1. Platform Preparation and Installation Guide
  2. Formatting the Disk Volume
  3. Formatting Procedure

Formatting Procedure

The format command requires one of the following arguments:

  • system-disk — formats and creates the 2 system partitions: /opt and /opt/crash
  • data-disk — formats and creates 1 or more data partitions with the default (/mnt/sys and /mnt/app) or user-defined volumes
  • hard-disk — formats and creates both the system partition and data partition

After the drive(s) are formatted, the system mounts the newly created partitions.

Use the format hard-disk command and argument after first system start up to fully initialize the media. The command's other arguments are applicable any other time.

Note:

The format command may only be executed if certain tasks like local CDR and HDR generation are not active. Remove any boot time configuration for these features and reboot the system before attempting to format the hard-disk. In addition, ensure that your device is not passing traffic while you format any partition.

The following example shows the format command process. 

ORACLE# format hard-disk
WARNING: Please ensure device is not currently in use by any applications before proceeding
Continue [y/n]?: y
The following system partitions will now be created:
1: /opt             8000000 bytes
2: /crash           16218284032 bytes
Create the system partitions and filesystems as configured above [y/n]?: y
******************************************************
WARNING: All system logs and data on the disk will be
permanently erased and unrecoverable.
Are you sure [y/n]?: y
The format process will take a few minutes. Once
the format process begins, it cannot be stopped.
Please do not power down or reboot the system until
the format process is complete.
Continue [y/n]?: y
Suspending logging to hard disk
Stopping tLogCleaner task
Relocating logging onto RAM drive
Initializing /opt/ Cleaner
Starting tLogCleaner task
*** Removing previous system partitions - please wait ***
*** Creating new system partitions - please wait ***
*** Formatting partition /opt. Please wait... ***
[...]
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 23 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
*** Formatting completed successfully ***
*** Formatting partition /crash. Please wait... ***
[...]
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 31 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
*** Formatting completed successfully ***
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
opt: clean, 11/1960 files, 1323/7812 blocks
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
crash: clean, 11/991232 files, 104681/3959542 blocks

This section of the format hard-drive walk-through shows the data partition creation. The following system output shows that the user has chosen to define a custom data partition scheme by typing "n" at the following prompt. 

Use factory default data partitions [y/n]?:n

In this case, the user creates three partitions. 

Suspending logging to RAM drive
Stopping tLogCleaner task
Relocating logging onto hard disk
Initializing /opt/ Cleaner
Starting tLogCleaner task
Disk space used by system:
        16226317824 bytes
Use factory default data partitions [y/n]?: n
Enter the number of data partitions to create: 3
Total unallocated space = 100 %
Enter the name of volume 1 (or 'q' to quit): VOLUME1
Enter the size of the volume (in %): 20
Total unallocated space = 80 %
Enter the name of volume 2 (or 'q' to quit): VOLUME2
Enter the size of the volume (in %): 40
Total unallocated space = 40 %
Enter the name of volume 3 (or 'q' to quit): VOLUME3
Enter the size of the volume (in %): 40
The following data partitions will now be created:
/VOLUME1  96776308838 bytes
/VOLUME2  193552617676 bytes
/VOLUME3  193552617676 bytes
Create the data partitions and filesystems as configured above [y/n]?: y
******************************************************
WARNING: All non-system data on the disk will be
permanently erased and unrecoverable.
Are you sure [y/n]?: y
The format process will take a few minutes. Once
the format process begins, it cannot be stopped.
Please do not power down or reboot the system until
the format process is complete.
Continue [y/n]?: y
*** Beginning format process ***
*** Removing previous data partitions - please wait ***
*** Creating new data partitions - please wait ***
*** Formatting partition /VOLUME1. Please wait... ***
mke2fs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
[...]
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 37 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
*** Formatting completed successfully ***
*** Formatting partition /VOLUME2. Please wait... ***
mke2fs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
[...]
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 23 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
*** Formatting completed successfully ***
*** Formatting partition /VOLUME3. Please wait... ***
mke2fs 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
[...]
Writing inode tables: done
Creating journal (32768 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done
This filesystem will be automatically checked every 31 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
*** Formatting completed successfully ***
*** Format finished successfully
New partitions have been created ***
*** Mounting partitions ***
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
VOLUME1: clean, 11/5914624 files, 418265/23626953 blocks
/VOLUME1 mounted
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
VOLUME2: clean, 11/11821056 files, 789884/47254150 blocks
/VOLUME2 mounted
e2fsck 1.41.14 (22-Dec-2010)
VOLUME3: clean, 11/11821056 files, 789884/47253628 blocks
/VOLUME3 mounted

Power cycle the system after format is complete. You can re-enable any tasks that may have conflicted with the format, including local CDR and HDR generation, after the power cycle is complete.

Note:

If you find that, after the first reboot, the system has not created new partitions, perform another reboot to resolve this issue, which is created by an incorrect dynamic partition table refresh.