-off between your
cache size and the desired performance of the cache.
The CacheFS statistics consist of three commands:

Specifies the location of the log file. This command also

cachefslog(1M) displays where the statistics are currently being logged, and
enables you to halt logging.

Interprets the log file to give a recommended cache size.

cachefswssize(1M)

Displays statistical information about a specific file system or all

cachefsstat(1M) cached file systems. The information provided in the output of
this command is taken directly from the cache.

Note - The CacheFS statistics commands can be issued from any directory. You must
be superuser to issue the cachefswssize command.

The statistics begin accumulating when you create the log file. When the work
session length of time is up, stop the logging by using the cachefslog -h
command, as described in “How to Stop the Logging Process” on page 492.

Prerequisites for Setting Up and

Viewing the CacheFS Statistics
Before using the CacheFS statistics commands, you must:
4 Set up your cache using the cfsadmin(1M) command.
4 Decide on an appropriate length of time to allow statistical information to collect
in the log file you create. The length of time should equal a typical work session;
for example, a day, a week, or a month.

The Cache File System (Tasks) 489

 4 Select a location or path for the log file. Make sure there is enough space to allow
for the growth of the log file. The longer you intend to allow statistical
information to collect in the log file, the more space you will need.

Note - The following procedures are presented in a recommended order. The order
is not required.

Setting Up CacheFS Statistics Task Map

The table below shows the steps involved in setting up CacheFS statistics.

TABLE 37–3 Setting Up CacheFS Statistics Task Map

Task Description For Instructions, Go To

1. Set Up Logging Set up logging on a cached file system using

“How to Set Up the Logging
the cachefslog command.
Process” on page 491

2. Locate the Log File Locate the log file with the cachefslog
“How to Locate the Log File”
command.
on page 491

3. Stop the Logging Process Stop the logging process with the
“How to Stop the Logging
cachefslog command.
Process” on page 492

4. View the Cache Size View the cache size using the
“How to View the Working Set
cachefswssize command.
(Cache) Size” on page 492

5. View the Cache Statistics View the statistics using the cachefsstat
“How to View Cache Statistics”
command.
on page 494

CacheFS Logging
This section describes how to set up and view CacheFS logging.

490 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How to Set Up the Logging Process
1. Set up the logging process with the cachefslog command.

$ cachefslog -f log-file-path mount-point

Sets up the logging process.

−f

log-file-path Specifies the location of the log file. The log file is a
standard file you create with an editor, such as vi.

mount-point Designates the mount point (cached file system) for which
statistics are being collected.

2. Verify that you set up the log file correctly by using the cachefslog
command, as follows:

$ cachefslog mount-point

Example—Setting Up the Logging Process

The following example sets up the log file samlog to collect statistics about
/home/sam. The location of samlog is /var/tmp/samlog.

$ cachefslog -f /var/tmp/samlog /home/sam

/var/tmp/samlog: /home/sam

How to Locate the Log File

You can also use the cachefslog(1M) command with no options to locate a log file
for a particular mount point.

$ cachefslog mount-point

mount-point Specifies the cached file system for which you want to view
the statistics.

The Cache File System (Tasks) 491

 Examples—Locating the Log File
The following example shows what you would see if a log file has been set up. The
location of the log file is /var/tmp/stufflog.

$ cachefslog /home/stuff
/var/tmp/stufflog: /home/stuff

The following example shows that no log file has been set up for the specified file
system.

$ cachefslog /home/zap
not logged: /home/zap

How to Stop the Logging Process

Use the −h option of the cachefslog(1M) command to stop the logging process.

$ cachefslog -h mount-point

Example—Stopping the Logging Process

The following example halts logging on /home/stuff.

$ cachefslog -h /home/stuff
not logged: /home/stuff

If you get a system response other than the one specified in the above example, you
did not successfully stop the logging process. Check to see if you are using the
correct log file name and mount point.

Viewing the Cache Size

You might want to check if you need to increase the size of the cache or determine
what the ideal cache size is based on your activity since you last used the
cachefslog(1M) command for a particular mount point.

How to View the Working Set (Cache) Size

1. Become superuser.

492 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

2. View the current and highest logged cache size with the cachefswssize(1M)
command.

# cachefswssize log-file-path

Example—Viewing the Working Set (Cache) Size

In the following example, the end size is the size of the cache at the time you issued
the cachefswssize command. The high water size is the largest size of the cache
during the time frame in which logging has occurred.

# cachefswssize /var/tmp/samlog

/home/sam
end size: 10688k
high water size: 10704k

/
end size: 1736k
high water size: 1736k

/opt
end size: 128k
high water size: 128k

/nfs/saturn.dist
end size: 1472k
high water size: 1472k

/usr/openwin
end size: 7168k
high water size: 7168k

/nfs/venus.svr4
end size: 4688k
high water size: 5000k

/usr
end size: 4992k
high water size: 4992k

total for cache

initial size: 110960k
end size: 30872k
high water size: 30872k

The Cache File System (Tasks) 493

 Viewing the Statistics
You might want to view certain information about a specific cached file system. The
following table explains the terminology displayed in the statistics output.

TABLE 37–4 Statistics Output Terminology

Output Term Description

hit rate The rate of cache hits versus cache misses, followed by the actual
number of hits and misses. A cache hit occurs when the user wants to
perform an operation on a file or files, and the file or files are actually
in the cache. A cache miss occurs when the file was not in the cache.
The load on the server is the sum of cache misses, consistency checks,
and modifications (modifies).

checks The number of consistency checks performed, followed by the number

that passed, and the number that failed.

modifies The number of modify operations; for example, writes or creates.

How to View Cache Statistics

View the statistics with the cachefsstat(1M) command. You can do this at any
time. For example, you do not have to set up logging in order to view the statistics.

$ cachefsstat mount-point

mount-point Specifies the cached file system for which you want to view
the statistics.

If you do not specify the mount point, statistics for all mounted CacheFS file systems
will be displayed.

Example—Viewing Cache Statistics

$ cachefsstat /home/sam
cache hit rate: 73% (1234 hits, 450 misses)

(continued)

494 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

consistency checks: 700 (650 pass, 50 fail)

modifies: 321
garbage collection: 0

The Cache Structure and Behavior

Each cache has a set of parameters that determines how it behaves and its structure.
The parameters are set to default values which are listed in Table 37–5. The default
values specify that the entire front file system is used for caching, which is the
recommended method of caching file systems.

TABLE 37–5 Cache Parameters and Their Default Values

Cache Parameter Default Value Definition

maxblocks 90% Sets the maximum number of blocks that CacheFS

is allowed to claim within the front file system.

minblocks 0% Sets the minimum number of blocks that CacheFS

is allowed to claim within the front file system.

threshblocks 85% Sets the number of blocks that must be available

in the front file system before CacheFS can claim
more than the blocks specified by minblocks.

maxfiles 90% Sets the maximum number of available inodes

(number of files) that CacheFS is allowed to claim
within the front file system.

minfiles 0% Sets the minimum number of available inodes

(number of files) that CacheFS is allowed to claim
within the front file system.

threshfiles 85% Sets the number of inodes (number of files) that

must be available in the front file system before
CacheFS can claim more than the files specified in
minfiles.

The Cache File System (Tasks) 495

 Typically, you should not change any of these parameter values. They are set to
default values to achieve optimal cache behavior. However, you might want to
modify the maxblocks and maxfiles settings if you have some room in the front
file system that is not used by the cache, and you wish to use it for some other file
system. You do this using the cfsadmin(1M) command. For example:

$ cfsadmin -o maxblocks=60

Consistency Checking of Cached File

Systems With the Back File System
To ensure that the cached directories and files are kept up to date, CacheFS
periodically checks consistency of files stored in the cache. To check consistency,
CacheFS compares the current modification time to the previous modification time. If
the modification times are different, all data and attributes for the directory or file
are purged from the cache and new data and attributes are retrieved from the back
file system.
When a user requests an operation on a directory or file, CacheFS checks if it is time
to verify consistency. If it is, CacheFS obtains the modification time from the back file
system and performs the comparison.

Consistency Checking on Demand

By specifying the demandconst option of the mount(1M) command, consistency
checks can be performed only when you explicitly request them for file systems
mounted with this option. After specifying the demandconst option when you
mount a file system in a cache, you use the cfsadmin(1M) command with the −s
option to request a consistency check. By default, consistency checking is performed
file by file as the files are accessed. If no files are accessed, no checks are performed.
Use of the demandconst option will avoid the situation where the network is
flooded with consistency checks.

496 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 38

Configuring Additional Swap Space

(Tasks)

This is a list of the overview conceptual information and step-by-step instructions in

this chapter.
4 “Swap Space and Virtual Memory” on page 498
4 “Swap Space and the TMPFS File System” on page 498
4 “How Do I Know If I Need More Swap Space?” on page 499
4 “How Swap Space Is Allocated” on page 500
4 “Planning for Swap Space” on page 501
4 “Monitoring Swap Resources” on page 501
4 “Adding More Swap Space” on page 503
4 “Removing a Swap File From Use” on page 505

About Swap Space

It is important for administrators to understand the features of the SunOS swap
mechanism in determining:
4 Swap space requirements
4 The relationship with the TMPFS file system
4 Recovery from error messages related to swap space

497
 Swap Space and Virtual Memory
The Solaris software uses some disk slices for temporary storage rather than for file
systems. These slices are called swap slices. Swap slices are used as virtual memory
storage areas when the system does not have enough physical memory to handle
current processes.
The virtual memory system maps physical copies of files on disk to virtual addresses
in memory. Physical memory pages which contain the data for these mappings can
be backed by regular files in the file system, or by swap space. If the memory is
backed by swap space it is referred to as anonymous memory because there is no
identity assigned to the disk space backing the memory.
The Solaris environment uses the concept of virtual swap space, a layer between
anonymous memory pages and the physical storage (or disk-backed swap space) that
actually back these pages. A system’s virtual swap space is equal to the sum of all its
physical (disk-backed) swap space plus a portion of the currently available physical
memory.
Virtual swap space has these advantages:
4 The need for large amounts of physical swap space is reduced because virtual
swap space does not necessarily correspond to physical (disk) storage.
4 A pseudo file system called SWAPFS provides addresses for anonymous memory
pages. Because SWAPFS controls the allocation of memory pages, it has greater
flexibility in deciding what happens to a page. For example, it might change the
page’s requirements for disk-backed swap storage.

Swap Space and the TMPFS File System

The TMPFS file system is activated automatically in the Solaris environment by an
entry in the /etc/vfstab file. The TMPFS file system stores files and their
associated information in memory (in the /tmp directory) rather than on disk, which
speeds access to those files. This results in a major performance enhancement for
applications such as compilers and DBMS products that use /tmp heavily.
The TMPFS file system allocates space in the /tmp directory from the system’s swap
resources. This means that as you use up space in /tmp, you are also using up swap
space. So if your applications use /tmp heavily and you do not monitor swap space
usage, your system could run out of swap space.
Use the following if you want to use TMPFS but your swap resources are limited:
4 Mount the TMPFS file system with the size option (−o size) to control how much
of the swap resources TMPFS can use.
4 If you are close to running out of swap space, you can use your compiler’s
TMPDIR environment variable to point to a larger, real directory.
Using your compiler’s TMPDIR variable only controls whether the compiler is
using /tmp or not. It has no effect on other programs’ use of /tmp.

498 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How Do I Know If I Need More Swap
Space?
This section lists several possible error messages displayed when you run out of
swap space.

Swap-Related Error Messages

These messages indicate that an application was trying to get more anonymous
memory and there was no swap space left to back it.

application is out of memory

malloc error O

messages.1:Sep 21 20:52:11 mars genunix: [ID 470503 kern.warning]

WARNING: Sorry, no swap space to grow stack for pid 100295 (myprog)

TMPFS-Related Error Messages

directory: File system full, swap space limit exceeded

This message is displayed if a page could not be allocated when writing a file. This
can occur when TMPFS tries to write more than it is allowed or if currently executed
programs are using a lot of memory.

directory: File system full, memory allocation failed

This message means TMPFS ran out of physical memory while attempting to create a
new file or directory.
See TMPFS(7FS) for information on recovering from the TMPFS-related error
messages.

Configuring Additional Swap Space (Tasks) 499

 How Swap Space Is Allocated
Initially, swap space is allocated as part of the Solaris installation process. If you use
the installation program’s automatic layout of disk slices and do not manually
change the size of the swap slice, the Solaris installation program allocates default
swap slices as shown in the table below.

TABLE 38–1 Default Swap Space Allocations

If Your System Has n Mbytes of Then the Default Swap Space Allocated Is ...
Physical Memory ...

16-63 32 Mbytes

64-127 64 Mbytes

128-511 128 Mbytes

greater than 512 256 Mbytes

Additional swap space can also be added to the system by creating a swap file. See
“Adding More Swap Space” on page 503 for information about creating a swap file.

The /etc/vfstab File

After the system is installed, swap slices and files are listed in the /etc/vfstab file
and are activated by the /sbin/swapadd script when the system is booted.
An entry for a swap device in the /etc/vfstab file contains:
4 The full path name of the swap slice or file
4 File system type of swap
Because the file system containing a swap file must be mounted before the swap file
is activated, make sure that the entry that mounts the file system comes before the
entry that activates the swap file in the /etc/vfstab file.

500 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Planning for Swap Space
The most important factors in determining swap space size are the requirements of
the system’s software applications. For example, large applications such as
computer-aided-design simulators, database-management products, transaction
monitors, and geologic analysis systems can consume as much as 200-1000 Mbytes of
swap space.
Consult your application vendor for swap space requirements for any application
whose data files typically exceed 10-20 Mbytes in size.
If you are unable to determine swap space requirements from the application vendor,
use the following guidelines to allocate swap space:
4 To support your applications, allocate:

4 1 Mbyte per trivial application such as xterm.

4 2-3 Mbytes per lightweight application such as a calendar or mail application.
4 20-50 Mbytes for large applications such as desktop publishing software.

4 To save crash dumps, allocate 100% of physical memory to save a worst-case crash
dump.
4 If you are unsure of system or application requirements, allocate 50 to 100% of the
system’s physical memory. For example, allocate 16-32 Mbytes of swap space for a
system with 32 Mbytes of physical memory. This will provide 48-64 Mbytes of
total virtual swap space.
4 Determine whether large applications (like compilers) will be using the /tmp
directory. Then allocate additional swap space to be used by TMPFS. See “Swap
Space and the TMPFS File System” on page 498 for information about TMPFS.

Monitoring Swap Resources

The /usr/sbin/swap command is used to manage swap areas. Two options, −l
and −s, are used to display information about swap resources.
Use the swap -l command to identify a system’s swap areas. Activated swap
devices or files are listed under the swapfile column.

# swap -l
swapfile dev swaplo blocks free

(continued)

Configuring Additional Swap Space (Tasks) 501

 (Continuation)

/dev/dsk/c0t2d0s1 32,17 8 205624 192704

Use the swap -s command to monitor swap resources.

# swap -s
total: 10492k bytes allocated + 7840k reserved = 18332k used, 21568k available

The used plus available figures equals total swap space on the system, which
includes a portion of physical memory and swap devices (or files).
You can use the amount of swap space available and used (in the swap -s output)
as a way to monitor swap space usage over time. If a system’s performance is good,
use swap -s to see how much swap space is available. When the performance of a
system slows down, check the amount of swap space available to see if it has
decreased. Then you can identify what changes to the system might have caused
swap space usage to increase.
Keep in mind when using this command that the amount of physical memory
available for swap usage changes dynamically as the kernel and user processes lock
down and release physical memory.

Note - The swap -l command displays swap space in 512-byte blocks and the
swap -s command displays swap space in 1024-byte blocks. If you add up the
blocks from swap -l and convert them to Kbytes, it will be less than used +
available (in the swap -s output) because swap -l does not include physical
memory in its calculation of swap space.

The output from the swap -s command is summarized in the table below.

TABLE 38–2 Output of the swap -s Command

Keyword Description

bytes allocated The total amount of swap space in 1024-byte blocks that is
currently allocated as backing store (disk-backed swap space).

reserved The total amount of swap space in 1024-byte blocks not

currently allocated, but claimed by memory for possible future
use.

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TABLE 38–2 Output of the swap -s Command (continued)

Keyword Description

used The total amount of swap space in 1024-byte blocks that is

either allocated or reserved.

available The total amount of swap space in 1024-byte blocks that is

currently available for future reservation and allocation.

Adding More Swap Space

As system configurations change and new software packages are installed, you
might need to add more swap space. The easiest way to add more swap space is to
use the mkfile and swap commands to designate a part of an existing UFS or NFS
file system as a supplementary swap area. These commands, described below, enable
you to add more swap space without repartitioning a disk.
Alternative ways to add more swap space are to repartition an existing disk or add
another disk. See Chapter 28 for information on how to repartition a disk.

Creating a Swap File

The following general steps are involved in creating a swap file:
4 Creating a swap file using the mkfile command.
4 Activating the swap file with the swap command.
4 Adding an entry for the swap file in the /etc/vfstab file so that it’s activated
automatically when the system is booted.

The mkfile Command

The mkfile command creates a file that is suitable for use either as an
NFS-mounted or local swap area. The sticky bit is set, and the file is filled with zeros.
You can specify the size of the swap file in bytes (the default) or in kilobytes, blocks,
or megabytes using the k, b, or m suffixes, respectively.
The table below shows the options to the mkfile command.

Configuring Additional Swap Space (Tasks) 503

 TABLE 38–3 Options to the mkfile Command

Option Description

Creates an empty file. The size is noted, but the disk blocks are not
−n
allocated until data is written to them.

Verbose. Reports the names and sizes of created files.

−v

Caution - Use the −n option only when creating an NFS swap file.

How to Create a Swap File and Make It Available

1. Become superuser.
You can create a swap file without root permissions, but it is a good idea for root
to be the owner of the swap file to avoid accidental overwriting.

2. Create the swap file.

# mkfile nnn[k|b|m] filename

The swap file of the size nnn (in Kbytes, bytes, or Mbytes) and name you specify
is created.

3. Activate the swap file.

# /usr/sbin/swap -a /path/filename

You must use the absolute path name to specify the swap file. The swap file is
added and available until the file system is unmounted, the system is rebooted, or
the swap file is removed. Keep in mind that you can’t unmount a file system
while some process or program is swapping to the swap file.

4. Add an entry for the swap file to the /etc/vfstab file that specifies the full
path name of the file, and designates swap as the file system type, like this:

/path/filename - - swap - no -

5. Verify that the swap file is added.

504 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 $ /usr/sbin/swap -l

Example—Creating a Swap File and Making It Available

The following examples shows how to create a 24 Mbyte swap file called
/files/swapfiles.

# mkdir /files
# mkfile 24m /files/swapfile
# swap -a /files/swapfile
# vi /etc/vfstab
(An entry is added for the swap file):
/files/swapfile - - swap - no -
# swap -l
swapfile dev swaplo blocks free
/dev/dsk/c0t2d0s1 32,17 8 205624 192704
/files/swapfile - 8 40952 40952

Removing a Swap File From Use

If the user no longer needs the extra swap space, you can remove it.

How to Remove Extra Swap Space

1. Become superuser.

2. Use the swap -d command to remove swap space.

# /usr/sbin/swap -d /path/filename

The swap file name is removed from the list so that it is no longer available for
swapping. The file itself is not deleted.

3. Edit the /etc/vfstab file and delete the entry for the swap file.

4. Recover the disk space so that you can use it for something else.

# rm swap-filename

Configuring Additional Swap Space (Tasks) 505

 If the swap space is a file, remove it. Or, if the swap space is on a separate slice
and you are sure you will not need it again, make a new file system and mount
the file system.
See Chapter 36 for information on mounting a file system.

Example—Removing Extra Swap Space

The following examples shows how to delete the /files/swapfile swap file.

# swap -d /files/swapfile
# (Remove the deleted swap entry from the /etc/vfstab file)
# rm /files/swapfile
# swap -l
swapfile dev swaplo blocks free
/dev/dsk/c0t2d0s1 32,17 8 205624 192720

506 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 39

Checking File System Integrity

This is a list of the conceptual information and step-by-step instructions in this

chapter.
4 “How the File System State Is Recorded” on page 508
4 “What fsck Checks and Tries to Repair” on page 510
4 “Modifying File System Checking at Boot Time” on page 517
4 “Interactively Checking and Repairing a UFS File System” on page 519
4 “Restoring a Bad Superblock” on page 522
4 “Syntax and Options for the fsck Command” on page 524
See “Troubleshooting File System Problems” in System Administration Guide, Volume
2 for information about fsck error messages.
See Chapter 40 for background information on the UFS file system structures referred
to in this chapter.

File System Integrity

The UFS file system relies on an internal set of tables to keep track of inodes used
and available blocks. When these internal tables are not properly synchronized with
data on a disk, inconsistencies result and file systems need to be repaired.
File systems can be damaged or become inconsistent because of abrupt termination
of the operating system in these ways:
4 Power failure
4 Accidental unplugging of the system
4 Turning the system off without proper shutdown procedure

507
 4 A software error in the kernel
File system corruption, while serious, is not common. When a system is booted, a file
system consistency check is automatically performed (with the fsck program). Most
of the time, this file system check repairs problems it encounters.
This chapter describes what the fsck program checks and repairs, and the fsck
options. It also describes the following tasks:
4 How to modify the automatic checking done during booting
4 How to find out if a file system needs to be checked
4 How to check and repair a UFS file system interactively
4 How to restore a bad superblock
4 How to fix a UFS file system that fsck cannot repair
The fsck error messages are covered in “Troubleshooting File System Problems” in
System Administration Guide, Volume 2.
The fsck program places files and directories that are allocated but unreferenced in
the lost+found directory. The inode number of each file is assigned as the name. If
the lost+found directory does not exist, fsck creates it. If there is not enough
space in the lost+found directory, fsck increases its size.

How the File System State Is Recorded

The fsck command uses a state flag, which is stored in the superblock, to record the
condition of the file system. This flag is used by the fsck command to determine
whether or not a file system needs to be checked for consistency. The flag is used by
the /sbin/rcS script during booting and by the fsck command when run from a
command line using the −m option. If you ignore the result from the −m option to
fsck, all file systems can be checked regardless of the setting of the state flag.
The possible state flag values are described in the table below.

508 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 39–1 State Flag Values

State Flag Value Description

FSACTIVE When a file system is mounted and then modified, the state flag is set to
FSACTIVE. The file system might contain inconsistencies. A file system
will be marked as FSACTIVE before any modified metadata is written to
the disk. When a file system is unmounted gracefully, the state flag is set
to FSCLEAN. A file system with the FSACTIVE flag must be checked by
fsck because it might be inconsistent.

FSBAD If the root (/) file system is mounted when its state is not FSCLEAN or
FSSTABLE, the state flag is set to FSBAD. The kernel will not change this
file system state to FSCLEAN or FSSTABLE. If a root (/) file system is
flagged FSBAD as part of the boot process, it will be mounted read-only.
You can run fsck on the raw root device. Then remount the root (/) file
system as read/write.

FSCLEAN If the file system was unmounted properly, the state flag is set to
FSCLEAN. Any file system with an FSCLEAN state flag is not checked
when the system is booted.

FSLOG If the file system was mounted with UFS logging, the state flag is set to
FSLOG. Any file system with an FSLOG state flag is not checked when the
system is booted.

FSSTABLE The file system is (or was) mounted but has not changed since the last
checkpoint (sync or fsflush) which normally occurs every 30 seconds.
For example, the kernel periodically checks if a file system is idle and, if
so, flushes the information in the superblock back to the disk and marks
it FSSTABLE. If the system crashes, the file system structure is stable, but
users might lose a small amount of data. File systems that are marked
FSSTABLE can skip the checking before mounting. The mount(2) system
call will not mount a file system for read/write if the file system state is
not FSCLEAN, FSSTABLE, or FSLOG.

The table below shows how the state flag is modified by the fsck command, based
on its initial state.

Checking File System Integrity 509

 TABLE 39–2 How the State Flag is Modified by fsck

Inital State: Before State After fsck

fsck

No Errors All Errors Corrected Uncorrected Errors

unknown FSSTABLE FSSTABLE unknown

FSACTIVE FSSTABLE FSSTABLE FSACTIVE

FSSTABLE FSSTABLE FSSTABLE FSACTIVE

FSCLEAN FSCLEAN FSSTABLE FSACTIVE

FSBAD FSSTABLE FSSTABLE FSBAD

FSLOG FSLOG FSLOG FSLOG

What fsck Checks and Tries to Repair

This section describes what happens in the normal operation of a file system, what
can go wrong, what problems fsck (the checking and repair utility) looks for, and
how it corrects the inconsistencies it finds.

Why Inconsistencies Might Occur

Every working day hundreds of files might be created, modified, and removed. Each
time a file is modified, the operating system performs a series of file system updates.
These updates, when written to the disk reliably, yield a consistent file system.

When a user program does an operation to change the file system, such as a write,
the data to be written is first copied into an in-core buffer in the kernel. Normally,
the disk update is handled asynchronously; the user process is allowed to proceed
even though the data write might not happen until long after the write system call
has returned. Thus at any given time, the file system, as it resides on the disk, lags
behind the state of the file system represented by the in-core information.

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The disk information is updated to reflect the in-core information when the buffer is
required for another use or when the kernel automatically runs the fsflush
daemon (at 30-second intervals). If the system is halted without writing out the
in-core information, the file system on the disk might be in an inconsistent state.
A file system can develop inconsistencies in several ways. The most common causes
are operator error and hardware failures.
Problems might result from an unclean shutdown, if a system is shut down
improperly, or when a mounted file system is taken offline improperly. To prevent
unclean shutdowns, the current state of the file systems must be written to disk (that
is, “synchronized”) before halting the CPU, physically taking a disk pack out of a
drive, or taking a disk offline.
Inconsistencies can also result from defective hardware. Blocks can become damaged
on a disk drive at any time, or a disk controller can stop functioning correctly.

The UFS Components That Are Checked for

Consistency
This section describes the kinds of consistency checks that fsck applies to these UFS
file system components: superblock, cylinder group blocks, inodes, indirect blocks,
and data blocks.

Superblock Checks
The superblock stores summary information, which is the most commonly corrupted
item in a UFS file system. Each change to the file system inodes or data blocks also
modifies the superblock. If the CPU is halted and the last command is not a sync
command, the superblock will almost certainly be corrupted.
The superblock is checked for inconsistencies in:
4 File system size
4 Number of inodes
4 Free-block count
4 Free-inode count

File System and Inode List Size Checks

The file system size must be larger than the number of blocks used by the superblock
and the list of inodes. The number of inodes must be less than the maximum number
allowed for the file system. The file system size and layout information are the most
critical pieces of information for fsck. Although there is no way to actually check

Checking File System Integrity 511

 these sizes, because they are statically determined when the file system is created,
fsck can check that the sizes are within reasonable bounds. All other file system
checks require that these sizes be correct. If fsck detects corruption in the static
parameters of the primary superblock, it requests the operator to specify the location
of an alternate superblock.

