OVERVIEW

The configuration of a Digital UNIX system is a broad topic that touches every possible system and user subsystem and service, both hardware and software. Rather than attempt to cover each subsystem in exhaustive detail, I will address certain areas that are of interest to all Digital UNIX system administrators. If a topic is not covered, refer to the appropriate Digital UNIX documentation for configuration details.

This chapter will discuss the following aspects of Digital UNIX system configuration:

3.1 DISK MANAGEMENT

The subject of disk management is an important topic for a Digital UNsystem administrator. Almost every Digital UNIX system has one or more physical disk drives that are the primary online storage media for the operating system itself as well as user applications and data. Before proceeding further, it is necessary to define which disks will be discussed and also describe several important characteristics of a disk drive that will be helpful to understand when partitioning disks. In this section, the term "disk" will be used to refer to rotating magnetic media. Disks are also commonly called disk drives, hard drives, or fixed storage. This last term refers to the fact that disk drives are normally "fixed" in place, as opposed to media such as floppy diskettes and optical disk subsystems, including CD-ROMs in which the medi`a is removable from the drive mechanism. See Chapter 7,...