Installing a System With an EFI-Labeled Disk

The Solaris installation utilities automatically recognize disks with EFI labels, but cannot use the Solaris installation utilities to repartition these disks. You must use the format utility to repartition this disk before or after installation. The Solaris Upgrade and Live Upgrade utilities also recognize a disk with an EFI label. However, you cannot boot a system from an EFI-labeled disk.

After the Solaris release is installed on a system with an EFI-labeled disk, the partition table looks similar to the following:

Current partition table (original):
Total disk sectors available: 2576924638 + 16384 (reserved sectors)

Part      Tag    Flag     First Sector          Size          Last Sector
  0       root    wm                34         1.20TB           2576924636
  1 unassigned    wm                 0            0                0    
  2 unassigned    wm                 0            0                0    
  3 unassigned    wm                 0            0                0    
  4 unassigned    wm                 0            0                0    
  5 unassigned    wm                 0            0                0    
  6 unassigned    wm                 0            0                0    
  8   reserved    wm        2576924638         8.00MB           2576941021   

Managing Disks With EFI Disks Labels

Use the following table to locate information on managing disks with EFI disk labels.

Cloning a Disk with an EFI Label

In previous Solaris releases, slice 2 (s2) was used to represent the whole disk. You could use the dd command to clone or copy disks by using syntax similar to the following:

dd if=/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2 of=/dev/rdsk/c0t2d0s2 bs=128k

Now, you must use a slightly different procedure to clone or copy disks larger than 1 terabyte so that the UUID of cloned disks are unique. For example:

1. Use the dd command to clone the disk with an EFI label:

   # dd if=/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0 of=/dev/rdsk/c0t2d0 bs=128k

   
   

2. Pipe the prtvtoc output of the disk to be copied to the fmthard command to create a new label for the cloned disk.

   # prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0 | fmthard -s - /dev/rdsk/c0t2d0

   
   

Caution - If you do not create a new label for the cloned disk, other software products might corrupt data on EFI-labeled disks if they encounter duplicate UUIDs.

Troubleshooting Problems With EFI Disk Labels

Use the following error messages and solutions to troubleshooting problems with EFI-labeled disks.

Error Message

The capacity of this LUN is too large. Reconfigure this LUN so that it is < 2TB.

Cause

You attempted to create a partition on a SCSI device that is larger than 2 terabytes.

Solution

Create a partition on a SCSI device that is less than 2 terabytes.

Error Message

Dec 3 09:26:48 holoship scsi: WARNING: /sbus@a,0/SUNW,socal@d,10000/ sf@1,0/ssd@w50020f23000002a4,0 (ssd1): Dec 3 09:26:48 holoship disk has 2576941056 blocks, which is too large for a 32-bit kernel

Cause

You attempted to boot a system running a 32-bit SPARC kernel with a disk greater than 1 terabyte.

Solution

Boot a system running a 64-bit SPARC kernel with a disk greater than 1 terabyte.

Error Message

Dec 3 09:12:17 holoship scsi: WARNING: /sbus@a,0/SUNW,socal@d,10000/ sf@1,0/ssd@w50020f23000002a4,0 (ssd1): Dec 3 09:12:17 holoship corrupt label - wrong magic number

Cause

You attempted to add this disk to a system running an older Solaris release.

Solution

Add this disk to a system running the Solaris release that supports the EFI disk label.

What's New in Disk Management in the Solaris 9 Release?

This section describes new disk management features in the Solaris 9 release.

Solaris Volume Manager and Soft Partitioning

The previously unbundled Solstice DiskSuite™ product is now part of the Solaris 9 release and is called Solaris Volume Manager. Solaris Volume Manager's new partitioning feature, soft partitioning, enables more than eight partitions per disk.

For general information about Solaris Volume Manager, see "Storage Management Concepts" in Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide. For information on soft partitioning, see "Soft Partitions (Overview)" in Solaris Volume Manager Administration Guide.

Where to Find Disk Management Tasks

Use these references to find step-by-step instructions for managing disks.

Overview of Disk Management

The management of disks in the Solaris environment usually involves setting up the system and running the Solaris installation program to create the appropriate disk slices and file systems and to install the operating system. Occasionally, you might need to use the format utility to add a new disk drive or replace a defective one.

Note - The Solaris operating system runs on two types of hardware, or platforms--SPARC and x86. The Solaris operating system runs on both 64-bit and 32-bit address spaces. The information in this document pertains to both platforms and address spaces unless called out in a special chapter, section, note, bullet, figure, table, example, or code example.

Disk Terminology

Before you can effectively use the information in this section, you should be familiar with basic disk architecture. In particular, you should be familiar with the following terms:

For additional information, see the product information from your disk's manufacturer.

About Disk Slices

Files stored on a disk are contained in file systems. Each file system on a disk is assigned to a slice, which is a group of sectors set aside for use by that file system. Each disk slice appears to the operating system (and to the system administrator) as though it were a separate disk drive.

For information about file systems, see Chapter 38, Managing File Systems (Overview).

Note - Slices are sometimes referred to as partitions. This book uses slice but certain interfaces, such as the format utility, refer to slices as partitions.

When setting up slices, remember these rules:

• Each disk slice holds only one file system.

• No file system can span multiple slices.

Slices are set up slightly differently on SPARC and x86 platforms. The following table summarizes the differences.

Table 32-1 Slice Differences on Platforms