Do not create a stripe from an existing file system or data. Doing so destroys data. To create a stripe from existing data, you must back up the data, create the stripe volume, and then restore the data to the volume.
Do not create volumes larger than 1Tbyte if you expect to run the Solaris software with a 32-bit kernel. Additionally, do not create volumes larger than 1Tbyte if you expect to use a version of the Solaris OS prior to the Solaris 9 4/03 release. See Overview of Multi-Terabyte Support in Solaris Volume Manager for more information about large volume support in Solaris Volume Manager.
From the Enhanced Storage tool within the Solaris Management Console, open the Volumes node. Choose Action⇒Create Volume, then follow the instructions in the wizard. For more information, see the online help.
Use the following form of the metainit command:
# metainit volume-name number-of-stripes components-per-stripe component-names [ -i interlace]
Specifies the name of the volume to create. For information on naming volumes, see Volume Names.
Specifies the number of stripes to create.
Specifies the number of components each stripe should have.
Specifies the names of the components that are used. If more than one component is used, separate each component with a space.
Specifies the interlace width to use for the stripe. The interlace width is a value, followed by either `k' for kilobytes, `m' for megabytes, or `b' for blocks. The interlace specified cannot be less than 16 blocks, or greater than 100 megabytes. The default interlace width is 16 kilobytes.
See the following examples and the metainit(1M) man page for more information.
# metainit d20 1 3 c0t1d0s2 c0t2d0s2 c0t3d0s2 d20: Concat/Stripe is setup
This example shows the stripe, d20, consists of a single stripe (the number 1). The stripe is composed of three slices (the number 3). Because no interlace value is specified, the stripe uses the default of 16 Kbytes. The system confirms that the volume has been set up.
# metainit d10 1 2 c0t1d0s2 c0t2d0s2 -i 32k d10: Concat/Stripe is setup
This example shows the stripe, d10, consists of a single stripe (the number 1). The stripe is composed of two slices (the number 2). The -i option sets the interlace value to 32 Kbytes. (The interlace value cannot be less than 8 Kbytes, nor greater than 100 Mbytes.) The system verifies that the volume has been set up.
To prepare the newly created stripe for a file system, see Chapter 18, Creating UFS, TMPFS, and LOFS File Systems (Tasks), in System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems. Some applications, such as a database, do not use a file system. These applications instead use the raw device. The application must have its own way of accessing the raw device.