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Add an additional hard drive to virtual SCO Openserver 5

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This is a quick post and video that shows how to add an additional Hard Drive to a Virtual SCO Openserver 5 system.

When I configure SCO Openserver Systems I always use the LSI Logic Parrallel controller. It seems to provide reasonable performance and makes it easy to add additional virtual drives if required.

The virtual machine in the video already has two SCSI drives and I demonstrate how to add a third. When completed the /etc/conf/cd.f/mscsi file looks like this:

*ha     attach  number  ID      lun     bus
*
lsil    Sdsk    0       0       0       0
wd      Srom    1       0       0       0
lsil    Sdsk    0       1       0       0
lsil    Sdsk    0       2       0       0

The highlighted line represents the virtual disk that is going to be added. Note that in the mscsi file an asterisk symbol denotes a comment. So this virtual machine has 3 hard drives, all using the “lsil” controller at IDs 0,1 and 2.

How to add an Additional Virtual Drive

Adding an additional drive is easy, but not very intuitive in my opinion. Here is how to do it:

  1. From a root prompt run:
    mkdev hd
  2. Choose Option:
    2) Add a hard disk to a SCSI controller
  3. You are now prompted for the prefix of the SCSI Host Adapter that will support the new drive. In this case it is “lsil”. You can just press enter if that is already the default.
  4. When asked which SCSI Host Adapter supports the new device (0 or 1). Put in whatever you specified on the Virtual Hard Drive. But more than likely it will be zero.
  5. Next you are asked what the Target ID for the device is. Again, match this to the SCSI ID specified with the Virtual machine.
  6. The LUN will be Zero.
  7. Finally you are asked if you would like to update the SCSI configuration. Press y for Yes.

Now relink the kernel and reboot. When you have logged back in run the procedure above and answer the questions in the same way again. This time around “mkdev hd” actually does some work with the drive.

From here it is up to you how you want to setup the drive, but in a ESXi environment I always just make a single division and use the entire drive for Unix.

After the new drive is added and you have created a division you can mount it with scoadmin.

It is far easier to watch the video below than understand the written explanation. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.