In Solaris, disks are named in "cXtXdX" format, where "X" is a number assigned by the OS, and the administrator differentiates the disks by the assigned consecutive numbers.
This was not a problem if the disk configuration was small, and if the disks were accessed from a certain server. However, when the environment is such that there are many disks connected, or in a SAN environment where a disk is shared by multiple servers, it is impossible to manage the disks using consecutive numbers.
With GDS, the administrator can freely name objects such as physical disks and logical volumes. Names that are easy to remember, for example, those associated with hardware configuration or data contents can be assigned.
Once an object is named, the name remains the same even if the physical configuration is changed. In other words, the user does not have to make any changes to applications that recognize the name.
Figure 1.19 Free Device Name
