Preface

File System Administration contains conceptual descriptions and procedures for administering files and file systems, backing up and restoring file systems, adding swap space, managing disk use, and troubleshooting in the SunOS^(TM) operating system.

Some Words About Task Orientation

This book contains clear, easy-to-follow steps for each task you need to perform to set up and administer file systems, add additional swap space, and manage disk use. Each set of steps is usually followed by an example that shows you what to type for each step in the example, and the resulting messages, if any, that the system displays.

Descriptions of the underlying concepts of file systems and backup strategies appear in separate chapters. Understanding how these services work can help you troubleshoot problems. If you are familiar with file system concepts and have planned your backup strategy, you can turn directly to the chapters that describe administrative procedures.

Who Should Use This Book

This book is written for system administrators who have a basic working knowledge of SunOS system software, and who are familiar with windowing environments and mouse- and menu-driven applications.

Other Books You Need to Use

• If you need to add a disk, see Peripherals Administration.
• If you need to format or partition disks, see Peripherals Administration.
• If you need information about security, see Security, Performance, and Accounting Administration.
• If you need to set up printers or mail, or administer users and groups, see User Accounts, Printers, and Mail Administration.
• If you need detailed information about using Administration Tool, see the Administration Application Reference Manual.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized into 4 parts, 12 chapters, and 2 appendixes.

Part 1 - "Administering File Systems"

Chapter 1, "Planning File Systems," explains the types of file systems, describes the default SunOS 5.x file system, disk device names and the UFS file system. It also provides information for planning UFS file systems and for making file systems available.

Chapter 2, "Creating File Systems," provides steps to create UFS file systems on a disk partition, file systems on a diskette, temporary file systems, and loopback file systems.

Chapter 3, "Mounting and Unmounting File Systems," provides steps to find out which file systems are mounted, to create entries in the file system table, to mount and unmount file systems, and to make file systems available for NFS mounting from a server.

Chapter 4, "Copying UFS Files and File Systems," provides steps for copying files and file systems onto removable media such as tapes or diskettes, or onto other systems.

Chapter 5, "The Cache File System," describes how to create and maintain cached file systems.

Part 2 - "Backup and Restore"

Chapter 6, "Planning a Backup Strategy," describes why you need a back up strategy, explains the ufsdump command and how it works, and describes how to choose which file systems to back up, which media to use, and how to plan a backup schedule.

Chapter 7, "Backing Up Files and File Systems," provides steps for using the ufsdump command to backup files and file systems.

Chapter 8, "Restoring Files and File Systems," provides steps for using the ufsrestore command to restore files and file systems.

Part 3 - "Configuring Swap Space and Managing Disk Use"

Chapter 9, "Configuring Additional Swap Space," tells you how to add additional swap space without reconfiguring a disk.

Chapter 10, "Managing Disk Use," explains how to monitor disk use, manage disk quotas, and monitor and remove large files. It also provides a checklist of what to do if a disk fails.

Part 4 - "Troubleshooting"

Chapter 11, "Recognizing File Access Problems," explains how to recognize and repair common problems users encounter when trying to access files.

Chapter 12, "Checking File System Integrity," explains the fsck file system check program and how to use it.

Appendix A, "File System Reference," explains the directory and file structure of the default SunOS file system, the structure of UFS file system disk cylinders, and the options you can use for the newfs command if you choose not to use the default values.

Appendix B, "Bibliography," provides a list of published books on system administration that you can use to supplement the information in the system administration documentation set.

Glossary is a list of words and phrases found in this book, and their definitions.

Related Books

For information about basic operating system commands and shells, see the Solaris Advanced User's Guide.

These books in the system administration documentation set contain information related to the tasks described in this book. Cross-references in the text refer you to the appropriate book.

• TCP/IP Network Administration Guide
• Name Services Administration Guide
• NFS Administration Guide
• Peripherals Administration
• User Accounts, Printers, and Mail Administration
• Security, Performance, and Accounting Administration

What Typographic Changes and Symbols Mean

Table P-1 describes the typographic conventions used in this book.

Table P-1

Typeface or Symbol	Meaning	Example
AaBbCc123	The names of commands, files, and directories; on-screen computer output	Edit your .login file. Use ls -a to list all files. system% You have mail
AaBbCc123	What you type, contrasted with on-screen computer output	system% su password:
AaBbCc123	Command-line "placeholder" (variable): replace with a real name or value	To delete a file, type rm filename.
AaBbCc123	Book titles, new words or terms, or words to be emphasized	Read Chapter 6 in User's Guide. These are called class options. You must be root to do this.
%	UNIX C shell prompt	system%
$	UNIX Bourne or Korn shell prompt	$
#	Superuser prompt, Bourne or Korn shell	#
#	Superuser prompt, C shell	system#

For steps, press Return only when instructed to do so, even if the text breaks at the end of the line, as shown in this example:

1. Type pmadm -a -p tcp -s lpd -i root -m 'nlsadmin -o
  /var/spool/lp/fifos/listenBSD -A '\xuniversal-address'' -v
  'nlsadmin -V' and press Return.

Examples in code boxes that have a backslash (\) at the end of a line are continued onto the next line. The backslash is not part of the example. If the line is an example of what to type, press Return at the end of a line that does not end with a backslash.

# pmadm -a -p tcp -s lpd -i root -m 'nlsadmin -o \ /var/spool/lp/fifos/listenBSD -A \ '\x000202038194180e0000000000000000'' -v 'nlsadmin -V'

When following steps or using examples, be sure to type double-quotes ("), left single-quotes (`), and right single-quotes (') exactly as shown.

Because we assume that the root path will include the /sbin, /usr/sbin, /usr/bin, and /etc directories, the steps show the commands in these directories without absolute path names. Steps that use commands in other, less common, directories show the absolute path in the example.

The examples in this book are for a basic SunOS 5.x software installation without the Binary Compatibility Package installed and without /usr/ucb in the path.

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Caution - If /usr/ucb is included in a search path, it should always be at the end. Commands like ps or df are duplicated in /usr/ucb with different formats and options from the SunOS 5.x commands.

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Because the Solaris system software provides the Bourne (default), Korn, and C shells, examples in this book show prompts for each of the shells. The C shell prompt is system-name%. The Bourne and Korn shell prompt is $. The root prompt for all shells is shown by a pound sign (#). In examples that affect more than one system, the C shell prompt (which shows the system name) is used to make it clearer when you change from one system to another.