If I make a big rpool out of the entire disk, then I have will have severe problems if I decide to reinstall Solaris. Where to copy 1.5TB data before reinstall??

I therefore want to create a 200GB rpool. There will be virtual machines, etc. And I want to have a 800GB ZFS storage partition.

The question is, how do I create this 800GB storage partition? Via "format" command? I first create a partition in "format" which is 800GB, and then I issue "zpool create 800GB partition"? What is the syntax?


(My first partition is WindowsXP)

I believe you need to do:
zpool create -f -m /mountpoint poolname c#t#d#s#

How is currently partitioned your 1.5 TB disk ?
Are you using a fdisk or an EFI partition table ?
Will you need to boot Solaris from that disk ? If yes, what release ?

My 1.5TB disk is brand new. I havent done anything with it. I will install WindowsXP first. 120GB. Then I want 200GB OpenSolaris. And then 600GB ZFS store. And the rest FAT32. Something like

1. WinXP - 120GB
2. OpenSolaris - 200GB
3. ZFS store - 600GB
4. FAT32 store - the rest

So I install WinXP/Win7/whatever just like normal. Then I install OpenSolaris and specify 200GB partition. And then, from OpenSolaris, I issue "format" and "fdisk" and create a partition that is 600GB. And I format that partition as ZFS. Lastly, from WinXP, I create a NTFS partition with the rest of the leftover space. And then I convert it to FAT32. Correct so?

(I will today buy a NETGEAR WNDR3700N router, which allows me to insert a USB ntfs hard disk and share it via the router. Then I can access the NTFS disk from OpenSolaris, and also access it from Windows. I hope)

Not sure how efficient would be a 600+ GB FAT32 filesystem, but that should work.