[CLUE-Tech] Question on mounting a new scsi drive

[Ken Kissinger]

Thanks to all who replied ....the info was helpful .....

Matt Gushee wrote:

> On Sat, Aug 09, 2003 at 08:42:36PM -0600, Ken Kissinger wrote:
> > I am new to Red Hat Linux and having a little trouble from a lack of
> > understanding.
> >
> > I installed Red Hat on an IDE 12 gig drive with no problems.
> >
> > I am trying to add a second hard drive that is a 2 gig SCSI.
> >
> > I installed the hardware, used fdisk to create a single partition:
> > /dev/sda1
> >
> > I used:  mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sda1  to make the file system without errors.
> >
> > Then I have trouble trying to mount the drive, mount -t ext3 /dev/sda1
> > /abc
> > returns the message mount: mount point /abc does not exist.
> >
> > How can I create a mount point, a directory, on a new drive when I can't
> > mount the drive to create a directory ?
> >
> > I am sure there is something simple that I am missing but I don't see it
> > as yet.
>
> Indeed. Your problem is not technical, but conceptual.
>
> Have you run across the acronym VFS? It stands for "Virtual File System."
> What it means is that the system gives you a consistent, unified view of
> any number of storage devices. Here's a little command-line exercise for
> you:
>
>   $ cat /etc/fstab
>
> If I do that on my desktop Linux box, I get this:
>
> # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
> #
> # <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>               <dump>  <pass>
> /dev/hda3       /                   ext2        errors=remount-ro       0       1
> /dev/hda10      none            swap    sw                      0       0
> /dev/hdc5       none            swap    sw                      0       0
> proc            /proc           proc    defaults                0       0
> /dev/fd0        /mnt/fdext      ext2    user,noauto             0       0
> /dev/fd0        /mnt/fdfat      msdos   user,noauto             0       0
> /dev/fd0        /mnt/fdmin      minix   user,noauto             0       0
> /dev/scd0       /cdrom          iso9660 ro,user,noauto          0       0
> /dev/hdc1       /var        reiserfs    defaults                0       2
> /dev/hda7       /usr        reiserfs    defaults                0       2
> /dev/hda5       /home       reiserfs    defaults                0       2
> /dev/hda6       /opt        reiserfs    defaults                0       2
> /dev/hda8       /.devel     reiserfs    defaults                0       2
> /dev/hda12      /mnt/temp       reiserfs        user,noauto,exec        0       0
> /dev/hdc8       /mnt/img        reiserfs        noauto  0       0
> /dev/hdc9       /.scratch       reiserfs        user,noauto     0       0
> /dev/hda1       /c                  msdos               user,noauto     0       0
> /dev/hda2       /d                  msdos               user,noauto     0       0
> /dev/sda1       /zip            ext2            user,noauto     0       0
>
> This is showing 19 different devices that can be mounted on my machine.
> There are two physical hard drives, a CDROM, a floppy drive, a zip
> drive, and a virtual device (proc). There are 6 different file systems
> (or 7 if you count swap space, but that's not a file system in the
> normal sense). Now, my setup is a bit complex, but consider a really
> simple configuration:
>
> /dev/hda1   /       ext2    ....
> /dev/hda2   none    swap    ....
> /dev/hdc    /cdrom  iso9660 ....
> /dev/fd0    /floppy auto    ....
> proc        /proc   proc    ....
>
> Or how about a setup that includes some network resources (NFS is
> Network File System)?
>
> /dev/hda1           /boot   ext2    ....
> 10.0.0.5:/.0/usr    /usr    nfs     ....
>
> And so on. Now, here's the $64,000 question: from the point of view of
> the end user (not the system administrator), what is the difference
> between these 3 setups?
>
> Answer: absolutely none.
>
> That's what it means to have a VFS, and to my mind is one of the really
> nice things about Unix-like systems in contrast to Windows. As a user,
> you never have to worry about whether a file is on the C:, D:, E:, or
> X: drive. If it's in /usr/local/lib, it's in /usr/local/lib. Where is
> /usr/local/lib physically located? No idea. It could be on your first
> IDE drive, or it could be on a server in another building. Assuming your
> machine and the network are properly set up, you don't need to know.
>
> (Well, of course, since you, like many Linux users, are your own system
> administrator, you actually do need to know, but you *don't* need to
> think about it in the normal course of your daily work).
>
> So to get back to your original question--in case you haven't already
> figured it out--all you have to do is:
>
>     $ mkdir /abc
>
> That directory is part of the VFS; it's not on any drive at all.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> --
> Matt Gushee                 When a nation follows the Way,
> Englewood, Colorado, USA    Horses bear manure through
> mgushee at havenrock.com           its fields;
> http://www.havenrock.com/   When a nation ignores the Way,
>                             Horses bear soldiers through
>                                 its streets.
>
>                             --Lao Tzu (Peter Merel, trans.)
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