format(1M) format(1M)
NAME
format - format an HP SCSI disk array LUN
SYNOPSIS
device_file
DESCRIPTION
formats one LUN of the HP SCSI disk array associated with device file, device_file. The format will usually be a soft or zeroing format,
in which the controller writes zeroes to the data area and parity area, if any, of the LUN.
NOTE: The above should always be true of a sub-LUN, but the controller might decide, based on certain conditions, to do a full format of a
regular LUN, which consists of sending a mode select and a media initialization command to the physical drive(s) in question, fol-
lowed by zeroing the data and parity area, if any. The conditions which will cause a full format to be done are as follows:
1. The controller received a Mode Select command which requires a drive sector size change.
2. The controller received a Mode Select command which changed a parameter in the Format Device Page(0x03).
3. The LUN contains one or more failed drives. In this case only a certain subset of the drives containing the failed drives
will be formatted.
4. Either the FmtData or the CmpLst bit in the Format Unit CDB is set.
RETURN VALUE
returns the following values:
0 Successful completion.
-1 Command failed.
DIAGNOSTICS AND ERRORS
Errors can originate from problems with:
o
o SCSI (device level) communications
o system calls
Error messages generated by format:
An error in command syntax has occurred.
Enter command again with all required arguments, in the order shown.
To ensure that
does not modify a disk array that is being used by another process, attempts to obtain exclusive access to the disk array. If the
disk array is already opened by another process (for example, LVM -- the Logical Volume Manager), a "" error message is returned by
the driver. To eliminate the "" condition, determine what process has the device open. In the case of LVM, it is necessary to
deactivate the volume group containing the array before formatting array LUNs (see vgchange(1M)).
The LUN number, which is derived from the device file name, is out of range.
The addressed LUN
is not configured, and thus is not known to the array controller.
Utilities must be able to open the device file for raw access.
The device being addressed is not an HP SCSI disk array.
SCSI (device level) communication errors:
Sense data associated with the failed operation is printed.
Error messages generated by system calls:
uses the following system calls:
and
Documentation for these HP-UX system calls contains information about the specific error conditions associated with each call. does not
alter the value of The interpretation of for printing purposes is performed by the system utility
EXAMPLES
To format the HP SCSI disk array LUN on a Series 800:
WARNING
The command will destroy all user data on the addressed LUN.
DEPENDENCIES
The HP C2425 and HP C2427 disk arrays are only supported on Series 700 systems running HP-UX version 9.0X.
The HP C2430 disk array is supported on Series 700 and 800 systems running HP-UX versions 9.0X and 10.0X.
AUTHOR
was developed by HP.
format(1M)