How to check file allocation unit size in windows servers

File Allocation Unit Size


Run the below command to get the drive size information and Bytes Per Cluster is the file allocation unit size.


fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo c:
fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo f:


C:\>fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo c:
NTFS Volume Serial Number :       0xe42ac0022abfcfb2
NTFS Version   :                  3.1
LFS Version    :                  1.1
Number Sectors :                  0x000000000634f7ff
Total Clusters :                  0x0000000000c69eff
Free Clusters  :                  0x00000000006b9ee1
Total Reserved :                  0x0000000000000f80
Bytes Per Sector  :               512
Bytes Per Physical Sector :       512
Bytes Per Cluster :               4096          -- It shows the allocation unit size information
Bytes Per FileRecord Segment    : 1024
Clusters Per FileRecord Segment : 0
Mft Valid Data Length :           0x000000000b440000
Mft Start Lcn  :                  0x00000000000c0000
Mft2 Start Lcn :                  0x0000000000000002
Mft Zone Start :                  0x00000000000cb440
Mft Zone End   :                  0x00000000000cc820


Windows provides a tool called diskpart which is used for disk partition alignment.


C:\>diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.3.9600
Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: KalyanServer


DISKPART> list disk
  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online           50 GB  1024 KB
  Disk 1    Online           30 GB  1024 KB  
 
DISKPART> list volume
Volume ###  Ltr  Label        Fs     Type        Size     Status     Info
----------  ---  -----------  -----  ----------  -------  ---------  --------
Volume 0     C   New Volume   NTFS   Simple        49 GB  Healthy
Volume 1     D   New Volume   NTFS   Simple        29 GB  Healthy

DISKPART> select volume 0
Volume 0 is the selected volume.


DISKPART> filesystems
Current File System
  Type                 : NTFS
  Allocation Unit Size : 4096
  Flags : 00000000
 
DISKPART> format unit=64k quick       -- If you want to format it to another allocation unit, Don't ever do this on your live hosts.
  100 percent completed
DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.


DISKPART> filesystems
Current File System
  Type                 : NTFS
  Allocation Unit Size : 64K                     -- After format

What is CheckDB and How CheckDB is executed

The command CheckDB checks the logical and physical integrity of all the objects in the specified database. It will check internal structures, metadata, and data in the database.

CheckDB has two roles: Integrity Check, Correction.

Integrity check is helps to verify the allocated structures of GAM, SGAM, PFS and IAM etc., In addition to it verifies the table consistency of all the tables and of its indexes including system catalogs. DBCC CHECKDB automatically executes DBCC CHECKTABLE for each table in the database, DBCC CHECKALLOC and DBCC CHECKCATALOG, no need to run them separately.

DBCC CHECKALLOC –Used to check disk space allocation structures for a particular database.

DBCC CHECKTABLE – Used to check integrity of the structures and pages that build up the indexeds or tables.

DBCC CHECKCATALOG – Used to Checks the consistency of catalog for the specified database, but database has to be online.

How CheckDB is executed?

CheckDB doesn't run directly over the database, a hidden database snapshot is created and process runs on that snapshot.

To check the integrity of AdventureWorks
DBCC CheckDB(AdventureWorks);

The default output of checkdb will have lot of information and the last two lines will show you exact information like this:

CHECKDB found 0 allocation errors and 0 consistency errors in database 'AdventureWorks'.
DBCC execution completed. If DBCC printed error messages, contact your system administrator.

Few Execution Options:

NO_INFOMSGS -- It doesn't display any informational messages unless there is any error

ALL_ERRORMSGS -- This is the default parameter since SQL Server 2008 SP1, displays complete information

NOINDEX -- It Skips nonclustered indexes while doing integrity checks

ESTIMATEONLY -- Estimates the space needed for TempDB to run the checkdb, it is useful when you are planning to run this checkdb on VLDB

TABLOCK -- Uses locks instead of database snapshots, it is useful when the snapshot creation is failing

PHYSICAL_ONLY -- It skips most of the logical verifications, and it runs with less resources. But Full execution is recommended

TABLERESULTS -- It returns the information in a tabular format rather than free-form text.

DBCC CheckDB(AdventureWorks) with TABLERESULTS


DBCC CheckDB(AdventureWorks) with ESTIMATEONLY, TABLERESULTS -- If you want to include multiple switches


If CheckDB is not reported any errors then no need to repair your database. There are couple of options available in CheckDB to repair databases.


DBCC CheckDB(AdventureWorks, REPAIR_REBUILD)
DBCC CheckDB(AdventureWorks, REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS)

Here we need to remember few points:

Repair_Rebuild -- It will repair only non-clustered indexes
Repair cannot fix all every things in database
Repairs are always run offline, (databases must be in single user mode)
At times repairs will cause data loss if you use REPAIR_ALLOW_DATA_LOSS
Repair cannot be done in master and tempdb because they cannot be put in single-user mode.