Mailinglist Archive: opensuse-features (630 mails)
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[openFATE 306337] Partitioning with non-standard disk geometry
- From: fate_noreply@xxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2010 10:54:53 +0100 (CET)
- Message-id: <feature-306337-20@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Feature changed by: Andreas Jaeger (a_jaeger)
Feature #306337, revision 20
Title: Partitioning with non-standard disk geometry
- openSUSE-11.2: Evaluation
+ openSUSE-11.2: Rejected by Andreas Jaeger (a_jaeger)
+ reject date: 2010-11-15 10:53:14
+ reject reason: Not done in time for openSUSE 11.2
Priority
Requester: Desirable
Info Provider: (Novell)
Requested by: Herbert Graeber (hgraeber)
Description:
For SSDs it is important to respect their erase block size (usually
128KB). So instead of using the standard sectors per track of 63 and
255 heads Theodore Ts'o suggests to use 56 and 224 instead to get a
cylinder size which is a multiple of 128KB. Similar tricks may be
neccessary to achive optimal cylinder sizes for devices which are used
for raid partitions. It would be useful, to have the ability to specify
the values for sector per track and heads in the expert before any
partition is defined. For special cases, like SSDs it would nice, if
proper values will be suggested. Theodore Ts'os Blog: Aligning
filesystems to an SSD’s erase block size
(http://thunk.org/tytso/blog/2009/02/20/aligning-filesystems-to-an-ssds-erase-block-size/)
Use Case:
Lots of devices can benefit from the partitions aligning with the
physical structure. These include:
SSD / flash / CF that have erase blocks other than 512-byte sector
New generation hdd's with 4K physical sectors
hardware raid 4/5/6
mdraid 4/5/6
dmraid possibly
Discussion:
#1: Andreas Jaeger (a_jaeger) (2009-08-11 16:07:13)
This might be related to feature #306443.
#7: Greg Freemyer (gregfreemyer) (2010-02-26 22:59:38) (reply to #1)
feature #306443 has been revised / updated based on the fact that
parted now has topology support included.
I think this feature should be closed or consolidated into #306443
It would be nice if anyone that voted for this also voted for #306443
#2: Greg Freemyer (gregfreemyer) (2009-08-28 23:19:54)
I looked at 306443 which was rejected. It may have been too narrow in
scope.
As to non-standard disk geometry, it may be too late for 11.2, but this
will be a key feature in the near future. The various partitioning
tools should have already been updated to support more optimized
partition alignments.
ie. Per http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/features.shtml parted
provides "support for device's alignment requirements (e.g. physical
sector sizes that are a multiple of the logical sector size)"
Possibly parted in 11.2 already has this feature.
== Some non-standard geometry background
The 2.6.31 kernel I believe will see the introduction of the block
geometry calls specifically to allow user space and filesystems to
align their structure better with the hardware.
The first thing to ensure is that partitions fall on native alignment
points.
For 512 byte physical sector drives, the current default sector 63 is
fine. Microsoft Vista and newer have already moved to a 1MB offset for
the first partition to start at. Thus there is no reason for Linux to
maintain the 63 sector offset as its default value.
I believe drives are already shipping that have 4K physical sectors and
512 byte logical sectors. For performance reasons, it is very
importart to have the physical sector match the filesystem pages.
Unfortunately, 4K physical sector drives are going tocome in two
flavors from the factory. One flavor aligned such that partitions
starting on sector 63 will be perfectly aligned. The other aligned
such that 1 MB will be perfectly aligned. The consumer will have to
ensure they buy drives with the correct alignment for their OS.
The linux community has added kernel support for partitioning tools to
request the physical sector size and sector alignment. Userspace
partitioning tools are being enhanced (or have been) to use these
parameters when creating partitions and ensureing proper alignment.
The block stack is being enhanced in 2.6.31 to set these parameters
appropriately. Thus mdraid as an example will provide geometry
information that parted, etc. should use to ensure proper alignment.
The drivers for SSD, flash etc. should also be setting these parameters
per their various geometries.
#3: Jeff Mahoney (jeff_mahoney) (2009-08-29 00:27:47)
The non-standard geometry isn't strictly necessary, but it makes tools
that align on cylinder boundaries more friendly to use. The real need
is for SSDs to be aligned for the hardware. 128kB worked well for me in
my testing. Since 128kB alignment necessarily includes the 4k
alignment, there's a natural win there.
#4: Jeff Mahoney (jeff_mahoney) (2009-08-29 00:36:34) (reply to #3)
Since one of those tools is YaST, that would be ... convenient. :)
#5: Dean Hilkewich (deanjo13) (2009-08-29 15:33:40) (reply to #4)
BTW, this doesn't only effect SSD's but can also be applied to thumb
drives. I've aligned alot of my thumbdrives and the improvements are
drastic.
http://global.phoronix-test-suite.com/?k=profile&u=deanjo-17706-23105-232
#8: Arvin Schnell (aschnell) (2010-11-05 13:56:03)
AFAIS this feature request is done with parted 2.2 which provides
improved partition alignment.