Free Block Checks

Free blocks are stored in the cylinder group block maps. fsck checks that all the
blocks marked as free are not claimed by any files. When all the blocks have been
accounted for, fsck checks to see if the number of free blocks plus the number of
blocks claimed by the inodes equal the total number of blocks in the file system. If
anything is wrong with the block allocation maps, fsck rebuilds them, leaving out
blocks already allocated.
The summary information in the superblock contains a count of the total number of
free blocks within the file system. The fsck program compares this count to the
number of free blocks it finds within the file system. If the counts do not agree, fsck
replaces the count in the superblock with the actual free-block count.

Free Inode Checks

The summary information in the superblock contains a count of the free inodes
within the file system. The fsck program compares this count to the number of free
inodes it finds within the file system. If the counts do not agree, fsck replaces the
count in the superblock with the actual free inode count.

Inodes
The list of inodes is checked sequentially starting with inode 2 (inode 0 and inode 1
are reserved). Each inode is checked for inconsistencies in:
4 Format and type
4 Link count
4 Duplicate block
4 Bad block numbers
4 Inode size

Format and Type of Inodes

Each inode contains a mode word, which describes the type and state of the inode.
Inodes might be one of eight types:
4 Regular

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4 Directory
4 Block special
4 Character special
4 FIFO (named-pipe)
4 Symbolic link
4 Shadow (used for ACLs)
4 Socket
Inodes might be in one of three states:
4 Allocated
4 Unallocated
4 Partially allocated
When the file system is created, a fixed number of inodes are set aside, but they are
not allocated until they are needed. An allocated inode is one that points to a file. An
unallocated inode does not point to a file and, therefore, should be empty. The
partially allocated state means that the inode is incorrectly formatted. An inode can
get into this state if, for example, bad data is written into the inode list because of a
hardware failure. The only corrective action fsck can take is to clear the inode.

Link Count Checks

Each inode contains a count of the number of directory entries linked to it. The fsck
program verifies the link count of each inode by examining the entire directory
structure, starting from the root directory, and calculating an actual link count for
each inode.
Discrepancies between the link count stored in the inode and the actual link count as
determined by fsck might be of three types:
4 The stored count is not 0 and the actual count is 0.
This condition can occur if no directory entry exists for the inode. In this case,
fsck puts the disconnected file in the lost+found directory.
4 The stored count is not 0 and the actual count is not 0, but the counts are unequal.
This condition can occur if a directory entry has been added or removed but the
inode has not been updated. In this case, fsck replaces the stored link count with
the actual link count.
4 The stored count is 0 and the actual count is not 0.
In this case fsck changes the link count of the inode to the actual count.

Checking File System Integrity 513

 Duplicate Block Checks
Each inode contains a list, or pointers to lists (indirect blocks), of all the blocks
claimed by the inode. Because indirect blocks are owned by an inode, inconsistencies
in indirect blocks directly affect the inode that owns the indirect block.
The fsck program compares each block number claimed by an inode to a list of
allocated blocks. If another inode already claims a block number, the block number is
put on a list of duplicate blocks. Otherwise, the list of allocated blocks is updated to
include the block number.
If there are any duplicate blocks, fsck makes a second pass of the inode list to find
the other inode that claims each duplicate block. (A large number of duplicate blocks
in an inode might be caused by an indirect block not being written to the file
system.) It is not possible to determine with certainty which inode is in error. The
fsck program prompts you to choose which inode should be kept and which should
be cleared.

Bad Block Number Checks

The fsck program checks each block number claimed by an inode to see that its
value is higher than that of the first data block and lower than that of the last data
block in the file system. If the block number is outside this range, it is considered a
bad block number.
Bad block numbers in an inode might be caused by an indirect block not being
written to the file system. The fsck program prompts you to clear the inode.

Inode Size Checks

Each inode contains a count of the number of data blocks that it references. The
number of actual data blocks is the sum of the allocated data blocks and the indirect
blocks. fsck computes the number of data blocks and compares that block count
against the number of blocks the inode claims. If an inode contains an incorrect
count, fsck prompts you to fix it.
Each inode contains a 64-bit size field. This field shows the number of characters
(data bytes) in the file associated with the inode. A rough check of the consistency of
the size field of an inode is done by using the number of characters shown in the
size field to calculate how many blocks should be associated with the inode, and
then comparing that to the actual number of blocks claimed by the inode.

Indirect Blocks
Indirect blocks are owned by an inode. Therefore, inconsistencies in an indirect block
affect the inode that owns it. Inconsistencies that can be checked are:
4 Blocks already claimed by another inode

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4 Block numbers outside the range of the file system
The consistency checks listed above are also performed for indirect blocks.

Data Blocks
An inode can directly or indirectly reference three kinds of data blocks. All
referenced blocks must be of the same kind. The three types of data blocks are:
4 Plain data blocks
4 Symbolic-link data blocks
4 Directory data blocks
Plain data blocks contain the information stored in a file. Symbolic-link data blocks
contain the path name stored in a symbolic link. Directory data blocks contain
directory entries. fsck can check the validity only of directory data blocks.
Directories are distinguished from regular files by an entry in the mode field of the
inode. Data blocks associated with a directory contain the directory entries. Directory
data blocks are checked for inconsistencies involving:
4 Directory inode numbers pointing to unallocated inodes
4 Directory inode numbers greater than the number of inodes in the file system
4 Incorrect directory inode numbers for “.” and “..” directories
4 Directories disconnected from the file system

Directory Unallocated Checks

If the inode number in a directory data block points to an unallocated inode, fsck
removes the directory entry. This condition can occur if the data blocks containing a
new directory entry are modified and written out but the inode does not get written
out. This condition can occur if the CPU is halted without warning.

Bad Inode Number Checks

If a directory entry inode number points beyond the end of the inode list, fsck
removes the directory entry. This condition can occur when bad data is written into a
directory data block.

Incorrect “.” and “..” Entry Checks

The directory inode number entry for “.” must be the first entry in the directory
data block. It must reference itself; that is, its value must be equal to the inode
number for the directory data block.

Checking File System Integrity 515

 The directory inode number entry for “..” must be the second entry in the directory
data block. Its value must be equal to the inode number of the parent directory (or
the inode number of itself if the directory is the root directory).
If the directory inode numbers for “.” and “..” are incorrect, fsck replaces them
with the correct values. If there are multiple hard links to a directory, the first one
found is considered the real parent to which “..” should point. In this case, fsck
recommends you have it delete the other names.

Disconnected Directories
The fsck program checks the general connectivity of the file system. If a directory is
found that is not linked to the file system, fsck links the directory to the
lost+found directory of the file system. (This condition can occur when inodes are
written to the file system but the corresponding directory data blocks are not.)

Regular Data Blocks

Data blocks associated with a regular file hold the contents of the file. fsck does not
attempt to check the validity of the contents of a regular file’s data blocks.

The fsck Summary Message

When you run fsck interactively and it completes successfully, the following message
is displayed:

# fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7
** /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7
** Last Mounted on /export/home
** Phase 1 - Check Blocks and Sizes
** Phase 2 - Check Pathnames
** Phase 3 - Check Connectivity
** Phase 4 - Check Reference Counts
** Phase 5 - Check Cyl groups
2 files, 9 used, 2833540 free (20 frags, 354190 blocks, 0.0% fragmentation)
#

The last line of fsck output describes the following information about the file
system:

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 # files Number of inodes in use

# used Number of fragments in use

# free Number of unused fragments

# frags Number of unused non-block fragments

# blocks Number of unused full blocks

% fragmentation Percentage of fragmentation, where: free

fragments x 100 / total fragments in the file
system

Modifying File System Checking at Boot

Time
During boot up, a preliminary check on each file system to be mounted from a hard
disk is run using the boot script /sbin/rcS, which checks the root (/), /usr, and
/var file systems. The other rc shell scripts then use the fsck command to check
each additional file system sequentially. They do not check file systems in parallel.
File systems are checked sequentially during booting even if the fsck pass
numbers are greater than one.

The /etc/vfstab File

When you run the commands for checking and mounting file systems without
specifying a file system directly, the commands step through the file system table
(/etc/vfstab) using the information specified in the various fields. The fsck
pass field specifies information for file system checking. The mount at boot field
specifies information for mounting the file system at boot time.

When you create new file systems, add entries to /etc/vfstab indicating whether
they are to be checked and mounted at boot time. See Chapter 36 for more
information about adding entries to the /etc/vfstab file.

Information in the /etc/vfstab file is specific for the slices and file systems for
each system. Here is an example of an /etc/vfstab file:

Checking File System Integrity 517

 $ more /etc/vfstab
#device device mount FS fsck mount mount
#to mount to fsck point type pass at boot options
#/dev/dsk/c1d0s2 /dev/rdsk/c1d0s2 /usr ufs 1 yes -
/proc - /proc proc - no -
fd - /dev/fd fd - no -
swap - /tmp tmpfs - yes -

/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 / ufs 1 no -

/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s1 - - swap - no -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s6 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6 /usr ufs 2 no -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7 /opt ufs 3 yes -
pluto:/usr/dist - /usr/dist nfs no yes -
$

The table below describes the function of the fsck pass field.

TABLE 39–3 The fsck pass Field

If the fsck pass

Field is Set To ... Then ... Comments

- (hyphen) The generic fsck command Use a hyphen for read-only file
will not check the file system systems, remote file systems, or
regardless of the state of the file pseudo file systems, such as /
system. proc, to which checking does
not apply.

0 The file system specific fsck When the value is 0 for UFS file
command is called. systems, the file system is not
checked.

1 or greater and fsck The file system specific fsck The value can be any number
-o p is used automatically checks UFS file greater than 1.
systems in parallel.

In preen mode (−o p option), fsck allows only one active file system check per
disk, starting a new check only after the previous one is completed. fsck
automatically uses the major and minor numbers of the devices on which the file
systems reside to determine how to check file systems on different disks at the same
time.
When the fsck pass number is 1, file systems are checked sequentially, in the
order they appear in the /etc/vfstab file. Usually, the root (/) file system has the
fsck pass set to 1.

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Note - fsck does not use the fsck pass number to determine the sequence of file
system checking.

How to Modify File System Checking at Boot Time

1. Become superuser.

2. Edit /etc/vfstab entries in the fsck pass field, and save the changes.
The next time the system is booted, the new values are used.

Interactively Checking and Repairing a

UFS File System
You might need to interactively check file systems:
4 When they cannot be mounted
4 When they develop problems while in use
When an in-use file system develops inconsistencies, error messages might be
displayed in the console window or the system might crash.
Before using fsck, you might want to refer to “Syntax and Options for the fsck
Command” on page 524 and “Troubleshooting File System Problems” in System
Administration Guide, Volume 2 for more information.

How to See If a File System Needs Checking

1. Become superuser.

2. Unmount the file system if it is mounted.

# umount /mount-point

3. Check the file system.

# fsck -m /dev/rdsk/device-name

Checking File System Integrity 519

 In this command, the state flag in the superblock of the file system you specify is
checked to see whether the file system is clean or requires checking.
If you omit the device argument, all the UFS file systems listed in /etc/vfstab
with a fsck pass value greater than 0 are checked.

Example—Seeing If a File System Needs Checking

The following example shows that the file system needs checking.

# fsck -m /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6
** /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6
ufs fsck: sanity check: /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6 needs checking

How to Check File Systems Interactively

1. Become superuser.

2. Unmount the local file systems except root (/) and /usr.

# umountall -l

3. Check the file system.

# fsck

All file systems in the /etc/vfstab file with entries in the fsck pass field
greater than zero are checked. You can also specify the mount point directory or
/dev/rdsk/device-name as arguments to fsck. Any inconsistency messages are
displayed. See “Troubleshooting File System Problems” in System Administration
Guide, Volume 2 for information about how to respond to the error message
prompts to interactively check one or more UFS file systems.

Caution - Running fsck on a mounted file system might cause a system to crash if
fsck makes any changes, unless stated otherwise, such as running fsck in
single-user mode to repair a file system.

4. If you corrected any errors, type fsck and press Return.

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 fsck might not be able to fix all errors in one execution. If you see the message
FILE SYSTEM STATE NOT SET TO OKAY, run the command again. If that does
not work, see “How to Fix a UFS File System fsck Cannot Repair” on page 524.

5. Rename and move any files put in the lost+found directory.

Individual files put in the lost+found directory by fsck are renamed with their
inode numbers. If possible, rename the files and move them where they belong.
You might be able to use the grep command to match phrases with individual
files and the file command to identify file types. When whole directories are
dumped into lost+found, it is easier to figure out where they belong and move
them back.

Example—Checking File Systems Interactively

The following example checks /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6 and corrects the incorrect
block count.

# fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6
checkfilesys: /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6
** Phase 1 - Check Block and Sizes
INCORRECT BLOCK COUNT I=2529 (6 should be 2)
CORRECT? y

** Phase 2 - Check Pathnames

** Phase 3 - Check Connectivity
** Phase 4 - Check Reference Counts
** Phase 5 - Cylinder Groups
929 files, 8928 used, 2851 free (75 frags, 347 blocks, 0.6%
fragmentation)
/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6 FILE SYSTEM STATE SET TO OKAY

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

Preening UFS File Systems

The preen option to fsck (fsck -o p) checks UFS file systems and automatically
fixes the simple problems that normally result from an unexpected system shutdown.
It exits immediately if it encounters a problem that requires operator intervention.
The preen option also permits parallel checking of file systems.

You can run fsck with the −o p option to preen the file systems after an unclean
shutdown. In this mode, fsck does not look at the clean flag and does a full check.
These actions are a subset of the actions that fsck takes when it runs interactively.

How to Preen a File System

1. Become superuser.

Checking File System Integrity 521

 2. Unmount the file system.

# umount mount-point

3. Check a UFS file system with the preen option.

# fsck -o p /dev/rdsk/device-name

You can preen individual file systems by using mount-point or

/dev/rdsk/device-name as arguments to fsck.

Example—Preening a File System

The following example preens the /usr file system.

# fsck -o p /usr

Restoring a Bad Superblock

When the superblock of a file system becomes damaged, you must restore it. fsck
tells you when a superblock is bad. Fortunately, redundant copies of the superblock
are stored within a file system. You can use fsck -o b to replace the superblock
with one of the copies.

How to Restore a Bad Superblock

1. Become superuser.

2. Change to a directory outside the damaged file system.

3. Unmount the file system.

# umount mount-point

Caution - Be sure to use the newfs -N in the next step. If you omit the −N option,
you will create a new, empty file system.

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 4. Display the superblock values with the newfs -N command.

# newfs -N /dev/rdsk/device-name

The output of this command displays the block numbers that were used for the
superblock copies when newfs created the file system, unless the file system was
created with special parameters. See “Deciding on Custom File System
Parameters” on page 542 for information on creating a customized file system.

5. Provide an alternative superblock with the fsck command.

# fsck -F ufs -o b=block-number /dev/rdsk/device-name

fsck uses the alternative superblock you specify to restore the primary
superblock. You can always try 32 as an alternative block, or use any of the
alternative blocks shown by newfs -N.

Example—Restoring a Bad Superblock

The following example restores the superblock copy 5264 for the /files7 file
system:

# cd /
# umount /files7
# newfs -N /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7
/dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7: 163944 sectors in 506 cylinders of 9 tracks, 36 sectors
83.9MB in 32 cyl groups (16 c/g, 2.65MB/g, 1216 i/g)
super-block backups (for fsck -b #) at:
32, 5264, 10496, 15728, 20960, 26192, 31424, 36656, 41888,
47120, 52352, 57584, 62816, 68048, 73280, 78512, 82976, 88208,
93440, 98672, 103904, 109136, 114368, 119600, 124832, 130064, 135296,
140528, 145760, 150992, 156224, 161456,
# fsck -F ufs -o b=5264 /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7
Alternate superblock location: 5264.
** /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7
** Last Mounted on
** Phase 1 - Check Blocks and Sizes
** Phase 2 - Check Pathnames
** Phase 3 - Check Connectivity
** Phase 4 - Check Reference Counts
** Phase 5 - Check Cyl groups
36 files, 867 used, 75712 free (16 frags, 9462 blocks, 0.0% fragmentation)
/dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7 FILE SYSTEM STATE SET TO OKAY

***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****

#

If the superblock in the root (/) file system becomes damaged and you cannot boot
the system, reinstall /kernel/unix and rebuild the root (/) file system with newfs.

Checking File System Integrity 523

 Because a superblock is created by the newfs command, you do not need to restore
it.

How to Fix a UFS File System fsck Cannot Repair

Sometimes you need to run fsck a few times to fix a file system because problems
corrected on one pass might uncover other problems not found in earlier passes.
fsck does not keep running until it comes up clean, so you must rerun it manually.
Pay attention to the information displayed by fsck. It might help you fix the
problem. For example, the messages might point to a bad directory. If you delete the
directory, you might find that fsck runs cleanly.
If fsck still cannot repair the file system, you can try to use the fsdb, ff, clri, and
ncheck commands to figure out and fix what is wrong. See fsdb(1M), ff(1M),
clri(1M), and ncheck(1M) for information about how to use these commands. You
might, ultimately, need to re-create the file system and restore its contents from
backup media. See Chapter 44 for information about restoring complete file systems.
If you cannot fully repair a file system but you can mount it read-only, try using cp,
tar, or cpio to retrieve all or part of the data from the file system.
If hardware disk errors are causing the problem, you might need to reformat and
divide the disk into slices again before re-creating and restoring file systems.
Hardware errors usually display the same error again and again across different
commands. The format command tries to work around bad blocks on the disk. If
the disk is too severely damaged, however, the problems might persist, even after
reformatting. See format(1M) for information about using the format command.
See Chapter 30 or Chapter 31 for information about installing a new disk.

Syntax and Options for the fsck

Command
The fsck command checks and repairs inconsistencies in file systems. It has four
options:
4 Checks only whether a file system can be mounted (fsck -m)
4 Interactively asks for confirmation before making repairs (fsck)
4 Assumes yes or no response for all repairs (fsck -y or fsck -n)
4 Noninteractively preens the file system, fixing all expected (innocuous)
inconsistencies, but exiting when a serious problem is encountered (fsck -o p)

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Generic fsck Command Syntax, Options, and
Arguments
The fsck command has two components: a generic component and a component
specific to each type of file system. The generic commands apply to most types of file
systems, while the specific commands apply to only one type of file system. You
should always use the generic command, which calls the file system-specific
command, as needed.
Usually, you must be superuser to run fsck. You can run the fsck command
without being superuser; but to make repairs, you should unmount the file system
and you must have read permission for the raw device file for the slice (a potential
security hole).
The generic fsck command goes through /etc/vfstab to see what file systems to
check. It runs the appropriate file system-specific fsck command on each file system
listed, except those excluded by an fsck pass number of - or 0 (UFS only).
The generic fsck command has the following syntax:

/usr/sbin/fsck [-F type] [-V] [-m] [special]

/usr/sbin/fsck [-F type] [-V] [-y|Y|n|N] [-o specific-options][special]

The table below describes the options and arguments to the generic fsck command.

TABLE 39–4 The fsck Command Options and Arguments

Option Type Option Description

Generic Specifies the file system type (type). If type is

−F
not specified on the command line, it is obtained
from /etc/vfstab by matching an entry in that
file with the special device name specified. If no
entry is found, the default local file system type
specified in /etc/default/fs is used.

Echoes the completed command line (verbose).

−V
The echoed line includes additional information
derived from /etc/vfstab. This option can be
used to verify and validate the command line. It
does not execute the command.

Performs a preliminary check only. It returns a

−m
code indicating the state of the file system: 0 for
“clean” and 32 for “dirty.” This option is used by
the startup script /sbin/rcS to determine
whether a file system needs to be checked.

Checking File System Integrity 525

 TABLE 39–4 The fsck Command Options and Arguments (continued)

Option Type Option Description

Runs the command automatically answering yes

−y or −Y or −n or
or no to all prompts.
−N

c Converts an old pre-SunOS 4.1 file system with

statically allocated tables to new dynamically
allocated tables. Static allocation imposes a hard
maximum on table size, while dynamic allocation
means space for tables can be added as needed
after the initial allocation. If the file system is in
the new format, convert it to the old format,
unless the table allocation exceeds the fixed
maximum allowed in the old format. fsck lists
the direction of the conversion. In interactive
mode, fsck prompts for confirmation before
doing the conversion. When you use the −o p
option, the conversion is attempted without asking
for confirmation. This option is useful when you
want to convert a number of file systems at once.
You can determine whether a file system is in the
old or new format by running the fstyp
command, and looking at the first line displayed.

w Checks only file systems that permit write access.

special Specifies the mount point or raw device name of

one or more file systems. An entry for the mount
point must exist in /etc/vfstab. If you omit the
special argument, entries in /etc/vfstab with a
specified fsck device and a fsck pass number
greater than zero are checked. If preening (−o p)
is in effect and more than one entry has an fsck
pass number greater than 1, file systems on
different disks are checked in parallel.

Specific This is a comma-separated list of options that

follow the −o option. Describes the options that
are passed to the UFS-specific fsck command for
interpretation.

526 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 39–4 The fsck Command Options and Arguments (continued)

Option Type Option Description

p Preens. Runs the command automatically in silent

mode, correcting what it can, but exiting when it
encounters a problem that requires intervention.
This option also enables parallel checking of UFS
file systems.

b=blocknumber Uses the alternative (redundant) superblock,

located at the specified location. This option can
be used to repair a bad superblock. You can
display a list of alternative superblocks by using
the newfs -N command.

Checking File System Integrity 527

528 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 40

UFS File System Reference

This is a list of the reference information in this chapter.

4 “Default Directories for root (/) and /usr File Systems” on page 529
4 “The Structure of UFS File System Cylinder Groups” on page 538
4 “Deciding on Custom File System Parameters” on page 542
4 “Commands for Creating a Customized File System” on page 545

Default Directories for root (/) and

/usr File Systems
The /kernel directory contains only platform-independent objects, including a
platform-independent kernel, genunix. See Table 40–3 for a description of
/platform and /usr/platform, the platform-dependent directories.
The table below describes all the default directories contained in the root (/) file
system.

TABLE 40–1 Default Directories in the root (/) File System

Directory Description

/ Root of the overall file system name space

/dev Primary location for special files

529
 TABLE 40–1 Default Directories in the root (/) File System (continued)

Directory Description

/dev/cfg Symbolic links to physical ap_ids

/dev/cua Device files for uucp

/dev/dsk Block disk devices

/dev/fbs Frame buffer device files

/dev/md Logical volume management meta-disk devices

/dev/fd File descriptors

/dev/pts pty slave devices

/dev/rdsk Raw disk devices

/dev/rmt Raw tape devices

/dev/sad Entry points for the STREAMS Administrative Driver

/dev/sound Audio device and audio device control files

/dev/swap Default swap device

/dev/term Serial devices

/etc Host-specific system administrative configuration files and

databases

/etc/acct Accounting configuration information

/etc/cron.d Configuration information for cron

/etc/default Defaults information for various programs

/etc/dmi Solstice Enterprise AgentsTM configuration files

/etc/dfs Configuration information for shared file systems

530 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 40–1 Default Directories in the root (/) File System (continued)

Directory Description

/etc/dhcp Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

configuration files

/etc/fn Federated Naming Service and x.500 support files

/etc/fs Binaries organized by file system types for operations

required before /usr is mounted

/etc/gss Generic Security Service (GSS) Application Program

Interface configuration files

/etc/inet Configuration files for Internet services

/etc/init.d Scripts for changing between run levels

/etc/lib Dynamic linking libraries needed when /usr is not

available

/etc/llc2 Logical link control (llc2) driver configuration files

/etc/lp Configuration information for the printer subsystem

/etc/mail Mail subsystem configuration information

/etc/net Configuration information for TI (transport- independent)

network services

/etc/nfs NFS server logging configuration file

/etc/openwin OpenWindowsTM configuration files

/etc/opt Configuration information for optional packages

/etc/rc0.d Scripts for entering/leaving run level 0

/etc/rc1.d Scripts for entering/leaving run level 1

/etc/rc2.d Scripts for entering/leaving run level 2

/etc/rc3.d Scripts for entering/leaving run level 3

UFS File System Reference 531

 TABLE 40–1 Default Directories in the root (/) File System (continued)

Directory Description

/etc/rcS.d Scripts for bringing the system up in single user mode

/etc/rpcsec This directory may contain a NIS+ authentication

configuration file

/etc/saf Service access facility files (including FIFOs)

/etc/security Basic Security Module (BSM) configuration files

/etc/skel Default profile scripts for new user accounts

/etc/tm Trademark files; contents displayed at boot time

/etc/uucp uucp configuration information

/export Default directory for users’ home directories, client file

systems, or other shared file systems

/home Default directory or mount point for a user’s home

directory on a standalone system. When AutoFS is
running, you cannot create any new entries in this
directory.

/kernel Directory of platform-independent loadable kernel

modules required as part of the boot process. It includes
the generic part of the core kernel that is platform
independent, /kernel/genunix. See Table 40–3 for the
/platform and /usr/platform directory structure.

/mnt Convenient, temporary mount point for file systems

/opt Default directory or mount point for add-on application

packages

/sbin Essential executables used in the booting process and in

manual system failure recovery

/stand Standalone programs

/tmp Temporary files; cleared during boot sequence

532 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 40–1 Default Directories in the root (/) File System (continued)

Directory Description

/usr Mount point for the /usr file system. See Table 40–2 for
more information.

/var Directory for varying files, which usually includes

temporary, logging, or status files

/var/adm System logging and accounting files

/var/audit Basic Security Module (BSM) audit files

/var/crash Default depository for kernel crash dumps

/var/cron cron’s log file

/var/dmi Solstice Enterprise AgentsTM (SEA) Desktop Management

Interface (DMI) run time components

/var/dt
dtlogin configuration files

/var/ftp FTP server directory

/var/inet IPv6 router state files

/var/log System log files

/var/lp Line printer subsystem logging information

/var/mail Directory where users’ mail is kept

/var/news Community service messages (note: not the same as

USENET-style news)

/var/nis NIS+ databases

/var/nfs NFS server log files

/var/ntp Network Time Protocol (NTP) server state directory

/var/opt Root of a subtree for varying files associated with

software packages

UFS File System Reference 533

 TABLE 40–1 Default Directories in the root (/) File System (continued)

Directory Description

/var/preserve Backup files for vi and ex

/var/run Temporary system files that are not needed across system
reboots. This is a TMPFS-mounted directory.

/var/sadm Databases maintained by the software package

management utilities

/var/saf saf (service access facility) logging and accounting files

/var/spool Directories for spooled temporary files

/var/spool/cron cron and at spool files

/var/spool/locks Spooling lock files

/var/spool/lp Line printer spool files

/var/spool/mqueue Mail queued for delivery

/var/spool/pkg Spooled packages

/var/spool/uucp Queued uucp jobs

/var/spool/uucppublic Files deposited by uucp

/var/statmon Network status monitor files

/var/tmp Directory for temporary files; not cleared during boot

sequence

/var/uucp uucp log and status files

/var/yp NIS databases (for backwards compatibility with NIS and

unnecessary after full transition to NIS+)

The table below describes the default directories in the /usr file system.

