Backup root file system on DVD

I have a root file system about 4Gb large.
Can I back it up on a DVD?
I read the ufsdump works with tapes.
Can it work with a DVD?
If yes, what is the command format?

Similar Messages

Backup and restore Root File system

Hi
Can I take backup of Root File system using ufsdump and later restore it (Root file system) completely using ufsrestore?
Please give me the steps or a link
Thanks in advance
Ashraf.

In short yes. But the steps depends on where you are going to store the backup and if you are running Sparc or x86 and what you do with your disk in between.
Boot in single user.
example# ufsdump 0cfu /dev/rmt/0 /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0
/dev/rmt/0 (tape) can be another partions file /backup/root_backup
For restore it must be safeest to boot from CD.
Mount your disk to restore to under /a
cd /a
ufsrestore rf /dev/rmt/0 (or your file /backup/root_backup)
If the partition is reformatted you may have to install new bootblocks.
Please read some from docs.sun.com
This is just an advice, not detailed workorder.....
/Gunnar

Unbootable Solaris 10 x86 installed on ZFS root file system

Hi all,
I have unbootable Solaris 10 x86 installed on ZFS root file system. on an IDE HDD
The bios keep showing the msg
DISK BOOT FAILURE , PLEASE INSERT SYSTEM BOOT DISK
please note :
1- the HDD is connected properly and recognized by the system
2- GRUB don't show any messages
is there any guide to recover the system , or detail procedure to boot system again
Thanks,,,

It's not clear if this is a recently installed system that is refusing to boot OR if the system was working fine and crashed.
If it's the former, I would suggest you check the BIOS settings to make sure it's booting from the right hard disk. In any case, the Solaris 10 installation should have writting the GRUB stage1 and stage2 blocks to the beginning of the disk.
If the system crashed and is refusing to boot, you can try to boot from a Solaris 10 installation DVD. Choose the single user shell option and see if it can find your system. You should be able to use format/devfsadm/etc to do the actual troubleshooting. If your disk is still responding, try a `zpool import` to see if there is any data that ZFS can recognize (it usually has many backup uberblocks and disk labels scattered around the disk).

Solaris 10:unable to mount a solaris root file system

Hi All,
I am trying to install Solaris 10 X86 on a Proliant DL385 Server it has a Smart array 6i, I have download the driver from the HP web site, on booting up the installation CD 1, adding the device driver, it sees the device but now says it can��t mount the device. Any clues what I need to do?
Screen Output:
Unable to mount a Solaris root file system from the device
DISK: Target 0, Bios primary drive - device 0x80
on Smart Array 6i Controller on Board PCI bus 2, at Dev 4
Error message from mount::
/pci@0,0/pci1022,7450@7/pcie11,4091@4/cmdk@0,0:a: can't open - no vtoc
any assistence would be appreciated.

Hi,
I read the Message 591 (Agu 2003) and the problem is quite the same. A brief description: I have aLaptop ASUS with HDD1 60GB and a USB storage HDD (in next HDD2) 100GB. I installed Solaris 10 x86 on HDD2 (partition c2t0d0s0). At the end of installation I removed the DVD and using BIOS features I switched the boot to HDD2. All ok; I received the SUN Blue Screen and I choose the active Solaris option; but at the beginning of the boot I received the following error message
Screen Output:
Unable to mount a Solaris root file system from the device
DISK: Target 0: IC25N060 ATMR04-0 on Board ....
Error message from mount::
/pci@0,0/pci-ide2,5/ide@1/cmdk@0,0:a: can't open
any assistence would be appreciated.
Regards

Archive Repository - Content Server or Root File System?

