Skip Navigation Links | |
Exit Print View | |
![]() |
System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems Oracle Solaris 10 8/11 Information Library |
1. Managing Removable Media (Overview)
2. Managing Removable Media (Tasks)
3. Accessing Removable Media (Tasks)
4. Writing CDs and DVDs (Tasks)
5. Managing Devices (Overview/Tasks)
6. Dynamically Configuring Devices (Tasks)
7. Using USB Devices (Overview)
9. Using InfiniBand Devices (Overview/Tasks)
11. Administering Disks (Tasks)
Administering Disks (Task Map)
How to Identify the Disks on a System
How to Determine if a Disk Is Formatted
Creating and Examining a Disk Label
Recovering a Corrupted Disk Label
How to Recover a Corrupted Disk Label
12. SPARC: Setting Up Disks (Tasks)
13. x86: Setting Up Disks (Tasks)
14. Configuring Oracle Solaris iSCSI Targets and Initiators (Tasks)
15. The format Utility (Reference)
16. Managing File Systems (Overview)
17. Creating and Mounting File Systems (Tasks)
18. Using The CacheFS File System (Tasks)
19. Configuring Additional Swap Space (Tasks)
20. Checking UFS File System Consistency (Tasks)
21. UFS File System (Reference)
22. Backing Up and Restoring UFS File Systems (Overview)
23. Backing Up UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks)
24. Using UFS Snapshots (Tasks)
25. Restoring UFS Files and File Systems (Tasks)
26. UFS Backup and Restore Commands (Reference)
27. Copying Files and File Systems (Tasks)
The best way to create ZFS storage pools is to use whole disks instead of disk slices because whole disks are easier to manage. The only time you need to use a disk slice is when the disk is intended for the ZFS root pool. This is a long-standing boot limitation. For non-root pools, use whole disks. When you create a pool with whole disks, an EFI label is applied. See the EFI disk label example below.
If you need to prepare a disk for use a root pool disk, create slice 0 that contains the entire disk capacity, as shown in the VTOC disk label example below.
For information about setting up disks for use with ZFS storage pools, see Chapter 12, SPARC: Setting Up Disks (Tasks) or Chapter 13, x86: Setting Up Disks (Tasks).
Note - The format utility uses the term partition instead of slice.
You might need to display disk slice information if the disk is intended to be used for the ZFS root pool. It must also include a SMI label.
# format
A numbered list of disks is displayed.
Specify disk (enter its number):1
format> partition
partition> print
partition> q format> q #
If the screen output shows that no slice sizes are assigned, the disk probably does not have slices.
Example 11-3 Displaying Disk Slice Information
The following example displays slice information for a disk with a VTOC label.
# format Searching for disks...done Specify disk (enter its number):3 Selecting c2t3d0 format> partition partition> print Current partition table (c2t3d0): Total disk cylinders available: 14087 + 2 (reserved cylinders) Part Tag Flag Cylinders Size Blocks 0 root wm 0 - 14086 136.71GB (14087/0/0) 286698624 1 swap wu 0 0 (0/0/0) 0 2 backup wu 0 - 14086 136.71GB (14087/0/0) 286698624 3 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0 4 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0 5 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0 6 usr wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0 7 unassigned wm 0 0 (0/0/0) 0 partition> q format> q
For a detailed description of the slice information in these examples, see Chapter 10, Managing Disks (Overview).
The following example shows the slice information for a disk with an EFI label.
# format Searching for disks...done Specify disk (enter its number): 3 selecting c2t3d0 [disk formatted] format> partition partition> print Current partition table (default): Total disk sectors available: 286722878 + 16384 (reserved sectors) Part Tag Flag First Sector Size Last Sector 0 usr wm 34 136.72GB 286722911 1 unassigned wm 0 0 0 2 unassigned wm 0 0 0 3 unassigned wm 0 0 0 4 unassigned wm 0 0 0 5 unassigned wm 0 0 0 6 unassigned wm 0 0 0 7 unassigned wm 0 0 0 8 reserved wm 286722912 8.00MB 286739295 partition> q format> q