Disk and file system size limits with Sun OS 4.1.1 (Summary)

From: Joerg Hertzer (zrfp0406@awssn3.rus.uni-stuttgart.de)
Date: Thu Apr 02 1992 - 10:06:54 CST


Subject: Disk and file system size limits with Sun OS 4.1.1 (Summary)

My questions have been:

>1. Which maximum disk size can be formatted with an _unpatched_ Sun OS 4.1.1?
>2. Which maximum size may a formatted disk have with an _unpatched_
> Sun OS 4.1.1?
>3. Which maximum size may a filesystem have with an _unpatched_ Sun OS 4.1.1?
>4. Which patches concerning above limits are available for Sun OS 4.1.1?
> What are the limits after installing such patches?
>5. Are in Sun OS 4.1.2 the same limits or different?

I got only one answer plus one request for a summary.
But I assume that some more persons will run in the same problem one day;
therefore I send the summary here (and I hope for some more information;
see about that at the end.)

The answer came from ats@prosun.first.gmd.de (Andreas Schulz)
He wrote:

>SUNOS4.1.1:
>I heard nothing about the largest disk size on Sun 3. I would expect <1Gb
>is ok. Larger means trouble.
>For the sun 4, you can use disks >1Gb, for the sun4c you need a patch:
>
>Patch-ID# 100343-03
>Keywords: 1GB greater, disk, gigabyte
>Synopsis: SunOS 4.1.1: sd.o patch to access scsi drive capacity beyond 1GB.
>Date: 11/05/91
>SunOS release: 4.1.1
>Topic: 1.3GB Disk Drive Enhancement
>BugId's fixed with this patch: 1058682,1045586,1045071
> 1049417,1046580,1048141,1046305(see Addendum)
>Architectures for which this patch is available: sun4c
>Patches which may conflict with this patch: 100243
>Obsoleted by: SunOS 4.1.2
>
>
>The next limit you are running into. One Filesystem can't be larger then
>2Gb. If the first disk is coming out with more than 2Gb formatted capacity,
>you must make at least two filesystems on it.
>I had try the patch above on a SUN 4/60 with a Seagate ST41650N ( 1.6Gb
>unformatted, 1.3Gb formatted), and it seems to work at the moment.
>Yesterday, i have got two Fujitisu M2652S ( 2.0 Gb unformatted, 1.6Gb
>formatted), so i will be testing, if they will work on a sun 4/360 and
>maybe also on a sun 4/75, but i will also upgrade to SUNOS 4.1.2 in
>this moment.
>

It may be interesting that we have patches 100343-01 and 100343-03
on our ftp server (ftp.uni-stuttgart.de), file names are
/soft/sun/patches/100343-01.t.Z and /soft/sun/patches/100343-03.t.Z

>From the 'README' file of 100343-03:

>Problem Description:
>
>format functions are limited to 1GB (2^21 bit address). Reassign of a
>block beyond 1GB wraps around to the lower 21 bit address.As a result,using
>a 1.3 GB drive ,for example, the top .3GB will be inaccessible
>without this patch.
>
>Using the format "repair" function I reassigned block # 2676800 (28D840x).
>The Flexstar tester reports block # 576648 (08D840 hex) to be reassigned.
>Using the Ancot bus analyzer I verified that the driver is issuing a
>reassign block command for block 08D840 hex, indicating that it is
>truncating the most significant bits of the address and supports only a 21
>bit address in this section of the code.
>
>User data will remain intact, but since the block in error is not being
>reassigned it will continue to fail, which could eventually lead to loss
>of data. Good blocks will be reassigned unecessarily, which can adversely
>affect performance.

100343-01 of course is obsolete. But following it's README,
it includes a new /etc/format.dat, valid both for Sun4 and Sun4c
with data for some big disks.
This may be interesting for some of you.

I send my special thanks to Andreas Schulz;

but I really would like to now:
- If everybody agrees with the above information.
- If anyone knows the limits for Sun 3 with Sun Os 4.1.1

Thanks to you all!

Joerg

Dr.-Ing. Joerg Hertzer
Computer Center University Stuttgart
E-Mail: Joerg.Hertzer@rus.uni-stuttgart.de



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