README.solaris

In Solaris, SCSI device names below the '/dev' directory have a
form like: c5t4d3s2 where the number following "c" is the controller
(HBA) number, the number following "t" is the target number (from
the SCSI parallel interface days) and the number following "d" is
the LUN. Following the "s" is the slice number which is related to
a partition and by convention "s2" is the whole disk.

OpenSolaris also has a c5t4d3p2 form where the number following
the "p" is the partition number apart from "p0" which is the whole
disk. So a whole disk may be referred to as either:
  - c5t4d3
  - c5t4d3s2
  - c5t4d3p0

And these device names are duplicated in the /dev/dsk and /dev/rdsk
directories. The former is the block device name and the latter
is for "raw" (or char device) access. For performance and flexibility
it is better for ddpt to use the raw device names (e.g.
/dev/rdsk/c5t4d3p0).  A safe way to check things is:
   ddpt if=/dev/rdsk/c5t4d3p0 bs=512 count=0 verbose=4
If it did read anything (it won't due to the "count=0") the
normal Unix read() call would be used. To do the same thing at the
SCSI pass-through level:
   ddpt if=/dev/rdsk/c5t4d3p0 iflag=pt bs=512 count=0 verbose=4
The latter won't work on the /dev/dsk/c5t4d3p0 variant device name
resulting in an inappropriate ioctl for device error.

The device names within the /dev directory are typically symbolic
links to much longer topological names in the /device directory.

In Solaris cd/dvd/bd players seem to be treated as disks and so are
found in the /dev/rdsk directory.

There is also a sgen (SCSI generic) driver which by default does not
attach to any device. See the /kernel/drv/sgen.conf file to control
what is attached. Any attached device will have a device name of
the form /dev/scsi/c5t4d3 .

Listing available SCSI devices in Solaris seems to be a challenge.
"Use the 'format' command" advice works but seems a very dangerous
way to list devices. [It does prompt again before doing any damage.]
'devfsadm -Cv' cleans out the clutter in the /dev/rdsk directory,
only leaving what is "live". The "cfgadm -v" command looks promising.


8th April 2010