A couple of disk label SMI (VTOC) / EFI questions.
Dave
Solaris 10 on SPARC.
1) How do I determine if a disk has a SMI (VTOC) label (therefore
suitable for ZFS boot) or EFI label?
I thought 'format' would show me this, but if it does, I can't see where
to find it.
2) If it does have a EFI label, how can I convert it to a SMI (VTOC)
label, so it could be used as ZFS boot?
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Chris Ridd
> A couple of questions I hope someone can help me with, with regard to
> Solaris 10 on SPARC.
>
> 1) How do I determine if a disk has a SMI (VTOC) label (therefore
> suitable for ZFS boot) or EFI label?
>
> I thought 'format' would show me this, but if it does, I can't see
> where to find it.
You can infer it (which seems a bit naff) from the partition table
output style. SMI labelled disks show you cylinders/size/blocks, EFI
labelled disks show you first sector/size/last sector.
> 2) If it does have a EFI label, how can I convert it to a SMI (VTOC)
> label, so it could be used as ZFS boot?
You run format with the -e option, and then if memory serves labelling
will give you the option of SMI/EFI.
--
Chris
Nomen Publicus
> A couple of questions I hope someone can help me with, with regard to
> Solaris 10 on SPARC.
>
> 1) How do I determine if a disk has a SMI (VTOC) label (therefore
> suitable for ZFS boot) or EFI label?
>
> I thought 'format' would show me this, but if it does, I can't see where
> to find it.
>
> 2) If it does have a EFI label, how can I convert it to a SMI (VTOC)
> label, so it could be used as ZFS boot?
>
format -e
is probably what you want (definitely for part 2.) but read the man page
first :-)
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Dave
> On 2009-07-03 14:12:34 +0100, Dave <f...@coo.com> said:
>
>> A couple of questions I hope someone can help me with, with regard to
>> Solaris 10 on SPARC.
>>
>> 1) How do I determine if a disk has a SMI (VTOC) label (therefore
>> suitable for ZFS boot) or EFI label?
>>
>> I thought 'format' would show me this, but if it does, I can't see
>> where to find it.
>
> You can infer it (which seems a bit naff) from the partition table
> output style. SMI labelled disks show you cylinders/size/blocks, EFI
> labelled disks show you first sector/size/last sector.
Thank you. I would agree, it is a bit naff if there is no more obvious
way of finding out.
In which case I have an SMI label, which is what I want for ZFS boot.
partition> print
Current partition table (original):
Total disk cylinders available: 14087 + 2 (reserved cylinders)
Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks
0 root wm 1409 - 2606 11.63GB (1198/0/0) 24381696
1 swap wu 0 - 1408 13.67GB (1409/0/0) 28675968
2 backup wm 0 - 14086 136.71GB (14087/0/0) 286698624
3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0
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 home wm 2607 - 5825 31.24GB (3219/0/0) 65513088
>
>> 2) If it does have a EFI label, how can I convert it to a SMI (VTOC)
>> label, so it could be used as ZFS boot?
>
> You run format with the -e option, and then if memory serves labelling
> will give you the option of SMI/EFI.
Yes, your memory does serve you right
format> label
[0] SMI Label
[1] EFI Label
Specify Label type[0]:
The default bing SMI, (or my disk at least).
But there is no need for me to relabel this.
I had the seen options of SMI/EFI in some onine doc
http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/content/submitted/format_utility.jsp
but I'd overlooked the fact the author did state the -e option was
needed. My fault, not his.
Thank you for your help.