ZFS - whole disk or partition or BSD slice?

[Paul Kraus]

On Jan 29, 2013, at 6:59 AM, Volodymyr Kostyrko wrote:
>> 
>> Is GPT compatible with Solaris, can Solaris access a GPT disk?
> 
> Yes. I'm not sure if it can boot off GPT disk but on Solaris zpool automatically creates boundary GPT partition to protect ZFS vdev.

	Under the Solaris-based OSes I have used*, ZFS creates an EFI-like disk label, NOT a GPT label. FreeBSD (9.0) will read and use the EFI-like disk label that ZFS creates (or perhaps it is the ZFS code that is parsing the disk label). So if you want to move a zpool between FreeBSD and a Solaris-derived OS, then the safe bet is to give ZFS the entire disk and let it create the disk label.

*Solaris-based OSes that I have used:
Solaris 10
OpenSolaris 
NCP (Nexenta Core Platform)

--
Paul Kraus
Deputy Technical Director, LoneStarCon 3
Sound Coordinator, Schenectady Light Opera Company