534 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 40–2 Default Directories in the /usr File System

Directory Description

4lib SunOS 4.1 binary compatibility package libraries

5bin Symbolic link to the /usr/bin directory

X Symbolic link to the /usr/openwin directory

adm Symbolic link to the /var/adm directory

aset Directory for Automated Security Enhancement Tools

(ASET) programs and files

bin Location for standard system commands

ccs C compilation programs and libraries

demo Demo programs and data

dict Symbolic link to the /usr/share/lib/dict directory,

which contains the dictionary file used by the UNIX spell
program

dt Directory or mount point for CDE software

games An empty directory, which is a remnant of the SunOS 4.0/

4.1 software

include Header files (for C programs, etc.)

java* Directories containing JavaTM programs and libraries

kernel Additional kernel modules

kvm Implementation architecture-specific binaries and libraries

lib Various program libraries, architecture-dependent

databases, and binaries not invoked directly by the user

local Commands local to a site

mail Symbolic link to the /var/mail directory

UFS File System Reference 535

 TABLE 40–2 Default Directories in the /usr File System (continued)

Directory Description

man Symbolic link to the /usr/share/man directory

net Directory for network listener services

news Symbolic link to the /var/news directory

oasys Files pertaining to the Form and Menu Language

Interpreter (FMLI) execution environment

old Programs that are being phased out

openwin Directory or mount point for OpenWindows software

perl5 Perl 5 programs and documentation

platform See Table 40–3 for more information

preserve Symbolic link to the /var/preserve directory

proc Directory for the proc tools

pub Files for online man page and character processing

sadm Various files and directories related to system

administration

sbin Executables for system administration

sbin/static Statically linked version of selected programs from /usr/

bin and /usr/sbin

share Architecture-independent sharable files

share/lib Architecture-independent databases

share/src Source code for kernel, libraries, and utilities

snadm Programs and libraries related to system and network

administration

536 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 40–2 Default Directories in the /usr File System (continued)

Directory Description

spool Symbolic link to the /var/spool directory

src Symbolic link to the share/src directory

tmp Symbolic link to the var/tmp directory

ucb Berkeley compatibility package binaries

ucbinclude Berkeley compatibility package header files

ucblib Berkeley compatibility package libraries

vmsys Directory for Framed Access Command Environment

(FACE) programs

xpg4 Directory for POSIX-compliant utilities

The Platform-Dependent Directories

The table below describes the platform-dependent objects in the /platform and
/usr/platform directories.

TABLE 40–3 The /platform and /usr/platform Directories

Directory Description

/platform Contains a series of directories, one per supported platform

that need to reside in the root (/) file system.

/platform/*/kernel Contains platform-dependent kernel components, including

the file unix, the core kernel that is platform dependent. See
kernel(1M).

UFS File System Reference 537

 TABLE 40–3 The /platform and /usr/platform Directories (continued)

Directory Description

/usr/platform Contains platform-dependent objects that do not need to

reside in the root (/) file system. It contains objects which
replace the contents of /usr/kvm, which has been removed.

/usr/platform/*/lib Contains platform-dependent objects similar to those found

in the /usr/lib directory.

/platform/*/sbin Contains platform-dependent objects similar to those found

in the /usr/sbin directory.

The Structure of UFS File System

Cylinder Groups
When you create a UFS file system, the disk slice is divided into cylinder groups,
which is made up of one or more consecutive disk cylinders. The cylinder groups are
then further divided into addressable blocks to control and organize the structure of
the files within the cylinder group. Each type of block has a specific function in the
file system. A UFS file system has these four types of blocks:

This Block Type ... Stores ...

Boot block Information used when booting the system

Superblock Detailed information about the file system

Inode All information about a file

Storage or data block Data for each file

This section provides additional information about the organization and function of
these blocks.

538 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

The Boot Block
The boot block stores the procedures used in booting the system. If a file system is
not to be used for booting, the boot block is left blank. The boot block appears only
in the first cylinder group (cylinder group 0) and is the first 8 Kbytes in a slice.

The Superblock
The superblock stores much of the information about the file system. A few of the
more important things it contains are:
4 Size and status of the file system
4 Label (file system name and volume name)
4 Size of the file system logical block
4 Date and time of the last update
4 Cylinder group size
4 Number of data blocks in a cylinder group
4 Summary data block
4 File system state: clean, stable, or active
4 Path name of the last mount point
The superblock is located at the beginning of the disk slice, and is replicated in each
cylinder group. Because the superblock contains critical data, multiple superblocks
are made when the file system is created. Each of the superblock replicas is offset by
a different amount from the beginning of its cylinder group. For multiple-platter disk
drives, the offsets are calculated so that a superblock appears on each platter of the
drive. That way, if the first platter is lost, an alternate superblock can always be
retrieved. Except for the leading blocks in the first cylinder group, the leading blocks
created by the offsets are used for data storage.
A summary information block is kept with the superblock. It is not replicated, but is
grouped with the first superblock, usually in cylinder group 0. The summary block
records changes that take place as the file system is used, and lists the number of
inodes, directories, fragments, and storage blocks within the file system.

Inodes
An inode contains all the information about a file except its name, which is kept in a
directory. An inode is 128 bytes. The inode information is kept in the cylinder
information block, and contains:
4 The type of the file:

UFS File System Reference 539

 4 Regular
4 Directory
4 Block special
4 Character special
4 Symbolic link
4 FIFO, also known as named pipe
4 Socket

4 The mode of the file (the set of read-write-execute permissions)

4 The number of hard links to the file
4 The user ID of the owner of the file
4 The group ID to which the file belongs
4 The number of bytes in the file
4 An array of 15 disk-block addresses
4 The date and time the file was last accessed
4 The date and time the file was last modified
4 The date and time the file was created
The array of 15 disk addresses (0 to 14) point to the data blocks that store the
contents of the file. The first 12 are direct addresses; that is, they point directly to the
first 12 logical storage blocks of the contents of the file. If the file is larger than 12
logical blocks, the 13th address points to an indirect block, which contains direct
block addresses instead of file contents. The 14th address points to a double indirect
block, which contains addresses of indirect blocks. The 15th address is for triple
indirect addresses, if they are ever needed. The figure below shows this chaining of
address blocks starting from the inode.

Inode

Indirect
Block
Address 0
Array 11
Storage
12 Double Blocks
Indirect Indirect
13 Block Block
..
14 .
Indirect
Block

Figure 40–1 The File System Address Chain in a UFS System

540 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Data Blocks
The rest of the space allocated to the file system is occupied by data blocks, also
called storage blocks. The size of these data blocks is determined at the time a file
system is created. Data blocks are allocated, by default, in two sizes: an 8-Kbyte
logical block size, and a 1-Kbyte fragmentation size.
For a regular file, the data blocks contain the contents of the file. For a directory, the
data blocks contain entries that give the inode number and the file name of the files
in the directory.

Free Blocks
Blocks not currently being used as inodes, as indirect address blocks, or as storage
blocks are marked as free in the cylinder group map. This map also keeps track of
fragments to prevent fragmentation from degrading disk performance.
To give you an idea of the appearance of a typical UFS file system, The figure below
shows a series of cylinder groups in a generic UFS file system.

Cylinder Group 0 Cylinder Group 1 Cylinder Group n

Bootblock (8 Kbytes) Storage Blocks Storage Blocks

Superblock

Cylinder Group Map Superblock

Inodes
Cylinder Group Map Superblock

Inodes Cylinder Group Map

Inodes
Storage Blocks Storage Blocks

Storage Blocks

Figure 40–2 A Typical UFS File System

UFS File System Reference 541

 Deciding on Custom File System
Parameters
Before you choose to alter the default file system parameters assigned by the newfs
command, you need to understand them. This section describes each of these
parameters:
4 Block size
4 Fragment size
4 Minimum free space
4 Rotational delay
4 Optimization type
4 Number of files

Logical Block Size

The logical block size is the size of the blocks that the UNIX kernel uses to read or
write files. The logical block size is usually different from the physical block size
(usually 512 bytes), which is the size of the smallest block that the disk controller can
read or write.
You can specify the logical block size of the file system. After the file system is
created, you cannot change this parameter without rebuilding the file system. You
can have file systems with different logical block sizes on the same disk.
By default, the logical block size is 8192 bytes (8 Kbytes) for UFS file systems. The
UFS file system supports block sizes of 4096 or 8192 bytes (4 or 8 Kbytes). 8 Kbytes is
the recommended logical block size.

SPARC platform only - You can only specify 8192–byte block size on the sun4u
platform.

To choose the best logical block size for your system, consider both the performance
desired and the available space. For most UFS systems, an 8-Kbyte file system
provides the best performance, offering a good balance between disk performance
and use of space in primary memory and on disk.
As a general rule, to increase efficiency, use a larger logical block size for file systems
where most of the files are very large. Use a smaller logical block size for file systems
where most of the files are very small. You can use the quot -c file-system command
on a file system to display a complete report on the distribution of files by block size.

542 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Fragment Size
As files are created or expanded, they are allocated disk space in either full logical
blocks or portions of logical blocks called fragments. When disk space is needed to
hold a data for a file, full blocks are allocated first, and then one or more fragments
of a block are allocated for the remainder. For small files, allocation begins with
fragments.
The ability to allocate fragments of blocks to files, rather than just whole blocks, saves
space by reducing fragmentation of disk space resulting from unused holes in blocks.
You define the fragment size when you create a UFS file system. The default fragment
size is 1 Kbyte. Each block can be divided into 1, 2, 4, or 8 fragments, which results
in fragment sizes from 8192 bytes to 512 bytes (for 4-Kbyte file systems only). The
lower bound is actually tied to the disk sector size, typically 512 bytes.

Note - The upper bound might equal the full block size, in which case the fragment
is not a fragment at all. This configuration might be optimal for file systems with
very large files when you are more concerned with speed than with space.

When choosing a fragment size, look at the trade-off between time and space: a small
fragment size saves space, but requires more time to allocate. As a general rule, to
increase storage efficiency, use a larger fragment size for file systems where most of
the files are large. Use a smaller fragment size for file systems where most of the files
are small.

Minimum Free Space

The minimum free space is the percentage of the total disk space held in reserve when
you create the file system. The default reserve is ((64 Mbytes/partition size) * 100),
rounded down to the nearest integer and limited between 1% and 10%, inclusively.
Free space is important because file access becomes less and less efficient as a file
system gets full. As long as there is an adequate amount of free space, UFS file
systems operate efficiently. When a file system becomes full, using up the available
user space, only root can access the reserved free space.
Commands such as df report the percentage of space that is available to users,
excluding the percentage allocated as the minimum free space. When the command
reports that more than 100 percent of the disk space in the file system is in use, some
of the reserve has been used by root.
If you impose quotas on users, the amount of space available to the users does not
include the free space reserve. You can change the value of the minimum free space
for an existing file system by using the tunefs command.

UFS File System Reference 543

 Rotational Delay (Gap)
The rotational delay is the expected minimum time (in milliseconds) it takes the CPU
to complete a data transfer and initiate a new data transfer on the same disk
cylinder. The default delay is zero, as delay-based calculations are not effective when
combined with modern on-disk caches.
When writing a file, the UFS allocation routines try to position new blocks on the
same disk cylinder as the previous block in the same file. The allocation routines also
try to optimally position new blocks within tracks to minimize the disk rotation
needed to access them.
To position file blocks so they are “rotationally well-behaved,” the allocation routines
must know how fast the CPU can service transfers and how long it takes the disk to
skip over a block. Using options to the mkfs command, you can indicate how fast
the disk rotates and how many disk blocks (sectors) it has per track. The allocation
routines use this information to figure out how many milliseconds it takes to skip a
disk block. Then using the expected transfer time (rotational delay), the allocation
routines can position or place blocks so that the next block is just coming under the
disk head when the system is ready to read it.

Note - It is not necessary to specify the rotational delay (−d option to newfs) for
some devices.

Place blocks consecutively only if your system is fast enough to read them on the
same disk rotation. If the system is too slow, the disk spins past the beginning of the
next block in the file and must complete a full rotation before the block can be read,
which takes a lot of time. You should try to specify an appropriate value for the gap
so that the head is located over the appropriate block when the next disk request
occurs.
You can change the value of this parameter for an existing file system by using the
tunefs command. The change applies only to subsequent block allocation, not to
blocks already allocated.

Optimization Type
The optimization type is either space or time.
4 Space – When you select space optimization, disk blocks are allocated to minimize
fragmentation and disk use is optimized.
4 Time – When you select time optimization, disk blocks are allocated as quickly as
possible, with less emphasis on their placement. When there is enough free space,
it is relatively easy to allocate disk blocks effectively, without resulting in too
much fragmentation. The default is time.
You can change the value of the optimization type parameter for an existing file
system using the tunefs command.

544 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Number of Files
The number of inodes determines the number of files you can have in the file
system: one inode for each file. The number of bytes per inode determines the total
number of inodes created when the file system is made: the total size of the file
system divided by the number of bytes per inode. Once the inodes are allocated, you
cannot change the number without recreating the file system.
The default number of bytes per inode is 2048 bytes (2 Kbytes) if the file system is
less than one Gbyte. If the file system is larger than one Gbyte, the following formula
is used:

File System Size Number of Bytes Per Inode

Less than or equal to 1 Gbyte 2048

Less than 2 Gbytes 4096

Less than 3 Gbytes 6144

3 Gbytes or greater 8192

If you have a file system with many symbolic links, they can lower the average file
size. If your file system is going to have many small files, you can give this
parameter a lower value. Note, however, that having too many inodes is much better
than running out of them. If you have too few inodes, you could reach the maximum
number of files on a disk slice that is practically empty.

Commands for Creating a Customized

File System
This section describes the two commands you use to create a customized file system:
4 newfs
4 mkfs

The newfs Command Syntax, Options, and

Arguments
The newfs command is a friendlier version of the mkfs command that is used to
create file systems. The newfs command is located in the /usr/sbin directory.

UFS File System Reference 545

 The syntax is:

newfs [-Nv] [mkfs_options] raw_device

The table below describes the options and arguments to the newfs command.

TABLE 40–4 The newfs Command Options and Arguments

Option Description

Displays the file system parameters that would be used in

−N
creating the file system without actually creating it. This option
does not display the parameters used to create an existing file
system.

Displays the parameters that are passed to the mkfs command.

−v

mkfs-options Use the following options to set the parameters passed to the
mkfs command. The options are listed below in the order they
are passed to mkfs. Separate the options with spaces.

The size of the file system in sectors. The default is

−s size
automatically determined from the disk label.

The number of tracks per cylinder on the disk. The default is

−t ntrack
determined from the disk label.

The logical block size in bytes to use for data transfers. Specify
−b bsize
the size of 4096 or 8192 (4 or 8 Kbytes). The default is 8192
bytes (8 Kbytes).

The smallest amount of disk space in bytes that is allocated to a

−f fragsize
file. Specify the fragment size in powers of two in the range
from 512 to 8192 bytes. The default is 1024 bytes (1 Kbyte).

The number of disk cylinders per cylinder group. The default

−c cgsize
value is calculated by dividing the number of sectors in the file
system by the number of sectors in a gigabyte, and then
multiplying the result by 32. The default value ranges from 16
to 256.

The minimum percentage of free disk space to allow. The

−m free
default is ((64 Mbytes/partition size) * 100), rounded down to
the nearest integer and limited between 1% and 10%, inclusively.

546 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 40–4 The newfs Command Options and Arguments (continued)

Option Description

The speed of the disk, in revolutions per minute. This setting is

−r rpm
driver- or device-specific. If the drive can report how fast it
spins, mkfs uses this value. If not, the default is 3600. This
parameter is converted to revolutions per second before it is
passed to mkfs.

The number of bytes per inode to use in computing how many

−i nbpi
inodes to create. See the section above for the default values.

Optimization type to use for allocating disk blocks to files:

−o opt
space or time. The default is time.

The number of alternate blocks per disk cylinder (SCSI devices

−a apc
only) to reserve for bad block placement. The default is 0.

(Rotational delay) The expected minimum number of

−d gap
milliseconds it takes the CPU to complete a data transfer and
initiate a new data transfer on the same disk cylinder. The
default is zero.

The number of different rotation positions in which to divide a

−n nrpos
cylinder group. The default is 8.

The maximum number of blocks, belonging to one file, that will

−C maxcontig
be allocated contiguously before inserting a rotational delay. The
default varies from drive to drive. Drives without internal
(track) buffers (or drives/controllers that don’t advertise the
existence of an internal buffer) default to 1. Drives with buffers
default to 7.
This parameter is limited in the following way:

blocksize x maxcontig must be <= maxphys

maxphys is a read-only kernel variable that specifies the

maximum block transfer size (in bytes) that the I/O subsystem
is capable of satisfying. (This limit is enforced by mount, not by
newfs or mkfs.)
This parameter also controls clustering. Regardless of the value
of rotdelay, clustering is enabled only when maxcontig is greater
than 1. Clustering allows higher I/O rates for sequential I/O
and is described in tunefs(1M).

raw_device The special character (raw) device file name of the partition to
contain the file system. This argument is required.

UFS File System Reference 547

 Examples—newfs Command Options and Arguments
This newfs example uses the −N option to display file system information, including
the backup superblocks.

# newfs -N /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0
/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0: 37260 sectors in 115 cylinders of 9 tracks, 36 sectors
19.1MB in 8 cyl groups (16 c/g, 2.65MB/g, 1216 i/g)
superblock backups (for fsck -b #) at:
32, 5264, 10496, 15728, 20960, 26192, 31424, 36656,
#

The Generic mkfs Command

The generic mkfs command calls a file system-specific mkfs, which then creates a
file system of a specified type on a specified disk slice. Although mkfs can support
different types of file systems, in practice you would use it to create UFS or PCFS file
systems. To make other types of file systems, you would have to write the software
for the file system–specific versions of the mkfs command to use. Normally, you do
not run mkfs directly; it is called by the newfs command.
The generic mkfs command is located in /usr/sbin. See mkfs(1M) for a
description of the arguments and options.

UFS Direct Input/Output (I/O)

Direct I/O is intended to boost bulk I/O operations. Bulk I/O operations use large
buffer sizes to transfer large files (larger than 256 Kbytes).

An example of a bulk I/O operation is downloading satellite data, which writes

large amounts of data to a file. Direct I/O data is read or written into memory
without using the overhead of the operating system’s page caching mechanism.
There is a potential penalty on direct I/O startup. If a file requested for I/O is
already mapped by another application, the pages will have to be flushed out of
memory before the direct I/O operation can begin.
See directio(3C) for more information.
Direct I/O can also be enabled on a file system by using the forcedirectio option
to the mount command. Enabling direct I/O is a performance benefit only when a
file system is transferring large amounts of sequential data.
When a file system is mounted with this option, data is transferred directly between
a user’s address space and the disk. When forced direct I/O is not enabled for a file
system, data transferred between a user’s address space and the disk is first buffered
in the kernel address space.

548 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 The default behavior is no forced direct I/O on a UFS file system. See
mount_ufs(1M) for more information.

How to Enable Forced Direct I/O on a UFS File

System
1. Become superuser.

2. Mount a file system with the forcedirectio mount option.

# mount -F ufs -o forcedirectio /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 /datab

3. Verify the mounted file system has forced direct I/O enabled.

# mount
.
.
.
/export/home on /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 read/write/setuid/forcedirectio ...

UFS File System Reference 549

550 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 41

Backing Up and Restoring Data Topics

This section provides instructions for backing up and restoring data in the Solaris
environment. This section contains these chapters.

Provides guidelines and planning information on

Chapter 42
backing up and restoring data using the ufsdump and
ufsrestore commands.

Provides step-by-step instructions for backing up

Chapter 43
individual files and complete file systems from local or
remote devices.

Provides step-by-step instructions for restoring

Chapter 44
individual files and complete file systems.

Describes how ufsdump works, and the syntax and

Chapter 45
options for the ufsdump and ufsrestore commands.

Provides step-by-step instructions for copying file

Chapter 46
systems to disk, for using the dd, cpio, and tar
commands with different backup media, and copying
files with a different header format.

Provides step-by-step instructions for how to add a tape

Chapter 47
drive, how to determine the type of tape drive, backup
device names, and working with tape drives and
magnetic tape cartridges.

551
552 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 42

Backing Up and Restoring File Systems

(Overview)

This chapter provides guidelines and planning information on backing up and

restoring complete file systems using the ufsdump and ufsrestore commands.
Here is a list of concept information in this chapter.
4 “Where to Find Backup and Restore Tasks” on page 553
4 “Definition: Backing Up and Restoring File Systems” on page 554
4 “Why You Should Back Up File Systems” on page 555
4 “Choosing a Tape Device” on page 555
4 “Planning Which File Systems to Back Up” on page 556
4 “Overview of the Backup and Restore Commands” on page 558
4 “Choosing the Type of Backup” on page 559
4 “Guidelines for Scheduling Backups” on page 560
4 “Sample Backup Schedules” on page 562

Where to Find Backup and Restore Tasks

Use Chapter 43 and Chapter 44 to find step-by-step instructions for backing up and
restoring file systems (using the ufsdump and ufsrestore commands).

553
 Definition: Backing Up and Restoring
File Systems
Backing up file systems means copying file systems to removable media (such as
tape) to safeguard against loss, damage, or corruption. Restoring file systems means
copying reasonably current backup files from removable media to a working
directory.
This chapter describes the commands for scheduled backup and restore operations
(ufsdump and ufsrestore); however, other commands are available for copying
files and file systems for sharing or transporting files. The table below provides
pointers to all commands that copy individual files and/or file systems to media.

TABLE 42–1 Commands for Copying Files and File Systems

If You Want To ... Then Use ... And Go To ...

Back up complete or individual file

ufsdump(1M) command Chapter 43 or Chapter 45
systems to a local or remote tape
device

Back up complete file systems for Solstice BackupTM

Solstice Backup 5.1
all systems on a network from a software
Administration Guide
server

Back up and restore a NIS+ master

nisbackup(1M) and Solaris Naming
server
nisrestore(1M) Administration Guide
commands

Copy, list, and retrieve files on tape

tar(1), cpio(1), or Chapter 46
Copy, list, and retrieve files on pax(1) command
diskette
tar(1) command

Copy master disk to a clone disk

dd(1M) command Chapter 46

Restore complete file systems or

ufsrestore(1M) Chapter 44
individual files from removable
media to a working directory command

554 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Why You Should Back Up File Systems
Backing up files is one of the most crucial system administration functions. You
should perform regularly scheduled backups to prevent loss of data due to:
4 System crashes
4 Accidental deletion of files
4 Hardware failures
4 Natural disasters (for example, fire, hurricanes, earthquakes)
4 Problems when reinstalling or upgrading a system

Choosing a Tape Device

The table below shows typical tape devices used for storing file systems during the
backup process. Capacity depends on the type of drive and the data being written to
the tape. For more detailed information on tape devices, see Chapter 47.

TABLE 42–2 Typical Media for Backing Up File Systems

Media Capacity

1/2-inch reel tape 140 Mbytes (6250 bpi)

2.5-Gbyte 1/4 inch cartridge (QIC) tape 2.5 Gbytes

DDS3 4-mm cartridge tape (DAT) 12 - 24 Gbytes

14-Gbyte 8-mm cartridge tape 14 Gbytes

DLTTM 7000 1/2-inch cartridge tape 35 - 70 Gbytes

Backing Up and Restoring File Systems (Overview) 555

 Planning Which File Systems to Back Up
You should back up all file systems that are critical to users, including file systems
that change frequently. The tables below provide general guidelines on the file
systems to back up for standalone systems and servers.

TABLE 42–3 File Systems to Back Up for Standalone Systems

Consider Backing Up
These File Systems ... Because ... And At This Interval ...

root (/) – partition 0 The root (/) file system At regular intervals.
contains the kernel and
might contain the /var
directory in which
frequently modified files
such as mail and
accounting are kept.

/usr – partition 6, /opt Installing new software Occasionally.

and adding new
commands typically
affects the /usr and /opt
file systems. /opt is either
part of root (/) or is its
own file system.

/export/home The /export/home file More often than root (/) or /usr,
system contains directories perhaps as often as once a day,
and subdirectories of all depending on your site needs.
users on the standalone
system.

/export , /var, or other During installation of As your site requires.

file systems Solaris software, you
might have created these
file systems.

556 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 42–4 File Systems to Back Up for Servers

Consider Backing Up
These File Systems ... Because ... And at This Interval ...

root (/) – partition 0 These file systems contain Once a day to once a month
the kernel, major depending on your site’s needs.
/export – partition 3 commands, and
root (/) - if you frequently add
executables.
/usr – partition 6 and remove clients and hardware
on the network, you have to
change important files in root (/),
including the kernel configuration
file. In this case, you should do a
full backup on the root (/) file
system between once a week and
once a month. If your site keeps
users’ mail in the /var/mail
directory on a mail server (which
client systems then mount), you
might want to back up root (/)
daily (or /var, if it is a separate
file system).

/export - the root (/) directory

of clients is kept in the /export
file system. Because the
information it contains is similar
to the server’s root directory in
slice 0, it does not change
frequently. You need to back up
only occasionally, unless your site
delivers mail to client systems;
then you should back up /
export more frequently.

/usr and /opt - contents are

fairly static and need to be backed
up once a week to once a month.

/export/home – The /export/home file Once a day to once a week.

partition 7 system contains the home
directories and
subdirectories of all the
users on the system; its
files are volatile.

Note - You do not need to back up a server’s /export/swap file system.

Backing Up and Restoring File Systems (Overview) 557

 Overview of the Backup and Restore
Commands
The ufsdump and ufsrestore commands are the recommended commands for
scheduled backups of complete file systems. The table below lists the tasks you can
perform with them. For information on how these commands work and their syntax,
see Chapter 45.

TABLE 42–5 Tasks You Can Perform With the ufsdump and ufsrestore Commands

With This
Command ... You Can ... Comments

ufsdump Back up complete or partial file The tape device can be on any
systems to local or remote tape drives system in the network to which
the user has access. This
command works quickly because
it is aware of the structure of the
UFS file system type, and works
directly through the raw device
interface.

Back up incremental file system This enables you to back up only

changes those files that were changed
since a previous backup.

Back up groups of systems over the You can run ufsdump from one
network from a single system system on each remote system
through a remote shell or remote
login, and direct the output to the
system on which the drive is
located. Or, you can pipe the
output to the dd command or a
file.

Automate backups Use the crontab utility to run a

script that starts the ufsdump
command.

Restrict user access to backup tables Use the −a option.

Determine the size of a backup Use the −S option.

without actually doing the backup

Keep a log of when each file system Use the −u option.

was backed up

558 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 42–5 Tasks You Can Perform With the ufsdump and ufsrestore
Commands (continued)

With This
Command ... You Can ... Comments

Verify the contents of the tape against Use the −v option.

the source file system

ufsrestore Restore individual or complete file

systems from a local or remote tape
drive

Choosing the Type of Backup

With the ufsdump command, you can perform full or incremental backups. The
table below lists the differences between these types of backup procedures.

