System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems

What's New in Disk Management?

This section describes new disk management features in the Solaris release.

For a complete listing of new Solaris features and a description of Solaris releases, see Oracle Solaris 10 9/10 What’s New.

Two-Terabyte Disk Support for Installing and Booting the Solaris OS

Solaris 10 10/09: In previous Solaris releases, you could not install and boot the Solaris OS from a disk that was greater than 1 TB in size. In this Solaris release, you can install and boot the Solaris OS from a disk that is up to 2 TB in size. In previous releases, you also had to use an EFI label for a disk that is larger than 1 TB. In this release, you can use the VTOC label on any size disk, but the addressable space by the VTOC is limited to 2 TB.

The Solaris disk drivers and disk utilities have been updated to provide the following support:

Installing and booting the Solaris OS on a two-terabyte disk must be connected to a system that runs a 64-bit kernel, with a minimum of 1 GB of memory.
You can use the format -e utility to label a disk of any size with a VTOC label, but the addressable space is limited to 2 TB.
The default label that is used by the format utility and the installation software for a disk that is less than 2 TB in size is a VTOC label.
You can use the fdisk utility on a disk that is greater than 1 TB on x86 systems. Support is added for up to 2-TB partitions in the MBR for non-EFI partition types. This support means that Solaris partitions can go up to 2 TB. Other non-EFI partitions may be subject to a limit depending on partition type.

When the fdisk utility is run on a disk that is greater than 2 TB in size, a warning message is displayed to indicate that you cannot create a non-EFI partition that is greater than 2 TB.
The Solaris Volume Manager software has been modified to create metadevices that support physical disks with VTOC labels up to 2 TB in size.

Keep in mind that you cannot move a disk over 1 TB with a legacy MBR or a legacy VTOC to a previous Solaris release. EFI labeled disks continue to work as in previous Solaris releases.

For more information about the EFI label changes in this release, see EFI Disk Label.

iSNS Support in the Solaris iSCSI Target and Initiator

Solaris 10 8/07: This Solaris release provides support for the Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) protocol in the Solaris iSCSI target and initiator software. The iSNS protocol allows for the automated discovery, management, and configuration of iSCSI devices on a TCP/IP network.

In this Solaris release, you can use the iscsitadm command to add access to an existing third-party iSNS server or you can user the Solaris iSNS server to automatically discover the iSCSI devices in your network. The iSNS server can be specified by hostname or IP address. After you add the iSNS server information, you will need to enable access to the server.

See the following resources for step-by-step instructions:

For information about configuring the Solaris iSCSI target to use a third-party iSNS server, see Chapter 14, Configuring Oracle Solaris iSCSI Targets and Initiators (Tasks) and iscsitadm(1M).
For information about configuring the Solaris iSCSI target with a Solaris iSNS server in the Solaris Express release, see Chapter 15, Configuring and Managing the Solaris Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS), in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems.

Solaris iSCSI Target Support

Solaris 10 8/07: This Solaris release provides support for iSCSI target devices, which can be disk or tape devices. Previous Solaris releases provide support for iSCSI initiators. The advantage of setting up Solaris iSCSI targets is you might have existing Fibre-Channel devices that can be connected to clients without the cost of Fibre-Channel HBAs. In addition, systems with dedicated arrays can now export replicated storage with ZFS or UFS file systems.

You can use the iscsitadm command to set up and manage your iSCSI target devices. For the disk device that you select as your iSCSI target, you'll need to provide an equivalently sized ZFS or UFS file system as the backing store for the iSCSI daemon.

After the target device is set up, use the iscsiadm command to identify your iSCSI targets, which will discover and use the iSCSI target device.

For more information, see Chapter 14, Configuring Oracle Solaris iSCSI Targets and Initiators (Tasks), iscsiadm(1M), and iscsitadm(1M).

Note –

A previous version of this guide incorrectly indicated that the Solaris iSCSI target support was available in the Solaris 10 11/06 release. This feature is available starting in the Solaris 10 8/07 release.

Solaris iSCSI Initiator Support

Solaris 10 1/06: iSCSI is an Internet Protocol (IP)-based storage networking standard for linking data storage subsystems. By carrying SCSI commands over IP networks, the iSCSI protocol enables you to mount disk devices, from across the network, onto your local system. On your local system, you can use the devices like block devices.

For more information, see Chapter 14, Configuring Oracle Solaris iSCSI Targets and Initiators (Tasks).

Solaris iSCSI Initiator Support Enhancements

Solaris 10 6/06: The following enhancements have been added to the Solaris iSCSI initiator support:

Dynamic target removal support – Provides the ability to remove (or log out) an iSCSI target without rebooting the system. If you try to remove or disable a discovery method or address, and the target is not in use, the target is removed and related resources are released. If the target is in use, the discovery address or method remains enabled, and in use message is displayed.

For more information, see How to Remove Discovered iSCSI Targets.
Internet Storage Name Service (iSNS) client support – Enables the iSCSI initiator to discover the targets to which it has access using as little configuration as possible. It also provides state change notification functionality to notify the iSCSI initiator when changes in operational state of storage nodes occur. The iscsiadm command has been enhanced to support iSNS discovery.

For more information, see How to Configure iSCSI Target Discovery.
Multiple session target (MS/T) support – Provides the ability to create more iSCSI sessions or paths to a target on demand. The additional iSCSI paths provide higher bandwidth aggregation and availability in specific configurations, such as iSCSI arrays that support login redirection. The iSCSI MS/T feature should be used in combination with MPxIO or other multipathing software. The iscsiadm command has been enhanced to support MS/T.

For more information about configuring Solaris iSCSI initiators, see Chapter 14, Configuring Oracle Solaris iSCSI Targets and Initiators (Tasks) and iscsiadm(1M).

x86: Disk Management in the GRUB Boot Environment

Solaris 10 1/06: The GRUB boot menu has replaced the previous method for booting an x86 system. In the area of disk management, you use the GRUB interface when booting from an alternative device to replace a system disk or when installing the bootblocks.

The GRUB boot environment provides the following features:

Solaris failsafe boot – A Solaris failsafe boot option that boots into the miniroot so you can recover from a problem that is preventing the system from booting without having to boot from an alternative device. Use the arrow keys to select the following option from the GRUB boot menu and then press return:
Solaris failsafe
You'll need to reboot the system after using the Solaris failsafe boot option.
Network boot – Boot from the network by pressing the F12 key during the BIOS configuration phase.
Single-user boot – Boot to single-user mode by selecting this option from the Solaris failsafe boot menu:
kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot
Then, use the e (edit) option to add the -s single-user option. For example:
kernel /platform/i86pc/multiboot -s
Press return and then press the b key to boot the system. Press control-D to boot the system back to multiuser mode.

In the GRUB environment, you cannot use the fmthard command to install the boot blocks automatically when run on an x86 system. You must install the boot blocks separately.

For detailed feature information and instructions on using the new GRUB based booting on x86 systems, see Booting an x86 Based System by Using GRUB (Task Map) in System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.

For instructions for managing disks in the GRUB boot environment, see the following references:

This feature is not available on SPARC systems.

Support for SCSI Disks That are Larger Than 2 Terabytes

Solaris 10 1/06: The SCSI driver, ssd or sd, supports 2 terabytes and greater. The SCSI driver, ssd or sd, is limited to 2 TB in previous Solaris releases.

The format utility can be used to label, configure, and partition these larger disks. For information about using the EFI disk label on large disks and restrictions with the fdisk utility, see Restrictions of the EFI Disk Label.