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.
This Solaris release provides support for disks that are larger than 1 terabyte (Tbyte) on systems that run a 64-bit Solaris kernel.
The Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) label provides support for physical disks and virtual disk volumes. The UFS file system is compatible with the EFI disk label, but you cannot create a UFS file system that is greater than 1 Tbyte. This release also includes updated disk utilities for managing disks that are greater than 1 Tbyte.
The EFI disk label differs from the VTOC disk label in the following ways:
Support for disks that are greater than 1 Tbyte in size is provided.
Slices 0–6, where slice 2 is just another slice, are provided.
Partitions (or slices) cannot overlap with the primary or backup label, nor with any other partitions. The size of the EFI label is usually 34 sectors, so partitions start at sector 34. This feature means that no partition can start at sector zero (0).
No cylinder, head, or sector information is stored in the label. Sizes are reported in blocks.
Information that was stored in the alternate cylinders area, the last two cylinders of the disk, is now stored in slice 8.
For more information on using the EFI disk label, see the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration. This guide contains important information and restrictions that apply to using the EFI disk label with existing software products.
The Solaris Volume Manager software can also be used to manage disks greater than 1 Tbyte in this Solaris release. See SPARC: Multiterabyte Volume Support in Solaris Volume Manager.