Windows Server 2016 as guest on bhyve 4k emulated drive

[Peter Grehan]

Hi Artur,

> I can not explain how Windows comes to 8192 bytes.

  As explained in Jeremya F's email, that's the zvol default record size.

> <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.

  Bhyve presents a virtual drive so this doesn't apply.

> (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.

  I'd recommend sticking with "sectorsize=512/4096" for now.

  The 4096/4096 appears to be a bhyve bug that needs to be fixed, 
especially since the NVMe emulation GSoC project has been approved*, and 
that mandates 4K block size.

later,

Peter.

* https://summerofcode.withgoogle.com/projects/#5252121027936256