Intel SSD DC S 3610 and Sector Size (How to Set 4Kn)

[NugentS]

I have a bunch of Intel SSDs that are going into a TrueNAS (FreeBSD) NAS. I want to format these 4Kn rather than the current 512e. The question is how?

IntelMAS set -intelssd 1 PhysicalSectorSize=4096 says completed successfully

But it doesn't actually change anything as far as I can tell. The sector size still reports as 512 with physical 4096

I have the latest firmware on the drives

[As an aside. on FreeBSD/TrueNAS apparently ashift=12 means use 4K - so I may not need to do anything - but I am unable to find a clean answer anywhere]

[NugentS]

All 8 drives are connected to one LSI Card running in IT Mode (not IR)

I'll try and do this tomorrow morning - but if not then it will be next week. Incidentally the first time I tried to put a drive into 4Kn mode was on a direct SATA port on a different machine with no effect. 

[NugentS]

OK - I used a different machine and a different drive as the 6 previous ones are now in use so it will require a certain amount of planning to get at them.

I ran the command as requested

Results attached

[BrusC_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hello, Sean.

Thank you for the information.

After further reviewing your scenario, I would like to confirm that only the physical sector size can be changed between 512 and 4096, which was successful according to the command, and according to the Show All report provided.

The logical sector size, shown in the Show All report as "SectorSize", cannot be changed, and most common configurations or implementations will only require you to change the physical sector size, meaning that the drive should be good to go as it is right now in 4096.

If you have any other questions, please let me know, the further testing I requested before should not be necessary, but I will follow up on November 5th in case you would like to keep the thread open a bit longer.

Best regards,

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[NugentS]

Thank you for your time

My takeaway is that the Intel SSD's (of that era) don't support 4Kn. Its a shame - but not critical.

[BrusC_Intel]

Hello, NugentS.

Good day,

Thank you for your understanding.

I will proceed to close the thread on November 5th, and if you have other questions, concerns, or comments you would like to share with the community, just let us know.

Best regards,

Bruce C.

Intel Customer Support Technician