Installing SQL Server on Windows 2012 bhyve guests

[Randy Terbush]

Thanks guys, I'll report back once I nail this down.

I've tried both 4096 and 512 and cannot seem to get an image to boot past
the failed EFI message. Not sure if something has changed lately in stable
to create that result, but will investigate and report back.

Thanks again for the guidance here.

--
Randy

On Wed, Oct 26, 2016 at 3:30 AM, Matt Churchyard <matt.churchyard at userve.net
> wrote:

> -----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.
>
>