[comp.sys.ibm.pc.rt] creating minidisks from standalone shell

asst-jos@yetti.UUCP (Jonathan) (07/12/89)

I'm new to the AIX world and found the following problem. (I am running
AIX 2.2 (not 2.2.1 yet .. it should be arriving soon) on an RT 6151-115)

I created a minidisk (1000 blocks long) in the standalone shell.  Then i 
rebooted the system, and tried removing the minidisk using the regular
shell.  Unfortunately, the minidisk had no device (ie /dev/hd8 ) 
associated with it, or entry (ie. stanza) in /etc/filesystems. 
A
Therefore I was unable to mount it or delete it using the 'minidisk'
command.  I was able to delete it using the maintenance diskette, though, 
because it doesn't use the device name, but a line number to identify
every diskette.  Anyone else ever run across this? Also, I am 
responsible for system security.  Any known holes??

Thanks in advance

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jeffrey Klein
York University, Toronto     UUCP: Uunet!utai!utcsri!yunexus!yuyetti!asst-jos

Standard Disclaimer: 
This is MY opinion, not York University's!!!

karish@forel.stanford.edu (Chuck Karish) (07/13/89)

In article <322@yetti.UUCP> asst-jos@yetti.UUCP
(Research Assistant--Jonathan) wrote:

>I created a minidisk (1000 blocks long) in the standalone shell.  Then i 
>rebooted the system, and tried removing the minidisk using the regular
>shell.  Unfortunately, the minidisk had no device (ie /dev/hd8 ) 
>associated with it, or entry (ie. stanza) in /etc/filesystems. 

>Therefore I was unable to mount it or delete it using the 'minidisk'
>command.  I was able to delete it using the maintenance diskette, though, 
>because it doesn't use the device name, but a line number to identify
>every diskette.

Minidisks refuses to modify certain `important' filesystems that it
knows about.  If you want to re-locate or enlarge your /usr partition,
minidisks may not be much help.

I wind up doing much of this stuff manually, by editing /etc/system,
/etc/rc (for the `vrmconfig' commands) and /etc/filesystems, making
any special devices needed, and booting from the VRM installation
diskettes to run the VRM Maintenance Facility.  With the VMF, I
can get exactly the layout I want.  I haven't found any other way
to utilize all the space on the disks.  The installation process
chops up free space so that what's left over is hard to consolidate.

	Chuck Karish		{decwrl,hpda}!mindcrf!karish
	(415) 493-7277		karish@forel.stanford.edu

drake@ibmarc.uucp (Sam Drake/99999999) (07/14/89)

Yep, that's how it works.  Remember, the RT is not only a multi-user
machine, but it can run multiple operating systems (AIX and others)
simultaneously.  So minidisks are not always for AIX'es use.  If you
create a minidisk via the AIX "minidisks" command, AIX will both define
the minidisk to the VRM and to AIX itself, and you can use it from AIX;
if you define it using the stand-alone VRM utilities AIX doesn't know
anything about it ... you might have intended the PICK operating system
to use that minidisk, for example, and AIX shouldn't know about it.

So the short answer is: always define AIX minidisks with the AIX "minidisks"
command.

I'm not an official anything, any mistakes are mine, and no one else's.

..Sam Drake / IBM Almaden Research Center
Sam Drake / IBM Almaden Research Center