Using a USB Flash Drive on the MAS

A USB flash drive can be used to move large files, such as dumps, traces, or updates, onto and off of the MAS.

The MAS is not factory-configured to support a USB flash drive by default. One time only, you must configure the MAS to support a USB flash drive.

Once the MAS has been configured to support a USB flash drive, you can use a USB flash drive on the MAS.

Configure the MAS to support a USB flash drive

Note: This procedure only needs to be performed one time.

Open a superuser terminal session on the MAS.^{Note 1}

Enter the following commands to back up, then edit, the file '/etc/modules.conf':

cd /etc
cp modules.conf modules.old
vi modules.conf
You will see the following line in /etc/modules.conf. It is commented out because it starts with a # sign:
#alias usb-controller usb-uhci

Un-comment the line by removing the # sign:
alias usb-controller usb-uhci
Save the changes and exit the vi editor:
:wq
Enter the following commands:

modprobe usb-controller
modprobe usb-storage
If you don't already have one, make a mount point for the USB drive:

mkdir /mnt/usbdrv

You are now ready to use the flash drive.

Use a USB flash drive on the MAS

Once the MAS has been configured to support a USB flash drive, you can insert one and use it at any time. Here are the basic steps to use the drive; more details are described below:

Insert the USB flash drive
Mount it on a local directory
Read and write to it
Unmount it (Important step! It cannot be overemphasized that you must unmount and wait for the writing of the data to be completed!)
Remove the USB flash drive

Once the USB flash drive has been inserted into any MAS USB port, it will be immediately added to the list of available drives. To verify that the USB flash drive has been added to the system, enter the following command:

sfdisk -s

You should find the USB flash drive at the bottom of the list. Here is an example after a 512 MB flash drive has been inserted:

/dev/sda:   35843686
/dev/sdb:   35843686
/dev/sdc: 2022584220
/dev/sdd:     492544

In this case, the USB flash drive is device /dev/sdd. The device name assigned to your USB flash drive may vary depending on your current configuration of hard drives.

Once you have identified the name of your USB flash drive, mount it for use:

mount /dev/sdd1 /mnt/usbdrv

In this example, the USB flash drive name was /dev/sdd, making the name of the first (only) partition on the drive /dev/sdd1. In your case, the device name may be different; be sure to use the correct device name in the mount command.

The USB flash drive is now available for writing and reading in directory /mnt/usbdrv.

IMPORTANT: Before removing the USB flash drive, you must un-mount the flash drive. Otherwise, the data on the flash drive may be incomplete or corrupted:

umount /mnt/usbdrv

The data will not be completely written to the USB flash drive until the unmount command completes. You must wait for the unmount to complete!

You may now remove the USB flash drive from the MAS USB port.

Note 1: How to open a superuser terminal session:
1. At the MAS console, press the <ALT+F2> keys.
2. At the Run Command prompt, enter the command superuser.
3. Enter the root user's password when prompted.