Please review the request.
--
openSUSE Feature:
https://features.opensuse.org/306337
Feature #306337, revision 20
Title: Partitioning with non-standard disk geometry
- openSUSE-11.2: Evaluation
+ openSUSE-11.2: Rejected by Andreas Jaeger (a_jaeger)
+ reject date: 2010-11-15 10:53:14
+ reject reason: Not done in time for openSUSE 11.2
Priority
Requester: Desirable
Info Provider: (Novell)
Requested by: Herbert Graeber (hgraeber)
Description:
For SSDs it is important to respect their erase block size (usually
128KB). So instead of using the standard sectors per track of 63 and
255 heads Theodore Ts'o suggests to use 56 and 224 instead to get a
cylinder size which is a multiple of 128KB. Similar tricks may be
neccessary to achive optimal cylinder sizes for devices which are used
for raid partitions. It would be useful, to have the ability to specify
the values for sector per track and heads in the expert before any
partition is defined. For special cases, like SSDs it would nice, if
proper values will be suggested. Theodore Ts'os Blog: Aligning
filesystems to an SSD’s erase block size
(http://thunk.org/tytso/blog/2009/02/20/aligning-filesystems-to-an-ssds-erase-block-size/)
Use Case:
Lots of devices can benefit from the partitions aligning with the
physical structure. These include:
SSD / flash / CF that have erase blocks other than 512-byte sector
New generation hdd's with 4K physical sectors
hardware raid 4/5/6
mdraid 4/5/6
dmraid possibly
Discussion:
#1: Andreas Jaeger (a_jaeger) (2009-08-11 16:07:13)
This might be related to feature #306443.
#7: Greg Freemyer (gregfreemyer) (2010-02-26 22:59:38) (reply to #1)
feature #306443 has been revised / updated based on the fact that
parted now has topology support included.
I think this feature should be closed or consolidated into #306443
It would be nice if anyone that voted for this also voted for #306443
#2: Greg Freemyer (gregfreemyer) (2009-08-28 23:19:54)
I looked at 306443 which was rejected. It may have been too narrow in
scope.
As to non-standard disk geometry, it may be too late for 11.2, but this
will be a key feature in the near future. The various partitioning
tools should have already been updated to support more optimized
partition alignments.
ie. Per http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/features.shtml parted
provides "support for device's alignment requirements (e.g. physical
sector sizes that are a multiple of the logical sector size)"
Possibly parted in 11.2 already has this feature.
== Some non-standard geometry background
The 2.6.31 kernel I believe will see the introduction of the block
geometry calls specifically to allow user space and filesystems to
align their structure better with the hardware.
The first thing to ensure is that partitions fall on native alignment
points.
For 512 byte physical sector drives, the current default sector 63 is
fine. Microsoft Vista and newer have already moved to a 1MB offset for
the first partition to start at. Thus there is no reason for Linux to
maintain the 63 sector offset as its default value.
I believe drives are already shipping that have 4K physical sectors and
512 byte logical sectors. For performance reasons, it is very
importart to have the physical sector match the filesystem pages.
Unfortunately, 4K physical sector drives are going tocome in two
flavors from the factory. One flavor aligned such that partitions
starting on sector 63 will be perfectly aligned. The other aligned
such that 1 MB will be perfectly aligned. The consumer will have to
ensure they buy drives with the correct alignment for their OS.
The linux community has added kernel support for partitioning tools to
request the physical sector size and sector alignment. Userspace
partitioning tools are being enhanced (or have been) to use these
parameters when creating partitions and ensureing proper alignment.
The block stack is being enhanced in 2.6.31 to set these parameters
appropriately. Thus mdraid as an example will provide geometry
information that parted, etc. should use to ensure proper alignment.
The drivers for SSD, flash etc. should also be setting these parameters
per their various geometries.
#3: Jeff Mahoney (jeff_mahoney) (2009-08-29 00:27:47)
The non-standard geometry isn't strictly necessary, but it makes tools
that align on cylinder boundaries more friendly to use. The real need
is for SSDs to be aligned for the hardware. 128kB worked well for me in
my testing. Since 128kB alignment necessarily includes the 4k
alignment, there's a natural win there.
#4: Jeff Mahoney (jeff_mahoney) (2009-08-29 00:36:34) (reply to #3)
Since one of those tools is YaST, that would be ... convenient. :)
#5: Dean Hilkewich (deanjo13) (2009-08-29 15:33:40) (reply to #4)
BTW, this doesn't only effect SSD's but can also be applied to thumb
drives. I've aligned alot of my thumbdrives and the improvements are
drastic.
http://global.phoronix-test-suite.com/?k=profile&u=deanjo-17706-23105-232
#8: Arvin Schnell (aschnell) (2010-11-05 13:56:03)
AFAIS this feature request is done with parted 2.2 which provides
improved partition alignment.
Please review the request.
--
openSUSE Feature:
https://features.opensuse.org/306337
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