Chapter 2:

Before You Begin

Before you begin installation, you must perform the tasks below.

Verifying supported hardware

Your UnixWare software includes HBA (Host Bus Adapter) drivers for supported hardware. Please visit the Compatible Hardware Web Pages (http://www.sco.com/chwp) for help on determining whether your hardware is supported and the correct driver to use for supported hardware. If you use drivers and peripherals which are not listed as supported, your peripherals might not work.

The following table shows the HBA drivers available on the installation media:

CD Boot Image
Packages on CD #1
Boot Diskette #1
HBA Diskettes

Your hardware or software vendor may also provide you with one or more HBA diskettes (or an HBA CD-ROM) to support specific hardware or software. It is important that if you do have vendor supplied HBA drivers, you always load them before you load any UnixWare HBA drivers. Make sure that any vendor-supplied HBA drivers were created specifically for UnixWare, or the drivers will not successfully load.

CD Boot Image on CD #1
Packages on Base OS CD #1
Boot Diskette #1
HBA Diskette #1
HBA Diskette #2
HBA Diskette #3
-
adsa
-
-
adsa

adsb
adsb
-
adsb
-

-
adsc
-
-
adsc

-
adse
-
-
adse

adsl
adsl
-
adsl
-

-
adss
-
-
adss
-
adpu320
adpu320
-
-
-
adpu320
adst70
adst70
-
adst70
-
-
-
amd
-
-
amd
-
-
blc
-
-
blc
-
c8xx
c8xx
-
c8xx
-
-
ciss
ciss
-
ciss
-
-
cpqsc
cpqsc
-
cpqsc
-
-
-
dak
-
dak
-
-
-
dpt
-
-
dpt
-
-
flashpt
-
-
flashpt
-
i2oOSM
i2oOSM
i2oOSM
-
-
-
ida
ida
-
ida
-
-
ide
ide
ide
ide
-
-
iir
iir
-
-
-
iir
mpt
mpt
-
mpt
-
-
-
qlc1020
-
qlc1020
-
-
-
qlc1280
-
-
qlc1280
-
-
qlc12160
-
-
qlc12160
-
-
qlc2100
-
-
qlc2100
-
qlc2200
qlc2200
-
qlc2200
-
-
qlc2300
qlc2300
-
qlc2300
-
-

System Requirements

The hardware that you will need to support an installation of UnixWare will vary depending on the installation options you choose. All installations have the following minimum requirements:

Processor
Architecture
Memory
Disk size/partitions
Mouse
Host Bus Adapter
Network Card
Video
Media devices

We recommend that your planning provide adequate hardware resources for both the operating system and the applications and data that you intend to use on the system. The more RAM and CPU resources you provide, the better the system will perform under heavy load. The Minimum resources listed above only consider what is required to run the OS alone, without any applications. Therefore it is critical that you gather the hardware requirements for both the OS and any applications that you will run on the system, as well as considering the needs of any users who will reside on the system to get the complete set of hardware requirements prior to the purchase of any hardware. For example, if the system will be running the Optional Service called Merge, you will need to provide a minimum of 128MB of RAM, at least a 200MHz CPU, and at least 100MB of disk space for each Merge user to get good performance from the application.

Installing and configuring hardware devices

Installing and configuring hardware consists of physically installing hardware controllers, running hardware setup programs, and configuring software controllers to support the new devices.

After the hardware is physically installed and configured, you are ready to install UnixWare. Software controllers for most hardware devices are configured automatically by the installation. If you need to manually configure software drivers, you can do so by entering the Device Configuration Utility (DCU) during the installation.

For information on the DCU, see "Configuring installation hardware".

Hard disk detection

UnixWare cannot install on a device that is not detected. If you do not pay attention to the device information presented on the installation screens, you may install UnixWare on a secondary disk (if one is present) because the primary disk was not found. If a secondary disk is not present, an error message is given that indicates the installation cannot proceed.

UnixWare is installed on the primary hard disk found for the primary Host Bus Adapter (HBA). Typically, rules for determining which HBA, or which disk, is primary are as follows:

You must be familiar with your system's physical configuration before you begin the installation. When the hardware diagnostics are run as the system first powers up, check the console messages for recognition of your devices. If you do not see what you expect, check the system BIOS setting to make sure there are no conflicts. Check power and bus cables to make sure they are well attached.

Once the UnixWare HBA autodetection is complete during the installation interview process, you can use AltSysReq h to switch from the current virtual terminal to the system console to see diagnostic messages for devices that successfully load. HBA and disk information may be present on the screen. Use AltSysReq F1 to switch back to the virtual terminal running the installation.