Hi All,
We are in the process of evaluating a storage solution for archiving and I would like to hear your experiences and recommendations. I've ruled out 3rd-party solutions such as IXOS as over kill for our requirement. That leaves us with the i5/OS root file system or the SAP Content Server in either a Linux partition or on a Windows server. Has anyone done archiving with a similar setup? What issues did you face? I don't plan to replicate archive objects via MIMIX.
Is anyone running the SAP Content Server in a Linux partition? I'd like to know your experience with this even if you don't use the Content Server for archiving. We use the Content Server (currently on Windows) for attaching files to SAP documents (e.g., Sales Documents) via Generic Object Services (GOS). While I lean towards running separate instances of the Content Server for Archiving and GOS, I would like to run them both in the same Linux LPAR.
TIA,
Stan

Hi Stanley,
If you choose to store your data archive files at the file system level, is that a secure enough environment? A third party certified storage solution provides a secure system where the archive files cannot be altered and also provides a way to manage the files over the years until they have met their retention limit.
Another thing to consider, just because the end users may not need access to the archived data, your company might need to be able to access the data easily due to an audit or law suit situation.
I am a SAP customer whose job function is the technical lead for my company's SAP data archiving projects, not a 3rd party storage solution provider , and I highly recommend a certified storage solution for compliance reasons.
Also, here is some information from the SAP Data Archiving web pages concerning using SAP Content Server for data archive files:
10. Is the SAP Content Server suitable for data archiving?
Up to and including SAP Content Server 6.20 the SAP CS is not designed to handle large files, which are common in data archiving. The new SAP CS 6.30 is designed to also handle large files and can therefore technically be used to store archive files. SAP CS does not support optical media. It is especially important to regularly run backups on the existing data!
Recommendation for using SAP CS for data archiving:
      Store the files on SAP CS in a decompressed format (make settings at the repository)
       Install SAP CS and SAP DB on one server
       Use SAP CS for Unix (runtime tests to see how SAP CS for Windows behaves with large files still have to be carried out)
Best Regards,
Karin Tillotson

A bad scare: root file system recovery [SOLVED]

Hi, everybody,
The trouble began with an odd message: KDE Daemon: new storage detected (hard disk): open in a new window, ignore. Unfortunately, the hard disk in question is statically mounted via /etc/fstab; should have been mounted all along.
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
# <file system> <dir> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
none /dev/pts devpts defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide,iocharset=utf8 0 0
/dev/dvd /mnt/dvd udf ro,user,noauto,unhide,iocharset=utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/fd0 vfat user,noauto 0 0
/dev/sdb1 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb2 / ext3 defaults 0 1
/dev/sdb3 /home ext3 defaults 0 1
#/dev/sda1 /home/alexey/mnt/a ext3 defaults 0 1
It's /dev/sda1, now commented. Real trouble began when I tried to reboot. The kernel told me there's no root file system on sdb2; it checked the disks unsuccessfully, with scary messages about bad device names and device blocks, advised me to use rootfstype=kernel option, etc. sda1 turned out "bad" too. In fallback mode the system booted, but with file systems mounted read only; not much use... Using some recovery disk I commented out the /dev/sda1 line in /etc/fstab on suspicion that sda is the real offender; tried to reboot, without much success, then rebooted again, and something clicked into place; the system is back to normal, but I fear to approach sda1 . What happened? Any suggestion/link is going to be appreciated. It was pure luck; next time it could be much worse.
Edit:
Looks like 'clicked into place' is just the fallback kernel; kernel-related issue? It ran smoothly after the initial upgrade for a couple of weeks.
Edit:
A relevant snippet from kernel.log:
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata1: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0xffa0 irq 14
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata2: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0xffa8 irq 15
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata2.00: ATAPI: _NEC DVD_RW ND-4550A, 1.06, max UDMA/33
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata2.00: configured for UDMA/33
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox scsi 1:0:0:0: CD-ROM _NEC DVD_RW ND-4550A 1.06 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox sata_nv 0000:00:0e.0: version 3.5
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LSA0] enabled at IRQ 23
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0e.0[A] -> Link [LSA0] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:0e.0 to 64
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox scsi2 : sata_nv
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox scsi3 : sata_nv
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe800 ctl 0xe480 bmdma 0xe000 irq 16
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe400 ctl 0xe080 bmdma 0xe008 irq 16
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata3.00: ATA-6: ST3120827AS, 3.42, max UDMA/133
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata3.00: 234441648 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata3.00: model number mismatch 'ST3120827AS' != '3120827AS '
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata3.00: revalidation failed (errno=-19)
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata3: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata3.00: limiting speed to UDMA/133:PIO3
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata3: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata4.00: ATA-7: ST3320620AS, 3.AAK, max UDMA/133
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata4.00: 625142448 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox ata4.00: configured for UDMA/133
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA ST3120827AS 3.42 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
Apr 23 19:52:25 stovepipebox scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA ST3320620AS 3.AA PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
This "model number mismatch 'ST3120827AS' != '3120827AS " looks like a result of a corrupted config (at least, I suspect so ). Any questions/suggestions?
Last edited by Llama (2008-05-02 20:20:04)

