Encapsulation and Deencapsulation
When you think of systems communicating via a network, you can imagine the data progressing through each layer down from the application layer to the hardware layer, across the network, and then flowing back up from the hardware layer to the application layer. A header is added to each segment that is received on the way down the layers encapsulation , and a header is removed from each segment on the way up through the layers de-encapsulation . Each header contains specific address information...
The tunefs Command 1
Sets the maximum number of blocks that any single file can allocate from a cylinder group before it is forced to begin allocating blocks from another cylinder group. Typically, this value is set to approximately one quarter of the total blocks in a cylinder group. The intent is to prevent any single file from using up all the blocks in a single cylinder group. The effect of this limit is to cause big files to do long seeks more frequently than if they were allowed to allocate all the blocks in...
Using the Interactive Installation Process suninstall
After gathering the information for the installation worksheet, you are ready to begin the installation process. The following steps outline the process for installing Solaris 9 on a Sun SPARC system using the suninstall interactive installation method. With the conventional interactive installation, Solaris is installed by using the Solaris install tool, suninstall, a friendly and easy-to-use interface that will carry out a dialog for installing the operating system. The dialog will ask you...
Disk Slices
Slices Versus Partitions Solaris device names use the term slice and the letter s in the device name to refer to the slice number. Slices were called partitions in SunOS 4.x. This book attempts to use the term slice whenever possible however, certain interfaces, such as the format and prtvtoc commands, refer to slices as partitions. Sometimes a relational database uses an entire disk and requires one single raw partition. It's convenient in this circumstance to use slice 2, as it represents the...
Virtual File Systems
Virtual file systems, previously called pseudo file systems, are virtual or memory-based file systems that create duplicate paths to other disk-based file systems or provide access to special kernel information and facilities. Most virtual file systems do not use file system disk space, although a few exceptions exist. Cache file systems, for example, use a disk-based file system to contain the cache. Some virtual file systems, such as the temporary file system, might use the swap space on a...
Defect List
Disks might contain areas where data cannot be written and retrieved reliably. These areas are called defects. The controller uses the error-checking information in each disk block's trailer to determine whether a defect is present in that block. When a block is found to be defective, the controller can be instructed to add it to a defect list and avoid using that block in the future. The last two cylinders of a disk are set aside for diagnostic use and for storing the disk defect list.