When configuring disk setup, verify the disk sizes being reported on the screen as well as the device names being presented. Device names contain the information about the controller and target id for the disk it refers to.

On Compaq servers, the system BIOS will boot from the HBA as signed the "Controller order" of "first", using the System Configuration Utility. Any controller may be selected as the first controller regardless of slot.

Bootable CD-ROM Support

If your system BIOS supports booting from CD-ROM and you are using one of the Host Bus Adapter (HBA) drivers listed below, then you don't need to use the Installation diskettes to begin a fresh installation. Starting the installation from the CD-ROM will increase the overall speed of the installation. (Note that you may still require a diskette drive if you have one or more vendor HBA diskettes that you need to install. All the UnixWare HBA drivers can be loaded from CD #1.)

Driver
Supported Models
adsb
 		Adaptec AIC-789x/AHA-294xU2x/295xU2x/AHA-395xU2x 7800 Family PCI Ultra 2 SCSI HBAs
adsl
 		Adaptec AIC-7560/AIC-78xx/AHA-29xx/AHA-39xx/AHA-49xx 7800 Family PCI S CSI HBAs
adpu320
 		Adaptec Ultra320 Family PCI SCSI HBAs
adst70
 		Adaptec AIC-789xA/AHA-29160/39160 Ultra160 Family PCI SCSI IHV HBAs
c8xx
 		LSI Logic/Symbios 53c8xx/53c1010/53c1510 PCI SCSI HBAs
ciss
 		Compaq Smart Array 5300/5i/532 HBAs
cpqsc
 		Compaq Wide-Ultra SCSI HBAs
ida
 		Compaq SMART Array Controller HBAs
ide
 		Generic IDE/ATAPI HBAs
i2oOSM
 		Intel I2O Block Storage & SCSI OSM HBAs
iir
 		Intel Integrated Raid (IIR) HBAs
mpt
 		LSI Logic PCI to SCSI and Fibre Channel HBAs
qlc2200
 		QLogic QLC2200 Fibre Channel IHV HBAs
qlc2300
 		QLogic QLC2300 Fibre Channel IHV HBAs

Bootable CD-ROM support uses the ``El Torito'' extension of the ISO 9660 standard, in no-emulation boot mode.

To boot directly from the installation CD-ROM, the system must allow you to specify CD-ROM as a boot device in the system BIOS, and must not use a proprietary CD-ROM boot scheme.

To boot from a SCSI CD-ROM drive, set the SCSI controller so that BIOS support for bootable CD-ROM is enabled. Also ensure that the start up or boot device sequence set in the BIOS includes the CD-ROM device before the network device. Once the SCSI BIOS and the system BIOS are set, put the Base OS Installation CD-ROM (CD #1) in the CD-ROM drive and boot the system.

To boot from an ATAPI or USB CD-ROM drive, you must ensure that your system BIOS is new enough to support booting from a CD-ROM. Set the boot sequence of your system BIOS to start with the CD-ROM drive. Once the system BIOS is set, put the bootable CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive and boot the system.

Some systems do not support bootable CD-ROMs, so the system BIOS does not allow you to select CD-ROM as a boot device. In this case you will need to create the floppy diskettes for booting the system. See "Creating installation diskettes" for instructions on creating boot diskettes.

Creating installation diskettes

The UnixWare Installation CD #1 contains images of all diskettes used to install and troubleshoot UnixWare. These are found in the /info/images directory. See /info/images/readme.htm for how to create diskettes on a DOS or Windows system; the UNIX system instructions are reproduced below.

To create any needed diskettes, such as the installation boot and HBA diskettes, or to replace lost or damaged diskettes:

Step 1.

Log onto any UnixWare 7 system as root.

Step 2.

Mount the CD-ROM. Enter:
 mount -F cdfs -r /dev/cdrom/cdromn /mnt
 where n is the drive number, as in cdrom1, cdrom2, etc.

Step 3.

Enter:
 cd /mnt/info/images
 List the directory contents using ls to determine the file names you need to copy to diskettes,

Step 4.

Format a blank diskette by inserting it into the primary diskette drive and entering:
 

format -V /dev/rdsk/f03ht
You can skip this step if the diskette is already formatted.

Step 5.