I had this same damn thing happen. The problem is in the way the kernel gets its info from the bios. The bios has a nasty habit of switching the drives around even when sda is connected to sata1. This became a problem when libata came about and changed all drives to sdxX naming convention.
To fix the no booting problem and the stupid rootfstype= error thing, u need to use Persistent block naming device scheme. Here on the wiki is a page dedicated to this... http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Per … ice_naming
Try it and see if it helps. I used the /dev/by-uuid.

Restoring root file system from netbackup

Recently one of the hard disk containing root file system in my T2000 got many hard errors suddenly but the system continued to run. I dont have os mirroring. So I took backup of the root file system using veritas netbackup & restored those in the second hard disk. Also installed boot block for the same. I tried booting from the second hard disk & it booted, came to the prompt. But i found that most of the commands are not working. I tried df -h & it gave me error message like "unable to open /etc/mnttab". Is this approach incorrect?
My guess is that it doesnt work as i dint set partition table same for both the disks.

You need to use the baremetal backup/restore options with Netbackup to make backups of your operating system. It's generally recommended that you make a backup of your OS in single user mode, or booted from alternate media, so that you don't make backups of open files.
Another backup method would be to use something like ufsdump for ufs filesystems, or ZFS send/receive
and when you do restore, first boot in single user mode from cd so that you can update the files that still point to the old disk location, like the /etc/vfstab (for ufs) and to update the device paths with a reconfiguration reboot.
Edited by: 3sth3r on Jan 25, 2012 1:04 AM

Root file system 100%

Hi,
We are facing a proble in which our root file system is 100% because of a lot of directories being created in the /proc directory. These directories are created with numbers as their names.
Please give some advice

1- It should be nothing to do with proc file system.
2- Somtimes backup command has an 'o' instead of a 0
(zero) in /dev/rmt/"0" and a file "o" is created in
/dev/rmt that fills entire space.
3- If your slice is really large enough, use du -sh
/* command in case solaris 9 (du -sk for 8) to see
which directories are taking space.
4- If you still find nothing and directory sizes
don;t seem to pose any problem, umount all filesstems
and then do a du -sh /*.
Remember, if you have a directory (say /export/home)
filled with stuff, and currently it is not mounted,
It consumes space from / filesystem. When it is
mounted later, the space shown by df -k would show
consumed space for entire Inode table. But du -sk
wont show those files. Indeed those are hidden untill
you unmount the physical slice from /export/homeI had root file system 100% used
I deleted all syslog and messages files, the best I could reclaim was 1%
I did "du -d / |more" to discover sizes of file that may be filling up root file system.
I discovered that in /dev/rmt the size was unusually very large about
2.5GB
There was a file with file name "1" in /dev/rmt which was taking all the space
I did "rm -r 1" to removed the unwanted file and reclaimed 53% free space

Root File system is reporting that it's full [SOLVED]

