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I am using macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.2.

The following two examples indicate that a disk is only allowed one APPLE_APFS partition.

  1. The output below from a Terminal application window shows that that

    diskutil partitiondisk disk1 2 gpt apfs Mac1 500g apfs Mac2 r

    command fails to create two APPLE_APFS partitions.

    Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil unmountdisk disk1
Unmount of all volumes on disk1 was successful
Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil partitiondisk disk1 2 gpt apfs Mac1 500g apfs Mac2 r
You may not specify more than one APFS Container per partition map
Marlin:sbin davidanderson$

  2. The output below from a Terminal application window shows that both the

    diskutil apfs createcontainer disk1s3

    and 

    diskutil apfs create disk1s3 Mac2

    commands fail to create a second APPLE_APFS partition.

    Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil list external
/dev/disk1 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         500.0 GB   disk1s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Mac2                    499.7 GB   disk1s3

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +500.0 GB   disk2
                                 Physical Store disk1s2
   1:                APFS Volume Mac1                    24.6 KB    disk2s1

Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil apfs createcontainer disk1s3
Creating container with disk1s3
Started APFS operation on disk1s3 Mac2
Creating a new empty APFS Container
Error: -69615: At least one APFS Physical Store already exists on your partition map
Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil apfs create disk1s3 Mac2
Started APFS operation on disk1s3 Mac2
Creating a new empty APFS Container
Error: -69615: At least one APFS Physical Store already exists on your partition map
Marlin:sbin davidanderson$

The following example shows how to create two APPLE_APFS partitions on the same disk.

  1. The output below from a Terminal application window shows that the

    diskutil apfs convert disk1s3

    command creates a second APPLE_APFS partition.

    Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil list external
/dev/disk1 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         500.0 GB   disk1s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Mac2                    499.7 GB   disk1s3

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +500.0 GB   disk2
                                 Physical Store disk1s2
   1:                APFS Volume Mac1                    24.6 KB    disk2s1

Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil apfs convert disk1s3
Started APFS operation on disk1s3 Mac2
Converting HFS Volume to an APFS Container which will export one APFS Volume
The target is the Journaled HFS+ volume "Mac2" backed by the GPT partition disk1s3
The target is a data disk; it is not a macOS system disk
Found APFS EFI driver /usr/standalone/i386/apfs.efi to install into the APFS Container
The target is not encrypted
Unmounting disk1s3
Starting conversion from HFS to APFS
Performing apfs_hfs_convert -x --verbose=0x400 --efi /usr/standalone/i386/apfs.efi /dev/disk1s3
Reporting pre-conversion statistics
Reporting post-conversion statistics
Successfully finished conversion from HFS to APFS
Successful conversion in commit mode so will switch type to APFS
Setting type of disk1s3 to APFS
Changing the physical disk partition type in shared mode
Partition modification attempt count was 1
Opening and closing disk1s3 to terminate old content driver
Expecting the new APFS Container at Physical Store disk1s3
Confirmed existence of new unencrypted APFS Volume disk3s1
Mounting APFS Volume disk3s1
APFS Volume mount attempt result was 0
Exiting conversion operations with error code 0
Disk from APFS operation: disk3s1
Finished APFS operation on disk1s3 Mac2
Marlin:sbin davidanderson$ diskutil list external
/dev/disk1 (disk image):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        +1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk2         500.0 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_APFS Container disk3         499.7 GB   disk1s3

/dev/disk2 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +500.0 GB   disk2
                                 Physical Store disk1s2
   1:                APFS Volume Mac1                    24.6 KB    disk2s1

/dev/disk3 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +499.7 GB   disk3
                                 Physical Store disk1s3
   1:                APFS Volume Mac2                    32.8 KB    disk3s1

Marlin:sbin davidanderson$

So, is there a bug in the commands that will not create a second APPLE_APFS partition? Or, is the bug in the command that creates a second APPLE_APFS partition?

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This question was posted early when APFS had just been released. The proper answer is one APFS partition per drive. While it is still possible to create more than one APFS partition, do so defeats the propose of using APFS.

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