TABLE 42–6 Differences Between Full and Incremental Backups

Backup Type Copies Advantages Disadvantages

Full A complete file system Everything is in one Requires large numbers

or directory place of backup tapes that
take a long time to
write. Takes longer to
retrieve individual files
because the drive has
to move sequentially to
the point on the tape
where the file is
located. You might
have to search multiple
tapes.

Incremental Only files in the Easier to retrieve small Finding which

specified file system changes in file systems incremental tape
that have changed contains a file can take
since a previous time. You might have
backup to go back to last full
dump.

Backing Up and Restoring File Systems (Overview) 559

 Guidelines for Scheduling Backups
A backup schedule is the schedule you establish to run the ufsdump command. This
section provides guidelines on the factors to weigh when creating a backup schedule,
guidelines on how often to back up file systems, and sample backup schedules.

What Drives a Backup Schedule

The schedule you create depends on:
4 Your need to minimize the number of tapes
4 Time available for doing backups
4 Time available to do a full restore of a damaged file system
4 Time available for retrieving individual files that are accidentally deleted

How Often Should You Do Backups?

If you do not need to minimize time and media spent on backups, you can do full
backups every day. However, this is not realistic for most sites, so incremental
backups are used most often. In this case, you should back up your site enough to
restore files from the last four weeks. This requires at least four sets of tapes—one for
each week, which you would reuse each month. In addition, you should archive the
monthly backups for at least a year, and then keep yearly backups for a number of
years.

Using Dump Levels to Create Incremental Backups

The dump level you specify in the ufsdump command (0-9) determines which files
are backed up. Specifying dump level 0 creates a full backup. Numbers 1-9 are used
to schedule incremental backups, but have no defined meanings. Numbers 1-9 are just
a range of numbers used to schedule cumulative or discrete backups. The only
meaning levels 1-9 have is in relationship to each other, as a higher or lower number.
The following examples show the flexibility of the incremental dump procedure
using levels 1-9.

560 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Dump Levels for Daily, Cumulative Backups
Doing daily, cumulative incremental backups is the most commonly used backup
scheme and is recommended for most situations. The following example shows a
schedule using a level 9 dump each day, and a level 5 dump on Friday to restart the
process.

Note - In the following example, you could have used other numbers in the 1-9
range to produce the same results. The key is having the same number each day,
with any lower number on Friday. For example, you could have specified levels 4, 4,
4, 4, 2 or 7, 7, 7, 7, 5.

Monthly Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

0 9 9 9 9 5

Figure 42–1 Incremental Backup: Daily Cumulative

Dump Levels for Daily, Discrete Backups

The following example shows a schedule where you capture only a day’s work on
different tapes. In this case, sequential dump level numbers are used during the
week (3,4,5,6) with a lower number (2) on Friday.

Note - In the following example, you could have used the sequence 6,7,8,9 followed
by 2, or 5,6,7,8 followed by 3. Remember, the numbers themselves have no defined
meaning; you attribute meaning by ordering them in a high/low sequence.

Monthly Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

0 3 4 5 6 2

Figure 42–2 Incremental Backup: Daily Discrete

Backing Up and Restoring File Systems (Overview) 561

 Sample Backup Schedules
This section provides sample backup schedules. All schedules assume you begin
with a full backup (level 0), and that you use the −u option to record each backup.

Example—Daily Cumulative, Weekly Cumulative

Backups
The table below shows the most commonly used incremental backup schedule; it is
recommended for most situations. With this schedule:

4 All files that have changed since the lower-level backup at the end of the previous
week are saved each day.

4 For each weekday level 9 backup, the previous level 0 or level 5 is the closest
backup at a lower level. Therefore, each weekday tape contains all the files
changed since the end of the previous week (or the initial level 0 for the first
week).

4 For each Friday level 5 backup, the nearest lower-level backup is the level 0 done
at the beginning of the month. Therefore, each Friday’s tape contains all the files
changed during the month to that point.

TABLE 42–7 Daily Cumulative/Weekly Cumulative Backup Schedule

Floating Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri

1st of Month 0

Week 1 9 9 9 9 5

Week 2 9 9 9 9 5

Week 3 9 9 9 9 5

Week 4 9 9 9 9 5

The table below shows how the contents of the tapes can change across two weeks
using the previous schedule. Each letter represents a different file.

562 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 TABLE 42–8 Contents of Tapes for Daily/Weekly Cumulative Schedule

Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri

Week 1 ab abc abcd abcde abcdef

g gh ghi ghij abcdefghij

Week 2 k

Tape Requirements
With this schedule, you need six tapes (if you want to reuse daily tapes), or nine
tapes (if you want to use four different daily tapes): one for the level 0, four for the
Fridays, and one or four daily tapes.

If you need to restore a complete file system, you will need the following tapes: the
level 0, the most recent Friday tape, and the most recent daily tape since the last
Friday tape (if any).

Example—Daily Cumulative, Weekly Incremental

Backups
The table below shows a schedule where each weekday tape accumulates all files
that changed since the beginning of the week (or the initial level 0 for the first week),
and each Friday’s tape contains all the files changed that week.

TABLE 42–9 Daily Cumulative/Weekly Incremental Backup Schedule

Floating Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri

1st of Month 0

Week 1 9 9 9 9 3

Week 2 9 9 9 9 4

Week 3 9 9 9 9 5

Week 4 9 9 9 9 6

Backing Up and Restoring File Systems (Overview) 563

 The table below shows how the contents of the tapes can change across two weeks
using the previous schedule. Each letter represents a different file.

TABLE 42–10 Contents of Tapes for Daily Cumulative/Weekly Incremental Backup

Schedule

Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri

Week 1 ab abc abcd abcde abcdef

Week 2 g gh ghi ghij ghijk

Tape Requirements
With this schedule, you need six tapes (if you want to reuse daily tapes), or nine
tapes (if you want to use four different daily tapes): one for the level 0, four for the
Fridays, and one or four daily tapes.
If you need to restore a complete file system, you need the following tapes: the level
0, all the Friday tapes, and the most recent daily tape since the last Friday tape (if
any).

Example—Daily Incremental, Weekly Cumulative

Backups
The table below shows a schedule where each weekday tape contains only the files
changed since the previous day, and each Friday’s tape contains all files changed
since the initial level 0 at the beginning of the month.

TABLE 42–11 Daily Incremental/Weekly Cumulative Backup Schedule

Floating Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri

1st of Month 0

Week 1 3 4 5 6 2

Week 2 3 4 5 6 2

564 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 42–11 Daily Incremental/Weekly Cumulative Backup Schedule (continued)

Floating Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri

Week 3 3 4 5 6 2

Week 4 3 4 5 6 2

The table below shows how the contents of the tapes can change across two weeks
using the previous schedule. Each letter represents a different file.

TABLE 42–12 Contents of Tapes for Daily/Weekly Cumulative Backup Schedule

Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri

Week 1 ab cd efg hi abcdefghi

jkl m no pq abcdefghij
Week 2 klmnopqrs

Tape Requirements
With this schedule you need at least nine tapes (if you want to reuse daily
tapes—not recommended), or 21 tapes (if you save weekly tapes for a month): one
for the level 0, four for the Fridays, and four or 16 daily tapes.
If you need to restore the complete file system, you need the following tapes: the
level 0, the most recent Friday tape, and all the daily tapes since the last Friday tape
(if any).

Example—Backup Schedule for a Server

The table below shows an example backup strategy for a heavily used file server on
a small network where users are doing file-intensive work, such as program
development or document production. It assumes that the backup period begins on a
Sunday and consists of four seven-day weeks.

Backing Up and Restoring File Systems (Overview) 565

 TABLE 42–13 Schedule of Backups for a Server Example

Directory Date Level Tape Name

root (/) 1st Sunday 0 n tapes

/usr 1st Sunday 0 "

/export 1st Sunday 0 "

/export/home 1st Sunday 0 "

1st Monday 9 A

1st Tuesday 9 B

1st Wednesday 5 C

1st Thursday 9 D

1st Friday 9 E

1st Saturday 5 F

root (/) 2nd Sunday 0 n tapes

/usr 2nd Sunday 0 "

/export 2nd Sunday 0 "

/export/home 2nd Sunday 0 "

2nd Monday 9 G

2nd Tuesday 9 H

2nd Wednesday 5 I

2nd Thursday 9 J

2nd Friday 9 K

2nd Saturday 5 L

root (/) 3rd Sunday 0 n tapes

566 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 42–13 Schedule of Backups for a Server Example (continued)

Directory Date Level Tape Name

/usr 3rd Sunday 0 "

/export 3rd Sunday 0 "

/export/home 3rd Sunday 0 "

3rd Monday 9 M

3rd Tuesday 9 N

3rd Wednesday 5 O

3rd Thursday 9 P

3rd Friday 9 Q

3rd Saturday 5 R

root (/) 4th Sunday 0 n tapes

/usr 4th Sunday 0 "

/export 4th Sunday 0 "

/export/home 4th Sunday 0 "

4th Monday 9 S

4th Tuesday 9 T

4th Wednesday 5 U

4th Thursday 9 V

4th Friday 9 W

4th Saturday 5 X

With this plan, you use 4n tapes (the number of tapes needed for four full backups
of root (/), /usr, /export, and /export/home), plus 24 additional tapes for the

Backing Up and Restoring File Systems (Overview) 567

 incremental backups of /export/home. This plan assumes that each incremental
backup uses one tape and you save the tapes for a month.
Here’s how this plan works:
1. On each Sunday, do a full backup (level 0) of root (/), /usr, /export, and
/export/home. Save the level 0 tapes for at least 3 months.
2. On the first Monday of the month, use tape A to do a level 9 backup of
/export/home. ufsdump copies all files changed since the previous lower-level
backup (in this case, the level 0 backup that you did on Sunday).
3. On the first Tuesday of the month, use tape B to do a level 9 backup of
/export/home. Again, ufsdump copies all files changed since the last
lower-level backup—Sunday’s level 0 backup.
4. On the first Wednesday, use tape C to do a level 5 backup. ufsdump copies all
files changed since Sunday.
5. Do the Thursday and Friday level 9 backups on tapes D and E. ufsdump copies
all files changed since the last lower-level backup—Wednesday’s level 5 backup.
6. On the first Saturday of the month, do a level 5 backup of /export/home, which
copies all files changed since the previous lower-level backup—in this case, the
level 0 backup you did on Sunday. Store tapes A-F until the first Monday of the
next 4-week period, when you use them again.
7. Repeat steps 1–6 for the next three weeks, using tapes G-L and 4n tapes for the
level 0 on Sunday, and so on.
8. For each 4-week period, repeat steps 1–7, using a new set of tapes for the level 0s
and reusing tapes A–X for the incremental backups. The level 0 tapes could be
reused after 3 months.
This plan lets you save files in their various states for a month. It requires many
tapes, but ensures that you have a library of tapes to draw upon. To reduce the
number of tapes, you could reuse Tapes A-F each week.

Other Backup Scheduling Suggestions

The table below provides other suggestions for scheduling backups.

568 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 42–14 Other Suggestions for Scheduling Backing Up Systems

If You ... Then ... Comments

Need to restore different 4 Do daily incremental This schedule saves all files
versions of files (for backups every modified that day, as well as those
example, file systems working day. files still on disk that were
used for word processing) 4 Do not reuse the same modified since the last backup of a
tape for daily lower level. However, with this
incremental backups. schedule you should use a
different tape each day because a
file changed on Tuesday, and again
on Thursday, goes onto Friday’s
lower-level backup looking like it
did Thursday night—not Tuesday
night. If a user needs the Tuesday
version, you cannot restore it
unless you have a Tuesday backup
tape (or a Wednesday backup
tape). Similarly, a file that is
present on Tuesday and
Wednesday, but removed on
Thursday, does not appear on the
Friday lower-level backup.

Need to quickly restore a Do lower-level backups —

complete file system more frequently.

Are backing up a number Consider offsetting the This way you’re not doing all level
of file systems on the schedule for different file 0 backups on the same day.
same server systems.

Need to minimize tapes Increase the level of This means only changes from day
incremental backups to day are saved on each daily tape.
done across the week.

Increase the level of This means only changes from

backups done at the end week to week (rather than the
of the week. entire month) are saved on the
weekly tapes.

Put each day’s and week’s This is done by using the no

incremental backups onto rewind option in the ufsdump
the same tape. command.

Backing Up and Restoring File Systems (Overview) 569

570 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 43

Backing Up Files and File Systems

(Tasks)

This chapter describes the procedures for backing up file systems using the ufsdump
command.
This is a list of the step-by-step instructions in this chapter.
4 “How to Find File System Names” on page 572
4 “How to Determine the Number of Tapes for a Full Backup” on page 572
4 “How to Do Backups to Tape” on page 574
For detailed information on syntax, options, and arguments for the ufsdump
command, see Chapter 45.

Preparing to Do Backups
Preparing to back up file systems begins with planning, which is described in
Chapter 42 and includes choosing:
4 A tape drive
4 The file systems to back up
4 The type of backup (full or incremental)
4 A backup schedule
This section describes other tasks you might need to perform before backing up file
systems, including:
4 Finding names of file systems to back up
4 Determining the number of tapes for a full backup

571
 How to Find File System Names
1. Display the contents of the /etc/vfstab file.

$ more /etc/vfstab

2. Look in the mount point column for the name of the file system.

3. You use the mount point in the mount point column when you back up the
file system.

Example—Finding File System Names

$ more /etc/vfstab
#device device mount FS fsck mount mount
#to mount to fsck point type pass at boot options
#
#/dev/dsk/c1d0s2 /dev/rdsk/c1d0s2 /usr ufs 1 yes -
fd - /dev/fd fd - no -
/proc - /proc proc - no -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s1 - - swap - no -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 / ufs 1 no -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s6 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6 /usr ufs 1 no -
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s7 /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7 /export/home ufs 2 yes -
mars:/share/kit - /kit nfs - yes -
mars:/db/doc - /db/doc nfs - yes -

How to Determine the Number of Tapes for a Full

Backup
1. Become superuser.

2. Estimate the size of the backup in bytes by using the usfdump S command.

# ufsdump S filesystem

S Displays the estimated number of bytes needed to do the backup.

3. Divide the estimated size by the capacity of the tape to see how many tapes
you need.

572 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 See Table 42–2 for a list of tape capacities.

Example—Determining Number of Tapes

In this example, the file system of 489,472 bytes will easily fit on a 150-Mbyte tape.

# ufsdump S /export/home
489472

Doing Backups
The following are general guidelines for performing backups:
4 Use single-user mode or unmount the file system.
4 Be aware that backing up file systems when there are directory-level operations
(such as creating, removing, and renaming files) and file-level activity occurring
means that some data will not be included in the backup.
4 You can run the ufsdump command from a single system and remotely back up
groups of systems across the network through remote shell or remote login, and
direct the output to the system on which the tape drive is located. (Typically, the
tape drive is located on the system from which you run the ufsdump command,
but it does not have to be.)
Another way to back up files to a remote drive is to pipe the output from the
ufsdump command to the dd command. See Chapter 46 for information about
using the dd command.
4 If you are doing remote backups across the network, the system with the tape
drive must have entries in its /.rhosts file for each client that will be using the
drive. Also, the system initiating the backup must be included in the /.rhosts
file on each system it will back up.
4 To specify a remote drive on a system, use the naming convention that matches
the OS release of the system with the remote tape drive. For example, use
/dev/rst0 for a remote drive on a system running the SunOS 4.1.1 release or
compatible versions; use /dev/rmt/0 for a system running the Solaris 8 release
or compatible versions.

Note - Use the nisbackup command to back up a NIS+ master server running the
Solaris 2.5 release or compatible versions. See Solaris Naming Administration Guide
for information on using this command.

Backing Up Files and File Systems (Tasks) 573

 How to Do Backups to Tape
The following steps provide the general steps for backing up file systems using the
ufsdump command. The examples show specific uses of options and arguments.
1. Become superuser.

2. Bring the system to run level S (single-user mode).

# shutdown -g30 -y

3. [Optional] Check the file system for consistency with the fsck command.
Running the fsck -m command checks for consistency of file systems. For
example, power failures can leave files in an inconsistent state. For more
information on the fsck command, see Chapter 39.

# fsck -m /dev/rdsk/ device-name

4. If you need to back up file systems to a remote tape drive:

a. On the system to which the tape drive is attached (the tape server), add the
following entry to its /.rhosts file.

host root

host Specifies the name of the system on which you will run ufsdump
to perform the backup.

b. On the tape server, verify that the host added to the /.rhosts file is
accessible through the name service.

5. Identify the device name of the tape drive.

The default tape drive is /dev/rmt/0.

6. Insert a tape that is not write protected into the tape drive.

7. Back up file systems using the ufsdump command.

Use the following table to select the most common options and arguments for the
ufsdump command. See Chapter 45 for other options and arguments.

574 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Use This Option or
To ... Argument ... For Example ... See ...

Do a full 0 option ufsdump 0ucf /dev/rmt/0 / “Example—Full

backup
Backup, root (/)” on
page 576

Do an 1-9 option ufsdump 9ucf /dev/rmt/0 / “Example—Incremental

incremental
Backup, root (/) ” on
backup
page 576

Back up Specify a file or ufsdump ucf /dev/rmt/0 /export/

individual files directory home/kryten

Record dumps
−u option ufsdump 9ucf /dev/rmt/0 /export/ “Example—Incremental
to /etc/ home Backup, root (/) ” on
dumpdates
page 576
file

Specify a
−c option ufsdump 9ucf /dev/rmt/0 /export/ “Example—Incremental
cartridge tape home Backup, root (/) ” on
page 576

Specify the
−f dump-file ufsdump 9ucf /dev/rmt/0 /export/ “Example—Incremental
tape drive home Backup, root (/) ” on
page 576

Back up local remote-system:dump- ufsdump 0ucf pluto:/dev/rmt/0 / “Example—Full

file systems to file export/home Backup to Remote
a remote
System (Solaris 8 Data
system’s tape
to Solaris 8 System)”
device
on page 578

8. If prompted, remove the tape and replace with the next volume.

9. Label each tape with the volume number, level, date, system name, disk slice,
and file system.

10. Bring the system back to run level 3 by pressing Control-d.

11. Verify the backup was successful by using the ufsrestore command to
display the tape contents.
This command is described in Chapter 44.

Backing Up Files and File Systems (Tasks) 575

 Example—Full Backup, root (/)
The following example shows a full backup of the root (/) file system to a QIC–150
tape (/dev/rmt/0).

# shutdown -g30 -y
# ufsdump 0ucf /dev/rmt/0 /
DUMP: Writing 63 Kilobyte records
DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Tue Jul 13 10:46:09 1999
DUMP: Date of last level 0 dump: the epoch
DUMP: Dumping /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 (starbug:/) to /dev/rmt/0.
DUMP: Mapping (Pass I) [regular files]
DUMP: Mapping (Pass II) [directories]
DUMP: Estimated 71058 blocks (34.70MB).
DUMP: Dumping (Pass III) [directories]
DUMP: Dumping (Pass IV) [regular files]
DUMP: Tape rewinding
DUMP: 70936 blocks (34.64MB) on 1 volume at 64 KB/sec
DUMP: DUMP IS DONE
DUMP: Level 0 dump on Tue Jul 13 10:46:09 1999
# ufsrestore tf /dev/rmt/0
2 .
3 ./lost+found
5696 ./usr
11392 ./var
17088 ./export
22784 ./export/home
28480 ./opt
5697 ./etc
11393 ./etc/default
11394 ./etc/default/sys-suspend
11429 ./etc/default/cron
11430 ./etc/default/devfsadm
11431 ./etc/default/dhcpagent
11432 ./etc/default/fs
11433 ./etc/default/inetinit
11434 ./etc/default/kbd
11435 ./etc/default/nfslogd
11436 ./etc/default/passwd
.
.
.
# (Press Control-d to bring system to run level 3)

Example—Incremental Backup, root (/)

The following example shows an incremental backup of the root (/) file system to a
4-mm DAT tape (/dev/rmt/0).

# ufsdump 9ucf /dev/rmt/0 /

DUMP: Writing 63 Kilobyte records
DUMP: Date of this level 9 dump: Tue Jul 13 10:58:12 1999
DUMP: Date of last level 0 dump: Tue Jul 13 10:46:09 1999
DUMP: Dumping /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 (starbug:/) to /dev/rmt/0.
DUMP: Mapping (Pass I) [regular files]

576 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

DUMP: Mapping (Pass II) [directories]

DUMP: Mapping (Pass II) [directories]
DUMP: Mapping (Pass II) [directories]
DUMP: Mapping (Pass II) [directories]
DUMP: Estimated 200 blocks (100KB).
DUMP: Dumping (Pass III) [directories]
DUMP: Dumping (Pass IV) [regular files]
DUMP: Tape rewinding
DUMP: 124 blocks (62KB) on 1 volume at 8 KB/sec
DUMP: DUMP IS DONE
DUMP: Level 9 dump on Tue Jul 13 10:58:12 1999
# ufsrestore tf /dev/rmt/0
2 .
3 ./lost+found
5696 ./usr
11392 ./var
17088 ./export
22784 ./export/home
28480 ./opt
5697 ./etc
11393 ./etc/default
11394 ./etc/default/sys-suspend
11429 ./etc/default/cron
11430 ./etc/default/devfsadm
11431 ./etc/default/dhcpagent
11432 ./etc/default/fs
11433 ./etc/default/inetinit
11434 ./etc/default/kbd
11435 ./etc/default/nfslogd
11436 ./etc/default/passwd
11437 ./etc/default/tar
.
.
.

Example—Full Backup, Individual Home Directory

The following example shows a full backup of the /export/home/kryten
directory to a 4-mm DAT tape.

# ufsdump 0ucf /dev/rmt/0 /export/home/kryten

DUMP: Writing 63 Kilobyte records
DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Tue Jul 13 11:30:45 1999
DUMP: Date of last level 0 dump: the epoch
DUMP: Dumping /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7 (pluto:/export/home) to /dev/rmt/0.
DUMP: Mapping (Pass I) [regular files]
DUMP: Mapping (Pass II) [directories]
DUMP: Estimated 232 blocks (116KB).
DUMP: Dumping (Pass III) [directories]
DUMP: Dumping (Pass IV) [regular files]

(continued)

Backing Up Files and File Systems (Tasks) 577

 (Continuation)

DUMP: Tape rewinding

DUMP: 124 blocks (62KB) on 1 volume at 8 KB/sec
DUMP: DUMP IS DONE
# ufsrestore tf /dev/rmt/0
2 .
2688 ./kryten
5409 ./kryten/letters
5410 ./kryten/letters/letter1
5411 ./kryten/letters/letter2
5412 ./kryten/letters/letter3
2689 ./kryten/.profile
8096 ./kryten/memos
30 ./kryten/reports
31 ./kryten/reports/reportA
32 ./kryten/reports/reportB
33 ./kryten/reports/reportC
#

Example—Full Backup to Remote System (Solaris 8 Data to

Solaris 8 System)
The following example shows a full backup of a local /export/home file system on
a Solaris 8 system to a tape device on a remote Solaris 8 system called starbug.

# ufsdump 0ucf starbug:/dev/rmt/0 /export/home

DUMP: Writing 63 Kilobyte records
DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Tue Jul 13 13:14:40 1999
DUMP: Date of last level 0 dump: the epoch
DUMP: Dumping /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7 (mars:/export/home) to starbug:/dev/rmt/0
DUMP: Mapping (Pass I) [regular files]
DUMP: Mapping (Pass II) [directories]
DUMP: Estimated 476 blocks (238KB).
DUMP: Dumping (Pass III) [directories]
DUMP: Dumping (Pass IV) [regular files]
DUMP: Tape rewinding
DUMP: 376 blocks (188KB) on 1 volume at 21 KB/sec
DUMP: DUMP IS DONE
DUMP: Level 0 dump on Tue Jul 13 13:14:40 1999
# ufsrestore tf starbug:/dev/rmt/0
2 .
3 ./lost+found
3776 ./kryten
3777 ./kryten/.cshrc
3778 ./kryten/.login
3779 ./kryten/b
3780 ./kryten/memos
7552 ./kryten/letters
7553 ./kryten/letters/b
7554 ./kryten/letters/letter1

(continued)

578 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

7555 ./kryten/letters/letter2
7556 ./kryten/letters/letter3
11328 ./kryten/reports
11329 ./kryten/reports/reportA
11330 ./kryten/reports/reportB
11331 ./kryten/reports/reportC
.
.
.
#

Example—Full Backup to Remote System (Solaris 8 Data to

SunOS 4.1.4 System)
The following example shows a full backup of a local /export/home file system on
a Solaris 8 system to a tape device on a remote SunOS 4.1.4 system (mars).

Note - Notice the SunOS 4.x-style device name (/dev/rst0) used with the
ufsdump command.

# ufsdump 0ucf mars:/dev/rst0 /export/home

DUMP: Writing 63 Kilobyte records
DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Thu Jul 15 09:13:01 1999
DUMP: Date of last level 0 dump: the epoch
DUMP: Dumping /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7 (starbug:/export/home) to mars:/dev/
rst0.
DUMP: Mapping (Pass I) [regular files]
DUMP: Mapping (Pass II) [directories]
DUMP: Estimated 5690 blocks (2.78MB).
DUMP: Dumping (Pass III) [directories]
DUMP: Dumping (Pass IV) [regular files]
DUMP: Tape rewinding
DUMP: 5542 blocks (2.71MB) on 1 volume at 77 KB/sec
DUMP: DUMP IS DONE
DUMP: Level 0 dump on Thu Jul 15 09:13:01 1999
# ufsrestore tf mars:/dev/rst0
2 .
3 ./lost+found
2688 ./kryten
5409 ./kryten/letters
5410 ./kryten/letters/letter1
5411 ./kryten/letters/letter2
5412 ./kryten/letters/letter3
2689 ./kryten/.profile
8096 ./kryten/memos
30 ./kryten/reports
31 ./kryten/reports/reportA

(continued)

Backing Up Files and File Systems (Tasks) 579

 (Continuation)

32 ./kryten/reports/reportB
33 ./kryten/reports/reportC
.
.
.
#

Example—Full Backup to Remote System (SunOS 4.1.4 Data

to Solaris 8)
The following example shows a full backup of a local root (/) file system on a Sun
4.1.4 system (mars) to a remote tape device on a Solaris 8 system called starbug.

Note - When you back up data on a system running SunOS 4.1.4 or a compatible
version, you must use the dump command—not the ufsdump command.

# dump 0ucf starbug:/dev/rmt/0 /

DUMP: Date of this level 0 dump: Wed Jul 7 06:19:33 1999
DUMP: Date of last level 0 dump: the epoch
DUMP: Dumping /dev/rsd0a (/) to /dev/rmt/0 on host starbug
DUMP: mapping (Pass I) [regular files]
DUMP: mapping (Pass II) [directories]
DUMP: estimated 123706 blocks (60.40MB) on 1.41 tape(s).
DUMP: dumping (Pass III) [directories]
DUMP: dumping (Pass IV) [regular files]
DUMP: level 0 dump on Wed Jul 7 06:19:33 1999
DUMP: Tape rewinding
DUMP: 123680 blocks (60.39MB) on 2 volumes
DUMP: DUMP IS DONE
# restore tf starbug:/dev/rmt/0
2 .
3 ./lost+found
3776 ./export
7552 ./home
11328 ./usr
15104 ./pcfs
3777 ./tftpboot
3778 ./tftpboot/tftpboot
3794 ./tftpboot/boot.sun4c.sunos.4.1.4
7553 ./etc
7554 ./etc/sendmail.cf
7555 ./etc/aliases
7556 ./etc/aliases.dir
7557 ./etc/aliases.pag
7558 ./etc/holidays
7559 ./etc/dumpdates
.