My root file system is reporting as full, and I'd like some ideas on how to track the problem. I've tried a number of things like searching for the largest directory, searching for the largest file, and all that jazz. I'm obviously missing something. /dev/sda3 should be at 50%.
One note. The computer started what seemed like normal today. I converted my second hard drive to ext4, rebooted, and started to notice that things that needed the /tmp directory couldn't start. I made some quick space to get operational by removing 56M of stuff from pacman's cache, but that's a quick hack. I don't know if this is related or not. I am running testin

skottish wrote:
MoonSwan wrote:
You're a dork who solved this issue and will know better next time. How is this a bad thing? I'm sure someone around here has done worse Skottish, so don't feel too stupid. (Won't name names but I'm sure as well that I've done worse somewhere...)
In the meantime, while you're down...*bonks skottish with the dork-stick*
Thanks for the kind words MoonSwan.
This happened because of the way my system is set up. I have rsync making backups of /home and /etc to /backup on close. It turns out that rsync created the /backup directory instead of using the existing one. Why? Because /dev/sdb1 wasn't mounted when I restarted after the conversion. Doh!
no shame in that. i totally freaked out once when i was still in school because i couldn't find a paper that was due. turned out i had /home unmounted when i saved the file, but had /home mounted when i went looking for it.
it was hiding under the mounted filesystem the whole time!

Is it possible to install OL6.2 with UEK using btrfs root file system?

Can we use btrfs for root file system with Oracle Linux?
If yes - how to install it? (OL6.2 installer doesn't offer btrfs within the available file systems).

For what it's worth, I tried the following, which worked:
host: vm022
cd /etc/yum.repos.d
rm public-yum*
wget http://public-yum.oracle.com/public-yum-ol6.repo
+Edit public-yum-ol6.repo and enable [ol6_UEK_latest]+
yum update kernel-uek
yum install btrfs-progs
The system was successfully updated to UEK2 - 2.6.39-100
Boot the system form Fedora 15 Live CD and open a terminal. Enter the following:
su - root
yum install btrfs-progs
lvscan
btrfs-convert /dev/vg_vm022/lv_root
(conversion complete)
mount /dev/vg_vm022/lv_root /mnt
Edit /mnt/etc/fstab and change the root volume filesystem from ext4 to btrfs
umount /mnt
reboot
Start from the OL6.2 DVD in rescue mode. Select continue to let if find the existing Linux system and drop into the shell
chroot /mnt/sysimage
modprobe btrfs
lsmod | grep btrfs
cd /boot
cp initramfs-2.6.39-100.5.1.el6uek.x86_64.img /root
mkinitrd -f -v /boot/initramfs-2.6.39-100.5.1.el6uek.x86_64.img 2.6.39-100.5.1.el6uek.x86_64
exit
unmount /mnt/sysimage
After another restart (it restarted twice doing some volume/label converison - didn't catch it)
mount
/dev/mapper/vg_vm022-lv_root on / type btrfs (rw)
Edited by: Dude on Mar 29, 2012 6:35 PM

SOLVED: kernel loads, but doesn't have a root file system

Hi,
The system is an Asus X202E. It does UEFI and has a GPT partition system. I've gotten through that part. And it is clear to me that the kernel loads.
It's the next step that's giving me grief. I've tried this with two bootloaders: gummiboot and rEFInd.
With gummiboot, the kernel panics because it can't mount the root file system. With rEFInd, it gets to the intial ramdisk and then drops me to a shell, apparently because the root file system is set to null, and it obviously can't mount that as "real root".
Here is what I posted on the Arch mailing list, documenting that I have indeed specified the correct root (I'm copying this from the email, eliding the unfortunate line wraps):
bridge-live# cat /boot/loader/entries/arch.conf
Title Arch Linux
linux /vmlinuz-linux
initrc /initramfs-linux.img
options root=PARTUUID=d5bb2ad1-9e7d-4c75-b9b6-04865dd77782
bridge-live# ls -l /dev/disk/by-partuuid
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 15 19:26 0ab4d458-cd09-4bfb-a447-5f5fa66332e2 -> ../../sda6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 15 19:26 3e12caeb-1424-451c-898e-a4ff05eab48d -> ../../sda7
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 15 19:26 432a977b-f26d-4e75-b9ee-bf610ee6f4a4 -> ../../sda3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 15 19:26 95a1d2c2-393a-4150-bbd2-d8e7179e7f8a -> ../../sda2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 15 19:26 a4b797d9-0868-4bd1-a92d-f244639039f5 -> ../../sda4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 15 19:26 d5bb2ad1-9e7d-4c75-b9b6-04865dd77782 -> ../../sda8
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 15 19:26 ed04135b-bd79-4c7c-b3b5-b0f9c2fe6826 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 15 19:26 f64f82a7-8f2b-4748-88b1-7b0c61e71c70 -> ../../sda5
The root partition is supposed to be /dev/sda8, that is:
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Apr 15 19:26 d5bb2ad1-9e7d-4c75-b9b6-04865dd77782 -> ../../sda8
So the correct PARTUUID followed by the one I have specified in
arch.conf is:
d5bb2ad1-9e7d-4c75-b9b6-04865dd77782
d5bb2ad1-9e7d-4c75-b9b6-04865dd77782
I'm guessing that this is really the same problem with both gummiboot and with rEFInd, but don't really know. It's clear to me that the initrd is not being correctly constructed. So I removed /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and did, as per the Arch wiki,
pacman -Syyu mkinitcpio linux udev
No joy.
I don't even know which way to go at this point. If I even knew how to tell it where the real disk is in the initial ram disk shell, that would help. Better of course, would be actually solving the problem.
Thanks!
Last edited by n4rky (2013-04-17 21:41:36)