With a formatted diskette in the primary drive, enter:
 

./ezcp image
where image is the name of the source file for the diskette you are creating:
 boot1.img = Installation Boot diskette #1
boot2.img = Installation Boot diskette #2
hba1.img = HBA diskette #1
hba2.img = HBA diskette #2
hba3.img = HBA diskette #3
netinst1.img = Network Install diskette #1
netinst2.img = Network Install diskette #2

Step 6.

Verify the checksum, by comparing the value listed in /mnt/info/images/sums with the result of this command:
 

sum -r /dev/rdsk/f03ht
The checksums should match.

From an SCO OpenServer machine, the syntax in steps 2, 4, and 6 is: 


mount -f HS -r /dev/cd0 /mnt



format /dev/rfd0135ds18



sum -r /dev/rfd0

Setting up a Network Install Server

You can set up a UnixWare system as a network Install Server, then install the contents of the UnixWare CD-ROMs from that server.

Please see the UnixWare Documentation Web Site at http://www.sco.com/support/docs/unixware for complete instructions on staging Unixware 7.1.4 Installation from a network Install Server.

Installation checklists

Installation checklists show you what information you will need to install UnixWare correctly. If you complete the checklists, the installation will go more quickly and you will have a written log of your responses, in case you ever need to troubleshoot or reinstall your system.

Information relevant to all types of installations is contained in the "General installation checklist". The following checklists might also apply to your environment:

Hardware
Network
Partitions
Filesystems

General installation checklist

Complete this checklist for all installations.

1.
 		Installation language
 		q English
 q French q German q Spanish q Japanese q Korean
2.
 		Zone/Locale/Keyboard
 These three interrelated options determine your keyboard choices and how the system displays currency, punctuation, and other special characters. If you do not know the correct zone, chooseAll Locales. Choose a locale that maps to your country or geographic region when the list is presented. If you choose the C or POSIX locales, special characters will not be displayable and sorting will be performed in ASCII order.		 q Americas (Latin-1)
 q Eastern Europe (Latin-5) q Central Europe (Latin-2) q Western Europe (Latin-1) q Asia q Other Locale:-------------- Keyboard:--------------
3.
 		License Number/Code/Data
 Obtain your license information from a printed license in the License Pack shipped with your software, or from your vendor's licensing web page. If you choose to defer licensing, you are issued a 60-day evaluation license. License Data is only prompted for when required.		 License Number:

--------------
 License Code:

--------------
 License Data:

--------------
4.
 		Additional Host Bus Adapter diskettes required?
 If your vendor supplied you with one or more additional HBA diskettes, check Yes here.		 q Yes    q No
5.
 		Manual hardware configuration required?
 The UnixWare installation auto-detects most common hardware devices. In some cases, such as when a device is not auto-detected or two devices share the same interrupt vector, you must manually configure the driver with the Device Configuration Utility. If so, check Yes here and see the "Installation hardware checklist".		 q Yes    q No
6.
 		System node name
 The name must be unique, begin with a letter, and contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and the dash character. The maximum length is 63 characters.

--------------
7.
 		Installation type
 Choose to install from a CD-ROM or a network installation server. If you choose a network installation, see the "Network checklists".		 q CD-ROM
 q TCP network server
8.
 		Use whole disk for installation?
 For both your primary and secondary hard disks, you can use the whole disk to install UnixWare or partition the disk. If you choose to customize partitions, see the "Partitions and filesystems checklists".		 Disk One:
 q Use whole disk for UNIX q Customize disk partitions Disk Two: q Use whole disk for UNIX q Customize disk partitions q Do not modify
9.
 		Configure filesystems on active partition?
 You can configure multiple filesystems on the active partition. If you choose to customize filesystems,see the "Partitions and filesystems checklists".		 q Use default filesystems
 q Customize filesystems on the active partition
10.
 		Configure special disk operations?
 You can analyze the disk surface, overwrite boot code, or reset disk geometry. These options might erase some or all of the data on your hard disk. If you installed a previous version of UnixWare, you must choose to overwrite the boot code.		 q Do not configure special disk operations
 q Configure special disk operations
11.
 		System profiles
 System profiles simplify the installation process by ensuring that the appropriate services and packages are installed on your system. You can choose default software based on the license you entered, a small footprint server, a full installation, or you can create your own custom configuration. For a description of system profiles, see "Installation Profiles".		 q License-Based Defaults
 q Small Footprint Server q Full (All Packages) q Custom Configuration
12.
 		System services
 If you choose to customize your configuration, list one or more system services to install or remove from the services list.		 --------------
 -------------- -------------- -------------- --------------
13.
 		System packages
 If you configure services, you can select additional packages to install or remove from the packages list. 		--------------
 -------------- -------------- -------------- --------------
14.
 		Date and time
 Select your location and time zone from the choices provided.		 Continent:
--------------
 Geographic area:
--------------
 Time zone name:
--------------
15.
 		Security level
 Choose Low for systems not widely or publicly accessed;Traditional to maintain compatibility with existing UNIX systems; or Improved if you require C2 security. Use High only on highly confidential systems which do not allow remote access (including telnet,rlogin, and ftp).		 q Low
 q Traditional q Improved (C2) q High (above C2)
16.
 		System owner
 The system owner is an account with special privileges on the system. The owner password should be shared only with trusted administrators, and you may not want to record it here.		 Owner name:
--------------
 Owner account name:
--------------
 Owner user ID (UID):
--------------
 Owner password:
--------------
17.
 		root password
 The root account, or superuser, has unlimited privileges to view files and run programs on the installed system. The root password should b shared only with trusted administrators, and you may not want to record it here.		 root password:

