Identifying Disks on a System

Use the format utility to discover the types of disks that are connected to a system. You can also use the format utility to verify that a disk is known to the system. For detailed information on using the format utility, see Chapter 17, The format Utility (Reference).

How to Identify the Disks on a System

1. Become an administrator.

   For more information, see How to Obtain Administrative Rights in System Administration Guide: Security Services.

2. Identify the disks that are recognized on the system by using the format utility.

   # format

   The format utility displays a list of disks that it recognizes under AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS.

Example 11-1 Identifying the Disks on a System

The following example shows format command output is from a system with one disk.

# format
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
 0. c0t1d0 <FUJITSU  MAN3367M SUN36G  1804 43d671f>
    /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/scsi@2/sd@1,0

The output associates a disk's physical and logical device name to the disk's marketing name, which appears in angle brackets <>. See the example below. This method is an easy way to identify which logical device names represent the disks that are connected to your system. For a description of logical and physical device names, see Device Naming Conventions.

The following example uses a wildcard to display the four disks that are connected to a second controller.

# format /dev/rdsk/c2*
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
       0. /dev/rdsk/c2t10d0s0 <SUN9.0G cyl 4924 alt 2 hd 27 sec 133>
          /sbus@3,0/SUNW,fas@3,8800000/sd@a,0
       1. /dev/rdsk/c2t11d0s0 <SUN9.0G cyl 4924 alt 2 hd 27 sec 133>
          /sbus@3,0/SUNW,fas@3,8800000/sd@b,0
       2. /dev/rdsk/c2t14d0s0 <SUN18G cyl 7506 alt 2 hd 19 sec 248>
          /sbus@3,0/SUNW,fas@3,8800000/sd@e,0
       3. /dev/rdsk/c2t15d0s0 <SUN18G cyl 7506 alt 2 hd 19 sec 248>
          /sbus@3,0/SUNW,fas@3,8800000/sd@f,0
Specify disk (enter its number): 

The following example shows how to identify the disks on a SPARC based system.

# format
0. c0t1d0 <FUJITSU  MAN3367M SUN36G  1804 43d671f>
   /pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/scsi@2/sd@1,0
Specify disk (enter its number): 

The output identifies that disk 0 (target 1) is connected to the second SCSI host adapter (scsi@2), which is connected to the second PCI interface (/pci@1f0/pci@1,1...). The output also associates both the physical and logical device name to the disk's marketing name, SUN36G.

The following example shows how to identify the disks on an x86 based system.

# format
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
 0. c0d0 <DEFAULT cyl 615 alt 2 hd 64 sec 63>
     /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ata@0/cmdk@0,0
 1. c0d1 <DEFAULT cyl 522 alt 2 hd 32 sec 63>
     /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ata@0/cmdk@1,0
 2. c1d0 <DEFAULT cyl 817 alt 2 hd 256 sec 63>
     /pci@0,0/pci-ide@7,1/ata@1/cmdk@0,0
Specify disk (enter its number):  

The output shows that disk 0 is connected to the first PCI host adapter (pci-ide@7...), which is connected to the ATA interface (ata...). If the format output on an x86 based system does not identify disks by their marketing names, then you can use the format utility's type and label features as described in the following steps to include the disk's marketing name.

The following steps must be done while the disk or system is inactive, which means booting from an installation DVD or the network. In addition, the final step is to relabel the disk, which can remove any existing partition information or data.

# format
Searching for disks...done


AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
       0. c1t0d0 <DEFAULT cyl 49779 alt 2 hd 4 sec 720>
          /pci@0,0/pci1022,7450@a/pci17c2,10@4/sd@0,0
       1. c1t1d0 <DEFAULT cyl 8921 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
          /pci@0,0/pci1022,7450@a/pci17c2,10@4/sd@1,0
       2. c2t1d0 <SEAGATE-ST318404LSUN18G-4203-16.87GB>
          /pci@0,0/pci1022,7450@b/pci1000,10c0@1/sd@1,0
       3. c2t2d0 <SEAGATE-ST318404LSUN18G-4203-16.87GB>
          /pci@0,0/pci1022,7450@b/pci1000,10c0@1/sd@2,0
.
.
.
Specify disk (enter its number): 7
selecting c2t6d0
[disk formatted]
format> type
AVAILABLE DRIVE TYPES:
        0. Auto configure
        1. other
Specify disk type (enter its number)[1]: 0
c2t6d0: configured with capacity of 16.87GB
<IBM-DDYST1835SUN18G-S94N-16.87GB>
selecting c2t6d0
[disk formatted]
format> label
Ready to label disk, continue? yes
format> disk

AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
       0. c1t0d0 <DEFAULT cyl 49779 alt 2 hd 4 sec 720>
          /pci@0,0/pci1022,7450@a/pci17c2,10@4/sd@0,0
       1. c1t1d0 <DEFAULT cyl 8921 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
.
.
.
       7. c2t6d0 <IBM-DDYST1835SUN18G-S94N-16.87GB>
          /pci@0,0/pci1022,7450@b/pci1000,10c0@1/sd@6,0

If the format Utility Does Not Recognize a Disk ...

• Go to Chapter 12, SPARC: Adding a Disk (Tasks) or Chapter 13, x86: Adding a Disk (Tasks).

• Go to Creating a format.dat Entry.

• Go to How to Label a Disk.

• Connect the disk to the system by using your disk hardware documentation.