I have made extremely limited progress on this issue.
My previous attempt to specify the root partition in mkinitcpio.conf was insufficient. Furthermore, this is no place--despite the documentation--for the orthodoxy about using UUIDs rather than the straight /dev/sdx. In my case:
root=/dev/sda8
and run
mkinitcpio -p linux
It still drops me into the shell at boot. I can do
mount /dev/sda8 /new_root/
and exit the shell. It still won't believe it has the root device and drops me back in. I just exit.
At this point, for a very brief moment, things look promising. It appears to be starting normally. Then, gdm.service, NetworkManager.service, and dbus.service all fail to start. There may be others but the screen goes by too quickly. At this point, it hangs trying to initialize the pacman keyring and all I can do is CTRL-ALT-DEL.
It occurred to me that this might extend to the rEFInd configuration and so I modified it to also use /dev/sda8 rather than the UUID, but this made no difference. Trying to boot via gummiboot still yields the previously specified kernel panic.

Change ZFS root dataset name for root file system

Hi all
A quick one.
I accepted the default ZFS root dataset name for the root file system during Solaris 10 installation.
Can I change it to another name afterward without reinstalling the OS? For example,
zfs rename rpool/ROOT/s10s_u6wos_07b rpool/ROOT/`hostname`
zfs rename rpool/ROOT/s10s_u6wos_07b/var rpool/ROOT/`hostname`/var
Thank you.

Renaming the root pool is not recommended.

Zerofree: Shrinking ARCH guest VMDK--'remount the root file-system'?

Hi!
[using ZEROFREE]
Getting great results with and extra ARCH install running as a VMDK in Workstation.
REALLY need tips on shrinking the VMDK. obviously have deleted unneeded files
and now rather urgently need to learn what's eluding me so far.
1) zerofree is install IN the virtual machine (VMDK)workstation running on windows 8.
2) Here's the instructions for zerofree:
filesystem has to be unmounted or mounted read-only for zerofree to
work. It will exit with an error message if the filesystem is mounted
writable.
To remount the root file-system readonly, you can first
switch to single user runlevel (telinit 1) then use mount -o remount,ro
filesystem.
As it a VMDK and it's running would the only/best option be to: "remount the root file-system readonly" ??
OR, could i add the VMDK to another running arch system that I do have and NOT mount the VMachine thereby
allowing zero free to run even better on that?
Are both method JUST as efficive at shrinking? My guess would be the remount root file-system as read only
would NOT be as efficient at shrinking.
I could really use a brief walk-through on this as all attempts have failed so far.
I boot the ARCH virtual machine and do what may I ask?
Last edited by tweed (2012-06-05 07:43:41)

