Hi Peter, a few background information to understand my concern.
I have encountered the problem when I tried to install Remote Desktop Services under Windows Server 2016. Installing roles for Remote Desktop Services requires the installation of Windows Internal Database. To my knowledge, Windows Internal Database is a customized MS SQL database. Whether the sectorsize option is not specified (default) or specified by 512/4096, Windows makes no difference: =================================== SECTORSIZE NOT SPECIFIED (DEFAULT): =================================== C:\Users\Administrator>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo C: NTFS Volume Serial Number : 0x82c67b9ec67b9161 NTFS Version : 3.1 LFS Version : 2.0 Number Sectors : 0x0000000018ee47ff Total Clusters : 0x00000000031dc8ff Free Clusters : 0x0000000002f2184a Total Reserved : 0x0000000000003440 Bytes Per Sector : 512 Bytes Per Physical Sector : 4096 Bytes Per Cluster : 4096 Bytes Per FileRecord Segment : 1024 Clusters Per FileRecord Segment : 0 Mft Valid Data Length : 0x0000000006740000 Mft Start Lcn : 0x00000000000c0000 Mft2 Start Lcn : 0x0000000000000002 Mft Zone Start : 0x00000000000c65c0 Mft Zone End : 0x00000000000cc820 Max Device Trim Extent Count : 64 Max Device Trim Byte Count : 0x7fff8000 Max Volume Trim Extent Count : 62 Max Volume Trim Byte Count : 0x40000000 Resource Manager Identifier : BC179E2E-31BC-11E7-A818-C892307D8C50 ==================== sectorsize=512/4096: ==================== C:\Users\Administrator>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo c: NTFS Volume Serial Number : 0x9202993002991a75 NTFS Version : 3.1 LFS Version : 2.0 Number Sectors : 0x0000000018ee47ff Total Clusters : 0x00000000031dc8ff Free Clusters : 0x0000000002f1bee2 Total Reserved : 0x0000000000003460 Bytes Per Sector : 512 Bytes Per Physical Sector : 4096 Bytes Per Cluster : 4096 Bytes Per FileRecord Segment : 1024 Clusters Per FileRecord Segment : 0 Mft Valid Data Length : 0x0000000006780000 Mft Start Lcn : 0x00000000000c0000 Mft2 Start Lcn : 0x0000000000000002 Mft Zone Start : 0x00000000000c65c0 Mft Zone End : 0x00000000000cc820 Max Device Trim Extent Count : 64 Max Device Trim Byte Count : 0x7fff8000 Max Volume Trim Extent Count : 62 Max Volume Trim Byte Count : 0x40000000 Resource Manager Identifier : AEC0364B-31B7-11E7-ADF9-FF1A61A4B251 If the sectorsize option is unspecified, the installation of Windows Internal Database fails. I found corresponding error message in the event viewer: ====================== Mesage in Event Viewer ====================== > Cannot use file 'C:\Windows\WID\Data\master.mdf' because it was originally > formatted with sector size 4096 and is now on a volume with sector size > 8192. Move the file to a volume with a sector size that is the same as or > smaller than the original sector size. > Log Name: Application Source: MSSQL$MICROSFT##WID Event ID: 5178 Level: Error I can not explain how Windows comes to 8192 bytes. If I specify the sectorsize by 512/4096, then Windows Internal Database can be installed without problems and that is very strange for me! However, I found an article <https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/advanced-format-disk-compatibility-update?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396> about 512E drives. According to the article, the 512E drives should not be used, because this configuration affects both the lifetime and the performance of the drives. ( https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/advanced-format-disk-compatibility-update?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396 ) For this reason, I started using 4K emulated drive, both logical and physical (sectorsize=4096/4096), but Windows can not be installed on a 4K emulated drive. Artur 2017-05-03 9:00 GMT+02:00 Peter Grehan <gre...@freebsd.org>: > Hi Artur, > > if the option 'sectorsize=4096/4096' for the emulated drive specified, the >> installation process of "Windows Server 2016" completes the first stage >> ('Copying Windows files', 'Getting files ready for installation', >> 'Installing features' etc.) and fails after rebooting to the second stage. >> >> The second stage ends with the following message: >> Boot Failed. Windows Boot Manager >> Boot Failed. EFI DVD/CDROM >> Boot Failed. EFI DVD/CDROM 1 >> Boot Failed. EFI Hard Drive >> >> I suppose that Windows Boot Manager has problems when booting the 4k >> emulated drive. >> >> Does anyone have any idea what can be the cause of this? >> > > I think it may be an issue with the AHCI driver in UEFI not returning the > correct block size - will look into it further. > > I did verify that setting 'sectorsize=512/4096' works fine with 2k16. > > later, > > Peter. > > _______________________________________________ freebsd-virtualization@freebsd.org mailing list https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-virtualization To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-virtualization-unsubscr...@freebsd.org"
