These are the procedures used create a mirrored boot drive using the onboard RAID controller on a T5120. The same procedure can be used with any Sun system that comes with an onboard RAID controller.
First, and most important, is that the mirroring must be done prior to the OS installation. When you use the raidctl command to create or delete a RAID device all data will be wiped from the member disks. In order to do this you will need to boot the system into single user mode from a Solaris DVD or a Jumpstart server.
The most current release of Solaris, update 8 (10/09), has a problem with the format command as outlined in bug 6901327.
If you intend on installing Solaris 10_u8, you should boot from the DVD of an earlier release to create the mirror. Then perform the installation from the update 8 media.
1) Boot into single user mode from Solaris 10_u7 (or earlier) DVD or Jumpstart image.
ok> boot cdrom –s
2) Run raidctl to get information needed to create raid device.
# raidctl
Controller: 1
Disk: 0.0.0
Disk: 0.1.0
3) Use raidctl to create mirror device.
Notice that you are informed that this action will delete all data on both disks and that have to answer “yes” in order to proceed. This is why mirroring the boot disks using this method must be done prior to installing the OS.
# raidctl –C “0.0.0 0.1.0” –r 1 1
Creating RAID volume will destroy all data on spare space of member disks, proceed (yes/no)? yes
/pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0 (mpt0):
Physical disk 0 created.
/pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0 (mpt0):
Physical disk 1 created.
/pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0 (mpt0):
Volume 0 created.
/pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0 (mpt0):
Physical disk (target 1) is |out of sync||online|
/pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0 (mpt0):
Volume 0 is |enabled||degraded|
/pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0 (mpt0):
Volume 0 is |enabled||resyncing||degraded|
WARNING: /pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/sd@0,0 (sd0):
Corrupt label – bad geometry
Label says 286718976 blocks; Drive says 286607360 blocks
WARNING: /pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/sd@0,0 (sd0):
Corrupt label – bad geometry
Label says 286718976 blocks; Drive says 286607360 blocks
Volume c1t0d0 is created successfully!
Volume Size Stripe Status Cache RAID
Sub Size Level
Disk
—————————————————————-
c1t0d0 136.6G N/A SYNC OFF RAID1
0.2.0 136.6G GOOD
0.1.0 136.6G GOOD
3) Label the mirror disk.
The following step does not work under Solaris 10_u8. This is why it is suggested to use a previous update release of Solaris to perform these steps.
When you run “format” you will see error messages indicating that there is a corrupt label on the new disk drive. You will have to use the “type” subcommand to install the appropriate VTOC for the RAID disk drive. Under “type” choose “0” for auto configure, then label the disk.
# format
Searching for disks…WARNING: /pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/sd@0,0 (sd0):
Corrupt label – bad geometry
Label says 286718976 blocks; Drive says 286607360 blocks
WARNING: /pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/sd@0,0 (sd0):
Corrupt label – bad geometry
Label says 286718976 blocks; Drive says 286607360 blocks
done
c1t0d0: configured with capacity of 136.49GB
AVAILABLE DISK SELECTIONS:
0. c1t0d0 <LSILOGIC-LogicalVolume-3000 cyl 65533 alt 2 hd 16 sec 273>
/pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/sd@0,0
Specify disk (enter its number): 0
selecting c1t0d0
[disk formatted]
WARNING: /pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/sd@0,0 (sd0):
Corrupt label – bad geometry
Disk not labeled. Label it now? no
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
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> type
AVAILABLE DRIVE TYPES:
0. Auto configure
1. Quantum ProDrive 80S
2. Quantum ProDrive 105S
3. CDC Wren IV 94171-344
4. SUN0104
5. SUN0207
6. SUN0327
7. SUN0340
8. SUN0424
9. SUN0535
10. SUN0669
11. SUN1.0G
12. SUN1.05
13. SUN1.3G
14. SUN2.1G
15. SUN2.9G
16. Zip 100
17. Zip 250
18. Peerless 10GB
19. LSILOGIC-LogicalVolume-3000
20. other
Specify disk type (enter its number)[19]: 0
c1t0d0: configured with capacity of 136.49GB
<LSILOGIC-LogicalVolume-3000 cyl 65533 alt 2 hd 16 sec 273>
selecting c1t0d0
[disk formatted]
WARNING: /pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/sd@0,0 (sd0):
Corrupt label – bad geometry
Label says 286718976 blocks; Drive says 286607360 blocks
Disk not labeled. Label it now? yes
WARNING: /pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/sd@0,0 (sd0):
Corrupt label – bad geometry
Label says 286718976 blocks; Drive says 286607360 blocks
WARNING: /pci@0/pci@0/pci@2/scsi@0/sd@0,0 (sd0):
Corrupt label – bad geometry
Label says 286718976 blocks; Drive says 286607360 blocks
format> label
Ready to label disk, continue? yes
4) Now you can continue with the installation of Solaris.