--------------
18.
 		Save installation responses?
 After you answer installation prompts and before loading software, you can save your installation prompt responses to diskette for future use in reinstalling this system or another UnixWare system.		 q Yes    q No
19.
 		Mouse
 		q Bus mouse
 q PS/2 compatible mouse q Serial mouse q No mouse Number of buttons q 2    q 3

Installation hardware checklist

To configure an installation device (CD-ROM or tape drive) that is not automatically detected by the installation, you must:

1. Load the appropriate hardware driver onto the system. You may have been supplied a driver by the hardware vendor. If so, you need to load it manually at the beginning of the installation procedure.
 2. When prompted during installation, use the Device Configuration Utility (DCU) to check the status of the driver; activate the driver, if necessary. Also use the DCU to configure the driver to support the hardware you are using.

When you use the DCU to configure a driver, you must enter some or all of the following configuration information:

1.
 		Device name
 The manufacturer's name of the device.
-------------
2.
 		Driver name
 The driver name corresponding to the manufacturer's name.
-------------
3.
 		Unit number
 An optional parameter that identifies a subdevice attached to a particular controller. In most cases, this value should be set to 0.

---
4.
 		IPL
 The interrupt priority level. Set to 0 if interrupt priority handling is disabled for this device, or a value from 1 (lowest priority) to 7 (highest priority).

---
5.
 		ITYPE
 The interrupt vector sharing type. Set to 0 if interrupt sharing is not supported or the device does not use interrupts; 1 if the device uses an IRQ that cannot be shared; 2 if the device uses an IRQ that can only be shared with another instance of the same module; 3 if the IRQ can be shared with any module; or 4 if the device uses an EISA level-sensitive IRQ that can be shared with any module.



---
6.
 		IRQ
 The interrupt vector used by this device. Be sure the IRQ you select matches the setup (software or jumpers) of your hardware.

---
7.
 		I/O start address
 The lowest I/O address through which the device communicates. This is a hexadecimal value from 0 through FFFF.

-------------
8.
 		I/O end address
 The highest I/O address through which the device communicates. This is a hexadecimal value from 0 through FFFF.

-------------
9.
 		Memory start address
 The lowest memory address through which the device communicates. This is a hexadecimal value from 10000 through FFFFFFFF.

-------------
10.
 		Memory end address
 The highest memory address through which the device communicates. This is a hexadecimal value from 10000 through FFFFFFFF.

-------------
11.
 		DMA channel
 The direct memory access channel for this device. If this device has no DMA channel, set it to -1.

---
12.
 		Bind CPU
 The CPU to which this device is bound. If the device is not CPU-specific, leave this value blank.

---

These values should not conflict with the values for any other device on your system.

Network checklists

If you are configuring TCP/IP networking or the Network Information Service (NIS), complete these checklists. The values you record here are used when you configure the system to pull UnixWare from an installation server, or when you configure your network after selecting software packages.

Network adapter checklist

If your network adapter is a "smart" bus adapter (for example, an EISA or PCI adapter), UnixWare will detect and autoconfigure the appropriate network driver. If it is an ISA or PCMCIA/PC Card adapter, you must manually enter the configuration parameters prompted for during the installation. Parameters common to many adapters are listed in items 1-7. Use items 8-12 to list any additional parameters your adapter uses. See your network adapter's manual for the correct values.

1.
 		Network adapter
 Vendor and model number.
--------------
2.
 		Interrupt vector (IRQ)
---
3.
 		I/O Address Range
--------------
4.
 		ROM Address
--------------
5.
 		DMA Channel
---
6.
 		Memory (RAM) Address Range
--------------
7.
 		RAM size

--------------
8.
 		 
