I've been reading about volume/sector alignment and want to implement
this on a new SQL server I'm building, but I have come upon a caveat
I'm not sure how to handle. Basically, all the documentation (links
below) talk about aligning the partition at 64k from the beginning of
the disk, but my storage controller creates a small OEM partition
(8MB) at the beginning of the disk when I create the array. So I'm not
sure how to make sure that the sectors are aligned properly since the
documentation doesn't mention how to handle this. I can still use the
"offset" parameter, although the "align" parameter is not available
when the partition being created is not at the beginning of the disk,
as is true in this case.

Any appreciated,
Peter

http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.co...262122,00.html
http://blogs.msdn.com/boduff/archive...alignment.aspx
http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/ssqane...rformance.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../pdpliobp.mspx

I assume you've talked to the vendor. What did they say?

Linchi

"PL" wrote:

> I've been reading about volume/sector alignment and want to implement
> this on a new SQL server I'm building, but I have come upon a caveat
> I'm not sure how to handle. Basically, all the documentation (links
> below) talk about aligning the partition at 64k from the beginning of
> the disk, but my storage controller creates a small OEM partition
> (8MB) at the beginning of the disk when I create the array. So I'm not
> sure how to make sure that the sectors are aligned properly since the
> documentation doesn't mention how to handle this. I can still use the
> "offset" parameter, although the "align" parameter is not available
> when the partition being created is not at the beginning of the disk,
> as is true in this case.
>
> Any appreciated,
> Peter
>
> http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.co...262122,00.html
> http://blogs.msdn.com/boduff/archive...alignment.aspx
> http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/ssqane...rformance.aspx
> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../pdpliobp.mspx
>
>

No, I didn't. This is an old SAN that no longer has any support and I
haven't been able to find anything regarding this issue in the ton of
docs I've read.

On Tue, 13 May 2008 18:57:00 -0700, Linchi Shea
<LinchiShea@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>I assume you've talked to the vendor. What did they say?
>
>Linchi
>
>"PL" wrote:
>
>> I've been reading about volume/sector alignment and want to implement
>> this on a new SQL server I'm building, but I have come upon a caveat
>> I'm not sure how to handle. Basically, all the documentation (links
>> below) talk about aligning the partition at 64k from the beginning of
>> the disk, but my storage controller creates a small OEM partition
>> (8MB) at the beginning of the disk when I create the array. So I'm not
>> sure how to make sure that the sectors are aligned properly since the
>> documentation doesn't mention how to handle this. I can still use the
>> "offset" parameter, although the "align" parameter is not available
>> when the partition being created is not at the beginning of the disk,
>> as is true in this case.
>>
>> Any appreciated,
>> Peter
>>
>> http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.co...262122,00.html
>> http://blogs.msdn.com/boduff/archive...alignment.aspx
>> http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/ssqane...rformance.aspx
>> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../pdpliobp.mspx
>>
>>

So I talked to HP, but they won't get into creating partitions because
it's an OS issue, not a hardware issue, direct quote


On Wed, 14 May 2008 10:35:48 -0700, PL <plecki3@eagency.com> wrote:

>No, I didn't. This is an old SAN that no longer has any support and I
>haven't been able to find anything regarding this issue in the ton of
>docs I've read.
>
>On Tue, 13 May 2008 18:57:00 -0700, Linchi Shea
><LinchiShea@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
>>I assume you've talked to the vendor. What did they say?
>>
>>Linchi
>>
>>"PL" wrote:
>>
>>> I've been reading about volume/sector alignment and want to implement
>>> this on a new SQL server I'm building, but I have come upon a caveat
>>> I'm not sure how to handle. Basically, all the documentation (links
>>> below) talk about aligning the partition at 64k from the beginning of
>>> the disk, but my storage controller creates a small OEM partition
>>> (8MB) at the beginning of the disk when I create the array. So I'm not
>>> sure how to make sure that the sectors are aligned properly since the
>>> documentation doesn't mention how to handle this. I can still use the
>>> "offset" parameter, although the "align" parameter is not available
>>> when the partition being created is not at the beginning of the disk,
>>> as is true in this case.
>>>
>>> Any appreciated,
>>> Peter
>>>
>>> http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.co...262122,00.html
>>> http://blogs.msdn.com/boduff/archive...alignment.aspx
>>> http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/ssqane...rformance.aspx
>>> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../pdpliobp.mspx
>>>
>>>

But I think this is just a question on disk geometry, isn't it?
If the boot sector is 63K and we have to add 1K to align it properly,
would it be safe to assume that creating the new partition with an
offset of any multiple of 64K past the 8MB OEM partition would be
properly aligned as well?


On Wed, 14 May 2008 11:12:26 -0700, PL <plecki3@eagency.com> wrote:

>So I talked to HP, but they won't get into creating partitions because
>it's an OS issue, not a hardware issue, direct quote
>
>
>On Wed, 14 May 2008 10:35:48 -0700, PL <plecki3@eagency.com> wrote:
>
>>No, I didn't. This is an old SAN that no longer has any support and I
>>haven't been able to find anything regarding this issue in the ton of
>>docs I've read.
>>
>>On Tue, 13 May 2008 18:57:00 -0700, Linchi Shea
>><LinchiShea@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>>
>>>I assume you've talked to the vendor. What did they say?
>>>
>>>Linchi
>>>
>>>"PL" wrote:
>>>
>>>> I've been reading about volume/sector alignment and want to implement
>>>> this on a new SQL server I'm building, but I have come upon a caveat
>>>> I'm not sure how to handle. Basically, all the documentation (links
>>>> below) talk about aligning the partition at 64k from the beginning of
>>>> the disk, but my storage controller creates a small OEM partition
>>>> (8MB) at the beginning of the disk when I create the array. So I'm not
>>>> sure how to make sure that the sectors are aligned properly since the
>>>> documentation doesn't mention how to handle this. I can still use the
>>>> "offset" parameter, although the "align" parameter is not available
>>>> when the partition being created is not at the beginning of the disk,
>>>> as is true in this case.
>>>>
>>>> Any appreciated,
>>>> Peter
>>>>
>>>> http://searchsqlserver.techtarget.co...262122,00.html
>>>> http://blogs.msdn.com/boduff/archive...alignment.aspx
>>>> http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/ssqane...rformance.aspx
>>>> http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../pdpliobp.mspx
>>>>
>>>>