Installing SQL Server on Windows 2012 bhyve guests

[Matt Churchyard]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-freebsd-virtualization at freebsd.org [mailto:owner-freebsd-virtualization at freebsd.org] On Behalf Of Peter Grehan
Sent: 25 October 2016 19:19
To: Randy Terbush
Cc: freebsd-virtualization at freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Installing SQL Server on Windows 2012 bhyve guests

>Hi Randy,

> I've followed the info provided here 
> https://wiki.freebsd.org/bhyve/Windows
> to create a Windows Server 2012 image that I successfully installed on 
> the bhyve hypervisor. After getting a working Win2012 image running, 
> applying updates, etc. I attempted to install SQL Server 2014. In the 
> late stages of that install, the process attempts to start the SQL server engine and fails.

>  There have been some reports of this previously. What might be happening is that SQL Server has stricter requirements on the underlying block >size than NTFS itself has.

 > Since you are using a file-backed image, the reported block size from the emulated storage controller may be 8KB or even higher, depending on >the underlying filesystem type.

>  A suggestion is to force the block size to 4KB (has to be done during install as well), and if the problem persists, try 512 bytes. This is done by using >the 'sectorsize=<bsz>' parameter to the disk configuration e.g.

>  -s 4,ahci-hd,/path/to/disk.img,sectorsize=4096

Just to add, if you're using vm-bhyve you should be able to add this with the diskX_opts template/config option

disk0_opts="sectorsize=4096"

I may adjust the sample templates to include a sectorsize option for Windows guests, although I'm not 100% clear on what exact OS versions or applications require specific settings. I do know that SQL Server has been reported to suddenly fall over unless a valid block size is used (although I believe it did install and run), but again I'm not sure exactly what the "correct" settings are.

Also note that you shouldn't need any grub_* template options if you're using UEFI. Those options only apply to grub-bhyve.

Matt

>later,

>Peter.