Datasheet

“main” (Installation and Administration) — 2004/6/25 — 13:29 — page 134 — #160

3.8 Assigning Permanent Device File

Names to SCSI Devices

When the system is booted, SCSI devices are assigned device ﬁle names

in a more or less dynamic way. This is no problem as long as the number

or conﬁguration of the devices does not change. However, if a new SCSI

hard disk is added and the new hard disk is detected by the kernel before

the old hard disk, the old disk is assigned a new name and the entry in the

mount table /etc/fstab no longer matches.

To avoid this problem, the system start-up script boot.scsidev could be

used. Enable this script using /sbin/insserv and set parameters for it

in /etc/sysconfig/scsidev. The script /etc/rc.d/boot.scsidev

handles the setup of the SCSI devices during the boot procedure and en-

ters permanent device names under /dev/scsi/. These names can then

be used in /etc/fstab. In addition, /etc/scsi.alias can be used to

deﬁne persistent names for the SCSI conﬁguration. See also man scsidev.

In the expert mode of the runlevel editor, activate boot.scsidev for level

B. The links needed for generating the names during the boot procedure

are then created in /etc/init.d/boot.d.

Note

Device Names and udev

For SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server, although boot.scsidev

is still supported, the preferred way to create persistent device

names is to use udev to create device nodes with persistent

names in /dev/by-id/.

Note

3.9 Partitioning for Experts

This section provides detailed information for tailoring system partitioning

to your needs. This information is mainly of interest for those who want to

optimize a system for security and speed and who are prepared to reinstall

the entire existing system if necessary.

The procedures described here require a basic understanding of the func-

tions of a UNIX ﬁle system. You should be familiar with mount points and

physical, extended, and logical partitions.

134 3.8. Permanent Device Names for SCSI Devices