Very Computer

Can someone give me more information about disk partitioning?

- Can you partition a disk without disturbing the currently installed
  system?  For example, can you combine say partition 6 and 7 if
  you don't care about losing the data there?

- Do you have to waste parition 2 as a definition of the entire
  disk?  Are there some capabilities you lose by not doing so?
  Is there another way to backup you entire disk?

- I looks like documentation describes using a different partition
  for /usr (and possibly /opt).  Maybe this prevents a pkgadd from
  using up your file system.  Are there other significant issues
  related to including /usr in / (partition 0)?

Thanks.

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Yes you can do it.

Quote:> - Do you have to waste parition 2 as a definition of the entire
>   disk?  Are there some capabilities you lose by not doing so?
>   Is there another way to backup you entire disk?

You can use slice 2 for whatever you want.
Sometimes it's useful to have a slice that covers
the whole drive, but you usually can redefine it
temporarily, use (for instance, for disk copy)
and redefine back. Data remains intact.

Quote:> - I looks like documentation describes using a different partition
>   for /usr (and possibly /opt).  Maybe this prevents a pkgadd from
>   using up your file system.  Are there other significant issues
>   related to including /usr in / (partition 0)?

None AFAIK. It's the question of taste.
I've noticed that new workstations (Ultra5 & 10)
come with preinstalled Solaris that has everything
on slice 0.

Regards,
Andrey

Quote:>Can someone give me more information about disk partitioning?

>- Can you partition a disk without disturbing the currently installed
>  system?  For example, can you combine say partition 6 and 7 if
>  you don't care about losing the data there?

Yes, with prtvtoc/fmthard if you know what you are doing and are
_really_ careful. Maybe with format too, but I've not tried that.

Quote:>- Do you have to waste parition 2 as a definition of the entire
>  disk?  Are there some capabilities you lose by not doing so?

On Solaris x86, you can use the fdisk partition device name
to get to the same thing. I don't know how you could do so
on sparc.

Quote:>  Is there another way to backup you entire disk?

I don't think it's ever used for that (unless you dd'ed the
whole disc to tape!).

Quote:>- I looks like documentation describes using a different partition
>  for /usr (and possibly /opt).  Maybe this prevents a pkgadd from
>  using up your file system.  Are there other significant issues
>  related to including /usr in / (partition 0)?

Some discussion of this can be found at:

     http://www.cucumber.demon.co.uk/solaris/filesystems.html

--
Andrew Gabriel
Consultant Software Engineer