EMC CLARiiON CX Disk Offset Configuration

I’ll be updating this with various OS method of setting the disk offset. This is mostly for me to consolidate my notes. It should be noted this is valid for MOST current EMC disk technologies, but you should always consult the documentation to make sure.

If anyone has an OS to add, or sees an error let me know.

Microsoft Windows Server 2003: 

1. Start -> Run -> cmd.exe
2. diskpart.exe
3. List disk and find the new LUN you’re wanting to offset by number
4. select disk #, where # = the LUN you wanted in step 3.
5. create partition primary align=X, where X = 32, 64 or 128 (in my case, 64).
6. format the disk in disk manager/assign a letter/use a mount point.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008:

Technically this is no longer required. This is because Server 2008 automatically sets the offset to 1MB on partition creation.

Linux / older (2.x) ESX / etc:

1. On service console, execute “fdisk /dev/sdX” (or “fdisk /dev/emcpowerX” for clariion systems), where X is the device on which you would like to create the new partition (a, b, c, etc).
2. Type “n” to create a new partition
3. Type “p” to create a primary partition
4. Type “1” to create partition #1
5. Select the defaults to use the full disk.
6. Type “t” to change partition type
7. Type “1” to select partition #1
8. Depending on your Linux environment and need: type “83” to set type to Linux partition, or type “82” to set type to Linux swap, or type “8e” to set type to Linux LVM, or type “fb” to set type to VMFS (vmware file system). For other partition types, type “L” to display the list of codes.
9. Type “x” to get into the expert mode
10. Type “b” to specify the starting block of partitions
11. Type “1” to select partition #1
12. Type “128” to make partition to align on 64KB boundary (block No. 128)
13. Type “w” to write new partition information to disk.
14. Exit fdisk and format the partition with your favorie filesystem.

Solaris:

To be added.