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Date: Tue, 12 Jan 2021 19:35:01 +0100
From: Kurt Jaeger <pi@freebsd.org>
To: joe mcguckin <joe@via.net>
Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Preparing ZFS drives
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Hi!

> How should I label and prepare the drives for ZFS?  Someone ought to write a ???cookbook??? on that!

Basically, what I once did, was this:

zpool create bck raidz2 ada2 ada3 ada4 ada5 ada6 ada7 ada8 ada9

Therefore: raw disks, nothing else.

> Do I need to start the volume on a particular sector boundary?
> 
> Are the 4096 byte sector drives usable?

I think the default is now 4096 anyway.

https://charsiurice.wordpress.com/2016/05/30/checking-ashift-on-existing-pools/

describes the command to check for 4096 blocks:

zdb -C | grep ashift

If it displays

	ashift: 9

the blocks are 512 bytes.

If it displays

	ashift: 12

the block size is 4096.

-- 
pi@opsec.eu            +49 171 3101372                    Now what ?