(continued)

580 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

.
.
#

Backing Up Files and File Systems (Tasks) 581

582 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
CHAPTER 44

Restoring Files and File Systems (Tasks)

This chapter describes the procedures for restoring file systems.

Here is a list of step-by-step instructions in this chapter:
4 “How to Determine Which Tapes to Use” on page 585
4 “How to Restore Files Interactively” on page 587
4 “How to Restore Specific Files Non-Interactively” on page 589
4 “How to Restore Files Using a Remote Tape Drive” on page 591
4 “How to Restore a Complete File System” on page 592
4 “How to Restore the root (/) and /usr File Systems” on page 595
This chapter describes how to use the ufsrestore(1M) command to restore files
and file systems that were backed up using the ufsdump command. See Chapter 46
for information about other commands you can use to archive, restore, copy, or move
files and file systems.

Preparing to Restore Files and File

Systems
The ufsrestore command copies files to disk, relative to the current working
directory, from backups created using the ufsdump command. You can use
ufsrestore to reload an entire file system hierarchy from a level 0 dump and
incremental dumps that follow it or to restore one or more single files from any
dump tape. If ufsrestore is run as superuser, files are restored with their original
owner, last modification time, and mode (permissions).
Before you start to restore files or file systems, you need to know:

583
 4 The tapes (or diskettes) you need
4 The raw device name on which you want to restore the file system
4 The type of tape drive you will use
4 The device name (local or remote) for the tape drive

Determining the Disk Device Name

If you have properly labeled your backup tapes, you should be able to use the disk
device name (/dev/rdsk/devicename) from the tape label. See “How to Find File
System Names” on page 572 for more information.

Determining the Type of Tape Drive You Need

You must use a tape drive that is compatible with the backup media to restore the
files. The format of the backup media determines which drive you must use to
restore files. For example, if your backup media is 8-mm tape, you must use an
8-mm tape drive to restore the files.

Determining the Tape Device Name

You might have specified the tape device name (/dev/rmt/n) as part of the backup
tape label information. If you are using the same drive to restore a backup tape, you
can use the device name from the label. See Chapter 47 for more information on
media devices and device names.

Restoring Complete File Systems

Occasionally, a file system becomes so damaged that you must completely restore it.
Typically, you need to restore a complete file system after a disk head crash. You
might need to replace the hardware before you can restore the software. See Chapter
30 or Chapter 31 for information on how to replace a disk. Fully restoring a file
system such as /export/home can take a lot of time. If you have consistently
backed up file systems, you can restore them to their state from the time of the last
incremental backup.

584 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Restoring Individual Files and
Directories
When you back up files and directories, you save them relative to the file system in
which they belong. When you restore files and directories, ufsrestore recreates the
file hierarchy in the current working directory. For example, files backed up from the
/export/doc/books directory (where /export is the file system), would be saved
relative to /export. In other words, the book1 file in the docs directory would be
saved as ./doc/books/book1 on the tape. Later on, if you restored the
./doc/books/book1 file to the /var/tmp directory, the file would be restored to
/var/tmp/doc/books/book1.
When restoring individual files and directories, it is a good idea to restore them to a
temporary location, such as the /var/tmp directory. After you verify them, you can
move the files to their proper locations. You can restore individual files and
directories to their original locations. If you do so, be sure you are not overwriting
newer files with older versions from the backup tape.

Note - Do not restore files in the /tmp directory even temporarily. The /tmp
directory is usually mounted as a TMPFS file system and TMPFS does not support
UFS file system attributes such as ACLs.

Restoring Files and File Systems

Things you need to know:
4 The tapes that have the files to be restored
4 The path name of the files to be restored

How to Determine Which Tapes to Use

1. Ask the user the approximate date the files to be recovered were last modified.

2. Refer to your backup plan to find the date of the last backup that would have
the file or file system on it.
To retrieve the most recent version of a file, work backward through the
incremental backups from highest to lowest level and most recent to least recent,
unless the user requests otherwise.

Restoring Files and File Systems (Tasks) 585

 3. If you have online archive files, use the ufsrestore command to identify
correct media.

# ufsrestore ta archive-name ./path/filename ./path/filename

t List each file that appears on the tape.

a Reads the table of contents from the online archive

file instead of the tape.

archive-name Identifies the online archive file name.

./path/filename Identifies the file name(s) you are looking for on

the online archive. If successful, ufsrestore
prints out the inode number and file name. If
unsuccessful, ufsrestore prints an error message.

4. Insert the media containing the backups in the drive and use the ufsrestore
command to verify the correct media.

# ufsrestore tf device-name ./path/filename ./path/filename

Be sure to use the complete path for the filename(s). If a file is in the backup, its
name and inode number is listed. Otherwise, a message says it is not on the
volume.

5. If you have multiple dump files on the same tape, use the s /dev/rmt/n
option to position the tape at the dump you want to use.

# ufsrestore tfs /dev/rmt/n tape_number

Example—Determining Which Tapes to Use

If you use ufsdump to dump the /usr file system, the table of contents lists only the
files and directories under /usr. The following example checks if /usr/bin/pwd is
in the online archive.

# ufsrestore ta archive-name ./bin/pwd

The following example checks if /usr/bin/pwd is on the backup tape.

# ufsrestore tf /dev/rmt/n ./bin/pwd

586 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How to Restore Files Interactively
1. Become superuser.

2. Write-protect the tape.

3. Insert the volume 1 tape into the tape drive.

4. Change to a directory that will be used to restore the files temporarily.

# cd /var/tmp

To avoid conflicts with other users, you might want to create and change to a
subdirectory, such as /var/tmp/restore, in which to restore the files.
If you are restoring a hierarchy, you should restore the files in a temporary
directory on the same file system where the files will reside, so you can use the
mv command to move the entire hierarchy where it belongs after it is restored.

5. Use the ufsrestore command to start the interactive restoration.

Some informational messages and the ufsrestore> prompt are displayed.

# ufsrestore if /dev/rmt/n

6. Create a list of files to be restored.

a. List the contents of a directory.

ufsrestore> ls directory

b. Change to a directory.

ufsrestore> cd directory-name

c. Create a list of files and directories you want to restore.

ufsrestore> add filename filename

d. If you need to remove a directory or file name from the list of files to be
restored, use the delete command.

ufsrestore> delete filename

Restoring Files and File Systems (Tasks) 587

 7. Turn on verbose mode to display the file names as they are being restored.

ufsrestore> verbose

8. Use the extract command after the list is complete.

ufsrestore> extract

The ufsrestore command asks you which volume number to use.

9. Type the volume number and press Return. If you have only one volume, type
1 and press Return.

Specify next volume #: 1

The files and directories in the list are extracted and restored to the current
working directory.

10. To keep the mode of the current directory unchanged, enter n at the set
owner/mode prompt.

set owner/mode for ‘.’? [yn] n

You must wait while ufsrestore performs its final cleanup.

11. Quit the ufsrestore program.

ufsrestore> quit

You then see the shell prompt.

12. Verify the restored files.

a. List the restored files and directories.

# ls -l

A list of files and directories is appears.

b. Check the list to be sure all the files and directories you specified in the list
have been restored.

c. Move the files to the proper directories.

588 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Example—Restoring Files Interactively
The following example extracts the files /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow from the
backup tape.

# cd /var/tmp
# ufsrestore if /dev/rmt/0
ufsrestore> ls
.:
.cpr_config etc/ lost+found/ sbin/ usr/
TT_DB/ export/ mnt/ sccs/ var/
b/ home/ net/ share/ vol/
bin kernel/ opt/ shared/ ws/
dev/ lib platform/ src/ xfn/
devices/ license/ proc/ tmp/
ufsrestore> cd etc
ufsrestore> add passwd shadow
ufsrestore> verbose
verbose mode on
ufsrestore> extract
Extract requested files
You have not read any volumes yet.
Unless you know which volume your file(s) are on you should start
with the last volume and work towards the first.
Specify next volume #: 1
extract file ./etc/shadow
extract file ./etc/passwd
Add links
Set directory mode, owner, and times.
set owner/mode for ‘.’? [yn] n
ufsrestore> quit
#

How to Restore Specific Files Non-Interactively

1. Become superuser.

2. Write-protect the tape for safety.

3. Insert the volume 1 tape into the tape drive.

4. Change to a directory for restoring files temporarily.

# cd /var/tmp

To avoid conflicts with other users, you might want to create and change to a
subdirectory, such as /var/tmp/restore, in which to restore the files.

Restoring Files and File Systems (Tasks) 589

 If you are restoring a hierarchy, you should restore the files in a temporary
directory on the same file system where the files will reside, so you can use the
mv command to move the entire hierarchy where it belongs after it is restored.

5. Use the ufsrestore command to restore the file.

# ufsrestore xvf /dev/rmt/n filename ...

x Tells ufsrestore to copy specific files or directories in

the filename argument.

v Displays the file names as they are restored.

f /dev/rmt/n Identifies the tape device name.

filename ... One or more individual file or directory names separated

by spaces, for example: ./export/home/user1/mail
./export/home/user2/mail.

6. Type the volume number where files are located and press Return.

Specify next volume #: 1

The file is restored to the current working directory.

7. To keep the mode of the current directory unchanged, type n and press Return
at the set owner/mode prompt.

set owner/mode for ’.’? [yn] n

8. Verify the restored files.

a. List the restored files and directories.

# ls -l

A list of files and directories is displayed.

b. Check the list to be sure all the files and directories you specified in the list
have been restored.

c. Move the files to the proper directories.

590 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Example—Restoring Specific Files Non-Interactively
The following example restores the passwd and shadow files to the /var/tmp
directory.

# cd /var/tmp
# ufsrestore xvf /dev/rmt/0 ./etc/passwd ./etc/shadow
Verify volume and initialize maps
Media block size is 126
Dump date: Wed Jul 14 08:42:42 1999
Dumped from: the epoch
Level 0 dump of a partial file system on starbug:/etc
Label: none
Extract directories from tape
Initialize symbol table.
Make node ./etc
Extract requested files
You have not read any volumes yet.
Unless you know which volume your file(s) are on you should start
with the last volume and work towards the first.
Specify next volume #: 1
extract file ./etc/passwd
extract file ./etc/shadow
Add links
Set directory mode, owner, and times.
set owner/mode for ‘.’? [yn] n
Directories already exist, set modes anyway? [yn] n
# cd etc
# mv passwd /etc
# mv shadow /etc
# ls -l /etc

How to Restore Files Using a Remote Tape Drive

You can restore files from a remote tape drive by adding remote-host: to the front of
the tape device name, when using the ufsrestore command.

ufsrestore xf [user@]remote-host:/dev/rmt/n filename

Example—Restoring Files Using a Remote Drive

The following example restores files using a remote tape drive /dev/rmt/0 on the
system venus.

# ufsrestore xf venus:/dev/rmt/0 filename

Restoring Files and File Systems (Tasks) 591

 How to Restore a Complete File System

Note - You cannot use this procedure to restore root (/) or /usr. See “How to
Restore the root (/) and /usr File Systems” on page 595 for instructions on restoring
these file systems.

1. Become superuser.

2. If necessary, unmount the file system.

# umount /dev/rdsk/device-name

3. Create the new file system with the newfs(1M) command.

# newfs /dev/rdsk/device-name

You are asked if you want to construct a new file system on the raw device.
Verify that the device-name is correct so you don’t destroy the wrong file system.

4. Confirm that the new file system should be created.

newfs: construct a new file system /dev/rdsk/cwtxdysz:(y/n)? y

The new file system is created.

5. Mount the new file system on a temporary mount point.

# mount /dev/dsk/device-name /mnt

6. Change to the /mnt directory.

# cd /mnt

You have changed to the mount-point directory.

7. Write-protect the tapes.

8. Insert the first volume of the level 0 tape into the tape drive.

9. Use the ufsrestore command to restore the files on the tapes.

# ufsrestore rvf /dev/rmt/n

592 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 The level 0 dump is restored. If the dump required multiple tapes, you would be
prompted to load each tape in numeric order.

10. Remove the tape and load the next level tape in the drive.
Always restore tapes starting with 0 and continuing until you reach the highest
level.

11. Repeat Step 7 on page 592 through Step 10 on page 593 for each level of dump,
from the lowest to the highest level.

12. Verify the file system is restored.

# ls

13. Remove the restoresymtable file.

# rm restoresymtable

The restoresymtable file created by ufsrestore is removed.

14. Change to another directory.

# cd /

15. Unmount the newly restored file system.

# umount /mnt

16. Remove the last tape and insert a new tape that is not write-protected in the
tape drive.

17. Use the ufsdump command to make a level 0 backup of the newly restored file
system.

# ufsdump 0uf /dev/rmt/n /dev/rdsk/device-name

You should always do an immediate backup of a newly created file system,

because ufsrestore repositions the files and changes the inode allocation (the
restored file system will appear to have changed since the previous backup).

18. Mount the restored file system.

Restoring Files and File Systems (Tasks) 593

 # mount /dev/dsk/device-name mount-point

The restored file system is mounted and available for use.

19. Verify the restored and mounted file system is available.

# ls mount-point

Example—Restoring a Complete File System

The following example restores the /export/home file system.

# umount /export/home
# newfs /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7
newfs: construct a new file system /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7: (y/n)? y
/dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7:
410400 sectors in 270 cylinders of 19 tracks, 80 sectors
200.4MB in 17 cyl groups (16 c/g, 11.88MB/g, 5696 i/g)
super-block backups (for fsck -F ufs -o b=#) at:
32, 24432, 48832, 73232, 97632, 122032, 146432, 170832, 195232, 219632,
244032, 268432, 292832, 317232, 341632, 366032, 390432,
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 /mnt
# cd /mnt
# ufsrestore rvf /dev/rmt/0
Verify volume and initialize maps
Media block size is 126
Dump date: Wed Jul 14 08:49:33 1999
Dumped from: the epoch
Level 0 dump of /export/home on earth:/dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7
Label: none
Begin level 0 restore
Initialize symbol table.
Extract directories from tape
Calculate extraction list.
Warning: ./lost+found: File exists
Make node ./kryten
Make node ./kryten/letters
Make node ./kryten/reports
Extract new leaves.
Check pointing the restore
extract file ./kryten/.cshrc
extract file ./kryten/.login
extract file ./kryten/b
extract file ./kryten/memos
extract file ./kryten/letters/b
extract file ./kryten/letters/letter1
extract file ./kryten/letters/letter2
extract file ./kryten/letters/letter3
extract file ./kryten/reports/reportA
extract file ./kryten/reports/reportB
extract file ./kryten/reports/reportC

(continued)

594 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 (Continuation)

Add links
Set directory mode, owner, and times.
Check the symbol table.
Check pointing the restore
# ls
# rm restoresymtable
# cd /
# umount /mnt
# ufsdump 0ucf /dev/rmt/0 /export/home
.
.
.
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7 /export/home
# ls /export/home

How to Restore the root (/) and /usr File Systems

1. Add a new system disk to the system where the root (/) and /usr file systems
will be restored.
For a detailed description about adding a system disk, refer to Chapter 30 or
Chapter 31.

2. Mount the new file system on a temporary mount point.

# mount /dev/dsk/device-name /mnt

3. Change to the /mnt directory.

# cd /mnt

4. Write-protect the tapes.

5. Use the ufsrestore command to restore the root file system.

# ufsrestore rvf /dev/rmt/n

The level 0 tape is restored.

6. Remove the tape and load the next level tape in the drive.
Always restore tapes starting with 0 and continuing from lowest to highest level.

Restoring Files and File Systems (Tasks) 595

 7. Continue to use the ufsrestore command as needed.

# ufsrestore rvf /dev/rmt/n

The next level tape is restored.

8. Repeat Step 6 on page 595 and Step 7 on page 596 for each additional tape.

9. Verify the file system is restored.

# ls

10. Remove the restoresymtable file.

# rm restoresymtable

Removes the restoresymtable file that is created and used by ufsrestore to

check-point the restore.

11. Change to the root (/) directory.

# cd /

12. Unmount the newly created file system.

# umount /mnt

13. Check the new file system.

# fsck /dev/rdsk/device-name

The restored file system is checked for consistency.

14. Create the boot blocks on the root partition by using the installboot(1M)
command.

# installboot /usr/platform/‘uname-i‘/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/devicename

See “SPARC: Example—Restoring the root (/) File System” on page 597 for an
example of using the installboot command on a SPARC based system or “IA:
Example—Restoring the root (/) File System” on page 597 for an example of
using the installboot command on an IA based system.

596 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 15. Insert a new tape in the tape drive.

16. Back up the new file system.

# ufsdump 0uf /dev/rmt/n /dev/rdsk/device-name

A level 0 backup is performed. Always do an immediate backup of a newly

created file system because ufsrestore repositions the files and changes the
inode allocation.

17. Repeat steps 5 through 18 for the /usr file system, if necessary.

18. Reboot the system.

# init 6

The system is rebooted.

SPARC: Example—Restoring the root (/) File System

# mount /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 /mnt
# cd /mnt
# tapes
# ufsrestore rvf /dev/rmt/0
# ls
# rm restoresymtable
# cd /
# umount /mnt
# fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0
# installboot /usr/platform/sun4m/lib/fs/ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0
# ufsdump 0uf /dev/rmt/0 /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0
# init 6

IA: Example—Restoring the root (/) File System

# mount /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 /mnt
# cd /mnt
# tapes
# ufsrestore rvf /dev/rmt/0
# ls
# rm restoresymtable
# cd /
# umount /mnt
# fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0
# installboot /usr/platform/‘uname -i‘/lib/fs/ufs/pboot /usr/platform/‘uname -i‘/lib/fs/

(continued)

Restoring Files and File Systems (Tasks) 597

 (Continuation)

ufs/bootblk /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0
# ufsdump 0uf /dev/rmt/0 /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0
# init 6

598 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 45

The ufsdump and ufsrestore

Commands (Reference)

This chapter contains reference information on the ufsdump and ufsrestore

commands.
Here is a list of information in this chapter.
4 “How ufsdump Works” on page 599
4 “Options and Arguments for the ufsdump Command” on page 604
4 “The ufsdump Command and Security Issues” on page 607
4 “Options and Arguments for the ufsrestore Command” on page 607

How ufsdump Works

The ufsdump command makes two passes when backing up a file system. On the
first pass, it scans the raw device file for the file system and builds a table of
directories and files in memory. It then writes the table to the backup media. In the
second pass, ufsdump goes through the inodes in numerical order, reading the file
contents and writing the data to the media.

Determining Device Characteristics

The ufsdump command needs to know only an appropriate block size and how to
detect the end of media.

599
 Detecting the End of Media
ufsdump writes a sequence of fixed-size records. When ufsdump receives
notification that a record was only partially written, it assumes that it has reached
the physical end of the media. This method works for most devices. If a device is not
able to notify ufsdump that only a partial record has been written, a media error
occurs as ufsdump tries to write.

Note - DAT devices and 8mm tape devices detect end-of-media. Cartridge tape
devices and 1/2–inch tape devices do not detect end-of-media.

Copying Data With ufsdump

The ufsdump command copies data only from the raw disk slice. If the file system is
still active, anything in memory buffers is probably not copied. The backup done by
ufsdump does not copy free blocks, nor does it make an image of the disk slice. If
symbolic links point to files on other slices, the link itself is copied.

Role of the /etc/dumpdates File

The ufsdump command, when used with the −u option, maintains and updates the
/etc/dumpdates file. Each line in /etc/dumpdates shows the file system backed
up, the level of the last backup, and the day, date, and time of the backup. Here is a
typical /etc/dumpdates file from a file server:

/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 9 Tue Jul 13 10:58:12 1999

/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s0 0 Tue Jul 13 10:46:09 1999
/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s1 0 Tue Jul 13 13:41:04 1999

When you do an incremental backup, the ufsdump command consults

/etc/dumpdates to find the date of the most recent backup of the next lower level.
Then it copies to the media all files that were modified since the date of that
lower-level backup. After the backup is complete, a new information line, describing
the backup you just completed, replaces the information line for the previous backup
at that level.
Use the /etc/dumpdates file to verify that backups are being done. This
verification is particularly important if you are having equipment problems. If a
backup cannot be completed because of equipment failure, the backup is not
recorded in the /etc/dumpdates file.

600 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

If you need to restore an entire disk, check the /etc/dumpdates file for a list of the
most recent dates and levels of backups so that you can determine which tapes you
need in order to restore the entire file system.

Note - The /etc/dumpdates file is a text file that can be edited, but edit it only at
your own risk. If you make changes to the file that do not match your archive tapes,
you might not be able to find the tapes (or files) you need.

Backup Device (dump-file) Argument

The dump-file argument (to the −f option) specifies the destination of the backup,
which can be one of the following:
4 Local tape drive or diskette drive
4 Remote tape drive or diskette drive
4 Standard output
Use this argument when the destination is not the default local tape drive
/dev/rmt/0. If you use the −f option, then you must specify a value for dump-file.

Note - The dump-file argument can also point to a file on a local or remote disk,
which, if used by mistake, can fill up a file system.

Local Tape or Diskette Drive

Typically, dump-file specifies a raw device file for a tape or diskette drive. When
ufsdump writes to an output device, it creates a single backup file that might span
multiple tapes or diskettes.
You specify the tape or diskette device on your system using a device abbreviation.
The first device is always 0. For example, if you have a SCSI tape controller and one
QIC-24 tape drive that uses medium-density formatting, use this device name:
/dev/rmt/0m
When you specify a tape device name, you can also type the letter “n” at the end of
the name to indicate that the tape drive should not rewind after the backup is
completed. For example:
/dev/rmt/0mn
Use the “no-rewind” option if you want to put more than one file onto the tape. If
you run out of space during a backup, the tape does not rewind before ufsdump
asks for a new tape. See “Backup Device Names” on page 640 for a complete
description of device naming conventions.

The ufsdump and ufsrestore Commands (Reference) 601

 Remote Tape or Diskette Drive
You specify a remote tape or diskette drive using the syntax host:device. ufsdump
writes to the remote device when root on the local system has access to the remote
system. If you usually run ufsdump as root, the name of the local system must be
included in the /.rhosts file on the remote system. If you specify the device as
user@host:device, ufsdump tries to access the device on the remote system as the
specified user. In this case, the specified user must be included in the /.rhosts file
on the remote system.

Use the naming convention for the device that matches the operating system for the
system on which the device resides, not the system from which you run the
ufsdump command. If the drive is on a system that is running a previous SunOS
release (for example, 4.1.1), use the SunOS 4.1 device name (for example,
/dev/rst0). If the system is running Solaris software, use the SunOS 5.8 convention
(for example, /dev/rmt/0).

Note - You must specify remote devices explicitly with the dump-file argument. In
previous SunOS releases, the rdump command directed the output to the remote
device defined by the dumphost alias. ufsdump does not have an rufsdump
counterpart.

Using Standard Output With ufsdump

When you specify a dash (-) as the dump-file argument, ufsdump writes to the
standard output.

Note - The −v option (verify) does not work when the dump-file argument is
standard output.

You can use the ufsdump and ufsrestore commands in a pipeline to copy a file
system by writing to the standard output with ufsdump and reading from the
standard input with ufsrestore, as shown in this example:

# ufsdump 0f - /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s7 | (cd /home; ufsrestore xf -)

Specifying Files to Back Up

You must always include files-to-backup as the last argument on the command line.
This argument specifies the source or contents of the backup. It usually identifies a
file system but can also identify individual files or directories.

For a file system, specify the raw device file for a disk slice. It includes the disk
controller abbreviation (c), the target number (t) for SCSI devices only, a number
indicating the disk number (d), and the slice number (s). For example, if you have a

602 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

SCSI disk controller on your standalone system (or server) and you want to back up
/usr located in slice 6, specify the device as follows:
/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s6
You can specify the file system by its mount point directory (for example, /home), as
long as there is an entry for it in the /etc/vfstab file.
See “Backup Device Names” on page 640 for a complete description of device
naming conventions.
For individual files or directories, type one or more names separated by spaces.

Note - When you use ufsdump to back up one or more directories or files (rather
than a whole file system), a level 0 backup is done. Incremental backups do not apply.

End-of-Media Detection
The ufsdump command automatically detects the end-of-media for most devices.
Therefore, you do not usually need to use the −c, −d, −s, and −t options to perform
multivolume backups.
The only time you need to use the end-of-media options is when ufsdump does not
understand the way the device detects the end-of-media or you are going to restore
the files on a system with an older version of the restore command. To ensure
compatibility with older versions of the restore command, the size option can still
force ufsdump to go to the next tape or diskette before reaching the end of the
current tape or diskette.

Specifying Tape Characteristics

If you do not specify any tape characteristics, the ufsdump command uses a set of
defaults. You can specify tape cartridge (c), density (d), size (s), and number of
tracks (t). Note that you can specify the options in any order as long as the
arguments that follow match the order of the options.

Limitations of the ufsdump Command

The table below lists tasks you cannot perform with the ufsdump command.

The ufsdump and ufsrestore Commands (Reference) 603

 TABLE 45–1 Tasks You Cannot Perform With the ufsdump Command

The ufsdump Command Does Not ... Comments

Automatically calculate the number of tapes You can use the dry run mode (S option) to
or diskettes needed for backing up file determine the amount of space that is
systems needed before actually backing up file
systems.

Provide built-in error checking to minimize —

problems when backing up an active file
system

Enable you to back up files that are remotely Files on the server must be backed up on
mounted from a server the server itself. Users are denied permission
to run ufsdump on files they own that are
located on a server.

Options and Arguments for the

ufsdump Command
This section describes in detail the options and arguments for the ufsdump
command. The syntax for the ufsdump command is:

/usr/sbin/ufsdump [options] [arguments] files-to-back-up

options Is a single string of one-letter option names.

arguments Identifies option arguments and might be multiple strings.

The option letters and the arguments that go with them
must be in the same order.

files-to-back-up Identifies the files to back up; and these arguments must
always come last.

Default ufsdump Options

If you run the ufsdump command without any options, use this syntax:

# ufsdump files-to-back-up

604 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

ufsdump uses these options, by default:

ufsdump 9uf /dev/rmt/0 files-to-back-up

These options do a level 9 incremental backup to the default tape drive at its
preferred density.

Options for the ufsdump Command

The table below describes the options for the ufsdump command.

