How to Identify if a Solaris[TM] Operating Environment is Installed on a Hardware RAID Controller

Asset ID:	1-71-1017961.1
Update Date:	2018-03-26
Keywords:

Solution Type Technical Instruction Sure

Solution 1017961.1 : How to Identify if a Solaris[TM] Operating Environment is Installed on a Hardware RAID Controller

Applies to:

Sun Fire X2100 M2 Server - Version Not Applicable to Not Applicable [Release N/A]
Sun Fire X2100 Server - Version Not Applicable to Not Applicable [Release N/A]
Sun Fire X2200 M2 Server - Version Not Applicable to Not Applicable [Release N/A]
Sun Fire X4100 M2 Server - Version Not Applicable to Not Applicable [Release N/A]
Sun Fire X4100 Server - Version Not Applicable to Not Applicable [Release N/A]
All Platforms
***Checked for relevance on 16-Nov-2012***

Goal

Symptoms:

Identify installation configuration.

Purpose/Scope:

This document describes how to identify if a Solaris[TM] operating environment is installed under the control of a platforms hardware RAID management device for it's onboard disks.

This document discusses the LSI 1020, LSI 1030, LSI SAS 1064, LSI SAS 1068, LSI SAS 1078 and Adaptec/Intel STK controllers in H/W RAID or JBOD mode.

It is beyond the scope of this document to cover the SoC based 6Gb SAS controllers or external disk arrays.

More platforms other than those listed may have a PCI card containing one of the covered RAID devices, however these platforms do not support an installation of Solaris on the internal disks whilst under the control of the RAID device.

To discuss this information further with Oracle experts and industry peers, we encourage you to review, join or start a discussion in the My Oracle Support Community - Sun x86 Systems

Solution

Steps to Follow:

Always perform disk management commands as the root user.

IDENTIFY THE ROOT FILESYSTEM DISK DEVICE:

Use the Solaris df command to identify the Solaris root filesystem disk device (the system disk that contains the operating system root filesystem):

# df /
/ (/dev/dsk/c1t0d0s0 ):132034832 blocks 8243082 files

In this example, the root filesystem resides on /dev/dsk/c1t0d0s0. Dropping the 's0' partition slice information will leave us with the disk device name: /dev/dsk/c1t0d0, which can be further abbreviated to just c1t0d0 .

( For more detailed information on Solaris disk device naming, refer to Logical Disk device Naming in the System Administration Guide: Basic Administration )

The Solaris format / inquiry command can be used to display the properties of the system disk that will help determine whether the disk is under hardware RAID management control.

NOT UNDER THE CONTROL OF HARDWARE RAID MANAGEMENT:

Run the Solaris format command specifying the disk device name you identified in the previous step (this example uses c1t0d0, however this will be different from system to system):

# format c1t0d0
     selecting c1t0d0
     [disk formatted]

     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
             !     - execute , then return
             quit
     format> inquiry
     Vendor:   SEAGATE
     Product: ST914602SSUN146G
     Revision: 0400

The Vendor and Product properties reveal the disk drive manufacturer is "SEAGATE" and drive model is "ST914602SSUN146G". This is a physical disk, not a RAID volume.

UNDER THE CONTROL OF HARDWARE RAID MANAGEMENT:

     format> inquiry
     Vendor:   LSILOGIC
     Product: Logical Volume
     Revision: 3000
     format>

Above, the disk properties identify this disk device as being a Logical (RAID) volume on an LSI controller.

     format> inquiry
     Vendor:   Sun
     Product: STK RAID INT
     Revision: V1.0
     format>

This last example shows the disk is a RAID Volume on a Sun StorageTek INT RAID controller.

For information on how to check the status of a hardware RAID volume, please see:

How to Identify BIOS and Solaris[TM] Hardware RAID Status (Doc ID 1013107.1)

Previously Published As 91489

Attachments

This solution has no attachment