Solaris

I tried rebooting my Sun server just a few minutes ago and I got the following at boot:
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Sun Fire 280R (UltraSPARC-III+) , No Keyboard
Copyright 1998-2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
OpenBoot 4.5, 1024 MB memory installed, Serial #xxxxxxxxx
Ethernet address xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx, Host ID: 8323nnnn.

Rebooting with command: boot
Bad magic number in disk label
Can't open disk label package
Boot device: net File and args:
Timeout waiting for ARP/RARP packet
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Now I know that this was probably my fault because I was trying to get a look at the partition table with fdisk and I think I hosed something when trying to view slice 2. The big question is... can this be fixed without having to reinstall the OS and restore data from tape? This box is running Sun Solaris 8 02/02 with no patches. (I know, I know... my job just keeps me too busy to keep up) I have a spare system with Solaris on it and I could restore from the last backup, but I really want to avoid this if there is a way to fix the disklabel without losing data on the drive. Not to mention the last time I restored from tape, it took 18 hours.

I already have a call into Sun support, but our contract only allows calls in starting at 8:00M EST. I'm just hoping that someone here might give me some ideas of things to try before I talk to Sun. Man I feel foolish...

it is for sure that it is not the best idea to play with the partition layout on a life system, if you don't have a backup of your VTOC and you don't know on which cylinders the slices were set up, there will be no change to get the system back.

for future use have a look at the following commands: prtvtoc & fmthard & installboot

do you have a mirror? if yes, have you done these changes on both disks?

please post the answere of your sun-systems-engineer. could be interessting what my colleagues say ;-)

We'll see what Sun support says, but I have a feeling it's going to be re-install the OS and restore the data from tape. Restoring 14 gigs from tape always takes me about 18 hours. Loads of fun ahead of me...

Yeah. Looks like it's re-install the OS and restore from tape time. That'll learn me to never use the fdisk command to see the partition table. I'm so used to that in other OSes. Nothing like learning something the hard way...

i would advice you too take the original formattool: format
the fdisk command is only included to script automatic format, label, repair and analyze progresses.
the format tool is a menu based commandline tool which should fit your requirements.
to see your partitiontable type format, choose your disk, type partition for the partition menu and print to see the table.... quit, quit to exit ;-)

greetings pressy

Thanks. I'll need to keep that in mind for future reference. Oh well, we live and we learn.

Also see prtvtoc which is completely safe. You can do damage with "format" as well.