How to Repartition Drives in a Disk Set

The metaset(1M) command repartitions drives in a disk set so that a small portion of each drive is reserved for use by Solaris Volume Manager software. In volume table of contents (VTOC) labeled devices, slice 7 is used. In Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) labeled devices, slice 6 is used. The remainder of the space on each drive is placed into slice 0. To make more effective use of the drive, use this procedure to modify the disk layout. If you allocate space to VTOC slices 1 through 6 or EFI slices 1 through 5, you can use these slices when you set up Solaris Volume Manager volumes.

1. Become superuser.

2. Use the format command to change the disk partitioning for each drive in the disk set.

   When you repartition a drive, you must meet the following conditions to prevent the metaset(1M) command from repartitioning the drive.

   • Create slice 7 for VTOC or slice 6 for EFI starting at cylinder 0, large enough to hold a state database replica. See your Solaris Volume Manager administration guide to determine the size of a state database replica for your version of the volume-manager software.

   • Set the Flag field in the target slice to wu (read-write, unmountable). Do not set it to read-only.

   • Do not allow the target slice to overlap any other slice on the drive.

   See the format(1M) man page for details.

Next Steps

Define volumes by using an md.tab file. Go to How to Create an md.tab File.