ServeRAID M5000 and M5100 series: firmware update to implement 512e functionality incorrectly reports 4K physical sector size capability

Troubleshooting

Problem

(Text has been truncated due to size limitations.) The affected ServeRAID SAS/SATA controllers (M5014, M5015, and M5025) experienced a change in its firmware code beginning with version 12.12.0-0111, 12.12.0-0126 and 12.12.0-0133 to support 512e and 4khard drives that are currently not offered by IBM. After the IBM ServeRAID firmware has been updated, the Microsoft Windows command-line utility command, fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo will show that the New Technology File System (NTFS) volumes are formatted to 4096 bytes per physical cluster.

Resolving The Problem

Source

RETAIN Tip: H206546

Symptom

Support for Advanced Format disks relies on the disk reporting itself as having 4KB physical sectors and relies on the storage driver correctly reporting the physical sector size. The ServeRAID M5000 Series SAS/SATA controller firmware release versions 12.12.0-0111, 12.12.0-0126, and 12.12.0-0133, incorrectly hard-coded, enabled, and reported support for 4K Native (4Kn) Advanced Format / Large Sector storage media.

If firmware 12.12.0-0111, 12.12.0-0126, or 12.12.0-0133 are installed, the Microsoft Windows "FSUTIL" command-line interface (CLI) utility will display 4096 Bytes Per Physical Sector.

Note:

Windows 2008 R2 / Windows 7 requires installation of Hotfix Rollup Update KB982018 prior to running the FSUTIL command and to resolve known compatibility
Windows 2012 / Windows 8, and later, do not require any update to correctly display Physical Sector Size.
When the referenced controllers have any of the affected firmware versions installed, the Bytes Per Physical Sector output displayed by the Windows file system 'fsutil' command is hard-coded to report 4096 Bytes and therefore may not correctly represent the Physical Sector size of the attached storage media

Example :

C:\Users\Sysadmin>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo c:
NTFS Volume Serial Number : 0xd894a16194a1433c
Version : 3.1
Number Sectors : 0x000000003a38502f
Total Clusters : 0x0000000007470a05
Free Clusters : 0x00000000033827f8
Total Reserved : 0x00000000000007d0
Bytes Per Sector : 4096 <------ Logical Sector Size (may report 512 (512e)
Bytes Per Physical Sector : 4096 <------ Physical Sector Size reports 4096 (4Kn)
Bytes Per Cluster : 4096
Bytes Per FileRecord Segment : 1024
Clusters Per FileRecord Segment : 0
Mft Valid Data Length : 0x0000000018dc0000
Mft Start Lcn : 0x00000000000c0000
Mft2 Start Lcn : 0x0000000000000002
Mft Zone Start : 0x0000000003940f20
Mft Zone End : 0x000000000394d740
RM Identifier: 3BBDF4F4-B133-11E3-AEBA-3C970EEBACD2

Note: With affected firmware installed, the output of the 'fsutil' command does accurately represent the current Physical Sector size of any 512Bn (512B native) hard disk drive's Physical Sector size format or Large Sector Size / Advanced Format (4096Kn) capabilities as this controller family does not support Large Sector Format / Advanced Format disks which natively support larger than 512-byte sector sizes.

Microsoft Exchange Servers built and deployed as 4Kn / Advanced Format server environments based upon the referenced controllers, and have any of the affected firmware versions installed, may experience error conditions, I/O, Cluster and / or other potential issues as outlined within with in the following Microsoft KB article: Exchange 2010 Database Availability Groups and Disk Sector Sizes http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/04/24/exchange-2010-database-availability-groups-and-disk-sector-sizes.aspx
All IBM / Lenovo System x Servers prior to 2015 are compatible with 512 Byte Physical and Logical Sector size only.Â Refer to the Storage Media documentation and specifications for Advanced Format (4Kn / Large Sector) capability and support for storage media purchased after December 31, 2014 or contact customer support.

Affected Configurations

The system is configured with at least one of the following:

Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, any service pack
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server R2 for 32-bit Servers, any service pack
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server R2 for 64-bit Servers, any service pack
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server R2, Datacenter Edition, any service pack
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server R2, Datacenter x64 Edition, any service pack
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server R2, x64 Edition, any service pack
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server for 32-bit Servers, any service pack
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server for 64-bit Servers, any service pack
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, Datacenter Edition, any service pack
Microsoft Windows 2003 Server, x64 Edition, any service pack
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, any service pack
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise, any service pack
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Foundation, any service pack
Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard, any service pack
Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Datacenter 32-bit, any service pack
Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Datacenter 64-bit, any service pack
Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Enterprise 32-bit, any service pack
Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Enterprise 64-bit, any service pack
Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Standard 32-bit, any service pack
Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Standard 64-bit, any service pack

