How to use FORMAT and PARTITION command on Solaris 9

I am seeking advice from experts in this forum. Please help me.

I have tow disks on Sun Sparc box. Disk one has been installed Solaris 9 system. The disk two has been partitioned as one disk with 140 GB on the partition /dev/dsk/c1t1d0s6. Right now, I want to modify it as two partitions. I have typed ' man format' to read the description. But I am still not sure about these synopsises. I like to partition disk two as two partitions. one will be using the same partition as /dev/dsk/c1t1d0s6 with about 90 GB. another partition will be /dev/dsk/c1t1d0s5 with about 50 GB. Could you please help me on necessary steps using FORMAT or PARTITION commands with options. I will appreciated your kindness very much. The current partitioned table layout like this:

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

you can use the format command to format a drive.... for example: format /dev/rdsk/c0t5d0s2

You can use partition in the format menu to partition your disk...

Regards,
Johan Louwers.

The drive is already formatted. Just change the partitions using the format command -> par -> select slice -> label the disk and you are done.

Thanks. I have done with these steps.

1. umount current filesystem.
2. use format / partition / modify to re-partition 2nd disk into 2 partitions. One is 36GB and another one is 100GB.
3. re-create filesystem on each of partition and mount them. Done!!

Hey,

you're sure you take partition number 2 or partition 2 (number 1)?
Remember - partition 2 is the whole disk, don't change this partition!!

Changing partitions is easy:
format -> partition -> number of partition
set new values
when ready take a look with print partition table,
the label the disk.
After quit the format program, construct new filesystems
on your new partitions and mount them. Don't forget the /etc/vfstab

CU
lowbyte

lowbyte:

Thanks for your help. I worked on 2nd disk (I also have 1st disk with partition) to modify original partition as two partitions. One is named as /dev/dsk/c1t1d0s6 and another one as /dev/dsk/c1t1d0s7. Then I check the cylinders and label the partition. Then I rebuilt FS and mount them.

I am finding difficulty in creating and allocating correct size to File Systems on solarix x86 box. Please see below contents I followed on screen and in the end It shows that /app file system is created of size 135GB , I wanted it to be 30gb as mentioned during 'format' command in 'Enter Partitiion size' :

root@unknown # df -k
Filesystem kbytes used avail capacity Mounted on
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 15496821 7472292 7869561 49% /
/devices 0 0 0 0% /devices
ctfs 0 0 0 0% /system/contract
proc 0 0 0 0% /proc
mnttab 0 0 0 0% /etc/mnttab
swap 17574616 808 17573808 1% /etc/svc/volatile
objfs 0 0 0 0% /system/object
/usr/lib/libc/libc_hwcap2.so.1
15496821 7472292 7869561 49% /lib/libc.so.1
fd 0 0 0 0% /dev/fd
swap 17573844 36 17573808 1% /tmp
swap 17573840 32 17573808 1% /var/run
root@unknown # format
Searching for disks...done

AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c0t0d0 <DEFAULT cyl 17832 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
/pci@0,0/pci1022,7450@2/pci1000,3060@3/sd@0,0

1. c0t2d0 <DEFAULT cyl 17846 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
   /pci@0,0/pci1022,7450@2/pci1000,3060@3/sd@2,0
2. c0t3d0 <DEFAULT cyl 17845 alt 2 hd 255 sec 63>
   /pci@0,0/pci1022,7450@2/pci1000,3060@3/sd@3,0
   Specify disk (enter its number): 0
   selecting c0t0d0
   [disk formatted]
   Warning: Current Disk has mounted partitions.
   /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s0 is currently mounted on /. Please see umount(1M).
   /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s1 is currently used by swap. Please see swap(1M).

