Virtual Disk Appearance

When a backend is exported as a virtual disk, it can appear in the guest domain either as a full disk or as a single slice disk. The way it appears depends on the type of the backend and on the options used to export it.

Full Disk

When a backend is exported to a domain as a full disk, it appears in that domain as a regular disk with 8 slices (s0 to s7). Such a disk is visible with the format(1M) command. The disk's partition table can be changed using either the fmthard(1M) or format(1M) command.

A full disk is also visible to the OS installation software and can be selected as a disk onto which the OS can be installed.

Any backend can be exported as a full disk except physical disk slices that can only be exported as single slice disks.

Single Slice Disk

When a backend is exported to a domain as a single slice disk, it appears in that domain as a regular disk with 8 slices (s0 to s7). However, only the first slice (s0) is usable. Such a disk is visible with the format(1M) command, but the disk's partition table cannot be changed.

A single slice disk is also visible from the OS installation software and can be selected as a disk onto which you can install the OS. In that case, if you install the OS using the UNIX File System (UFS), then only the root partition (/) must be defined, and this partition must use all the disk space.

Any backend can be exported as a single slice disk except physical disks that can only be exported as full disks.

Prior to the Solaris 10 10/08 OS release, a single slice disk appeared as a disk with a single partition (s0). Such a disk was not visible with the format(1M) command. The disk also was not visible from the OS installation software and could not be selected as a disk device onto which the OS could be installed.