System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems

ProcedureSPARC: How to Connect a Secondary Disk and Boot

If you are adding a disk with an EFI disk label, see EFI Disk Label for more information.

Generally, most modern bus types support hot-plugging. If your system's bus type supports hot-plugging, you might not need to do steps 2 or 3 below.

For more information about hot-plugging devices, see Chapter 6, Dynamically Configuring Devices (Tasks).

  1. Become superuser or assume an equivalent role.

  2. (Optional) 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. (Optional) 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 Oracle Solaris OS is shut down.

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

  6. Ensure that the disk you are adding has a different target number than the other devices on the system.

    Typically, a small switch is 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 details.

  8. Turn on the power to all external peripheral devices.

  9. Turn on the power to the system.

    The system boots and displays the login prompt.

After You Connect a Secondary Disk and Boot ...

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.