FORMAT MENU:
disk - select a disk
type - select (define) a disk type
partition - select (define) a partition table
current - describe the current disk
format - format and analyze the disk
fdisk - run the fdisk program
repair - repair a defective sector
label - write label to the disk
analyze - surface analysis
defect - defect list management
backup - search for backup labels
verify - read and display labels
save - save new disk/partition definitions
inquiry - show vendor, product and revision
volname - set 8-character volume name
!<cmd> - execute <cmd>, then return
quit
format> p

PARTITION MENU:
0 - change `0' partition
1 - change `1' partition
2 - change `2' partition
3 - change `3' partition
4 - change `4' partition
5 - change `5' partition
6 - change `6' partition
7 - change `7' partition
select - select a predefined table
modify - modify a predefined partition table
name - name the current table
print - display the current table
label - write partition map and label to the disk
!<cmd> - execute <cmd>, then return
quit
partition> p
Current partition table (original):
Total disk cylinders available: 17832 + 2 (reserved cylinders)

Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks
0 root wm 524 - 2482 15.01GB (1959/0/0) 31471335
1 swap wu 1 - 523 4.01GB (523/0/0) 8401995
2 backup wm 0 - 17831 136.60GB (17832/0/0) 286471080
3 unassigned wm 2483 - 4441 15.01GB (1959/0/0) 31471335
4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
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 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0

partition> 3
Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks
3 unassigned wm 2483 - 4441 15.01GB (1959/0/0) 31471335

Enter partition id tag[unassigned]: usr
Enter partition permission flags[wm]:
Enter new starting cyl[2483]: 2483
Enter partition size[31471335b, 1959c, 4441e, 15366.86mb, 15.01gb]: 30gb

partition> p
Current partition table (unnamed):
Total disk cylinders available: 17832 + 2 (reserved cylinders)

Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks
0 root wm 524 - 2482 15.01GB (1959/0/0) 31471335
1 swap wu 1 - 523 4.01GB (523/0/0) 8401995
2 backup wm 0 - 17831 136.60GB (17832/0/0) 286471080
3 usr wm 2483 - 6399 30.01GB (3917/0/0) 62926605
4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
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 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
partition> label
Ready to label disk, continue? y
partition>q

root@unknown # newfs /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2
newfs: construct a new file system /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2: (y/n)? y
Warning: 5208 sector(s) in last cylinder unallocated
/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2: 286471080 sectors in 46627 cylinders of 48 tracks, 128 sectors
139878.5MB in 2915 cyl groups (16 c/g, 48.00MB/g, 5824 i/g)
super-block backups (for fsck -F ufs -o b=#) at:
32, 98464, 196896, 295328, 393760, 492192, 590624, 689056, 787488, 885920,
Initializing cylinder groups:
..........................................................
super-block backups for last 10 cylinder groups at:
285576352, 285674784, 285773216, 285871648, 285970080, 286068512, 286166944,
286265376, 286363808, 286462240
root@unknown # mount /dev/dsk/c0t0d0s2 /app
root@unknown # df -k /app
Filesystem kbytes used avail capacity Mounted on
/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s2 141066718 65553 139590498 1% /app
root@unknown #

Please advice, what is wrong I am doing above?

Wrong partition

/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2 is the partition labeled "backup" with a size of 136Gb

/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s3 is the partition labeled "usr" with a size of 30 GB

Thanks a lot - Its resolved now Please help me in knowing few basic questions.

1) How to create more than 7 partitions?
2) Slice 9 seems to be unassigned. But I am not able to allocate 9 - It says '9' is not expected as shown below:

Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks
0 root wm 524 - 2482 15.01GB (1959/0/0) 31471335
1 swap wu 1 - 523 4.01GB (523/0/0) 8401995
2 backup wm 0 - 17831 136.60GB (17832/0/0) 286471080
3 usr wm 2484 - 6400 30.01GB (3917/0/0) 62926605
4 usr wm 2485 - 3790 10.00GB (1306/0/0) 20980890
5 usr wm 2486 - 5096 20.00GB (2611/0/0) 41945715
6 usr wm 2487 - 5097 20.00GB (2611/0/0) 41945715
7 usr wm 2488 - 5098 20.00GB (2611/0/0) 41945715
8 boot wu 0 - 0 7.84MB (1/0/0) 16065
9 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0

partition> 9
`9' is not expected.

3) How to give different names in 'Tag'?
4) How to know actually, How much size can be distributed among user defined partitions?
5) On solaris, How do we actually verify IF mirroring is in place?