Updated Nov 23 2004

Cloning the iR110 Series Hard Disk



1.  What does this mean to me?
2.  What hardware does it apply to?  What hardware does it not apply to?
3.  What hardware do I need to have ready?
4.  I am ready to Clone my iR110 Ultra 10.  I need a step by step procedure.
5.  Testing the Cloned Disk
6.  Disconnecting the Cloned disk
7.  In an emergency how should I use the cloned disk?
8.  Can I use a clone of one Ultra 10 on a different Ultra 10?
9.  What does Slice and c0t0d0s0 mean?
10.  I need to tell the Ultra 10 to look for new hardware changes
11.  How can I wipe my Ultra 10 hard disk clean and start fresh?
12.  Proper use of fsck

1.  What does this mean to me?
It takes 2 to 4 hours for a complete software install on the iR110/125/150's hard disks
With procedures outlined in this page, it is possible to create, store and have ready an exact replica (clone) of a iR110/125/150's hard disk
In the event of a hard disk related hardware or software failure an iR110 customer can be up and running within minutes.

Click here for information on how to to backup using DD over NFS
Click here for information on how to backup using UFSDUMP/UFSRESTORE over NFS 


2.  What hardware does it apply to?  What hardware does it not apply to?
The information in this page applies to a iR110 Sun Spark Ultra 10 (IDE Hard Disks).
It can be easily modified to work with a Ultra 60 or V240
 

3.  What hardware do I need to have ready?
This procedure assumes the source drive and clone drive are identical.
You may have to purchase two brand new hard disks.

The current specifications for the Ultra 10 include 3 types of 20 Gig EIDE hard disks

Seagate ST320420A
(20.4GB - 7200 RPM Ultra ATA/66)
Barracuda ATA II

Seagate ST320414A
(20.0GB - 7200 RPM Ultra ATA/100)
Barracuda ATA III

Seagate ST320011A
(20.0GB - 7200 RPM Ultra ATA/100)
Barracuda ATA IV

These drives must be purchased directly from Sun for they have special firmware to allow the Ultra 10 to "See" the entire 20 GB

This is a direct quote from www.sun.com

"The new 20-GB EIDE drives from Sun have firmware in place that allow Solaris 2.5.1 and Solaris 2.6 users to access the entire disk. This may not be true of 3rd party EIDE drives."

We purchased 2 Seagate ST320011A's and tried.  It is true.  The Ultra 10 will see only 8GB.

According to Sun, these hard disks are about $300.00 US

The Hard Disk Cloning procedure then represents 0.33% of the cost of a loaded iR110

It is silly to not consider 2 identical drives to provide a total customer solution.
 

4.  I am ready to Clone my iR110 Ultra 10.  I need a step by step procedure
 
Cloning the iR110 Hard Disk
Step by Step
1.  Before doing anything
Power on the SCS and let it boot to the OCI login screen
1.  Start a Command tool
2.  Use su - to logon as root
3.  Type touch reconfigure.  (This will cause the Ultra 10 to look for new hardware changes on the next boot)  See Note:
4.  Type init 5  (This will shutdown the Ultra 10 box)
(*Note:  It is possible to use the command boot -r to accomplish the same task however, using touch configureavoids a few steps)
(This is explained in more detail in Step 10. Below)

 
2.  Get your two new hard disks out of their packaging and take note of the jumper settings.
The Ultra 10 probably uses a Cable Select type of Hard Disk selection.
The Cable select method is much easier than the old Master/Slave jumper method
Simply leave both hard disks set to cable select.
The Cable Select cable is special.
Notice the cable ends are labelled Master or Slave.
Please be aware of this when we install the drives in the next steps
It is recommended to label the hard disks.
Put a sticker on each, perhaps Original and Clone
 

3.  Physically installing the hard disks into the Ultra 10 box
Here is a Step by Step procedure.
Click on the images to make them bigger


 
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4 
Place the Ultra10 upside down on a table. 
Remove the 4 screws indicated in the diagram below.
The existing hard disk is held in with a bracket Remove the two screws indicated below. Remove the old hard disk and bracket all at once.
Install one of the new hard disks onto the bracket.
../../images/1_ir110clone.jpg
../../images/2_ir110clone.jpg
../../images/3_ir110clone.jpg
../../images/4_ir110clone.jpg

