How to create new partitions in solaris,from the raw disk?

Hi all,

I would like to know how to make new partitions....
I currently have allocated 60G for various slices (I have totally used 4 out of 7 available slices...

I am running only solaris on my box.
My plan is to have entire disk dedicated to solaris and run other OS from within solaris(virtualbox)....if the need ever arises,that is!!!

This is the first time and attempting this ,so could you please help me out

Thanks

it's not clear what you want to do with your disk? but for make new partitions you need "format". but if your disk is full, you need a new disk... so, a little more info will be usefull!

if you've used up all 60GB then what's the remaining.? u using a 73GB disk? at the most u can assign another 8GB of space to another partition. 6 and 7 umight not be using since no space left.
Yes u will use format utility to specify ur cylinder size

Oh, i regret my mistake...

I have a 250G Hd,
i had windows installed which occupied some 10G, but i dont have it anymore...
Earlier i had installed solaris and i thought i might use windows, so only allocated 60G for it...
But now i feel i can run windows on Virtualbox , so i am planning on formatting the remaining part of my HD and use it for solaris itself....

Could you now tell me how i need to go about it....

PS:windows is no more existing on my system, id rather have it on Vbox

then no issues,
just continue to create slice 4 5 6 and 7 , resize the partiton as needed. since u have not instALLED THE OS YET, u can re-format the whole drive (starting from cylinder 0 onwards), and so on.
eg
Part tag flag cylinders size
0 root wm 0 - 12 129.19MB
1 swap wu 13 - 25 129.19MB
2 backup wu 0 - 14086 136.71GB
3 unassigned wm 0 0
4 unassigned wm 0 0
5 unassigned wm 0 0
6 usr wm 26 - 14086 136.36GB
7 unassigned wm 0 0

The drive is already formatted. Just change the partitions using the format command -> par -> select slice -> label the disk and you are done.
Remember - partition 2 is the whole disk, don't change this partition!!

Incredible, please read the rules. Use full sentences and correctly spelled words when posting.

Just to be on the safer side, i have pasted my partition table, pls have a look at it and tell me how i need to proceed.....I dont want to screw up my system as i have data that will be too costly for me,if i lose it and its too huge for a backup!!!!

Part      Tag    Flag     Cylinders        Size            Blocks
  0       root    wm       3 - 3190       24.42GB    (3188/0/0)  51215220
  1       home    wm    3191 - 4465        9.77GB    (1275/0/0)  20482875
  2     backup    wm       0 - 7646       58.58GB    (7647/0/0) 122849055
  3 unassigned    wm    4466 - 5740        9.77GB    (1275/0/0)  20482875
  4       swap    wu    5741 - 5995        1.95GB    (255/0/0)    4096575
  5 unassigned    wm    5996 - 7640       12.60GB    (1645/0/0)  26426925
  6 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)            0
  7 unassigned    wm       0               0         (0/0/0)            0
  8       boot    wu       0 -    0        7.84MB    (1/0/0)        16065
  9 alternates    wu       1 -    2       15.69MB    (2/0/0)        32130

Pls backup ur data 1st. Its a must. Then we will go abt re-partitioning.

Ok,
So the backup is done...I went ahead bought loads of dvds and its done now...
can we proceed!!!

Im confused again. By looking at the partition table, only 58G is available but you said you're using a 250G disk :confused: And your root slice cylinder starts at 3 instead od 0 ? why?:frowning:

it's solaris x86, so the bootblk and grub(?) is on slice 9 with cylinder 1-2. so root starts at cylinder 3...

Im confused again. By looking at the partition table, only 58G is available but you said you're using a 250G disk  And your root slice cylinder starts at 3 instead od 0 ? why?
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That is correct...
I have a 250G hard disk ,not a 250g partition for solaris...
Out of this 250g , i have 60g for solaris the rest is unaccounted for, or should i say unformatted!!!!
This is the reason why its showing 58G and i guess you got the ans for your confusion from the previous post itself...

PS:i am no expert in formatting the disk in solaris, so i have little idea thats all...
I need assistance!

Thanks

Hi Wrapster, abit of prob here. I have ot done this before except for performing "growfs" , that is u can grow the filesystem size using SVM. But in your case, you might need to re-format your disk(meaning all your data will be lost). your disk is labelled as 60GB already. If you wanna to utilise the full space, you will need to do repartitioning from the beginning. No shortcut I guess.

It looks like you are working with a 60 GB fdisk partition.

Post the output of fidisk -g and fdisk -G for the drive.

Hmm, i am unable to fdisk -g or -G my disk!!!!
By this i assume you meant fdisk on the root...
But it says "this particular device is not a raw disk"

I guess when i find time i will go in for a full fledged re-installation itself!!!!

You should have a device corresponding to the full root disk, not the fdisk partition in it. I don't have a machine to hand to check the device name format, but will post back in a couple of hours.

thanks a lot....
Really appreciate your concern!!!
I shall be waiting
:b:

ok, you should have a device with almost the same name as you root disk, but ending in p0. eg c0t0d0p0 or maybe c0t0p0 (if you have an IDE drive), thats the one you want.

In my case I only have one partition on the disk using the whole disk

             Total disk size is 8924 cylinders
             Cylinder size is 16065 (512 byte) blocks

                                               Cylinders
      Partition   Status    Type          Start   End   Length    %
      =========   ======    ============  =====   ===   ======   ===
          1       Active    Solaris2          1  8924    8924    100





SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING:
   1. Create a partition
   2. Specify the active partition
   3. Delete a partition
   4. Change between Solaris and Solaris2 Partition IDs
   5. Exit (update disk configuration and exit)
   6. Cancel (exit without updating disk configuration)
Enter Selection: 

Type 1 to create a partition
Choose Solaris2 as the partition type
Then specify what % of the disk you want to use
Select 5 to write the changes to the disk

It is probably best to reboot the system after this to ensure that the disk state is saved and stable.

After reboot:

devfsadm -v

Then you can use format to create one ore more new slices.
Then newfs the slices and you should be ready to mount and use them.

Hi Reborg, how did you see this menu in solaris? I've never seen it before. What command yields tis?

This is the fdisk interactive menu. You display it simply with a command like:

fdisk /dev/rdsk/c0d0p0

Adjust c0d0p0 to your device.