--------------
9.
 		 
--------------
10.
 		 
--------------
11.
 		 
--------------
12.
 		 
--------------

TCP/IP checklist

1.
 		System IP Address.
 Four integers separated by periods (for example, 172.16.20.9).

---.---.---.---
2.
 		System Netmask
 If you are not configuring a subnetwork, accept the default value.

---.---.---.---
3.
 		Broadcast Address
 This value is automatically computed by the installation based on the System Netmask.

---.---.---.---
4.
 		Default Router
 This parameter is optional. Enter it if you know the IP address of another system that your system will use to route packets.

---.---.---.---
5.
 		Server IP Address
 If you are configuring a network installation, specify the IP address of the TCP/IP Install Server to which you will connect.

---.---.---.---
6.
 		Domain Name
 The name of your network's domain, such as sco.com.
------------
7.
 		Primary DNS Address
 This parameter is optional. Enter it if you know the IP address of the Domain Name Service server for your network.

---.---.---.---
8.
 		Other DNS addresses
 These parameters are optional. Enter them if you know the IP address of alternate DNS servers on your network.
---.---.---.---
---.---.---.---
9.
 		Frame Format
 Choose from the list displayed by the installation. The default is ETHERNET_II.

------------

Network Information Server checklist

If you install the Network Information Service (NIS), you can configure the following parameters during the installation process:

1.
 		NIS system type
 		q Master
 q Slave q Client
2.
 		NIS domain
--------------
3.
 		NIS master server
 The master server for this slave or client.
--------------
4.
 		NIS slave server(s)
 One or more slave servers for this master.
--------------

--------------

--------------

Partitions and filesystems checklists

When installing the UnixWare operating system, you can define the partition(s) for the primary hard disk and an optional secondary hard disk. You can also modify filesystem types and sizes for the active UNIX system partition.

Read this section and complete the checklist below if you want to:

If you do not want to configure partitions and filesystems manually, the UnixWare installation will set them up automatically. When prompted by the installation, choose to:

Use the whole disk for UNIX at the Disk Configuration window.
 Accept default filesystems at the Default/Customized Slices window.

Partitions checklist and notes

You can define up to four partitions for each hard disk during the installation.

Table 1: Primary hard disk partitions
Partition
Type
% of disk
Starting cylinder
1
________
__________
___________
2
________
__________
___________
3
________
__________
___________
4
________
__________
___________


Table 2: Secondary hard disk partitions
Partition
Type
% of disk
Starting cylinder
1
________
__________
___________
2
________
__________
___________
3
________
__________
___________
4
________
__________
___________

Partition types are:

UNIX System
Pre-5.0 DOS
DOS
Other
System

Remember these restrictions when filling out the partitions tables:

Filesystems checklist

You can modify several default filesystems and "slices" (portions of the active partition with no kernel-managed filesystem defined) during the installation. The following table lists the installation defaults for 1 and 2 disk systems. These are presented when you choose Customize filesystems and slices during installation (see Step 11 on page 59):

Filesystem
Description
Default
Type
Size
Disk 1 or 2
/
 		Root filesystem
vxfs
vxfs

_____(MB)
1
/stand
 		Boot filesystem
bfs
bfs

_____(MB)
1
/dev/swap
 		Swap slice
slice
slice
_____(MB)
1
/dev/dump
 		Dump slice
off
________
_____(MB)
1
/home
 		User filesystem
off

________

_____(MB)
(1/2)
/home2
 		2nd user filesystem
off

________

_____(MB)
(1/2)
/home3
 		3rd user filesystem
off

________

_____(MB)
(1/2)
/usr/local
 		Add-on filesystem
off

________

_____(MB)
(1/2)


off

________

_____(MB)
(1/2)


off

________

_____(MB)
(1/2)
/var
 		Add-on filesystem
off

________

_____(MB)
(1/2)
/tmp
 		Temporary filesystem
memfs

________

_____(MB)
(1/2)
/var/tmp
 		Temporary filesystem
memfs

________

_____(MB)
(1/2)
/dev/volprivate
 		Private volume
slice

________

_____(MB)
1

Filesystems notes

This section describes each of the filesystems you can configure.

For vxfs file system types, you have the option of choosing the "Sync on Close" option. This option ensures that files are written to the disk when an application closes a file (as for example, occurs when you save a file from an editor). For the root file system ("/") the default is "No Sync on Close". For the /var file system (when explicitly chosen as a separate file system), the default is "Sync on Close". For all other file systems configured by the screen above, the default is "No Close on Sync".