 
Step 5
Step 6
Step 7
Step 8
This is where other new hard disk is to go.  You must bend two metal tabs up in oder for the drive to fit.
Be carefull!!
Here is a closeup of the two tabs already bent up. The second hard disk fits like this.
Attach it with two screws
Both hard disks are now installed
Route the cables cleanly
Ensure the hard disk on the left (mounted to the bracket) is on the "Master" connector
The other is on the "Slave" connector
../../images/5_ir110clone.jpg
../../images/6_ir110clone.jpg
../../images/7_ir110clone.jpg
../../images/8_ir110clone.jpg

 
 
4.  Installing the iR110 software
Connect the Ultra 10 power cable and boot the machine
Let the Ultra 10 boot.  It will eventually stop with an error (Because of the blank hard disk)
Use stop a to get to the OK prompt
You can now follow your iR110 installation guide and install all the required software as you would for any install
You dont need to worry about installing to the correct hard disk
The iR110 software installation scripts will take care of everything
 
 

5. Licence, configure and test your installation
Get the iR110 up and running as per the customers requirements
You will be cloning your install so ensure everything is running well before you do.
 
 

6.  Final preparations and Cloning
Once you are ready to clone, I suggest using FSCK to ensure things are cool.

1.  Use su - to root
2.  Type init 0  (shutdown to run level 0, OK prompt)
3.  Insert the iR110 Operating System Software CD into the CD-ROM
4.  Type boot cdrom -s
5.  Wait for the machine to boot (About 4 minutes)
6.  Type fsck /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2  (Say yes to fix whatever requires fixing)
Now that we have fsck'ed the hard disk, we are ready to clone
7.  Type the following two commands in order.  Take your time and look out for spacing.  The | symbol is called a pipe and is a shifted \
Command #1
prtvtoc /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2 | fmthard -s - /dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s2
Details
Print the disk volume header information  (Becomes standard input) Pipe it through the fmthard command to update the VTOC (Volume Table  of  Contents) When  " - " is used,  fmthard reads from standard input.

Command #1 completes in less than 1 second
 
 
Command #2
dd if=/dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2 bs=32k of=/dev/rdsk/c0t1d0s2
Details
Make a copy of an input file (if=) and send the results to the output file (of=) using a block size of 32k

Command #2 will take about 30 minutes  Please be patient
 

11.  Type init 0 to reboot the machine to the OK prompt
12.  Eject the CDROM manually and remove the Operating System Software CD
13.  Power of the machine with the power switch.  (Since we gracefully shutdown with init 0, it is safe to do this)
You have successfully cloned the Ultra 10



 

5.  Testing the Cloned Disk

It would be wise to check the Cloned disk
Disconnect the Cloned disk from the Slave connector and put it on the Master connector
Connect the Ultra 10 power connector and boot it up
Hopefully it will boot properly
Let it boot all the way to the OCI login
Test the clone out to make sure everything is cool.
Use init 5 to shut it down properly
If it does not boot properly, try repeating the cloning process again
 
 

6.  Disconnecting the Cloned disk
It would be wise to now disconnect the cloned disk and leave it in the machine in case of an emergency
After that we should tell the Ultra 10 that a new hardware change has occured

1.  Disconnect the power cable.
2.  Disconnect the 'slave' drive power connector and the IDE connector.
3.  Reconnect the 'master' drive power connector and the IDE connector
3.  Reconnect the power supply cable and reboot the Ultra 10
4.  Wait until the Ultra 10 completely reboots
5.  Use su - to root
6.  Type init 0 (This will shutdown to the OK prompt)
7.  Type boot -r (This will reboot the machine and look for hardware changes)
Congrats.  You are finally done.
 

7.  In an emergency how should I use the cloned disk?
You could be in one of two situations:

1.  You have 2 disks in the Ultra 10 and you already followed the procedure in this page
2.  Your customer only has 1 hard disk and you have not yet cloned.  (For situation 2, check out step 10 below)

I am assuming you have 2 disks and have followed the procedures in this page to create a cloned image

If the customers original hard disk is still operational, you may be able to still access any of their files on the hard disk (Optional)
If however it is totally dead skip the (Optional) step below.

You will have to use touch reconfigure or boot -r to get the Ultra 10 to "See" the hardware changes.  See Item 10

1.  Power off the Ultra 10 and disconnect the power cable
2.  Remove the Ultra 10 cover as outlined above
3.  Disconnect the Master and Slave drive connections
4.  Put the Slave drive (The clone) onto the Master drive connector
5.  Optional.  Put the Master drive (The problematic original) onto the Slave connector
6.  Reconnect the power cable and power up the Ultra 10
 
 

Your Ultra 10 should boot successfully
With luck, any of the customers original files with still be available on the original hard disk.
 