The system is configured with one or more of the following IBM option part numbers:

ServeRAID M5014 SAS/SATA Controller, options part number 46M0916, any replacement part number
ServeRAID M5015 SAS/SATA Controller, option part number 46M0829, any replacement part number
ServeRAID M5025 SAS/SATA Controller, option part number 46M0830, any replacement part number
ServeRAID M5110 SAS/SATA Controller Card, option part number 81Y4481, any replacement part number
ServeRAID M5110 SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x (CTO), any replacement part number
ServeRAID M5110e SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x, onboard, any embedded
ServeRAID M5120 SAS/SATA Controller for IBM System x, Option 81Y4478, any replacement part number

The 12.12.0-0111, 12.12.0-0126, 12.12.0-0133 and 23.12.0-0011 firmware for the ServeRAID M50xx/51xx Series controller is affected.

The system has the symptom described above.

Note: This does not imply that the network operating system will work under all combinations of hardware and software. Please see the compatibility page for more information:

http://www.ibm.com/systems/info/x86servers/serverproven/compat/us/

Solution

This is a permanent restriction, there will be no solution.

Additional Information

In preparation to support 512e (512B emulated) hard drives with 4096 physical sector size and 512 byte logical sector sizes, a firmware change was implemented within versions 12.12.0-0111, 12.12.0-0126 and 12.12-0-0133 code for the ServeRAID M5014, M5015 and M5025 SAS/SATA controllers which incorrectly reported Physical Sector Size as 4096 bytes (4Kn).

For ServeRAID M5014, M5015 and M5025 SAS/SATA controllers, firmware version 12.13.0-0179 will show the correct drive value of 512 (native) Byte per Physical Sector size that IBM currently is offering.

For ServeRAID M5110, M5110e and M5120 SAS/SATA controllers, firmware version 23.12.0-0011 will show the correct drive value of 512 (native) Byte per Physical Sector size that IBM currently is offering.

With ServeRAID firmware version 12.13.0-0179 and 23.12.0-0011 activated and Microsoft KB982018 installed, FSUTIL will correctly report Physical Byte Per Sector of 512 to match 512 (native) drive Physical Byte per Sector formatting currently offered by IBM.

There are no plans to support 512e or 4096 sector size hard drives for the IBM ServeRAID M5014, M5015 or M5025 SAS/SATA controllers.

4K Native (4Kn) Advanced Format Technology storage media is only supported on IBM / Lenovo Storage Products, Microsoft Operating Systems and Applications that meet Microsoft, IBM and Lenovo requirements.

For information related to Supported Configurations, System and Application Requirements, Features, Troubleshooting and other information related to Advanced Format Technologies, refer to the Microsoft and IBM documentation under the section.

For more information, refer to the following Microsoft and IBM reference materials:

Exchange 2010 Database Availability Groups and Disk Sector Sizes
http://blogs.technet.com/b/exchange/archive/2013/04/24/exchange-2010-database-availability-groups-and-disk-sector-sizes.aspx

Understanding the Impact of Large Sector Media for IT Pros
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh147334(v=ws.10).aspx

Advanced format (4K) disk compatibility update
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/hh848035(v=vs.85).aspx

Microsoft support policy for 4K sector hard drives in Windows
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2510009

An update that improves the compatibility of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 with Advanced Format Disks is available
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982018

A hotfix rollup that improves Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 compatibility with Advanced Format disks
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2553708

Application support requirements for large-sector drives
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2510009#Application%20support

Fsutil
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753059.aspx

Advanced Format HDD Technology Overview
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redpapers/pdfs/redp5119.pdf

Bytes per phsycial sector

Document Location

Worldwide

Operating System

System x:Windows Server 2003

System x:Windows Server 2003 x86-64

System x Hardware Options:Windows Server 2003

System x Hardware Options:Windows Server 2003 x86-64

System x:Windows Server 2008

System x:Windows Server 2008 x86-64 & 2008 R2

System x Hardware Options:Windows Server 2008

System x:Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition

System x:Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition x86-64

System x Hardware Options:Windows Server 2008 x86-64 & 2008 R2

Lenovo x86 servers:Windows Server 2003

Lenovo x86 servers:Windows Server 2003 x86-64

Lenovo x86 servers:Windows Server 2008

Lenovo x86 servers:Windows Server 2008 x86-64 & 2008 R2

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Tips

ServeRAID M5000 and M5100 series: firmware update to implement 512e functionality incorrectly reports 4K physical sector size capability - System x servers and Lenovo x86 Servers