Formatting HDD to ZFS with 4k sector

[DanAddz]

Hay guys,

I am trying to format my 5 HDD's so that they use advanced formatting 4k sector. however when you try to format with ZFS there is no option for it. How do you format them so they are 4k sector drives?

regards,

[Lee Sharp]

You are looking for this thread.

viewtopic.php?f=59&t=1494

[raulfg3]

select advanced 4K sector when create the pool not when format the disk (webGUI).

advanced format.jpg

[chrisf4lc0n]

select advanced 4K sector when create the pool not when format the disk (webGUI).

Agree, but not 100%, because when you create it via webGUI you will create virtual devices, so all you drives will be seen by ZFS as *.nop, which adds another layer of overheads (slower transfers), it is better to export the pool destroy the nops and then import the pool so the actual devices will be seen by ZFS...

So you will get from this:

Code: Select all

pool: ZFS_RAID
 state: ONLINE
  scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0h5m with 0 errors on Thu Jun 20 09:44:19 2013
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        ZFS_RAID    ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            ada0.nop    ONLINE       0     0     0
            ada1.nop    ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-1  ONLINE       0     0     0
            ada3.nop    ONLINE       0     0     0
            ada4.nop    ONLINE       0     0     0
        cache
          ada2.nop      ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

To this:

Code: Select all

pool: ZFS_RAID
 state: ONLINE
  scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0h5m with 0 errors on Thu Jun 20 09:44:19 2013
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        ZFS_RAID    ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            ada0    ONLINE       0     0     0
            ada1    ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-1  ONLINE       0     0     0
            ada3    ONLINE       0     0     0
            ada4    ONLINE       0     0     0
        cache
          ada2      ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

[raulfg3]

I do it by webgui and latter eliminate .nop devices: viewtopic.php?f=59&t=1494

[Lee Sharp]

Hence why I referenced the thread with the full instructions and explanation. In hopes that someone searching, if they found this instead would have a link to the source.

WD advanced format 4k drives - definitive answer?

[Black6spdZ]

has anything changed since the instructions were made here and v943? I deleted the nop devices but when I import the pool back it is using the nop devices again.. not sure how that happened.

Edit: now I see that when you are creating the vdev and check the "Enable Advanced Format (4KB sector)" you get the nop devices from the start. So now I am royally confused. Are these instructions outdated? It would seem that 4k sector drives would need that option checked? I am using Seagate 4TB

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family: Seagate Desktop HDD.15
Device Model: ST4000DM000-1F2168
Serial Number: x
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000c50 06d150fa3
Firmware Version: CC54
User Capacity: 4,000,787,030,016 bytes [4.00 TB]
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical

so with the advanced format checked the ashift is in fact 12 but you get the nop devices and my RadiZ2 array goes from 7.11TB to 6.91TB. Why the loss in space with 4k sectors?

[sleid]

"so all you drives will be seen by ZFS as *.nop"

Unless you let system preformatted files "Unformatted" before creating the vdev by checking Enable Advanced Format (sector 4 Kbytes)