Explanation:
Highlight of important Concepts:
1. The Solaris 8 Operating Environment implements four disk-based file systems:
UFS - The UNIX file system (default), based on the traditional BSD file system HSFS - The High Sierra and ISO 9660 file system (read-only) used with CD-ROMs PCFS - The PC file system, which allows read and write access to DOS-formatted disks UDF - Universal Disk Format file system, an optical media standard for DVD, CD-ROM, disks, and diskettes (new in Solaris 8)
SWAPFS, though it utilizes disk, is considered a virtual file system type. 2. 'mountall -l' will mount all local file systems. mountall refers to the /etc/vfstab file systems and mounts all file systems with the automnt(mount at boot) field set to "yes". 'umountall -l' unmounts all local file systems.
3. When the system boots, the 'fsck' (file system check and repair program) checks file systems using the "preen" mode (option '-o p'). The preen mode automatically corrects minor file system inconsistencies that are known to be safely repaired without system administrator intervention, such as:
- unreferenced inodes
- incorrect counts in superblocks
- missing blocks in the free list
Preen mode allows file systems to be checked in parallel and non-interactively, exiting if fsck encounters problems requiring intervention.
4. The 'tunefs' command can be used to tune file system parameters for an existing UFS file system. Usage: tunefs [ options ] file_system
Common options:
-m minfree (Specify minimum free space, the percentage of space that is held back from normal users when the file system is near full.)
-d rotational_delay (Specify the rotational delay, the expected time in milliseconds that it takes the CPU between completing one data transfer and starting the next on the same disk. Used to optimize disk transfer rates by deciding how much rotational spacing to place between successive file blocks.)
5. /etc/vfstab is the virtual file system table. It provides default entries for mounting file system at boot time. There are seven fields in an /etc/vfstab record:
- Device to mount (block special file)
- Device to fsck (raw device)
- Mount point
- FS type
- fsckpass (a number used by fsck to determine whether to check the file system automatically)
- Mount at boot (tells whether the file system should automatically mounted by mountall)
- Mount options
The record fields are separated by white-space. Hyphen indicates null.
6. The 'umount' command unmounts file systems and removes corresponding entries from /etc/mnttab. Usage: umount [ options ] file_system file_system can be specified as a block special device, a mount point, or a remote resource.
Examples:
umount /export/home
umount /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s7
7. The Volume Management daemon, 'vold', performs volume management for removable media such as CD-ROM and diskette. vold checks devices and automatically mounts media so they are accessible. If the media contain file systems, they will be mounted as follows:
Diskette: /floppy/floppy0
CD-ROM: /cdrom/cdrom0
Note that floppy0 and cdrom0 may change with device instances. If the media do not contain file systems, they will be made accessible under the /vol directory (default) as follows:
Diskette: /vol/dev/aliases/floppy0
CD-ROM: /vol/dev/aliases/cdrom0
At startup, vold reads the /etc/vold.conf file, which contains information such as which devices to use, and actions to take in response to "insert", "eject", and "notify" events. vold also uses the 'rmmount' command, which uses the /etc/rmmount.conf configuration file.
8. The 'volcheck' causes the Volume Management daemon to check the specified device and mount removable media such as CD-ROM or diskette, without the user having to log in as root. Usage: volcheck [ options ] device_path -v (verbose) is a commonly used option.device_path defaults to the floppy drive at /dev/diskette. Example: volcheck /dev/diskette 9. The steps in using Volume Management for removable media such as CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, and diskette:
1. Insert media.
2. Execute the volcheck command, specifying the device to check
3. Work with media (located at/cdrom/cdrom0 or /floppy/floppy0 if mountable, and at /vol/dev/aliases/cdrom0 or
/vol/dev/aliases/floppy0 if not).
4. Execute the eject command on the device.
5. Physically eject the media if the eject command does not accomplish this.
Note the importance of using the 'eject' command before physically ejecting media, especially when the device contains a mounted file system.
10. Each UFS file system has a lost+found directory, which is used when the fsck (file system check and repair) program encounters inodes that are allocated but unreferenced (no directory links to the inode). Responding "yes" to the fsck "RECONNECT?" question will cause such an inode to be linked to the lost+found directory, using the inode number to name the file. Later, the system administrator can attempt to track down the original location of files in lost+found and copy it back. Since the file's name original name was lost, this may not be a simple task (though directories may be easier). The file type, size, ownership, and (if text) content may provide clues. 11. The 'newfs' command is recommended to create a new UFS file system. newfs is a front end for the 'mkfs' command, which has more complex syntax. Usage: newfs [ options ] [ mkfs-options ] raw_device Options:
-v (verbose)
-N (show file system parameters that would be used, without actually creating the file system)
The following defaults can be adjusted with mkfs-options:
- Logical block size 8 KB
- Fragment size 1 KB
- 1 inode per 2KB data
- Minimum percent freespace = 64 MB/partition size x 100 (next lower integer, limited to between 1and 10%) Example: newfs -v /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s7
12. The / (root) and /usr file systems are considered the Solaris Operating Environment file systems. / and /usr usually remain mounted at all times. The root file system is the root of the entire file system. It contains system files such as the kernel, local configuration files (under /etc), and mount points for other file systems. /usr normally exists as a separate file system. /usr contains sharable files such as system library routines (/usr/lib), which may be either architecturedependent or -independent.
13. Mounting a UFS file system with the 'noatime' option will cause the file system to skip atime (access time) updates on files, except when they coincide with mtime (modification time) or ctime (inode change time) updates. This improves disk performance on file systems on file systems where atime is not important. The dfratime|nodfratime options defer writing atime updates until the disk is accessed for another reason. Note that noatime overrides dfratime or nodfratime. Usage: mount -o [ options ] raw_device mount_point Example: mount -o noatime /dev/rdsk/c1t3d0s5 /export/usenet
14. You will pass the exam with high score!

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