SPARC: How to Connect a Secondary Disk and Boot

1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

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.

   For information on creating a format.dat entry for the disk, see How to Create a format.dat Entry, if necessary.

3. Create the /reconfigure file that will be read when the system is booted.

   # touch /reconfigure

   The /reconfigure file causes 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 -gn -y

   -i0	Changes to run level 0, the power-down state.
   -gn	Notifies logged-in users that they have n seconds before the system begins to shut down.
   -y	Specifies that the command should run without user intervention.

   The ok prompt is displayed after the operating environment is shut down.

5. Turn off the power to the system and all external peripheral devices.

6. Make sure that 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 boots and displays 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.