SPARC: Multiterabyte UFS File Systems

This Solaris release provides support for multiterabyte UFS file systems on systems that run a 64-bit Solaris kernel. Previously, UFS file systems were limited to approximately 1 terabyte (Tbyte) on both 64-bit and 32-bit systems. All UFS file system commands and utilities have been updated to support multiterabyte UFS file systems.

You can initially create a UFS file system that is less than 1 Tbyte. You can specify that the file system can eventually be grown to a multiterabyte file system by using the newfs -T command. This option sets the inode and fragment density to scale appropriately for a multiterabyte file system.

Support for a multiterabyte UFS file system assumes the availability of multiterabyte LUNs, provided as Solaris Volume Manager or Veritas VxVM volumes, or as physical disks that are greater than 1 Tbyte.

Features of multiterabyte UFS file systems include the following:

• You can create a UFS file system to a maximum of 16 Tbytes in size.

• You can create a file system that is less than 16 Tbytes, which can later be increased in size to a maximum of 16 Tbytes.

• Multiterabyte file systems can be created on physical disks, Solaris Volume Manager's logical volumes, and Veritas's VxVM logical volumes.

Limitations of multiterabyte UFS file systems include the following:

• You cannot mount a file system that is greater than 1 Tbyte on a system that runs a 32-bit Solaris kernel.

• You cannot boot from a file system that is greater than 1 Tbyte on a system that runs a 64-bit Solaris kernel. This limitation means that you cannot put a root (/) file system on a multiterabyte file system.

• No support is provided for individual files that are larger than 1 Tbyte.

• The maximum quota that you can set on a multiterabyte UFS file system is 2 Tbytes of 1024–byte blocks.

For more information, see the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration.