I hope I am posting in the correct forum.

I have a server - which I am installing solaris 9 on.
The server currently has 2 disks. I wish to run solaris 9 on one, and use the other as a mirror for the first one. ie. If the first one should ever fail, then I can swap to the mirror and just replace the first disk and let it re-build.

How do I go about doing this? can this be set at prom level or would it be necessary to buy software to manage this?
I am trying to avoid buying any additional software if possible.

Do you want to setup a raid configuration? That depends on your H/W though.

You could use dump (dd) to copy the disk. You can copy partitions over as a backup.

There are several ways it could be done and everyone will have their own way which suits them best.

What kind of time frame you looking for uptime though? Trying for something like 99-100%? Wouldn't matter if the computer was offline for 30 minutes? 3 hours? a day? That time would really depend what/how you should setup a mirror.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don't mean to put a downer on your question. I'm just someone who looks right into it and plans for the best whenever I setup anything. I like to do it correct first time or don't bother with doing it.

Disksuite comes with Solaris - you can use it to mirror the two disks. Info can be found at docs.sun.com

no problem..

I could accept 20 mins downtime per day.
H/W not great - no raid controller that I know of..
Compaq Proliant DL380 P6 1390 MHz

I would like for the following:
2 disks.
1 is main disk (root disk)
1 is mirror of the root disk. This should be mirror all of the time.
ie. if root disk fails then mirror will be in sync up until time of failure.
I can then replace failed disk and new disk will re-sync with mirror.

Is this possible? do i need some software constantly updating the mirror with any changes on the root disk?
Would I be better just syncing once a day?
Its a server that will mainly have scripts on it - I could live with the data being 24 hours old if I have to.

Again, use disksuite (in Solaris9 and above known as Solaris Volume Manager)- see How do I mirror root with Disksuite and check out the link above (posted earlier).

Looks good - sorry I didnt see the post on disksuite before i posted my last comment.

Appreciate the help!

will disksuite go down with only two disks? i thought it had to be 50% plus 1 ? which assumes three disks for metadbs?