TABLE 45–2 Options for the ufsdump Command

Option Description

0-9 Backup level. Level 0 is for a full backup of the whole file
system specified by files-to-backup. Levels 1–9 are for incremental
backups of files that have changed since the last lower-level
backup.

a archive-file Archive file. Store (archive) a backup table of contents in a

specified file on the disk. The file can be understood only by
ufsrestore, which uses it to determine whether a file to be
restored is present in a backup file, and if so, on which volume
of the media it resides.

b factor Blocking factor. The number of 512-byte blocks to write to tape

at a time.

c Cartridge. Back up to cartridge tape. When end-of-media

detection applies, this option sets the block size to 126.

d bpi Tape density. You need to use this option only when ufsdump
cannot detect the end of the media.

D Diskette. Back up to diskette.

f dump-file Dump file. Write the files to the destination specified by

dump-file instead of the default device. If the file is specified as
user@system:device, ufsdump attempts to execute as the specified
user on the remote system. The specified user must have a /
.rhosts file on the remote system that allows the user invoking
the command on the local system to access the remote system.

The ufsdump and ufsrestore Commands (Reference) 605

 TABLE 45–2 Options for the ufsdump Command (continued)

Option Description

l Autoload. Use this option if you have an autoloading

(stackloader) tape drive. When the end of a tape is reached, this
option takes the drive offline and waits up to two minutes for
the tape drive to be ready again. If the drive is ready within
two minutes, it continues. If it is not ready after two minutes, it
prompts the operator to load another tape.

n Notify. When intervention is needed, send a message to all

terminals of all users in the sys group.

o Offline. When finished with a tape or diskette, take the drive

offline, rewind (if tape), and if possible remove the media (for
example, eject a diskette or remove 8-mm autoloaded tape).

s size Size. Specify the length of tapes in feet or number of 1024-byte

blocks for diskettes. You need to use this option only when
ufsdump cannot detect the end of the media.

S Estimate size of backup. Determine the amount of space that is

needed to perform the backup, without actually doing it, and
output a single number indicating the estimated size of the
backup in bytes.

t tracks Tracks. Specify the number of tracks for 1/4-inch cartridge tape.
You need to use this option only when ufsdump cannot detect
the end of the media.

u Update the dump record. For a completed backup on a file

system, add an entry to the /etc/dumpdates file. The entry
indicates the device name for the file system’s disk slice, the
backup level (0–9), and the date. No record is written when you
do not use the u option or when you back up individual files or
directories. If a record already exists for a backup at the same
level, it is replaced.

v Verify. After each tape or diskette is written, verify the contents

of the media against the source file system. If any discrepancies
occur, prompt the operator to mount new media, then repeat
the process. Use this option only on an unmounted file system,
because any activity in the file system causes it to report
discrepancies.

606 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 45–2 Options for the ufsdump Command (continued)

Option Description

w Warning. List the file systems appearing in /etc/dumpdates

that have not been backed up within a day. When you use this
option all other options are ignored.

W Warning with highlight. Show all the file systems that appear in
/etc/dumpdates and highlight those file systems that have
not been backed up within a day. When you use this option all
other options are ignored.

Note - The /etc/vfstab file does not contain information about how often to back
up a file system.

The ufsdump Command and Security

Issues
If you are concerned about security:

4 Require root access for the ufsdump command.

4 Ensure root access entries are removed from /.rhosts files on clients and servers
if doing centralized backups.

For general information on security, see “Managing System Security (Overview)”

in System Administration Guide, Volume 2.

Options and Arguments for the

ufsrestore Command
ufsrestore Command Syntax
The syntax of the ufsrestore command is:

ufsrestore [options][arguments][filename …]

The ufsdump and ufsrestore Commands (Reference) 607

 options Is a single string of one-letter option names. You must
choose one and only one of these options: i, r, R, t, or x.

arguments Follows the option string with the arguments that match the
options. The option names and the arguments that go with
them must be in the same order.

filename Specifies files to be restored as arguments to the x or t

options, and must always come last.

ufsrestore Options and Arguments

You must use one (and only one) of the ufsrestore options shown in the table
below.

TABLE 45–3 One Required Option for the ufsrestore Command

Option Description

i Interactive. Runs ufsrestore in an interactive mode. In this

mode, you can use a limited set of shell-like commands to
browse the contents of the media and select individual files or
directories to restore. See “Commands for Interactive Restore”
on page 610 for a list of available commands.

r Recursive. Restores the entire contents of the media into the

current working directory (which should be the top level of the
file system). Information used to restore incremental dumps on
top of the full dump (for example, restoresymtable) is also
included. To completely restore a file system, use this option to
restore the full (level 0) dump and each subsequent incremental
dump. Although intended for a new file system (one just
created with the newfs command), files not on the backup
media are preserved.

R Resume restoring. Prompts for the volume from which to

resume restoring and restarts from a checkpoint. You rerun the
ufsrestore command with this option after a full restore (r
option) is interrupted.

608 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 45–3 One Required Option for the ufsrestore Command (continued)

Option Description

x [filename…] Extract. Selectively restores the files you specify by the filename
argument. filename can be a list of files and directories. All files
under a specified directory are restored unless you also use the
h option. If you omit filename or enter “.” for the root directory,
all files on all volumes of the media (or from standard input)
are restored. Existing files are overwritten, and warnings are
displayed.

t [filename…] Table of contents. Checks the files specified in the filename

argument against the media. For each file, lists the full file name
and the inode number (if the file is found) or indicates the file is
not on the “volume” (meaning any volume in a multivolume
dump). If you do not enter the filename argument, all files on all
volumes of the media are listed (without distinguishing on
which volume files are located). If you also use the h option,
only the directory files specified in filename, not their contents,
are checked and listed. The table of contents is read from the
first volume of the media, or, if you use the a option, from the
specified archive file. This option is mutually exclusive with the
x and r options.

Additional ufsrestore options are described in the table below.

TABLE 45–4 Additional Options for the ufsrestore Command

Option Description

a archive-file [filename…] Takes the dump table of contents from the specified archive-file
instead of from the media (first volume). You can use this option
in combination with the t, i, or x options to check for the files
in the dump without having to mount any media. If you use it
with the x and interactive extract options, you are prompted to
mount the appropriate volume before extracting the file(s).

b factor Blocking factor. Number of 512-byte blocks read from tape at a

time. By default, ufsrestore tries to figure out the block size
that was used in writing the tape.

d Debug. Turn on debugging messages.

The ufsdump and ufsrestore Commands (Reference) 609

 TABLE 45–4 Additional Options for the ufsrestore Command (continued)

Option Description

f backup-file Backup file. Reads the files from the source indicated by
backup-file, instead of from the default device file /dev/rmt/0m.
If you use the f option, you must specify a value for
backup-file. When backup-file is of the form system:device,
ufsrestore reads from the remote device. You can also use
the backup-file argument to specify a file on a local or remote
disk. If backup-file is ‘-’, the files are read from standard input.

h Turns off directory expansion. Only the directory file you

specify is extracted or listed.

m Restores specified files into the current directory on the disk

regardless of where they are located in the backup hierarchy
and renames them with their inode number. For example, if the
current working directory is /files, a file in the backup
named ./dready/fcs/test with inode number 42, is
restored as /files/42. This option is useful only when you
are extracting a few files.

sn Skips to the nth backup file on the media (first volume). This
option is useful when you put more than one backup on a
single tape.

v Verbose. Displays the names and inode numbers of each file as

it is restored.

y Continues when errors occur reading the media and tries to

skip over bad blocks instead of stopping and asking whether to
continue. This option tells the command to assume a yes
response.

Commands for Interactive Restore

610 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 45–5 Commands for Interactive Restore

Option Description

ls [directory-name] Lists the contents of either the current directory or the specified
directory. Directories are marked by a / suffix and entries in the
current list to be restored (extracted) are marked by an * prefix.
Inode numbers are shown if the verbose option is used.

cd directory-name Changes to the specified directory in the backup hierarchy.

add [filename] Adds the current directory or the specified file or directory to
the list of files to extract (restore). If you do not use the h
option, all files in a specified directory and its subdirectories are
added to the list. All the files you want to restore to a directory
might not be on a single backup tape or diskette. You might
need to restore from multiple backups at different levels to get
the latest revisions of all the files.

delete [filename] Deletes the current directory or the specified file or directory
from the list of files to extract (restore). If you do not use the h
option, all files in the specified directory and its subdirectories
are deleted from the list. The files and directories are deleted
only from the extract list you are building. They are not deleted
from the media or the file system.

extract Extracts the files in the list and restores them relative to the
current working directory on the disk. Specify 1 when asked
for a volume number for a single-volume backup. If you are
doing a multitape or multidiskette restore and restoring a small
number of files, start with the last tape or diskette instead.

help Displays a list of commands you can use in interactive mode.

pwd Displays the path name of the current working directory in the
backup hierarchy.

q Quits interactive mode without restoring any additional files.

setmodes Lets you set the mode for files to be restored to match the mode
of the root directory of the file system from which they were
backed up. You are prompted with: set owner/mode for ’.’
[yn]? Type y (for yes) to set the mode (permissions, owner,
times) of the current directory to match the root directory of the
file system from which they were backed up. Use this mode
when restoring a whole file system.
Type n (for no) to leave the mode of the current directory
unchanged. Use this mode when restoring part of a backup to a
directory other than the one from which the files were backed
up.

The ufsdump and ufsrestore Commands (Reference) 611

 TABLE 45–5 Commands for Interactive Restore (continued)

Option Description

verbose Turns on or off the verbose option (which can also be entered
as v on the command line outside of interactive mode). When
verbose is on, the interactive ls command lists inode numbers
and the ufsrestore command displays information on each
file as it is extracted.

what Displays the backup header from the tape or diskette.

612 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 46

Copying UFS Files and File Systems

(Tasks)

This chapter describes how to copy UFS files and file systems to disk, tape, and
diskettes using various backup commands.
Here is a list of the step-by-step instructions in this chapter:
4 “How to Clone a Disk (dd)” on page 616
4 “How to Copy Directories Between File Systems (cpio)” on page 619
4 “How to Copy Files to a Tape (tar)” on page 623
4 “How to List the Files on a Tape (tar)” on page 624
4 “How to Retrieve Files From a Tape (tar)” on page 625
4 “How to Copy All Files in a Directory to a Tape (cpio)” on page 627
4 “How to List the Files on a Tape (cpio)” on page 628
4 “How to Retrieve All Files From a Tape (cpio)” on page 629
4 “How to Retrieve Specific Files From a Tape (cpio)” on page 630
4 “How to Copy Files to a Remote Tape Drive (tar and dd)” on page 631
4 “How to Extract Files From a Remote Tape Drive” on page 632
4 “How to Copy Files to a Single Formatted Diskette (tar)” on page 634
4 “How to List the Files on a Diskette (tar)” on page 635
4 “How to Retrieve Files From a Diskette (tar)” on page 636
4 “How to Archive Files to Multiple Diskettes” on page 637
4 “How to Create an Archive for Older SunOS Releases” on page 637
4 “How to Retrieve bar Files From a Diskette” on page 638

613
 Commands for Copying File Systems
When you need to back up and restore complete file systems, use the ufsdump and
ufsrestore commands described in Chapter 45. When you want to copy or move
individual files, portions of file systems, or complete file systems, you can use the
procedures described in this chapter as an alternative to ufsdump and ufsrestore.

The table below describes when to use the various backup commands.

TABLE 46–1 When to Use Various Backup Commands

If You Want To ... Then Use ... Reference

Back up file systems to tape

ufsdump(1M) “How to Do
Backups to
Tape” on page
574

Restore file systems from tape

ufsrestore(1M) “How to Restore
a Complete File
System” on
page 592

Transport files to other systems

pax(1), tar(1), or “Copying Files
cpio(1) and File
Systems to
Tape” on page
621

Copy files or file systems between disks

dd(1M) “How to Clone
a Disk (dd)” on
page 616

Copy files to diskette

tar(1) “How to Copy
Files to a Single
Formatted
Diskette (tar)”
on page 634

The table below describe various backup and restore commands.

614 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

TABLE 46–2 Summary of Various Backup Commands

Aware of File Support

System Multi-Volume Physical or
Command Name Boundaries? Backups? Logical Copy?

volcopy Yes Yes Physical

tar No No Logical

cpio No Yes Logical

pax Yes Yes Logical

dd Yes No Physical

ufsdump/ufsrestore Yes Yes Logical

The following sections describe the advantages and disadvantages of each method
and provide examples of how to use the commands.

Copying File Systems Between Disks

Two commands are used to copy file systems between disks:
4 volcopy
4 dd
The next section describes how to use the dd command to copy file systems between
disks.

Making a Literal File System Copy

The dd command makes a literal (block-level) copy of a complete UFS file system to
another file system or to a tape. By default, the dd command copies its standard
input to its standard output.

Copying UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks) 615

 Note - Do not use the dd command with variable-length tape drives without first
specifying an appropriate block size.

You can specify a device name in place of the standard input or the standard output
or both. In this example, contents of the diskette are copied to a file in the /tmp
directory:

$ dd < /floppy/floppy0 > /tmp/output.file

2400+0 records in
2400+0 records out

The dd command reports on the number of blocks it reads and writes. The number
after the + is a count of the partial blocks that were copied. The default block size is
512 bytes.
The dd command syntax is different from most other commands. Options are
specified as keyword=value pairs, where keyword is the option you want to set and
value is the argument for that option. For example, you can replace the standard
input and output with this syntax:

$ dd if=input-file of=output-file

To use the keyword=value pairs instead of the redirect symbols in the previous
example, you would type:

$ dd if=/floppy/floppy0 of=/tmp/output.file

How to Clone a Disk (dd)

1. Make sure the source and destination disks have the same disk geometry.

2. Become superuser.

3. Create the /reconfigure file on the system so the system will recognize the
clone disk to be added when it reboots.

# touch /reconfigure

4. Shut down the system.

# init 0

616 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

5. Attach the clone disk to the system.

6. Boot the system.

ok boot

7. Use the dd command to copy the master disk to the clone disk.

# dd if=/dev/rdsk/device-name of=/dev/rdsk/device-name bs=blocksize

if=/dev/rdsk/device-name Represents the overlap slice of the master disk

device, usually slice 2.

of=/dev/rdsk/device-name Represents the overlap slice of the clone disk device,

usually slice 2.

bs=blocksize Block size, such as 128 Kbytes or 256 Kbytes. A large

block size value decreases the time it takes to copy.

8. Check the new file system.

# fsck /dev/rdsk/device-name

9. Mount the clone disk’s root (/) file system.

# mount /dev/dsk/device-name /mnt

10. Edit the clone disk’s /etc/vfstab to reference the correct device names.
For example, changing all instances of c0t3d0 with c0t1d0.

11. Unmount the clone disk’s root (/) file system.

# umount /mnt

12. Shut down the system.

# init 0

13. Boot from the clone disk to single-user mode.

Copying UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks) 617

 # boot diskn -s

Note - The installboot command is not needed for the clone disk because the
boot blocks are copied as part of the overlap slice.

14. Unconfigure the clone disk.

# sys-unconfig

The system is shut down after it is unconfigured.

15. Boot from the clone disk again and provide its system information, such as
host name, time zone, and so forth.

# boot diskn

16. Log in as superuser to verify the system information after the system is booted.

hostname console login:

Example—Cloning a Disk (dd)

# init 0
ok boot
# dd if=/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2 of=/dev/rdsk/c0t2d0s2 bs=128k
# fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t2d0s2
# mount /dev/dsk/c0t2d0s2 /mnt
# cd /mnt/etc
# vi vfstab
(Modify entries for the new disk)
# cd /
# umount /mnt
# init 0
# boot disk2 -s
# sys-unconfig
# boot disk2

618 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Copying Directories Between File
Systems (cpio Command)
You can use the cpio (copy in and out) command to copy individual files, groups of
files, or complete file systems. This section describes how to use the cpio command
to copy complete file systems.
The cpio command is an archiving program that copies a list of files into a single,
large output file. It inserts headers between the individual files to facilitate recovery.
You can use the cpio command to copy complete file systems to another slice,
another system, or to a media device, such as tape or diskette.
Because the cpio command recognizes end-of-media and prompts you to insert
another volume, it is the most effective command (other than ufsdump) to use to
create archives that require multiple tapes or diskettes.
With cpio, you frequently use commands like ls and find to list and select the
files you want to copy, piping the output to the cpio command.

How to Copy Directories Between File Systems

(cpio)
1. Become superuser.

2. Change to the appropriate directory.

# cd filesystem1

3. Copy the directory tree from filesystem1 to filesystem2 by using a combination

of the find and cpio commands.

# find . -print -depth | cpio -pdm filesystem2

. Starts in the current working directory.

Prints the file names.

−print

Descends the directory hierarchy and prints file names on the

−depth
way back up.

Creates a list of files.

−p

Copying UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks) 619

 Creates directories as needed.
−d

Sets the correct modification times on directories.

−m

The files from the directory name you specify are copied and symbolic links are
preserved.
You might also specify the −u option. This option forces an unconditional copy.
Otherwise older files do not replace newer files. This might be useful if you want
an exact copy of a directory, and some of the files being copied might already
exist in the target directory.

4. Verify the copy was successful by displaying the destination directory contents.

# cd filesystem2
# ls

5. If appropriate, remove the source directory.

# rm -rf filesystem1

Example—Copying Directories Between File Systems (cpio)

# cd /data1
# find . -print -depth | cpio -pdm /data2
19013 blocks
# cd /data2
# ls
# rm -rf /data1

See cpio(1) for more information.

620 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Copying Files and File Systems to Tape
The pax, tar, and cpio commands can be used to copy files and file systems to
tape. The command you choose depends on how much flexibility and precision you
require for the copy. Because all three commands use the raw device, you do not
need to format or make a file system on tapes before you use them.

Copying UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks) 621

 TABLE 46–3 Advantages and Disadvantages of cpio, pax, and tar Commands

Command Function Advantages Disadvantages

pax Copy files, special files, 4 Better portability See disadvantages for
or file systems that than the tar or tar command, except
require multiple tape cpio commands that pax can create
volumes or when you for multi-tape volumes
want to copy files to POSIX-compliant
and from systems
POSIX-compliant 4 Multi-vendor
systems support

tar Copy files and 4 Available on most 4 Is not aware of file

directory subtrees to a UNIX operating system boundaries
single tape systems 4 Full pathname
4 Public domain length cannot
versions are readily exceed 255
available characters
4 Does not copy
empty directories
or special files such
as device files
4 Cannot be used to
create multi-tape
volumes

cpio Copy files, special files, 4 Packs data onto

or file systems that tape more
require multiple tape efficiently than tar
volumes or when you 4 Skips over any bad
want to copy files from spots in a tape
SunOS 5.8 systems to when restoring.
SunOS 4.0/4.1 systems 4 Provides options
for writing files
with different
header formats
(tar, ustar, crc,
odc, bar) for
portability between
different system
types
4 Creates multi-tape
volumes

The tape drive and device name you use depend on the hardware and configuration
for each system. See “Choosing Which Media to Use” on page 639 for more
information about tape drives and device names.

622 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Copying Files to Tape (tar Command)
Things you should know before copying files to tape with the tar command:
4 Copying files to a tape using the −c option to tar destroys any files already on
the tape at or beyond the current tape position.
4 You can use filename substitution wildcards (? and *) as part of the file names
you specify when copying files. For example, to copy all documents with a .doc
suffix, type *.doc as the filename argument.
4 You cannot use filename substitution wildcards for extracting files from a tar
archive.

How to Copy Files to a Tape (tar)

1. Change to the directory that contains the files you want to copy.

2. Insert a write-enabled tape into the tape drive.

3. Copy the files to tape with the tar command.

$ tar cvf /dev/rmt/n filename ...

c Indicates you want to create an archive.

v Displays the name of each file as it is archived.

f /dev/rmt/n Indicates that the archive should be written to the

specified device or file.

filename ... Indicates the files and directories you want to copy.

The file names you specify are copied to the tape, overwriting any existing files
on the tape.

4. Remove the tape from the drive and write the names of the files on the tape
label.

5. Verify that the files copied are on the tape using the tar command with the t
option, which displays the tape’s contents. See “How to List the Files on a Tape
(tar)” on page 624 for more information on listing files on a tar tape.

$ tar tvf /dev/rmt/n

Copying UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks) 623

 Example—Copying Files to a Tape (tar)
The following example copies three files to the tape in tape drive 0.

$ cd /export/home/kryten
$ ls reports
reportA reportB reportC
$ tar cvf /dev/rmt/0 reports
a reports/ 0 tape blocks
a reports/reportA 59 tape blocks
a reports/reportB 61 tape blocks
a reports/reportC 63 tape blocks
$ tar tvf /dev/rmt/n

How to List the Files on a Tape (tar)

1. Insert a tape into the tape drive.

2. Display the tape contents with the tar command.

$ tar tvf /dev/rmt/n

t Lists the table of contents for the files on the tape.

v Used with the t option, and provides detailed information

about the files on the tape.

f /dev/rmt/n Indicates the tape device.

filename ... Indicates the files and directories you want to retrieve.

Example—Listing the Files on a Tape (tar)

The following example lists the files on the tape in drive 0.

$ tar tvf /dev/rmt/0

drwx--x--x 0/1 0 Jul 14 09:24 1999 reports/
-rw------t 0/1 30000 Jul 14 09:23 1999 reports/reportA
-rw------t 0/1 31000 Jul 14 09:24 1999 reports/reportB
-rw------t 0/1 32000 Jul 14 09:24 1999 reports/reportC

624 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

How to Retrieve Files From a Tape (tar)
1. Change to the directory where you want to put the files.

2. Insert the tape into the tape drive.

3. Retrieve files from the tape using the tar command.

$ tar xvf /dev/rmt/n [filename ...]

x Indicates that files should be extracted from the specified

archive file. All of the files on the tape in the specified
drive are copied to the current directory.

v Displays the name of each file as it is archived.

f /dev/rmt/n Indicates the tape device containing the archive.

filename Specifies a file to retrieve.

4. Verify the files are copied by listing the contents of the current directory.

$ ls -l

Example—Retrieving the Files on a Tape (tar)

The following example retrieves all the files from the tape in drive 0.

$ cd /var/tmp
$ tar xvf /dev/rmt/0
x reports/, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x reports/reportA, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x reports/reportB, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x reports/reportC, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x reports/reportD, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
$ ls -l

Copying UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks) 625

 Note - The names of the files extracted from the tape must exactly match the names
of the files stored on the archive. If you have any doubts about the names or paths of
the files, first list the files on the tape. See “How to List the Files on a Tape (tar)” on
page 624 for instructions.

See tar(1) for more information.

Copying Files to a Tape With pax

This section describes how to copy files with the pax command.

How to Copy Files to a Tape (pax)

1. Change to the directory that contains the files you want to copy.

2. Insert a write-enabled tape into the tape drive.

3. Copy the files to tape with the pax command.

$ pax -w -f /dev/rmt/0 filename ...

-w Enables the write mode.

-f /dev/rmt/0 Identifies the tape drive.

filename ... Indicates the files and directories you want to copy.

4. Verify the files are copied to tape.

$ pax -f /dev/rmt/0

5. Remove the tape from the drive and write the names of the files on the tape
label.

626 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Example—Copying Files to a Tape (pax)
$ pax -w -f /dev/rmt/0 .
$ pax -f /dev/rmt/0
filea fileb filec

See pax(1) for more information.

How to Copy All Files in a Directory to a Tape

(cpio)
1. Insert a tape that is not write-protected into the tape drive.

2. Copy files to a tape using the ls and cpio commands.

$ ls | cpio -oc > /dev/rmt/n

ls Provides the cpio command with a list of file

names.

cpio -oc Specifies that cpio should operate in copy-out

mode (−o) and write header information in
ASCII character format (−c). This ensures
portability to other vendor’s systems.

> /dev/rmt/n Specifies the output file.

All files in the directory are copied to the tape in the drive you specify,
overwriting any existing files on the tape. The total number of blocks copied is
shown.

3. Verify the files are copied to tape by using the following cpio command.

$ cpio -civt < /dev/rmt/0

4. Remove the tape from the drive and write the names of the files on the tape
label.

Example—Copying All Files in a Directory to a Tape (cpio)

The following example copies all of the files in the directory
/export/home/kryten to the tape in tape drive 0.

Copying UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks) 627

 $ cd /export/home/kryten
$ ls | cpio -oc > /dev/rmt/0
92 blocks
$ cpio -civt < /dev/rmt/0
-rw------t 1 kryten users 400 Jul 14 09:28 1999, b
drwx--x--x 2 kryten users 0 Jul 14 09:26 1999, letters
-rw------t 1 kryten users 10000 Jul 14 09:26 1999, letter1
-rw------t 1 kryten users 10100 Jul 14 09:26 1999, letter2
-rw------t 1 kryten users 11100 Jul 14 09:27 1999, letter3
-rw------t 1 kryten users 12300 Jul 14 09:27 1999, letter4
drwx--x--x 2 kryten users 0 Jul 14 09:27 1999, memos
-rw------t 1 kryten users 400 Jul 14 09:28 1999, memosmemoU
-rw------t 1 kryten users 500 Jul 14 09:28 1999, memosmemoW
-rw------t 1 kryten users 100 Jul 14 09:27 1999, memosmemoX
-rw------t 1 kryten users 200 Jul 14 09:28 1999, memosmemoY
-rw------t 1 kryten users 150 Jul 14 09:28 1999, memosmemoZ
drwx--x--x 2 kryten users 0 Jul 14 09:24 1999, reports
92 blocks
$

How to List the Files on a Tape (cpio)

Note - Listing the table of contents takes as long as it does to read the archive file
because the cpio command must process the entire archive.

1. Insert an archive tape into the tape drive.

2. List the files on the tape using the cpio command.

$ cpio -civt < /dev/rmt/n

Specifies that cpio should read files in ASCII character

−c
format.

Specifies that cpio should operate in copy-in mode (even

−i
though it’s only listing files at this point).

Displays the output in a format similar to the output from

−v
the ls -l command.

Lists the table of contents for the files on the tape in the tape
−t
drive you specify.

< /dev/rmt/n Specifies the input file of an existing cpio archive.

628 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Example—Listing the Files on a Tape (cpio)
The following example lists the files on the tape in drive 0.

$ cpio -civt < /dev/rmt/0

drwx--x--x 2 kryten users 0 Jul 14 09:34 1999, answers
-rw------t 1 kryten users 800 Jul 14 09:36 1999, b
drwx--x--x 2 kryten users 0 Jul 14 09:32 1999, sc.directives
-rw------t 1 kryten users 200000 Jul 14 09:35 1999, direct241
drwx--x--x 2 kryten users 0 Jul 14 09:32 1999, tests
-rw------t 1 kryten users 800 Jul 14 09:36 1999, test13times
396 blocks

How to Retrieve All Files From a Tape (cpio)

If the archive was created using relative path names, the input files are built as a
directory within the current directory when you retrieve the files. If, however, the
archive was created with absolute path names, the same absolute paths are used to
recreate the file on your system.

Caution - Using absolute path names can be dangerous because you might
overwrite existing files on your system.

1. Change to the directory where you want to put the files.

2. Insert the tape into the tape drive.

3. Copy all files from the tape to the current directory using the cpio command.

$ cpio -icvd < /dev/rmt/n

Reads in the contents of the tape.

