IMPORTANT: Although the -f(force) option causes the IO Accelerator device to detach, even in a RAID setup, it is strongly recommended to take the drives/volume offline using the Windows® Disk Management plug-in and then perform the detach. Forcing the detach may result in loss of data.

Notes

Attempting to detach an IO Accelerator device might fail with an error indicating that the device is busy. This might occur if the device is part of a software RAID (0,1,5) volume. The Windows® operating system refuses the request to detach the drive associated with the IO Accelerator device because it is part of a RAID volume and might cause the volume to fail. This does not occur with simple volumes (such as a single IO Accelerator device). To detach a simple volume, take the volume offline using the Disk Management MMC plug-in application.

fio-format

Description

The fio-formatcommand performs a low-level format of the IO Accelerator. This format is different from a format performed by the operating system. The utility displays a progress bar and percentage as it completes the format.

The IO Accelerator ships pre-formatted, so you only have to run the fio-formatcommand if you must change the logical size of the device.

CAUTION: Use this utility with care since it deletes all user information on the IO Accelerator.

Syntax

fio-format <device> [options] <device>

where <device> is the name given to the IO Accelerator during the installation process. The syntax is /dev/fctx, where x indicates the PCIe bus number where you installed the IO Accelerator. For example, the name /dev/fct4 refers to the IO Accelerator device installed in PCIe Bus 4 in your Windows® operating system. To view this bus number, use the IO Accelerator Management Tool or fio-status.

Options

Option

Description

 

 

-b <size

Set the block (sector) size, in bytes or KiBytes (base 2). The default is 512 bytes. For

BK>

example: -b 512B or -b 4K (B in 512B is optional).

-f

Force the format size, bypassing normal checks and warnings. This option might be

 

needed when fio-formatdoes not proceed properly. The "Are you sure?" prompt still

 

appears unless you use the -yoption. This option can only be used with the -ooption.

-q

Quiet mode: Disable the display of the progress-percentage indicator.

-s <size

Set the device capacity as a specific size (in TB, GB, or MB) or as a percentage of the

MGT%>

advertised capacity:

 

• T Number of terabytes (TB) to format

 

• G Number of gigabytes (GB) to format

 

• M Number of megabytes (MB) to format

 

• % Percentage, such as 70% (the percent sign must be included)

-R

Disable fast rescan on unclean shutdowns at the cost of some capacity.

Utilities 46