Fio-format – HP IO Accelerator for BladeSystem c-Class User Manual

Page 46

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Utilities 46

IMPORTANT:

Although the -f (force) option causes the IO Accelerator device to detach, even in

a RAID setup, it is strongly recommended to take the drives/volume offline using the Windows®
Disk Management plug-in and then perform the detach. Forcing the detach may result in loss of

data.

Notes
Attempting to detach an IO Accelerator device might fail with an error indicating that the device is busy. This

might occur if the device is part of a software RAID (0,1,5) volume. The Windows® operating system refuses

the request to detach the drive associated with the IO Accelerator device because it is part of a RAID volume
and might cause the volume to fail. This does not occur with simple volumes (such as a single IO Accelerator

device). To detach a simple volume, take the volume offline using the Disk Management MMC plug-in

application.

fio-format

Description
The fio-format command performs a low-level format of the IO Accelerator. This format is different from

a format performed by the operating system. The utility displays a progress bar and percentage as it

completes the format.
The IO Accelerator ships pre-formatted, so you only have to run the fio-format command if you must

change the logical size of the device.

CAUTION:

Use this utility with care since it deletes all user information on the IO Accelerator.

Syntax
fio-format <device> [options] <device>
where <device> is the name given to the IO Accelerator during the installation process. The syntax is

/dev/fctx, where x indicates the PCIe bus number where you installed the IO Accelerator. For example,

the name /dev/fct4 refers to the IO Accelerator device installed in PCIe Bus 4 in your Windows®

operating system. To view this bus number, use the IO Accelerator Management Tool or fio-status.
Options

Option

Description

-b <size

B|K>

Set the block (sector) size, in bytes or KiBytes (base 2). The default is 512 bytes. For
example: -b 512B or -b 4K (B in 512B is optional).

-f

Force the format size, bypassing normal checks and warnings. This option might be
needed when fio-format does not proceed properly. The "Are you sure?" prompt still

appears unless you use the -y option. This option can only be used with the -o option.

-q

Quiet mode: Disable the display of the progress-percentage indicator.

-s <size

M|G|T|%>

Set the device capacity as a specific size (in TB, GB, or MB) or as a percentage of the

advertised capacity:

T Number of terabytes (TB) to format

G Number of gigabytes (GB) to format

M Number of megabytes (MB) to format

% Percentage, such as 70% (the percent sign must be included)

-R

Disable fast rescan on unclean shutdowns at the cost of some capacity.

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