Windows Server 2016 as guest on bhyve 4k emulated drive

[Artur Moor]

Hi Peter,

a few background information to understand my concern.

I have encountered the problem when I tried to install Remote Desktop
Services under Windows Server 2016. Installing roles for Remote Desktop
Services requires the installation of Windows Internal Database. To my
knowledge, Windows Internal Database is a customized MS SQL database.

Whether the sectorsize option is not specified (default) or specified by
512/4096, Windows makes no difference:

===================================
SECTORSIZE NOT SPECIFIED (DEFAULT):
===================================
C:\Users\Administrator>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo C:
NTFS Volume Serial Number :        0x82c67b9ec67b9161
NTFS Version   :                   3.1
LFS Version    :                   2.0
Number Sectors :                   0x0000000018ee47ff
Total Clusters :                   0x00000000031dc8ff
Free Clusters  :                   0x0000000002f2184a
Total Reserved :                   0x0000000000003440
Bytes Per Sector  :                512
Bytes Per Physical Sector :        4096
Bytes Per Cluster :                4096
Bytes Per FileRecord Segment    :  1024
Clusters Per FileRecord Segment :  0
Mft Valid Data Length :            0x0000000006740000
Mft Start Lcn  :                   0x00000000000c0000
Mft2 Start Lcn :                   0x0000000000000002
Mft Zone Start :                   0x00000000000c65c0
Mft Zone End   :                   0x00000000000cc820
Max Device Trim Extent Count :     64
Max Device Trim Byte Count :       0x7fff8000
Max Volume Trim Extent Count :     62
Max Volume Trim Byte Count :       0x40000000
Resource Manager Identifier :     BC179E2E-31BC-11E7-A818-C892307D8C50

====================
sectorsize=512/4096:
====================
C:\Users\Administrator>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo c:
NTFS Volume Serial Number :        0x9202993002991a75
NTFS Version   :                   3.1
LFS Version    :                   2.0
Number Sectors :                   0x0000000018ee47ff
Total Clusters :                   0x00000000031dc8ff
Free Clusters  :                   0x0000000002f1bee2
Total Reserved :                   0x0000000000003460
Bytes Per Sector  :                512
Bytes Per Physical Sector :        4096
Bytes Per Cluster :                4096
Bytes Per FileRecord Segment    :  1024
Clusters Per FileRecord Segment :  0
Mft Valid Data Length :            0x0000000006780000
Mft Start Lcn  :                   0x00000000000c0000
Mft2 Start Lcn :                   0x0000000000000002
Mft Zone Start :                   0x00000000000c65c0
Mft Zone End   :                   0x00000000000cc820
Max Device Trim Extent Count :     64
Max Device Trim Byte Count :       0x7fff8000
Max Volume Trim Extent Count :     62
Max Volume Trim Byte Count :       0x40000000
Resource Manager Identifier :     AEC0364B-31B7-11E7-ADF9-FF1A61A4B251

If the sectorsize option is unspecified, the installation of Windows
Internal Database fails. I found corresponding error message in the event
viewer:
======================
Mesage in Event Viewer
======================

> Cannot use file 'C:\Windows\WID\Data\master.mdf' because it was originally
> formatted with sector size 4096 and is now on a volume with sector size
> 8192. Move the file to a volume with a sector size that is the same as or
> smaller than the original sector size.
>
Log Name: Application
Source: MSSQL$MICROSFT##WID
Event ID: 5178
Level: Error

I can not explain how Windows comes to 8192 bytes.

If I specify the sectorsize by 512/4096, then Windows Internal Database can
be installed without problems and that is very strange for me!

However, I found an article
<https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/advanced-format-disk-compatibility-update?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396>
about 512E drives. According to the article, the 512E drives should not be
used, because this configuration affects both the lifetime and the
performance of the drives. (
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/compatibility/advanced-format-disk-compatibility-update?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396
)

For this reason, I started using 4K emulated drive, both logical and
physical (sectorsize=4096/4096), but Windows can not be installed on a 4K
emulated drive.

Artur

2017-05-03 9:00 GMT+02:00 Peter Grehan <grehan at freebsd.org>:

> Hi Artur,
>
> if the option 'sectorsize=4096/4096' for the emulated drive specified, the
>> installation process of "Windows Server 2016" completes the first stage
>> ('Copying Windows files', 'Getting files ready for installation',
>> 'Installing features' etc.) and fails after rebooting to the second stage.
>>
>> The second stage ends with the following message:
>> Boot Failed. Windows Boot Manager
>> Boot Failed. EFI DVD/CDROM
>> Boot Failed. EFI DVD/CDROM 1
>> Boot Failed. EFI Hard Drive
>>
>> I suppose that Windows Boot Manager has problems when booting the 4k
>> emulated drive.
>>
>> Does anyone have any idea what can be the cause of this?
>>
>
>  I think it may be an issue with the AHCI driver in UEFI not returning the
> correct block size - will look into it further.
>
>  I did verify that setting 'sectorsize=512/4096' works fine with 2k16.
>
> later,
>
> Peter.
>
>