 

8.  Can I use a clone of one Ultra 10 on a different Ultra 10?
I tried this in our lab on one machine and Yes it appears to work
When the Ultra 10 boots, it will find probably find a SCS key mismatch
This is the error I got

Not Licenced for any known product configurations

Obtain the SCS licence key for the host ID: XXXXXXX
Enter licence key (or press return to continue)
 

Enter the correct SCS licence key and you should be up and running
 
 
 

9.  What does Slice and c0t0d0s0 mean

In Unix world, a partition is called a slice.
The root slice is 0, slice 1 is swap
Slice 2 is the entire disk!!
Here is an explanation of the c0t0d0s0 thing

../../images/9_ir110clone.jpg

So...
c0t0d0s2  Is Slice 2 of the master hard disk
c0t1d0s2  Is Slice 2 of the slave hard disk
 
 

10.  I need to tell the Ultra 10 to look for new hardware changes
If you plan to add new hardware to the Ultra 10, you must tell the machine to look for the new hardware

There are two methods:
1.  Touch Reconfigure (This will cause the Ultra 10 to look for new hardware changes on the nextboot)
2.  Type boot -r  (This will boot the Ultra 10 now and new hardware changes will be scanned)

Touch Reconfigure
1.  Start a Command tool
2.  Use su - to logon as root
3.  Type touch reconfigure.

boot -r  (From the ok prompt only)
1.  Use init 0 to get to the ok prompt
2.  You can also use stop a but this is very dangerous and not recommended
3.  Type boot -r
 

11.  How can I wipe my Ultra 10 hard disk clean and start fresh?
1.   Use su - to root
2.   Type init 0  (shutdown to run level 0, OK prompt)
3.   Insert the iR110 Operating System Software CD into the CD-ROM
4.   Type boot cdrom -s
5.   Wait for the machine to boot (About 4 minutes)
6.   Type format and hit enter
7.   Select the disk you want to format
8.   Select p and hit enter
9.   Select p and hit enter (again)
10.  This will print to the screen the current slice table
Here is an example of our Ultra 10 with a Seagate ST320420A

rt    Tag              Flag     Cylinders              Size                Blocks
0     root              wm       0 -  3657              1.76 GB          (3658/0/0)     3687264
1     swap            wu        3658 -  5689        1000.12 MB    (2032/0/0)     2048256
2     backup         wm       0 - 39532             19.00 GB         (39533/0/0)   39849264
3     var               wm       5690 - 21943        7.81 GB          (16254/0/0)   16384032
4     unassigned    wm       21944 - 39532      8.45 GB          (17589/0/0)    17729712
5     unassigned    wm       0                            0                    (0/0/0)            0
6     unassigned    wm       0                            0                    (0/0/0)            0
7     unassigned    wm       0                            0                    (0/0/0)            0

11.  You will be repeating the following steps for all partitions exept partition 2.  Do not delete partition 2.

Select the partition you want to delete by typing the partition number and hitting enter
Enter Partition ID tag: Enter
Enter partition permission flags [wm]: Enter
Enter new starting cyl [0]: 0
Enter partition size: 0
After you are done, select p and then enter to print the current slice table to the screen.
It should look something like this:

rt    Tag              Flag     Cylinders              Size                Blocks
0     unassigned    wm       0                            0                    (0/0/0)            0
1     unassigned    wu        0                            0                    (0/0/0)            0
2     backup         wm       0 - 39532             19.00 GB         (39533/0/0)   39849264
3     unassigned    wm       0                            0                    (0/0/0)            0
4     unassigned    wm       0                            0                    (0/0/0)            0
5     unassigned    wm       0                            0                    (0/0/0)            0
6     unassigned    wm       0                            0                    (0/0/0)            0
7     unassigned    wm       0                            0                    (0/0/0)            0

12.  Type label enter.  Then confirm with y  (This will write the slice table to the hard disk)

The Ultra 10 hard disk is now ready for a fresh install.
Type init 0 and begin the installation procedure

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12.  Proper use of FSCK
In my humble opinion, I think there is a significant amount of misinformed and dangerous usage of the fsck command
Read more about this here


 
 
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If you find any errors, ommisions or have a better way, please contact me