[OpenIndiana-discuss] HDD Upgrade problem

[Jim Klimov]

2012-06-12 19:00, Bob Friesenhahn wrote:
> On Tue, 12 Jun 2012, George Wilson wrote:
>>
>> Illumos has a way to override the physical block size of a given disk
>> by using the sd.conf file. Here's an example:
>>
>> sd-config-list =
>>     "DGC     RAID", "physical-block-size:4096",
>>     "NETAPP  LUN", "physical-block-size:4096";
>>
>>
>> By adding the VID PID values into the sd-config-list along with the
>> 'physical-block-size' parameter you can override the value that the
>> disk will use for it's block size. ZFS will pick this up and use the
>> correct ashift value.
>
> This can obviously work once the OS is installed and it is possible to
> edit system files.  Is there a way to apply it to the root pool when the
> system is (being) installed?

First of all, I believe this snippet belongs on a Wiki page,
and I'll try to make one to sum up all knowledge and FUD we
have about The AShift Problem ;) At least, it would be easier
to point people to this page as a common answer ;)

Second, I believe the sd.conf fix won't apply to drives used
in IDE mode via BIOS, and users might have that (although it
is an item best fixed before installation).

Third, perhaps the sd.conf settings can be re-read by reloading
the module and/or using add_drv or something like that? From
a different thread (on disabling power-saving on Dell HBAs):
...enter into sd.conf and reload the driver via "update_drv -vf sd".

Also regarding the install-time setting - if the installation
is done using the wizard, then the zpool binary at the moment
of installation should use the ashift=12 you need, without
extra command-line parameters (as to not go hacking inside
the wizard). Earlier I did this by using a modified binary
from that blog entry instead of the system-provided one,
now I guess this can be done better with sd.conf :)

HTH,
//Jim Klimov