Displaying Disk Slices

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 that follows.

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 the VTOC disk label example that follows.

For information about setting up disks for use with ZFS storage pools, see Chapter 10, Setting Up Disks (Tasks) or x86: Setting Up Disks for ZFS File Systems (Task Map).

Note - The format utility uses the term partition instead of slice.

How to Display Disk Slice Information

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.

Become an administrator.
For more information, see How to Use Your Assigned Administrative Rights in Oracle Solaris 11.1 Administration: Security Services.
Invoke the format utility.
```
# format
```
A numbered list of disks is displayed.
Type the number of the disk for which you want to display slice information.
```
Specify disk (enter its number):1
```
Select the partition menu.
```
format> partition 
```
Display the slice information for the selected disk.
```
partition> print
```
Exit the format utility.
```
partition> q
format> q
```
Verify the displayed slice information by identifying specific slice tags and slices.
If the screen output shows that no slice sizes are assigned, the disk probably does not have slices.

Example 9-3 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 7, 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

The following example shows the slice information for an EFI (GPT) labeled disk for a root pool:

# format
Searching for disks...done
Specify disk (enter its number): 0
selecting c2t0d0
[disk formatted]
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    
  8   reserved    wm          27246559       8.00MB         27262942    
partition> q
format> q

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