Editing Solaris 10 System Administration Part I (section)

===== Solaris OS partition tables =====

VTOC define slices that Solaris OS will use on a disk. use partition menu in format utility to view, modify, & save partition tables (VTOC)

* SPARC systems read VTOC from 1st sector of disk
* x86/x64 systems read VTOC from 2nd sector of Solaris fdisk partition

partition menu in format utility describes writing the VTOC as labeling the disk. Labeling means saving slice info into VTOC. Failure to label disk or Solaris fdisk partition after making changes the slice info changes will be lost

format utility works with /etc/format.dat file which is read when format utility is run

/etc/format.dat file is a table of available disk types & a set of predefined partition tables that can be used to partition a disk quickly

partition menu uses term partition exclusively instead of slice so the term partition & slice are identical

<insert image to show relationship between VTOC, memory, & /etc/format.dat>

save function in format utility
* writes partition table info into ./format.dat by default
* to save to /etc/format.dat specify absolute path or run format utility within /etc directory & accept default file name
* by default Solaris OS format.dat file exists in /etc directory