Summary

This chapter examined device and disk management. You started by looking at managing system devices. Listing system devices can be done with the prtconf, sysdef, and dmesg commands.

If you want to add a device, it's important to ensure that the device will work with Solaris. A big part of this is making sure there's a Solaris driver for that particular device. Also, Solaris supports dynamic reconfiguration and hot plugging. If you intend to use hot-plug devices, make sure the devices you purchase support it as well.

Devices can be accessed by one of three types of names: the physical name, the logical name, or the instance name. Most Solaris utilities require one of the three forms in order to function properly. There are two types of logical disk names: raw and block.

The disk management section started by defining some critical hard disk terms, such as cylinder, track, and section. You also looked at the physical structure of a hard disk.

Before you can store data on a disk, you must partition and format the disk. This is done with the format command. The format command has many options, including the ability to analyze and repair some physical disk problems.

After reviewing the physical and logical components of hard disks, you finished the chapter by walking through the steps necessary to add a new disk to your system.