−i

Specifies that cpio should read files in ASCII character format.

−c

Displays the files being retrieved in a format similar to the

−v
output from the ls command.

Create directories as needed.

−d

< /dev/rmt/n Specifies the output file.

Copying UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks) 629

 4. Verify the files are copied by listing the contents of the current directory.

$ ls -l

Example—Retrieving All Files From a Tape (cpio)

The following example retrieves all files from the tape in drive 0.

$ cd /var/tmp
cpio -icvd < /dev/rmt/0
answers
sc.directives
tests
8 blocks
$ ls -l

How to Retrieve Specific Files From a Tape (cpio)

1. Change to the directory where you want to put the files.

2. Insert the tape into the tape drive.

3. Retrieve a subset of files from a tape using the cpio command.

$ cpio -icv "*file" < /dev/rmt/n

Reads in the contents of the tape.

−i

Specifies that cpio should read headers in ASCII

−c
character format.

Displays the files as they are retrieved in a format similar

−v
to the output from the ls command.

"*file" Specifies that all of the files that match the pattern are
copied to the current directory. You can specify multiple
patterns, but each must be enclosed in double quotation
marks.

< /dev/rmt/n Specifies the input file.

630 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

4. Verify the files are copied by listing the contents of the current directory.

$ ls -l

Example—Retrieving Specified Files From a Tape (cpio)

The following example retrieves all files with the suffix chapter from the tape in
drive 0.

$ cd /home/smith/Book
$ cpio -icv "*chapter" < /dev/rmt/0
Boot.chapter
Directory.chapter
Install.chapter
Intro.chapter
31 blocks
$ ls -l

See cpio(1) for more information.

How to Copy Files to a Remote Tape Drive (tar

and dd)
1. The following prerequisites must be met to use a remote tape drive:
4 The local hostname (and optionally the username of the user doing the copy)
must appear in the remote system’s /etc/hosts.equiv file, or the user
doing the copy must have his or her home directory accessible on the remote
machine, and have the local machine name in $HOME/.rhosts. See
hosts.equiv(4) for more information.
4 An entry for the remote system must be in the local system’s
/etc/inet/hosts file or in the name service hosts file.

2. To test whether or not you have the appropriate permission to execute a remote
command, try the following:

$ rsh remotehost echo test

If "test" is echoed back to you, you have permission to execute remote commands.
If "Permission denied" is echoed, check your setup as described in step 1 above.

3. To copy files to a remote tape drive, use the tar and dd commands.

$ tar cf - files | rsh remotehost dd of=/dev/rmt/n obs=blocksize

Copying UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks) 631

 tar cf Creates a tape archive and specifies the tape device.

- (Hyphen) Represents a place holder for the tape device.

files Identifies files to be copied.

| rsh remotehost Pipes the tar command’s output to a remote shell to

copy the files.

dd of=/dev/rmt/n Represents the output device.

obs=blocksize Represents the blocking factor.

4. Remove the tape from the drive and write the names of the files on the tape
label.

Example—Copying Files to a Remote Tape Drive (tar and dd)

# tar cvf - * | rsh mercury dd of=/dev/rmt/0 obs=126b
a answers/ 0 tape blocks
a answers/test129 1 tape blocks
a sc.directives/ 0 tape blocks
a sc.directives/sc.190089 1 tape blocks
a tests/ 0 tape blocks
a tests/test131 1 tape blocks
6+9 records in
0+1 records out

How to Extract Files From a Remote Tape Drive

1. Change to a temporary directory.

$ cd /var/tmp

2. To extract files to a remote tape drive, use the tar and dd commands.

$ rsh remotehost dd if=/dev/rmt/n | tar xvBpf -

632 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 rsh remotehost Indicates a remote shell that is started to extract the
files from the tape device using the dd command.

dd if=/dev/rmt/n Indicates the input device.

| tar xvBpf - Pipes the output of the dd command to the tar

command used to restored the files.

3. Verify that the files have been extracted.

$ ls -l /var/tmp

Example—Extracting Files From a Remote Tape Drive

$ rsh mercury dd if=/dev/rmt/0 | tar xvBpf -
x answers/, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x answers/test129, 48 bytes, 1 tape blocks
20+0 records in
20+0 records out
x sc.directives/, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x sc.directives/sc.190089, 77 bytes, 1 tape blocks
x tests/, 0 bytes, 0 tape blocks
x tests/test131, 84 bytes, 1 tape blocks
$ ls -l /var/tmp

Copying Files and File Systems to

Diskette
Before you can copy files or file systems to diskette, you must format the diskette.
See Chapter 16 for information on how to format a diskette.
Use the tar command to copy UFS files to a single formatted diskette.
Use the cpio command if you need to copy UFS files to multiple formatted
diskettes. cpio recognizes end-of-media and prompts you to insert the next volume.

Copying UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks) 633

 Note - Using the cpio command to copy UFS files to multiple formatted diskettes is
not a straightforward procedure because of Volume Management.

Use double-sided high-density 3.5-inch diskettes (diskettes are marked “DS, HD”).

Things You Should Know When Copying Files to

Diskettes
4 Copying files to a formatted diskette using the −c option of tar destroys any files
already on the diskette.

4 A diskette that already contains a tar image is not mountable.

How to Copy Files to a Single Formatted Diskette

(tar)
1. Change to the directory that contains the files you want to copy.

2. Insert a formatted diskette that is not write-protected into the drive.

3. Make the diskette available using the volcheck command.

$ volcheck

4. Unmount any file system on the diskette and reformat it.

$ fdformat -U /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0

5. Copy the files to diskette using the tar command.

$ tar cvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled filename ...

The file names you specify are copied to the diskette, overwriting any existing
files on the diskette.

6. Verify that the files copied are on the diskette using the tar command with the
−t option, which displays the diskette’s contents. See “How to List the Files on
a Diskette (tar)” on page 635 for more information on listing files.

$ tar tvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled

634 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

7. Remove the diskette from the drive.

8. Write the names of the files on the diskette label.

Example—Copying Files to a Single Formatted Diskette (tar)

The following example copies two files to a diskette.

$ cd /home/smith
$ ls evaluation*
evaluation.doc evaluation.doc.backup
$ tar cvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled evaluation*
a evaluation.doc 86 blocks
a evaluation.doc.backup 84 blocks
$ tar tvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled

How to List the Files on a Diskette (tar)

1. Insert a diskette into the drive.

2. Run volcheck to make the diskette available.

$ volcheck

3. Use the tar command to list the files on a diskette.

$ tar tvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled

Example—Listing the Files on a Diskette (tar)

The following example lists the files on a diskette.

$ tar tvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled

rw-rw-rw-6693/10 44032 Jun 9 15:45 evaluation.doc
rw-rw-rw-6693/10 43008 Jun 9 15:55 evaluation.doc.backup
$

See tar(1) for more information.

If you need a multiple-volume interchange utility, use the cpio command. The tar
command is only a single-volume utility.

Copying UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks) 635

 How to Retrieve Files From a Diskette (tar)
1. Change to the directory where you want to put the files.

2. Insert the diskette into the drive.

3. Run volcheck to make the diskette available.

$ volcheck

4. Use the tar command to retrieve files from a diskette.

$ tar xvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled

All of the files on the diskette are copied to the current directory.

5. Verify the files have been retrieved by listing the contents of the current
directory.

$ ls -l

6. Remove the diskette from the drive.

Examples—Retrieving Files From a Diskette (tar)

The following example retrieves all the files from a diskette.

$ /home/smith/Evaluations
$ tar xvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled
x evaluation.doc, 44032 bytes, 86 tape blocks
x evaluation.doc.backup, 43008 bytes, 84 tape blocks
$ ls -l

The following example retrieves an individual file from a diskette.

$ tar xvf /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled evalutation.doc

x evaluation.doc, 44032 bytes, 86 tape blocks
$ ls -l

636 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

The file names you specify are extracted from the diskette and placed in the current
working directory.

How to Archive Files to Multiple Diskettes

If you are copying large files or file systems onto diskettes, you want to be prompted
to replace a full diskette with another formatted diskette. The cpio command
provides this capability. The cpio commands you use are the same as you would
use to copy files to tape, except you would specify /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0
as the device instead of the tape device name. See “How to Copy All Files in a
Directory to a Tape (cpio)” on page 627 for information on how to use cpio.

Copying Files With a Different Header

Format
Archives created with the SunOS 5.8 cpio command might not be compatible with
older SunOS releases. The cpio command allows you to create archives that can be
read with several other formats. You specify these formats using the −H option and
one of these arguments:
4 crc or CRC – ASCII header with checksum
4 ustar or USTAR – IEEE/P1003 Data Interchange
4 tar or TAR – tar header and format
4 odc – ASCII header with small device numbers
4 bar – bar header and format
The syntax for using the header options is:

cpio -o -H header-option < file-list > output-archive

How to Create an Archive for Older SunOS

Releases
Use the cpio command to create the archive.

$ cpio -oH odc < file-list > /dev/rmt/n

The −H values have the same meaning for input as they do for output. If the archive
was created using the −H option, you must use the same option when the archive is
read back in or the cpio command will fail, as shown below.

Copying UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks) 637

 Example—Creating an Archive for Older SunOS Releases
$ find . -print | cpio -oH tar > /tmp/test
113 blocks
$ cpio -iH bar < /tmp/test
cpio: Invalid header "bar" specified
USAGE:
cpio -i[bcdfkmrstuvBSV6] [-C size] [-E file] [-H hdr]
[-I file [-M msg]] [-R id] [patterns]
cpio -o[acvABLV] [-C size] [-H hdr] [-O file [-M msg]]
cpio -p[adlmuvLV] [-R id] directory

When you create an archive using different options, always write the command
syntax on the media label along with the names of the files or file system on the
archive.
If you do not know which cpio options were used when an archive was created, all
you can do is experiment with different combinations of the options to see which
ones allow the archive to be read.
See cpio(1) for a complete list of options.

Retrieving Files Created With the bar Command

To retrieve files from diskettes that were archived using the SunOS 4.0/4.1 bar
command, use the −H bar option to cpio.

Note - You can use only the −H bar option with −i to retrieve files. You cannot
create files with the bar header option.

How to Retrieve bar Files From a Diskette

1. Change to the directory where you want to put the files.

2. Insert the diskette into the drive.

3. Run volcheck to make the diskette available.

$ volcheck

4. Use the cpio command to retrieve bar files from a diskette.

All the files on the diskette are copied to the current directory.

$ cpio -ivH bar < /vol/dev/rdiskette/unlabeled

638 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

CHAPTER 47

Managing Tape Drives (Tasks)

This chapter describes how to manage tape drives.

Here is a list of the step-by-step instructions in this chapter:
4 “How to Display Tape Drive Status” on page 642
4 “How to Retension a Magnetic Tape Cartridge” on page 643
4 “How to Rewind a Magnetic Tape Cartridge” on page 644

Choosing Which Media to Use

You typically back up Solaris systems using:
4 1/2-inch reel tape
4 1/4-inch streaming cartridge tape
4 8-mm cartridge tape
4 4-mm cartridge tape (DAT)
You can perform backups using diskettes, but this is time-consuming and
cumbersome.
The media you choose depends on the availability of the equipment that supports it
and of the media (usually tape) that you use to store the files. Although you must do
the backup from a local system, you can write the files to a remote device.
The table below shows typical media used for backing up file systems and shows the
storage capacity for each. Capacity depends on the type of drive and the data being
written to the tape.

639
 TABLE 47–1 Media Storage Capacities

Media Capacity

1/2-inch reel tape 140 Mbytes (6250 bpi)

2.5-Gbyte 1/4 inch cartridge (QIC) tape 2.5 Gbytes

DDS3 4-mm cartridge tape (DAT) 12 - 24 Gbytes

14-Gbyte 8-mm cartridge tape 14 Gbytes

DLTTM 7000 1/2-inch cartridge tape 35 - 70 Gbytes

Backup Device Names

You specify a tape or diskette drive to use for backup by supplying a logical device
name. This name points to the subdirectory containing the “raw” device file and
includes the logical unit number of the drive. Tape drive naming conventions use a
logical, not a physical, device name. The table below shows this naming scheme.

TABLE 47–2 Basic Device Names for Backup Devices

Device Type Name

Tape /dev/rmt/n

Diskette /vol/dev/rdiskette0/unlabeled

In general, you specify a tape drive device as shown in the figure below.

640 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 Berkeley (SunOS 4.x) Compatibility

/dev/rmt/XAbn
Optional
Optional No-rewind
Density n no-rewind
l low omit for rewind
Drive m medium
0 h high
1 u ultra
2 c compressed
3
4
n
Figure 47–1 Tape Drive Device Names
If you don’t specify the density, a tape drive typicallys write at its “preferred”
density, which usually means the highest density it supports. Most SCSI drives can
automatically sense the density or format on the tape and read it accordingly. To
determine the different densities that are supported for a drive, look at the
/dev/rmt subdirectory, which includes the set of tape device files that support
different output densities for each tape.
Also, a SCSI controller can have a maximum of seven SCSI tape drives.

Specifying the Default Density for a Tape Drive

Normally, you specify a tape drive by its logical unit number, which can run from 0
to n. The table below describes how to specify tape device names using default
density settings.

TABLE 47–3 Specifying Default Densities for a Tape Drive

To Specify The ... Use ...

First drive, rewinding /dev/rmt/0

First drive, nonrewinding /dev/rmt/0n

Second drive, rewinding /dev/rmt/1

Second drive, nonrewinding /dev/rmt/1n

Managing Tape Drives (Tasks) 641

 By default, the drive writes at its “preferred” density, which is usually the highest
density it supports. If you do not specify a tape device, the command writes to drive
number 0 at the default density the device supports.

Specifying Different Densities for a Tape Drive

To transport a tape to a system whose tape drive supports only a certain density,
specify a device name that writes at the desired density. The table below describes
how to specify different densities for a tape drive.

TABLE 47–4 Specifying Different Densities for a Tape Drive

To Specify The ... Use ...

First drive, low density, rewinding /dev/rmt/0l

First drive, low density, nonrewinding /dev/rmt/0ln

Second drive, medium density, rewinding /dev/rmt/1m

Second drive, nonrewinding, medium density /dev/rmt/1mn

The unit and density characters are shown in Figure 47–1.

Displaying Tape Drive Status

You can use the status option with the mt command to get status information
about tape drives. The mt command reports information about any tape drives
described in the /kernel/drv/st.conf file.

How to Display Tape Drive Status

1. Load a tape into the drive you want information about.

2. Display tape drive status with the mt command.

# mt -f /dev/rmt/n status

642 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

3. Repeat steps 1-2, substituting tape drive numbers 1, 2, 3, and so on to display
information about all available tape drives.

Example— Displaying Tape Drive Status

The following example shows status for a QIC-150 tape drive (/dev/rmt/0) and an
Exabyte tape drive (/dev/rmt/1).

$ mt -f /dev/rmt/0 status
Archive QIC-150 tape drive:
sense key(0x0)= No Additional Sense residual= 0 retries= 0
file no= 0 block no= 0
$ mt -f /dev/rmt/1 status
Exabyte EXB-8200 8mm tape drive:
sense key(0x0)= NO Additional Sense residual= 0 retries= 0
file no= 0 block no= 0

The following example shows a quick way to poll a system and locate all of its tape
drives.

$ for drive in 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
> do
> mt -f /dev/rmt/$drive status
> done
Archive QIC-150 tape drive:
sense key(0x0)= No Additional Sense residual= 0 retries= 0
file no= 0 block no= 0
/dev/rmt/1: No such file or directory
/dev/rmt/2: No such file or directory
/dev/rmt/3: No such file or directory
/dev/rmt/4: No such file or directory
/dev/rmt/5: No such file or directory
/dev/rmt/6: No such file or directory
/dev/rmt/7: No such file or directory
$

Handling Magnetic Tape Cartridges

If errors occur when reading a tape, retension the tape, clean the tape drive, and then
try again.

How to Retension a Magnetic Tape Cartridge

Retension a magnetic tape cartridge with the mt command.

Managing Tape Drives (Tasks) 643

 $ mt -f /dev/rmt/n retension

Example—How to Retension a Magnetic Tape Drive

The following example retensions the tape in drive /dev/rmt/1.

$ mt -f /dev/rmt/1 retension
$

Note - Do not retension non-QIC tape drives.

How to Rewind a Magnetic Tape Cartridge

To rewind a magnetic tape cartridge, use the mt command.

$ mt -f /dev/rmt/n rewind

Example—Rewinding a Magnetic Tape Cartridge

The following example rewinds the tape in drive /dev/rmt/1.

$ mt -f /dev/rmt/1 rewind
$

Guidelines for Drive Maintenance and

Media Handling
A backup tape that cannot be read is useless. It is a good idea to clean and check
your tape drives periodically to ensure correct operation. See your hardware manuals
for instructions on procedures for cleaning a tape drive. You can check your tape
hardware by:
4 Copying some files to the tape, reading them back, and then comparing the
original with the copy.
4 Or, you could use the −v option of the ufsdump command to verify the contents
of the media with the source file system. The file system must be unmounted or
completely idle for the −v option to be effective.
Be aware that hardware can fail in ways that the system does not report.

644 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Always label your tapes after a backup. If you have planned a backup strategy
similar to those suggested in Chapter 42, you should indicate on the label “Tape A,”
“Tape B,” and so forth. This label should never change. Every time you do a backup,
make another tape label containing the backup date, the name of the machine and
file system backed up, backup level, the tape number (1 of n, if it spans multiple
volumes), plus any information specific to your site. Store your tapes in a dust-free
safe location, away from magnetic equipment. Some sites store archived tapes in
fireproof cabinets at remote locations.

You should create and maintain a log that tracks which media (tape volume) stores
each job (backup) and the location of each backed-up file.

Managing Tape Drives (Tasks) 645

646 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
 Index

Numbers peripheral device 290

run control script 117
1.2 Mbyte diskettes 195, 197
server and client support
1.44 Mbyte diskettes 195, 197
description 96
1.44 Mbyte diskettes 173
software packages
2.88 Mbyte diskettes 196
software administration, adding
2.88 Mbyte diskettes 173
packages 249
formatting options 195
swap to vfstab 500
4.3 Tahoe file system 416
user accounts
360 Kbyte diskettes 195, 197
Admintool: Users 76, 77
720 Kbyte diskettes 195, 197
commands 44
9660 CD format 181, 246
user initialization files 48
users to groups
A Admintool: Groups 81
access Admintool: Users 47
CD access points 177 commands 44
diskette access points 177 administration files 254, 255, 259
PCMCIA memory cards on other administrative commands 419
systems 233 Admintool
accessing software administration and 267
disk devices 312, 316 overview 252, 253, 267
tape devices 316 Admintool: Users
Add option (Edit menu) Add option (Edit menu) 76, 77
Admintool: Groups 75 advantages 47
Admintool: Users 76, 77 Delete option (Edit menu) 48
adding described 47
a disk disabling accounts 48
IA 376 initialization files 48
SPARC 364 Modify option (Edit menu) 47
device driver 291 password administration 48
groups aging user passwords 41, 48, 49
Admintool: Groups 75 aliases
commands 44 user login names vs. 37

647
aliases directory 244 big-endian bit coding 193
allocated inodes 513 bin group 38
ARCH environment variable 60 block disk device interface
archives (cpio) 637 defined 313
archiving files to multiple diskettes (cpio) 637 when to use 313
autoconfiguration process 282 blocks
autofs 429 bad 514
automount /home 429 boot 539
automounting directory data 515
user home directories 43 duplicate 514
awk command 44 free 541
indirect 514
logical size 542
B
regular data 516
backing up and restoring file systems special inodes 513
commands for 554 storage 541
defined 554 boot block 539
overview of commands 558 boot types, described 103
backup boot-from PROM setting 134
choosing file systems to 556 booting
device names 640 and PC BIOS 164
full (level 0) backup to tape 574 boot process
full and incremental, defined 559 IA 170
preparing for 571 SPARC 164
reasons for 555 for recovery purposes
record of incremental 600 IA 157
types of 559 SPARC 143
backup schedules interactively
daily cumulative, weekly cumulative IA 154
backups 562 SPARC 140
daily cumulative, weekly incremental modifying file system checking 517, 519
backups 563 to force a crash dump and reboot
daily incremental, weekly cumulative IA 162
backups 564 SPARC 146
examples 562, 568 to run level 3
for a server 565 IA 151
guidelines for 560 SPARC 138
recommendations 569, 577 to run level S
using dump levels for 560 IA 152
bad block numbers 514 SPARC 139
bad inode number 515 with the kernel debugger (kadb)
bad superblock 522 SPARC 147
banner command PROM 134 booting a SPARC system over the
bar command network 142
retrieving files created with 638 booting a system (guidelines) 104
base directory (basedir) 254, 255 booting an IA based system over the
basedir keyword (administration files) 254, network 156
255

648 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

Bourne shell access
basic features 58, 59 access points 177
environment variables and 60, 64 raw-character access 244
shell (local) variables and 60, 62 using Volume Management 239, 241,
user initialization files and 56 to 58, 66, 242
73 commands 190
Break key 146, 147 copying information
BSD Fat Fast File system 416 using command line 181, 182
bus-oriented disk controllers 315, 316 directories under Volume
bytes (number per inode) 545 Management 239, 241, 242
ejecting
using command line 183
C
examining contents
C shell using command line 181
basic features 58, 59 finding out if CD is in use 182, 183
environment variables and 59, 60, 64 ISO 9660 format 181, 246
shell (local) variables and 59, 60, 62 killing processes accessing 182, 183
user initialization files and 56, 58, 66, 73 loading
cached file systems 462 using command line 181
checking (fsck) 475 mixed formats 246
creating 464 mount points 184, 242, 243
deleting 474 mounting
displaying information about 472 manual compared to automatic 176
parameters 495 remote CDs 184, 185
setting parameters 466 musical CDs
setting up 464 configuring system to play 188
CALENDAR environment variable 60 names
canceling designators 180
UFS diskette formatting 198 finding a CD’s name 184
capacity of tapes 603 remote access
cartridge tape accessing CDs on other systems 184,
retensioning 643 185
causes of file system damage 508 making local CDs available to other
CD-ROM devices (naming) 316 systems 185
CD-ROM drives UFS CDs
access points 177 mixed formats 246
directories under Volume SPARC vs. IA format 181, 200
Management 241, 242 cfgadm
preparing for new drive 189 PCI hot-plugging 293
sharing 185 SCSI hot-plugging 293
software installation and cfsadmin command 464, 474
from mounted CD to standalone changing
system 260 directory ownership for user accounts 47
spool directory from mounted file ownership for user accounts 47
CD 262 user accounts
CDPATH environment variable 61 Admintool: Users 47
/cdrom mount point 242, 243 commands 44
CDs

649
 user ID numbers 47 information from a PCMCIA memory
user login names 47 card 229
user passwords information to a PCMCIA memory
Admintool: Users and 48 card 230
by user 40, 41 user accounts
commands for 44 commands 44
frequency of 41, 52 cp command
character special inodes 513 copying CD information 181, 182
checking copying from diskettes 208
file system size 512 copying to diskettes 209
file systems 519 cpio command 619, 627, 631
file systems interactively 520 copying all files in a directory to tape 627
format and type of inodes 512 copying directories between file
free blocks 512 systems 619
free inodes 512 copying files with different header
inode list for consistency 512 format 637
clean shutdown 124 listing files on tape 628
clients retrieving all files from tape 629
software administration 253 retrieving specific files from tape 630
displaying installed software when to use 622
information 263, 265 creating
sharing software with servers 253 a format.dat 353
cloning disks 616 a Solaris fdisk partition 379
clri command 419 compatible archives (cpio) 637
compatibility problems, disk slices and labeling a disk
version incompatibilities 249 IA 386
compatible archives 637 SPARC 367
controlling file and directory access 36, 65 file systems 434
copying loopback file system 438
all files in a directory to tape (cpio) 627 mount point 425
CD information Solaris fdisk partition 376
using command line 181, 182 swap file 503
complete file systems (dd) 615 temporary file system 437
data (ufsdump) 600 UFS file system 435
directories between file systems .cshrc file
(cpio) 619 customizing 42, 56, 58, 66
diskette information custom parameters for file systems 542
from diskettes 207, 208 cylinder group 538
to diskettes 208, 209
files to diskette 633
D
files to diskette (tar) 634
files to remote tape (tar and dd) 631 daemon group 38
files to tape (pax) 626 daily cumulative backups 561
files to tape (tar) 623 daily discrete backups 561
files with different header format damage to file systems 508
(cpio) 637 data block 516
groups of files (cpio) 619 data directory blocks 515
individual files (cpio) 619
650 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
DD (Medium Density) diskettes file system types 431
formatting options 195, 197 tape device name 584
dd command 615, 616, 618 type of tape drive 584
cloning disks 617 who is logged in to a system 126
copying files to remote tape (tar) 631 /dev/dsk directory 313
retrieving files from remote tape drive /dev/rdsk directory 313
(tar) 632 devfsadm 280
default device driver
file system for /tmp (TMPFS) 418 adding 292
mount options 451, 454 defined 281
SunOS file system 421 device instance name 312
tape drive densities 641 device names
defaults backup 640
file permissions 65 finding disk 584
groups 43 finding tape 584
LOGNAME environment variable 61 devices
PATH environment variable 62, 63 accessing 311
printer 61 when to turn off power to 125
SHELL environment variable 62 df command 313, 419
TZ (time zone) environment variable 62 dfstab file
user account default setup configuring for shared CDs 186
commands 44 user home directory sharing and 78
user initialization files 56 direct disk controllers 314
delay (rotational) 544 direct I/O 548
deleting directories
cached file systems 474 base directory (basedir) 254, 255
groups CDs
commands 44 /cdrom mount point 242, 243
software packages under Volume Management 239,
software administration, removing 241, 242
packages 249 changing ownership for user accounts 47
user accounts controlling access to 36, 65
Admintool: Users 48 copying
commands 44 from CDs 181, 182
user home directories 48 from diskette 207
user mailboxes 48 to diskettes 208, 209
density copying between file systems (cpio) 619
diskette formats 195, 197 diskettes
DOS diskettes 202 /floppy mount point 242, 243
UFS diskettes 197, 198 under Volume Management 239
designators home 42
CDs 180 inodes 513
diskettes 194 PATH environment variable and 62, 63
DESKSET environment variable 61 path shell variable and 59, 62
detecting end of media /proc 418
cpio command 619 skeleton 42, 48
ufsdump command 600, 603 /tmp 418
determining
651
 unallocated blocks 515 archiving files to multiple (cpio) 637
disabling copying files to (cpio and tar) 633
run control script 118 copying files to (tar) 634
user accounts listing files on (tar) 635
Admintool: Users 48 retrieving files from (tar) 636
commands 44 diskette directories 240
passwords and 48, 53 diskette drives
disk access points 177
adding to a directories under Volume
IA 376 Management 240
SPARC 364 diskettes
automatic configuration of SCSI access
drives 354 access points 177
connecting a secondary disk raw-character access 244
IA 378 using Volume Management 239
SPARC 365 commands 193
connecting a system disk copying information
IA 377 from diskettes 207
SPARC 365 to diskettes 208, 209
creating a file system on a new disk directories under Volume
IA 388 Management 240
SPARC 371 ejecting
creating disk slices and labeling a disk using command line 210
IA 386 examining contents
SPARC 367 using command line 207
determining if formatted 342 finding out if diskette is in use 209
examining a disk label 348 formatting 203
formatting a 331 canceling formatting 198
formatting, when to 341 caution 197, 201
identifying on a system 339 complete format 195
labeling 346 diskette names 194
recovering a corrupted disk label 349 DOS diskettes 201, 203
repairing defective sectors 357, 360 hardware considerations 195, 197
disk controllers 314 size and density options 195, 197,
disk device name 584 198, 202
disk label UFS diskettes 197, 199
creating 346 killing processes accessing 209
described 332 loading
examining with prtvtoc command 348 using Volume Management 205, 206
disk slice mount points 242, 243
defined 323 mounting
disk slices manual compared to automatic 176
determining which slices to use 327 remote diskettes 211, 212
displaying information about 344 moving information
requirements for system using command line 207, 209
configurations 327 names 194
disk-based file systems 416
diskette
652 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
 remote access E
accessing diskettes on other Edit menu
systems 211, 212 Admintool: Groups
making diskettes available to other Add option 75
systems 212 Modify option 81
UFS diskettes Admintool: Users
adding UFS file system 200, 201 Add option 76, 77
canceling formatting 198 eject command
formatting 197, 199 CDs 183
SPARC vs. IA formats 195, 245 diskettes 210
displaying ejecting
CD contents CDs
using command line 181 using command line 183
CD user 182, 183 diskettes
device information 286 using command line 210
disk slice information 344 PCMCIA memory cards
diskette contents using command line 232
using command line 207 encryption 49
environment variables 59 end-of-media detection
installed software information cpio command 619
software administration, displaying ufsdump command 600, 603
installed software env command 59
information 249 environment
PCMCIA contents 229 shell 59, 62
swap space 501 environment variables
system configuration information 283, described 59, 64
286 /etc files
user mask 65 user account information and 37, 49
dmesg command 286 /etc/dfs/dfstab file
IA example 287 user home directory sharing and 78, 186
SPARC example 287 /etc/dumpdates file 600
donor slice, described 335 /etc/init.d directory 117
DOS /etc/inittab file 111, 114
file system 416 /etc/inittab file
formatting diskettes 201, 203 entries described 111, 112
complete format 195 /etc/passwd file 49, 145, 158
platform-compatibility 195 /etc/passwd file
size and density options 195, 197 user ID number assignment and 38, 48
driver not attached message 284 to 50
/vol/dev/dsk directory 241, 242 /etc/rmmount.conf file
dump levels sharing CDs 187, 188, 214
daily, cumulative backups 561 /etc/shadow file
daily, discrete backups 561 described 49
defined 560 /etc/skel directory 56
duplicate blocks 514 /etc/vfstab file 79
DVD-ROM 411 export command 60
dynamic reconfiguration 293 /export/home file system 42

