3 managing 4k sectors in the linux environment, 4 vmware support, Managing 4k sectors in the linux environment – Dell PowerEdge T630 User Manual

Page 10: Vmware support

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10

512e and 4Kn Disk Formats

There are a number of software utilities (such as Diskpart and Paragon) that are widely used by system
builders, OEMs, value-added resellers, and IT managers for aligning partitions when the operating system
doesn't offer or support partition alignment out of the box. Systems today typically consist of multiple hard
drive partitions. This means that each partition on the hard drive must be created with 4K-aware
partitioning software to make sure proper alignment and performance is ensured.

5.3

Managing 4K sectors in the Linux environment

The key strategies in managing the transition to 4K sectors in a Windows environment also apply to Linux.

Table 4

Linux support

Drive formats

Reported logical
sector size

Reported physical
sector size

Linux version with support

512-byte Native, 512n

512 bytes

512 bytes

All Linux versions

Advanced Format, 512e,
AF, 512-byte Emulation

512 bytes

4096 bytes

RHEL 6.1*
SLES 11 SP2**
Ubuntu 13.10
Ubuntu 12.04.4

Advanced Format, AF, 4K
Native, 4Kn

4096 bytes

4096 bytes

RHEL 6.1*
SLES 11 SP2**
Ubuntu 13.10
Ubuntu 12.04.4

*

Red Hat

®

Enterprise Linux

®

6 supports 4K-sector devices as data disks. 4K-sector boot disks are supported in UEFI

mode only.
**SUSE

®

Linux

®

Enterprise fully supports 4KB/sector drives in all conditions and architectures with one exception. The

4KB/sector hard disk drives are not supported as a boot drive on x86_64 systems booting with a legacy BIOS.

Changes have been made to both the Linux kernel and utilities to support Advanced Format drives. These
changes ensure that all partitions on Advanced Format drives are properly aligned on 4K sector
boundaries. Kernel support for Advanced Format drives is available in kernel versions 2.6.31 and above.
Support for portioning and formatting Advanced Format drives is available in the following Linux utilities:

• Fdisk:"GNU"Fdisk"is"a"command"line"utility"that"partitions"hard"drives."Versions"1.2.3"and"above"

support"Advanced"Format"drives.

• Parted:"GNU"Parted"is"a"graphical"utility"for"partitioning"hard"drives."Versions"2.1"and"above"support"

Advanced"Format"drives.

5.4

VMware support

The key strategies in managing the transition to 4K sectors in a Windows environment also apply to
VMware. VMware is planning to release a 512e-aware operating system in late 2013 and a 4Kn-aware
operating system in 2015.

Table 5

VMware support

Operating system

512e

4Kn

VMware

ESXi 5.5 (Q4 2013)

Planned in 2015

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