How to Partition a Hard Disk on Solaris 8

Oracle's Solaris 8 is a Unix-type operating system. Unlike other Unix or Linux systems, Solaris disks are categorized in BSD Unix style. The main command-line program used to partition and format a drive is called "format." After running the command, this format utility presents a prompt and has its own set of specific commands. It can format, partition, repair and verify a Solaris 8 hard disk.

• 1

  Open a terminal window and type "su" to temporarily log in as the root user.

• 2

  Type "format" to run the utility.

• 3

  Type the number for the drive you want to partition. Drives are listed in the order installed. The newest drive has the highest number.

• 4

  Type "fdisk" and then "y" to create a Solaris partition.

• 5

  Type "partition" to modify the slices on the drive. Solaris treats partitions as separate hard drives. The default action is to create one large partition on the drive, which is then further divided into slices. To partition the drive in two, divide the space into two slices.

• 6

  Type "print" to see a list of slices.

• 7

  Type "0" to modify the first slice. Slice 2 and 8 are reserved for the system, you can also type 0, 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 9. All 10 slices are always listed, even if you assign all the space to one slice.

• 8

  Type a partition ID tag or press "Enter" to use the default.

• 9

  Enter the partition permission flags, or press "Enter" to use the default.

• 10

  Press "Enter" to accept the default starting cylinder.

• 11

  Type the size you want to assign to the slice in megabytes or gigabytes. For example, type 10.00GB to assign 10 gigabytes to the slice. Repeat steps 7 to 11 to create additional slices.

• 12

  Type "label" to save the changes made to the disk.

• 13

  Type "quit" to exit the format.

• 14

  Type the following command to add a file system to each slice:

  newfs /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0s0

  Replace "c0t1d0s0" with the identifier of your disk and slice. The "c0" portion refers to the controller you installed the drive on, they start in order from 0. The "t1" portion is the "target-id" that you assigned when you installed the drive. If a technician installed it, ask them the assigned target-id. The "d0" portion is also assigned when the drive is installed. The "s0" portion corresponds to the slice number entered in the format utility.

• 15

  Press "y" to confirm file system construction. The slice is now ready for use. Repeat steps 14 and 15 for each slice you assign space to in the format utility.