New Harddrives - FreeNAS uses 512 bytes instead of 4096

[Grinchy]

Hello,

Received my new 8TB Drives, but after creating an Z2 Volume smartctl tells me the Drives are formatted with 512 Bytes instead of 4096 Bytes. I'm using 4kn Drives, so this will probably be a big performance Problem :-(

Smartctl:
Sector Sizes: 512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical

Any Idea what could gave gone wrong?

 

[Johnnie Black]

That means the disk is 512e like most current disks, not 4kn, what's the disk model?

 

[Grinchy]

Thanks for you answer!

It's an WD80EZAZ. It's quite near to a WD Red or a HGST He10.

Always thought that this drive is 4kn, but it seems there's a 512e Version es well.
So Smartctl just shows the Data in the Drives firmware, not the real formatting? So even if it says "512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical" Freenas should format the drives in 4k?

Is there any performance impact with using 4k Sectors on an 512e Drive, or should I prefer 512k Sectors?

 

[Johnnie Black]

It's an WD80EZAZ.

That model is 512e only, a 4kn version would use a different model #.

So Smartctl just shows the Data in the Drives firmware, not the real formatting? So even if it says "512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical" Freenas should format the drives in 4k?

Yes, FreeNAS will use 4k sectors, and create a 4k aligned partition, so performance will be optimal.

Is there any performance impact with using 4k Sectors on an 512e Drive, or should I prefer 512k Sectors?

No, leave as is.