Files on a disk are contained in file systems. Each file system on a disk is assigned to a slice comprising of a group of sectors. Slices are sometimes referred to as partitions. Certain interfaces, such as the format utility, refer to slices as partitions.
Each disk slice appears as a separate disk drive.
When setting up slices, remember these rules:
Each disk slice holds only one file system.
No file system can span multiple slices.
For information about file systems, see Managing File Systems in Oracle Solaris 11.2 .
Third-party database applications typically create raw data slices. These applications must not use block 0 or slice 2 for raw slices. Block 0 stores the disk label while slice 2 represents the entire disk with a VTOC label. Creating raw slices on these two locations overwrites the disk label and renders data on the disk inaccessible.
When you use the format utility to change the size of one or more disk slices, you designate a temporary slice that will expand and shrink to accommodate the resizing operations.
This temporary slice donates, or “frees,” space when you expand a slice, and receives, or “hogs,” the discarded space when you shrink a slice. For this reason, the donor slice is sometimes called the free hog.
The free hog slice exists only during installation or when you run the format utility. There is no permanent free hog slice during day-to-day operations.
For information on using the free hog slice, see How to Replace a ZFS Root Pool (VTOC) or How to Replace a ZFS Root Pool (EFI (GPT)).