Volume Names

Volume Name Requirements

There are a few rules that you must follow when assigning names for volumes:

• Volume names must begin with the letter “d” followed by a number (for example, d0).

• Solaris Volume Manager has 128 default volume names from 0–127. The following table shows some example volume names.

  Table 3–3 Example Volume Names

  /dev/md/dsk/d0	Block volume d0
  /dev/md/dsk/d1	Block volume d1
  /dev/md/rdsk/d126	Raw volume d126
  /dev/md/rdsk/d127	Raw volume d127

• Instead of specifying the full volume name, such as /dev/md/dsk/d1, you can often use an abbreviated volume name, such as d1, with any meta* command.

• Like physical slices, volumes have logical names that appear in the file system. Logical volume names have entries in the /dev/md/dsk directory for block devices and the /dev/md/rdsk directory for raw devices.

• You can generally rename a volume, as long as the volume is not currently being used and the new name is not being used by another volume. For more information, see Exchanging Volume Names.

Volume Name Guidelines

The use of a standard for your volume names can simplify administration, and enable you at a glance to identify the volume type. Here are a few suggestions:

• Use ranges for each particular type of volume. For example, assign numbers 0–20 for RAID 1 volumes, 21–40 for RAID 0 volumes, and so on.

• Use a naming relationship for mirrors. For example, name mirrors with a number that ends in zero (0), and submirrors that end in one (1) and two (2). For example, you might name mirrors as follows: mirror d10, submirrors d11 and d12; mirror d20, submirrors d21 and d22, and so on.

• Use a naming method that maps the slice number and disk number to volume numbers.