Managing Devices in Oracle^® Solaris 11.4

Displaying Slice or Partition Information

This section provides information about disk slices and partitions and how to display information about them.

The partition and fdisk options in the Format utility enable you to administer disk partitions or slices. The fdisk option is used specifically to manage partitions on x86 based systems, so these partitions are often also called fdisk partitions.

For easier management, use whole disks for creating ZFS storage non-root pools instead of disk slices . Use a disk slice only if the disk is intended for the ZFS root pool. When you create a pool with whole disks, an EFI label is applied. If you need to prepare a disk for use as a root pool disk, create a slice 0 that contains the entire disk capacity, as shown in Example 37, Slice Information on a Disk With a VTOC Label.

For information about setting up disks for use with ZFS storage pools, see Setting Up ZFS on Disks.

Although the exact information that is displayed for a disk or partition varies depending on the label type, it often includes the following data:

Part

Partition or slice number. For VTOC-labeled disks, the partitions range from 0–7. For EFI-labeled disks, the partitions range from 0–6.

Tag

File system that is mounted on the partition.

Flag

Any combination of the following states that apply to a specific partition: writable (w), mountable (m), readable (r), and unmountable (u). wu_rm, for example, is the designation for partitions reserved for swap areas.

Cylinders

Applies only to VTOC-labeled disks and refers to the starting and ending cylinder number for the slice.

Size

Slice or partition size in MB.

Blocks

Applies only to VTOC-labeled disks and refers to the total number of cylinders and the total number of sectors per slice.

First Sector

Applies only to EFI-labeled disks and refers to the starting block number.

Last Sector

Applies only to EFI-labeled disks and refers to the ending block number.

How to Display Partition and Slice Information

1. Launch the Format utility by typing format in a terminal window.
2. Select the desired disk from the list of available disks.
3. At the format > prompt, determine whether you are displaying slices or fdisk partitions.
   • x86: Type fdisk.
   • SPARC:
     1. Type partition.
     2. Type print.

     Information about the disk or partition is displayed.

Example 37  Slice Information on a Disk With a VTOC Label

This example assumes that the disk being administered is 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

Example 38  Slice Information on a Disk With an EFI Label

This example assumes that the disk being administered is c2t3d0.

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   reserved    wm         286722912        8.00MB          286739295
partition> q
format> q

Example 39  Slice Information on a Disk With an EFI (GPT) Label

This example assumes that the disk being administered is c2t0d0.

format> partition
partition> print
Current partition table (original):
Total disk sectors available: 27246525 + 16384 (reserved sectors)
Part      Tag    Flag     First Sector        Size        Last Sector
0  BIOS_boot    wm               256     256.00MB         524543
1        usr    wm            524544      12.74GB         27246558
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   reserved    wm          27246559       8.00MB         27262942
partition> q
format> q

Example 40  Partition Information From the fdisk Command

The fdisk option of the Format utility shows similar partition information as the partition option but also includes partition types. In the following example, the disk has an EFI and an Oracle Solaris partition, and the Oracle Solaris partition is active.

format> fdisk
Part      Tag    Flag     First Sector         Size         Last Sector
  0  BIOS_boot    wm               256      256.00MB          524543
  1        usr    wm            524544       68.11GB          143358320
  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
            
             Total disk size is 8924 cylinders
             Cylinder size is 16065 (512 byte) blocks

                                               Cylinders
      Partition   Status    Type          Start   End   Length    %
      =========   ======    ============  =====   ===   ======   ===
          1                 EFI               1     6       6      0
          2       Active    Solaris2          7  8925    8919    100