Partition alignment VMFS and VM

I want to take a bookmark for the article that I find on the web for the partition alignment.

For VMFS partition when you create a partition with the VI client or the vCenter the partition in alignment itself, but if you create the partition with the cmd line (ESX) in the COS the partition is not alignment. For the alignment you need to make some othe command when you are in the fdisk tool. after you create the partition whit the n command you need to change the type of the partition (fd for vmware filesystem) and than use the X command and set the start of the partition; 128 is the value for the most cases, but check the SAN manual for the best configuration. Then you can create the vmfs filesystem on that partition with this command Example: vmkfstools -C vmfs3 /vmfs/devices/disks/vmhba0:0:0:10

- Create VMFS volumes from the command-line from Duncan Edding. Thanks!
- ESX3 Recommendations for VMFS Partition alignment from VMware doc site. PDF directly
- Performance whit partition alignment

Upon the VMFS there are the VM and the vmdk file: The VM disk: for this there are a difference from windows to linux configuration.

For windows before win 2008 server you need to make the alignment by hand with diskpart.exe. Here an article that explain how to create also a Windows boot disk alignment. There is a Microsoft Technet article that explain how to verify the alignment of the partition.
This is an article that expalin how to create the volume and than format it in an alignment state. It refers to Exchange but is a standard for all the product, also for SQL. Other link of this kind are:
- Luca Bianchi blog reference for SQL server and alingnment partition
- Win 2008 disk alignment
- PowerCLI script for chech the Windows VM disk alignment from Arne Fokkena

UPDATE

- Another document from Technet for SQL partition and alignment!

Bye

aLex