653
/export/home directory 422 ISO 9660 416
Extended Density diskettes large 444
formatting options 195, 196 making available 441
extended fundamental types (UFS file manual pages 421
system) 423 mount table 427
mounting NFS 454
NAMEFS 419
F
network-based 417
fdformat command 220 /opt 422
confirmation message 198 PC 416
convenience options 197, 202 preening 521, 522
formatting DOS diskettes 202, 203 /proc 422
formatting UFS diskettes 197 process 418
options 219 PROCFS 418
size and density options 196, 197, 202 pseudo 417
syntax 197, 198, 202, 203 reasons for inconsistencies 511
verifying correct format 197 restoring complete 584, 592
FDFS file system 419 sharing 428
ff command 419 SPECFS 419
FIFO inodes 513 SWAPFS 419
FIFOFS file system 419 terminating all processes 457
file system table TMPFS 417
virtual 427 types of 416
file systems UFS 416
/ 422 UNIX 416
4.3 Tahoe 416 unmounting 458
administrative commands 419 /usr 422
BSD Fat Fast 416 /var 422
cached 462 which to back up 556
checking 519 why you back up 555
checking interactively 519, 520 files
checking size 512 archiving to multiple diskettes (cpio) 637
copying complete (dd) 615 changing ownership for user accounts 47
creating loopback 438 controlling access to 36, 65
creating UFS 435 copying (cpio) 619
custom parameters 542 copying to diskette (cpio and tar) 633
cylinder group struct 538 copying to diskette (tar) 634
damage to 508 copying to tape (pax) 626
default SunOS 421 copying to tape (tar) 623
definition of 416 /etc/default/fs 430
disk-based 416 /etc/dfs/fstypes 430
DOS 416 in the /proc directory 418
/export/home 422 listing on diskette (tar) 635
FDFS 419 listing on tape (cpio) 628
FIFOFS 419 listing on tape (tar) 624
finding types 431 number of 545
fixing 524 restoring interactively 587
High Sierra 416

654 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 restoring specific 589 recommendations for preserving
retrieving from diskette (tar) 636 information 392
retrieving from tape (cpio) 629, 630 recovering corrupted disk label 350, 352
retrieving from tape (tar) 625 requirements for using 391
sharing 428 using help facility 406
verifying attributes for newly installed when to use 329
packages 265 format.dat file
files and file systems contents of 399
accessing files creating an entry 353
CD files 177 keywords 400, 403
diskette files 177 syntax rules 400
UFS file systems 200, 201 formatting
finding diskettes 203
disk device name 584 canceling formatting 198
number of tapes for a full backup 572 caution 197, 201
PROM release level 134 complete format 195
tape device name 584 diskette names 194
tape drive type 642 DOS diskettes 201, 203
type of file system 431 hardware considerations 195, 197
user accounts 44 size and density options 195, 197,
fixing bad file systems 524 198, 202
/floppy mount point 242, 243 UFS diskettes 197, 199
format of inodes 512 PCMCIA memory cards
format utility for DOS 224
analyze menu 396, 398 for UFS file systems 220
automatic configuration of SCSI disk formatting a disk, overview 331
drives 354, 356 fragment size 543
creating a Solaris fdisk partition 379, 383 free blocks 512, 541
creating disk slices and labeling disk free hog slice, see donor slice
IA 386, 388 free inodes 512
SPARC 367 free space (minimum) 543
defect menu 398 fs file 430
determining if a disk is formatted 341 fsck command 313, 420
displaying disk slice information 344, 345 checking free blocks 512
fdisk menu 395 checking free inodes 512
features and benefits 329 checking inode list size 512
formatting a disk 342, 343 checking superblock 511
guidelines for using 330 conditions to repair 510
how to enter command names 405 FSACTIVE state flag 508
how to specify block numbers 405 FSBAD state flag 508
identifying disks on a system with 339, FSCLEAN state flag 508
340 FSSTABLE state flag 508
input to 404, 406 preening 521
labeling a disk 346, 348 state flags 508
main menu 392 syntax and options 524, 527
man pages associated with 406 using interactively 519
overview 328 fsck pass field (vfstab) 517
partition menu 394, 395
655
fsdb command 420 guidelines for managing 43, 44
fstyp command 420 ID numbers 38, 43
fstypes file 430 name services and 44
full backup names
defined 559 changing 81
determine number of tapes for 572 described 43
using the ufsdump command 574 permissions setting for 65
fuser command 232 primary 43
finding if CD is in use 182, 183 secondary 43
finding if diskette is in use 209 storage of information for 49, 53
killing processes accessing CDs 182, 183 tools for managing 44
UNIX 43
groups command 43
G
gap, see rotational delay
GECOS field (passwd file) 50 H
GIDs 38 halt command 125
assigning 43 HD (High Density) diskettes
definition 43 formatting options 195, 197
large 39 header format
grep command 44, 431 copying files with different (cpio) 637
group file High Density (HD) diskettes
deleting user accounts and 48 formatting options 195, 197
described 49 High Sierra file system 416
fields in 53 history environment variable 61
group ID numbers 38, 43 /home (automounted) 429
group names $HOME directory 42, 58
changing 81 HOME environment variable 61
described 43 home shell variable 59, 61
group* commands 44 /home file system
groupadd command 44 user home directories and 42
groupdel command 44 $HOME/$ENV file 56
groupmod command 44 hot-plugging 293
groups HSFS, see High Sierra file system
adding
Admintool: Groups 75
I
commands 44
changing name 81 I/O, direct 548
changing primary 43 IA based systems
changing users in diskette formats 195, 197
Admintool: Users 47 UFS format 181, 245
commands 44 ID numbers
commands for 44 group 38, 43
default 43 user 38, 47
deleting identifying
commands 44 devices 284
described 36, 43 disks on a system 339
displaying groups a user belongs to 43

656 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 PCMCIA memory cards 218 Korn shell
inconsistencies in file systems 511 basic features 58, 59
incorrect . and .. entries 515 environment variables and 60, 64
incremental backup 559, 600 shell (local) variables and 60, 62
indirect blocks 514 user initialization files and 56, 58, 66, 73
init command
described 124
L
shutting down a standalone system 130
init states, see run levels L1-A keys 145, 147
initialization files labelit command 420
system 43 LANG environment variable 61, 64
inode list size 512 large files option 444
inode states 513 LC environment variables 64
inodes 539 level 0 backup 560
bad number 515 link count of inodes 513
block special 513 listing
character special 513 files on a diskette (tar) 635
checking format and type 512 files on a tape (cpio) 628
directory 513 files on a tape (tar) 624
FIFO 513 installed software
link count 513 software administration, displaying
number of bytes per 545 installed software
regular 512 information 249
size 514 little-endian bit coding 193
symbolic link 513 *LK* password 48, 52
installboot command 372, 390 loading
installing a boot block CDs
IA 389 using command line 181
SPARC 372 diskettes
installing software packages using Volume Management 205, 206
software administration 249 PCMCIA memory cards 227
integrity checking, local.cshrc file 56
verifying 249 local.login file 56
interactive local.profile file 57
checking file systems 519, 520 locale environment variables 61
restore 587 log (record of dumps) 600
ISO 9660 file system 416 logical block size 542
ISO standards logical device name
9660 CD format 181 CD-ROM 316
aab9660 CD format 246 defined 312
disk 312
tape 316
K login names (user)
/kernel/drv directory 283 changing 47
killing described 37
processes accessing CDs 182, 183 .login file
processes accessing diskettes 209 customizing 42, 56, 58, 66
killing all processes for a file system 457

657
LOGNAME environment variable 61 mount command 313, 420
loopback file system remote CDs 184
creating 438 remote diskettes 211
mounting 448 mount point 425
lost+found directory 508 mount table 427
Low Density diskettes mountall command 420
formatting options 195, 197 mounting
LPDEST environment variable 61 all files in vfstab file 449
ls command file systems 425
examining CD contents 181 file systems automatically 429
examining diskette contents 207 LOFS file systems 449
manual compared to automatic 176
mount points
M
CDs 184, 242, 243
magnetic tape cartridge diskettes 242, 243
retensioning 643 NFS file systems 448, 454
rewinding 644 PCMCIA memory cards 233
mail aliases remote CDs 184, 185
user login names vs. 37 remote diskettes 211, 212
MAIL environment variable 60, 61 s5fs file systems 454
maintaining tape drives 644 UFS file systems 448
make command 44 user home directories 79
MANPATH environment variable 61 automounting 43
MANSECT environment variable 61 remote 77, 79
manual mounting using default options 451, 454
automatic mounting compared to 176 moving
remote CDs 184, 185 diskette information
remote diskettes 211, 212 from diskettes 207, 208
manual pages 421 to diskettes 208, 209
mask 65 mt command 643
maximums multiple versions of software packages 254,
secondary groups users can belong to 43 255
user ID number 38 multiuser state, see run level 3
user login name length 37 musical CDs 188
user password length 40
media was found message 206
Medium Density (DD) diskettes N
formatting options 195, 197 name services
memory storage (virtual) 422, 498 groups and 44
minimum free space 543 user accounts and 37, 44, 49
minimums NAMEFS file system 419
user login name length 37 names
user password length 40 group
mkfile command 503, 504 described 43
mkfs command 420, 434 software package naming
mnttab file 427 conventions 253
modifying file system checking 519 SUNW prefix 253
monitor (PROM) 163

658 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000

 user login P
changing 47 packages, software
described 36, 37 software administration 249
names/naming parameters (file system) 542
CD names partition (swap) 422, 498
designators 180 passwd command 44
finding a CD’s name 184 passwd file 49
diskette names 194 deleting user accounts and 48
ncheck command 420 fields in 49, 50
network-based file systems 417 restoring from tape 591
newfs command 200, 314, 434, 545 user ID number assignment and 38
newgrp command 43 passwords (user)
NFS 63, 428 Admintool: Users and 48
NFS file systems 448 aging 41, 48, 49
NFS server 428 changing
nfsd daemon Admintool: Users and 48
starting 186, 213 commands for 44
verifying if running frequency of 41, 52
making CDs available to other by user 40, 41
systems 185, 186 choosing 41
making diskettes available to other described 36, 40, 41
systems 212, 213 disabling/locking user accounts and 48,
NIS 53
groups and 44 encryption 49
user accounts and 37, 44, 49 expiration 53
nis* commands 44 NP password 52
NIS+ *LK* password 48, 52
groups and 44 precautions 40, 41
user accounts and 37, 44, 48, 49 setting 40, 48
nistbladm command 44 patch
no media was found message 206 defined 271
noaccess group 38, 54 finding already installed 272
noask_pkgadd administration file 255, 261 installation README 272
nobody group 38, 54 numbering scheme 274
notifying users of system down time 125 utilities 272
NP password 52 patchadd command 272, 274
patches
O accessing via ftp 274
accessing via world wide web 273
OPENWINHOME environment variable 61
availability for Sun Service
/opt directory 422
customers 273
optimization type 544
general availability 273
options
installing 274
for mkfile 503
removing 275
for ufsdump command 604
where to find 273
for ufsrestore command 608
patchrm command 272, 275
other (permissions setting) 65
PATH environment variable

659
 described 62, 63 caution 254, 266
setting up 63 overview 251, 257
path shell variable 59, 62 s option (spooled packages) 267
pathnames 177 prerequisites for using 253
PC BIOS (and booting) 164 rm command vs. 254, 266
PC file system 416 playing musical CDs 188
PCI hot-plugging 279 preening file systems 521, 522
PCMCIA memory cards preparing
accessing on other systems 233 for backups 571
copying or moving information from 229 to restore files 583
copying or moving information to 230 primary groups 43, 249
default label 219 printers (default) 61
displaying the contents of 229 /proc directory 418, 422
ejecting 232 process file system 418
formatting for a UFS file system 219 PROCFS file system 418
formatting for DOS 224 .profile file
identifying 218 customizing 42, 56, 58, 66
loading 227 PROM
making available to other systems 235 changing boot-from setting 134
mounting 234 finding release level 134
permissions 65, 73 finding the ROM revision 134
copying files from CDs 182 monitor 163
physical device name 312 switching to the ok prompt 134
/pkg directory 262, 263 prompt shell variable 62
pkgadd command prtconf command 285
alternate base directory and 255 prtvtoc command 314, 348
bypassing user interaction 254, 255 PS1 environment variable 62
overview 251, 257 pseudo file systems 417
a option (administration file) 254, 255, pseudo user logins 38
259, 261 pseudo-ttys 38
d option (device name) 259 to 263
s option (spool directory) 261, 262
R
prerequisites for using 253
spool directories and 261, 263 raw disk device interface 313
standalone systems a 259 rdiskette directories 240
standalone systems and 261, 266 /vol/dev/rdsk directory 241, 242
pkgchk command reboot command 125
options 263, 265 reconfiguration boot 355
overview 257, 263 IA example 378
using 263, 265 SPARC example 366
pkginfo command record of
all packages installed 264 dumps 600
overview 253, 257, 263 incremental backup 600
l option (detailed information) 265 regular inodes 513
using 261, 263 release level of PROM 134
pkgparam command 257 remote access
pkgrm command 266
basic procedure 266
660 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
 CDs sharing diskettes 214
accessing CDs on other systems 183, Rock Ridge extension (HSFS file system) 416
185 root (/) file system 422
making CDs available to other root group 38
systems 185 rotational delay 544
diskettes run control scripts 115
accessing diskettes on other adding 117
systems 211, 212 disabling 118
making diskettes available to other starting and stopping services 116
systems 212 run level
remote drive (restoring from) 591 0 (power-down state) 110
remote mounting 77, 79 1 (single-user state) 110
remote package server 2 (multiuser state) 110
software installation from 260, 261 3 (multiuser with NFS) 110
software installation to spool booting to 138, 152
directory 262 processes executed at 114
removef command 254 what happens when system is
removing swap file from use 505 brought to 113
repairing the /etc/passwd file 6 (reboot state) 110
IA 158 default run level 109
SPARC 145 defined 109
reset button 160 determining 110
reset command 137 s or S (single-user state) 110
resetting a SPARC based system 137 booting to 139, 153
restore
complete file system 592
S
from remote drive 591
interactively 587 /sbin/rc0 script 119, 125
preparing to 583 /sbin/rc1 script 119, 125
specific files 589 /sbin/rc2 script 120, 125
type of tape drive 584 /sbin/rc3 script 120, 125
restoring bad superblock 522 /sbin/rc5 script 121, 125
restoring file systems /sbin/rc6 script 121, 125
complete 592, 594 /sbin/rcS script 121, 125
root and /usr 595, 597 scheduling backups 560
retensioning magnetic tape cartridge 643 SCSI disk drives 354
retrieving SCSI hot-plugging 279
files created wth bar command 638 SCSI tape drives 641
files from a tape (cpio) 629 secondary disk
files from a tape (tar) 625 connecting to the system
files from diskette (tar) 636 IA 379
files from remote tape (tar and dd) 632 SPARC 366
specific files from tape (cpio) 630 described 327
rewinding magnetic tape cartridge 644 secondary groups 43
rm command 254, 266 security
rmmount.conf file user ID number reuse and 38
playing musical CDs 188 servers
sharing CDs 187
661
 description 97 slice (defined) 323
software administration software administration 249
removing packages 266 adding packages 249, 251, 255, 257
sharing software with clients 253 administration files and 254, 255, 259
set command 59 base directory and 254, 255
setenv command 59, 60 bypassing user interaction
shadow file when 254, 255
described 49 guidelines for 253
fields in 52, 53 multiple versions of a package 254,
share command 428 255
making disks available to other systems prerequisites 253
CDs 186, 187 from mounted CD 260
diskettes 213, 214 from remote package server 260, 261
shareall command 428 to a spool directory 261, 263, 265
sharing standalone systems 259, 261
files 428 Sun packages 260 to 263
software by clients and servers 253 tools for 251, 252
user home directories 77, 79 clients 253
sharing CD-ROM drives 185 sharing software with servers 253
SHELL environment variable 62 defined 251
shell variables 60, 62 displaying installed software
shells information 253, 257, 263,
basic features 58, 59 265
environment of 59, 62 naming conventions for packages 253
environment variables and 59, 60, 64 overview 249
local variables 59, 60, 62 package defined 251
user initialization files and 56, 58, 66, 73 removing packages 251, 253, 254, 266
shutdown command administration files and 255
described 124 guidelines for 254
notifying users 125 spool directories 267
shutting down a server 104, 126 standalone systems 266
shutting down tools for 251, 252
a server 126 servers
a standalone system 130 removing packages 266
a system cleanly with shutdown and init sharing software with clients 253
commands 124 Solaris upgrade option and 254
shutting down a system 103 tools for 249, 251, 252
single-user state, see run level s or S Admintool 249
site initialization files 57 commands 251, 257
size verifying installation
checking file system 512 pkgchk command 257, 263, 265
diskette formats 195, 197 pkginfo command 257, 261, 265
DOS diskettes 202 software administration, removing
UFS diskettes 197, 198 packages 249
fragment 543 Software Manager 249, 252
inode 514 software packages
/skel directory 56 software administration 249
skeleton directories 42, 48
662 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
Solaris diskette formats 195, 197 superblock 511, 522, 539
Solaris fdisk partition 376 swap command 503
Solaris upgrade option 254 swap file
Solaris User Registration 89 adding to vfstab 500
sort command 44 creating 503
sorting user accounts 44 displaying 501
space optimization type 544 removing from use 505
spaces (in user login names) 37 swap partition 422, 498
SPARC based systems swapadd command 500
diskette formats 195, 197 SWAPFS file system 419
UFS format 181, 245 swmtool command 249, 252
SPECFS file system 419 symbolic links 513
specifying a disk slice 314, 316 file system access 244
spool directories listing CD directories using 181
installing software packages to 261, 263, listing diskette directories using 207
265 raw device access 244
removing software packages from 267 sync command 147
staff group 43 synchronize the disk using sync
standalone system 98 command 147, 148
standalone systems syntax
adding software packages to 259, 261 fsck command 524, 526
removing software packages from 266 newfs 545
starting sysdef command 285
nfsd daemon 186, 213 system accounts 38
Volume Management 190 system architecture 60
starting and stopping services 116 system disk
state flag connecting
fsck 508 IA 377
UFS file systems 423 SPARC 365
stop command 190 described 327
Stop-A keys 145, 147 installing a boot block on
stopping IA 389
all processes for a file system 457 SPARC 372
ejecting CDs system initialization files 43
using command line 183 system shutdown commands 124
killing processes accessing CDs 182, 183 system types
killing processes accessing diskettes 210 overview 96
Volume Management 190 server 97
storage (virtual memory) 422 standalone system 98
storage block 541
storage capacities (media) 555, 639
T
storage, virtual memory 498
structure of cylinder groups 538 table
stty command 64 default SunOS file system 421
Sun software packages file system administrative commands 419
installing 260 to 263 interactive commands for ufsrestore 611,
SunOS default file system 421 612
SUNW prefix 253
663
 media storage capacities 555, 639 turn off power to all devices, how to 132
mount 427 type of file systems 416
options for mkfile 503 type of inodes 512
options for ufsdump command 605, 606 type of tape drive 642
options for ufsrestore command 608 TZ environment variable 62
tape capacity 603
tape 644
U
capacity 603
characteristics 603 UDF file system 410
copying all files in a directory (cpio) 627 UFS CDs
listing files using tar command 624 mixed formats 246
retrieving files from (cpio) 629 SPARC vs. IA formats 181, 245
retrieving files from (tar) 625 UFS diskettes
retrieving specific files from (cpio) 630 adding UFS file system 200, 201
sizes 555, 639 formatting 197, 199
storage capacities 555, 639 canceling 198
tape (magnetic cartridge) complete format 195
retensioning 643 size and density options 195, 197
tape devices (naming) 316 SPARC vs. IA formats 195
tape drive SPARC vs. IA formats 195, 245
default densities 641 UFS file system 416, 423
determining type for restore 584 adding to diskettes 200, 201
finding type 642 extended fundamental types 423
maintaining 644 large file systems 423
maximum SCSI 641 mounting 448
restoring from remote 591 placing on a PCMCIA memory card 222
tar command 623, 626 state flags 423
copying files to a single diskette 634 ufsdump command 573
copying files to remote tape (dd) 631 backing up file systems to tape 574
copying files to tape 623 end-of-media detection 600
listing files on diskette 635 how data is copied with 600
listing files on tape 624 how it works 599
retrieving files from diskette 636 limitations 603
retrieving files from remote tape (dd) 632 options and arguments 604
retrieving files from tape 625 ufsrestore command 583, 597, 607
temporary file system 417, 437 preparing to use 583
TERM environment variable 62 restoring complete file systems from
term shell variable 59, 62 tape 592
terminating all processes 457 UIDs 47
TERMINFO environment variable 62 assigning 38
testing definition 38
verifying 249 large 39
time (optimization type) 544 umask command 65
time zone environment variable 62 umount command 420
/tmp directory 418, 422 umountall command 420
TMPFS file system 417 unallocated directory blocks 515
ttys (pseudo) 38 unallocated inodes 513
ttytype pseudo user logins 38
664 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000
underscore (_), in user login names 37 user initialization files
UNIX file system 416 customizing 56, 66
UNIX groups 43 adding customized files 48
unmounting file systems 425, 458, 459 avoiding local system references 58
unsupported devices 283 environment variables 60, 64
upgrade option (Solaris) 254 overview 42, 56, 57
user access 36 procedure for 72
user accounts 36 shell variables 60, 62
adding site initialization files 57
Admintool: Users 76, 77 user mask setting 65
commands 44 default 56
changing described 36, 42, 43, 56
Admintool: Users 47 examples 66
commands 44 shells and 56, 58, 66
commands for 44 user login names
copying changing 47
commands 44 described 36, 37
default setup user logins (pseudo) 38
commands 44 User Manager, AdminSuite 2.3 44
deleting user mask 65
Admintool: Users 48 User Registration
commands 44 described 89
described 36 disabling 91
disabling/locking problems 90
Admintool: Users 48 solregis command 89
commands 44 user shell variable 59
passwords and 48, 53 useradd command 44
finding (commands) 44 userdel command 44
guidelines for 37, 43 usermod command 44
ID numbers 38, 47 /usr file system 422
login names 36, 37, 47 uucp group 38
name services and 37, 44, 49
setting up
V
information sheet 71
sorting (commands) 44 /var directory 422
storage of information for 37, 49 /var/run file system 409
tools for managing 44 /var/sadm/install/admin directory 254
user home directories /var/sadm/patch 275
changing ownership of 47 /var/spool/pkg directory 261 to 263
customized initialization files in 42, 48 variables
deleting 48 environment 59, 64
described 36, 42 shell (local) 59, 62
mounting 79 verifying
automounting 43 CD is in use 182, 183
remote 77, 79 diskette is in use 209
nonlocal reference to ($HOME) 42, 58
sharing 77, 79
user ID numbers 38, 47
665
 nfsd daemon is running configuring 190
making CDs available to other diskettes
systems 185, 186 access locations 177, 239, 241, 242
making diskettes available to other directories 240
systems 213, 214 loading 205, 207
software package installation /floppy mount point 242, 243
pkgchk command 257, 263, 265 manual mounting compared to 176
pkginfo command 257, 261, 266 restarting 190
vfstab file 430, 500 stopping 190
adding swap to 500 symbolic links
creating entries in 448 file system access 244
default 427 raw device access 244
entry for temporary file system 439 UFS limitations 245
finding file system names in 572
modifying fsck pass 517
W
mounting all files 449
vipw command 44 when to turn off power to devices 125
virtual file system table 427 who command 110, 126
virtual memory storage 422, 498 world (permissions) 65
/vol/dev directory 239, 240 write permissions
/vol/dev directory described 182
symbolic links write-protection (PCMCIA memory
file system access 244 cards) 220
CD subdirectories 239, 241 to 243
volcopy command 420 Y
volmgt start command 190 yp* commands 44
Volume Management 239, 246
access to removable media 239
benefits 176
CDs
access locations 177, 239, 245
directories 239, 241, 242
/cdrom mount point 242, 243

666 System Administration Guide, Volume 1 ♦ February 2000