Server Administrator Storage Management 8.3 User’s Guide

From the introduction of PERC 9 family of hardware controller support in Storage Management, users using legacy 512B sector hard-disk drives can now transition to Advanced Format 4KB sector hard-disk drives. 4KB sector hard-disk drives utilize the storage-surface media more efficiently by combining data that would have been stored in eight 512B sector hard-disk drives into one sector of 4096B (4KB). This data-combining feature in 4KB sector hard-disk drives results in improved data efficiency and error correction capabilities.

Storage Management supports virtual disk creation on 4KB sector hard-disk drives connected to PERC 9 hardware controllers.

NOTE: 4KB sector hard-disk drives are not supported on controllers prior to PERC 9 family of hardware controllers. If the 4KB sector hard-disk drive is connected to any hardware controller prior to PERC 9, the 4KB sector hard-disk drive is displayed as Unsupported.

• When you create a virtual disk using the Advanced Wizard, you can select the physical disk sector from the Sector Size drop-down list. The options available are:

  • 512B

  • 4KB

• You cannot use both 4KB sector hard-disk drives and 512B sector hard-disk drives for a virtual disk creation as mixing of hard-disk drive sectors is not allowed in Storage Management.

  NOTE: If the system contains any 512e sector hard-disk drives, the 512e sector hard-disk drives are identified/reported as 512B sector hard-disk drives and follows the behavior of the 512B sector hard-disk drives.