How did you use/test unison? In my case, unison, of course, is used in the cpio image, where there are no cache files, because unison has not been run yet in the initcpio image, before it had a chance to be used during boot time, to generate them; and during start up is when it is used; when it creates the archives. ...a circular dependency. Yet, files changed by the user would still need to be traversed to detect changes. So, I think that even providing pre-made cache files would not guarantee that they would be valid at start up, for all configurations of installation. -- I think, though, that these cache files could be copied/saved from the initcpio image to the root (disk and RAM), after they have been created, and used next time by copying them in the initcpio image during each start up. I think $HOME would need to be set.
Unison was not using any cache previously anyway. I was aware of that, but I wanted to prove it by deleting any cache files remaining.
Unison, actually, was slower (4 minutes) the first time it ran in the VM, compared to the physical hardware (3:10s). I have not measured the time for its subsequent runs, but It seemed that it was faster after the first run. The VM was hosted on a newer machine than what I have used so far: the VM host has an i3-3227U at 1.9 GHz CPU with 2 cores/4 threads and 8 GB of RAM (4 GB ware dedicated to the VM); my hardware has a Pentium B940 at 2 GHz CPU with 2 cores/2 threads and 4 GB of RAM.
I could see that, in the VM, rsync and cp were copying faster than on my hardware; they were scrolling quicker.
Grub, initially complains that there is no image, and shows a "Press any key to continue" message; if you continue, the kernel panics.
I'll try using "poll_device()". What arguments does it need? More than just the device; also the number of seconds to wait?
Last edited by AGT (2014-05-20 16:49:35)

How to add more disk space into /   root file system

Hi All,
Linux 2.6.18-128
can anyone please let us know how to add more disk space into "/" root file system.
i have added new hard disk with space of 20GB,
[root@rac2 shm]# df -h
Filesystem            Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1             965M 767M 149M 84% /
/dev/hda7             1.9G 234M 1.6G 13% /var
/dev/hda6             2.9G   69M 2.7G   3% /tmp
/dev/hda3             7.6G 4.2G 3.0G 59% /usr
/dev/hda2              18G   12G 4.8G 71% /u01
LABLE=/               2.0G     0 2.0G   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hdb2             8.9G 149M 8.3G   2% /vm
[root@rac2 shm]#

Dude! wrote:
I would actually question whether or not more disks increase the risk of a disk failure. One disk can break as likely as one of two of more disks.
Simple stats. Buying 2 lottery tickets instead of one, gives you 2 chances to win the lottery prize. Not 1. Even though the odds of winning per ticket remains unchanged.
2 disks buy you 2 tickets in The-Drive-Failure lottery.
Back in the 90's, BT (British Telecom) had a 80+ node OPS cluster build with Pyramid MPP hardware. They had a dedicated store of scsi disks for replacing failed disks - as there were disk failure fairly often due to the number of disks. (a Pryamid MPP chassis looked like a Xmas tree with all the scsi drive LEDs, and BT had several)
In my experience - one should rather expect a drive failure sooner, than later. And have some kind of contingency plan in place to recover from the failure.
The use of symbolic links instead of striping the filesystem protects from the complete loss of the enchilada if a volume member fails, but it does not reduce the risk of loosing data.
I would rather buy a single ticket for the drive failure lottery for a root drive, than 2 tickets in this case. And using symbolic links to "offload" non-critical files to the 2nd drive means that its lottery ticket prize is not a non-bootable server due to a toasted root drive.

Programmatic interface to get zone's root file system

Hi,
I am a newcomer to solaris zones. Is there any programmatic (C API) way to know the path to root file system of a zone given its name, from the global zone?
Thanks!

A truss of zoneadm list -cv shows a bunch of zone related calls like:
zone_lookup()
zone_list()
zone_getattr()
Using the truss output as an example and including /usr/include/sys/zones.h and linking to libzonecfg
(and maybe libzoneinfo) seems like a fairly straight-forward path to getting the info you are looking for.
You could also parse /etc/zones/index
which is (on my s10_63 machine) a colon seperated flat file containing [zone:install state:root path] that looks like:
global:installed:/
demo1:installed:/zones/demo1
demo2:installed:/zones/demo2
demo3:installed:/zones/demo3
foo:installed:/zones/foo
ldap1:installed:/zones/ldap1
Neither of these methods are documented, so they are certainly subject to change or removal.
Good luck!
-William Hathaway

Backup root file system on DVD

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