[SunHELP] Low-level formatting multiple drives

[Will Mc Donald]

Is dd low enough level to copy formatting information from disk to disk (I'm
sure I've dd'ed from one matching disk without partitioning and labelling it
beforehand).

Could you format one disk, then dd that disk to another on a separate
controller, then dd both of these disk images to the next pair, then dd
those four to the next and so on until you're done? If that works you could
just script and optimise across buses, controllers and disks as appropriate.

Will.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lyndon Griffin" <lgriffin at Naviant.com>
To: <sunhelp at sunhelp.org>
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2001 7:58 PM
Subject: [SunHELP] Low-level formatting multiple drives


> This may seem kinda odd:
> I need to re-purpose an MTI disk array.  I am going to software-RAID the
> JBODs using Veritas.  I know that MTI low-level formats the drives to
> 523-byte sectors, and that I have to make 512-byte sectors to use under
> Veritas/Solaris.  This is not a problem - I've done this before, but only
> with 4 or 5 drives using format(1M).  Problem with format(1M) is that only
> one instance can be running at a time.  I would like to do these 48
> formats in parallel rather than serially.
>
> I could bang out something in C, if I actually knew what to do (API and
> such).  So, my question to you all is a) can you recommend a tool that
> will allow me to l/l format many drives at once, and b) if not, can you
> point me to the appropriate algorithms to roll my own?
>