You can change the default by tabbing to the size column, and then choosing option F6 (Configure advanced parameters). Advanced options also include specifying vxfs filesystem log and block sizes.

If you choose "Sync on Close", the resulting file system will be slower (e.g., for intensive production work), but will be more likely to retain recent edits.

/
/stand
/dev/swap
/dev/dump
/home, /home2
User-defined
/var
/tmp
/var/tmp
/dev/volprivate

Configuring swap space for systems with large physical memory

The default size for the swap slice, as calculated during the installation, is based on the total amount of memory in the system, plus the size of memfs file systems. Default memfs size is based on available disk space. As system memory gets larger, the value of paging to swap diminishes, and, while it is possible to simply not configure a swap slice on a very large memory system, the swap slice actually provides utility even if the system never actually pages to it, due to the internal requirement to reserve "virtual swap" space.

The following table shows the system defaults used during installation, which will be adequate for many installations.

Disk Size (GB)
Total memfs Size
                                              RAM Size and Total /dev/swap Size
    32            64            128           256          384           512        1024       2048        4096
1
50.0
107.0
143.0
199.0
279.0
327.0
375.0
567.0
951.0
1719.0
2
71.7
128.7
164.7
220.7
300.7
348.7
396.7
588.7
972.7
1740.7
2.5
89.6
146.6
182.6
238.6
318.6
366.6
414.6
606.6
990.6
1758.6
4
143.4
200.4
236.4
292.4
372.4
420.4
468.4
660.4
1044.4
1812.4
4.5
161.3
218.3
254.3
310.3
390.3
438.3
486.3
678.3
1062.3
1830.3
6
215.0
272.0
308.0
364.0
444.0
492.0
540.0
732.0
1116.0
1884.0
8
286.7
343.7
379.7
435.7
515.7
563.7
611.7
803.7
1187.7
1955.7
10
358.4
415.4
451.4
507.4
587.4
635.4
683.4
875.4
1259.4
2027.4
12
430.1
4871
523.1
579.1
659.1
707.1
755.1
947.1
1331.1
2099.1
16
573.4
630.4
666.4
722.4
802.4
850.4
898.4
1090.4
1474.4
2242.4
18
645.1
702.1
738.1
794.1
874.1
922.1
970.1
1162.1
1546.1
2314.1
20
716.8
773.8
809.8
865.8
945.8
993.8
1041.8
1233.8
1617.8
2385.8
25
896.0
953.0
989.0
1045.0
1125.0
11730
1221.0
1413.0
1797.0
2565.0
30
1024.0
1081.0
1117.0
1173.0
1253.0
1301.0
1349.0
1541.0
1925.0
2693.0

On a small system, as a rough estimate, swap space should be twice the size of non-dedicated memory. Larger amounts of swap space (up to a maximum of 16GB) must be allocated for systems with larger RAM. The following table shows reasonable allocations of swap space for systems of different sizes (assuming no memfs):

Size of system
Size of swap space
16MB
32MB
64MB
75MB
256MB
200MB
1024MB
430MB
4096MB
1330MB

On a system with a large amount of system memory, more swap may be allocated during installation than is necessary. However, you can resize the swap space to a smaller value and allocate the freed space to other slices or filesystems, by using the Customize Filesystems and Slices screen during installation.

Configuring dump space for systems with large physical memory

You can perform normal dumps, or selective dumps, on systems with any amount of memory, including those with more than 4GB of memory. In a normal dump, all of physical memory is dumped to disk and the system dump memory image can be examined using crash(1M).

If you have experienced a system panic, the relevant information for diagnosis is usually in the kernel pages. On a system with large memory, it can be more practical to perform a selective dump (only the kernel mapped pages are dumped to disk). This means that the dump is quicker and smaller at the expense of certain information (user space pages). A selective dump is made at the time of the panic, but you must specify that you want a selective dump when the system is booted. Set the kernel tunable parameter SYSDUMP_SELECTIVE to 1 to obtain a selective dump. For information on performing this task, see Changing tunable parameters with the System Tuner in the online documentation in the online documentation (http://localhost:8458).

You might want to specify a selective dump if your system has a large amount of physical memory or if maximum use of disk space is required (keeping the dump slice as small as possible to free up disk for filesystems).

Use the following information to configure the dump space for best results for the amount of memory on your system:

full dump
selective dump
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