+
+.sp
+.LP
+The following property can be set at creation time:
+.sp
+.ne 2
+.mk
+.na
+\fB\fBashift\fR\fR
+.ad
+.sp .6
+.RS 4n
+Pool sector size exponent, to the power of 2 (internally referred to as "ashift"). I/O operations will be aligned to the specified size boundaries. Additionally, the minimum (disk) write size will be set to the specified size, so this represents a space vs. performance trade-off. The typical case for setting this property is when performance is important and the underlying disks use 4KiB sectors but report 512B sectors to the OS (for compatibility reasons); in that case, set \fBashift=12\fR (which is 1<<12 = 4096).
+.LP
+For optimal performance, the pool sector size should be greater than or equal to the sector size of the underlying disks. Since the property cannot be changed after pool creation, if in a given pool, you \fIever\fR want to use drives that \fIreport\fR 4KiB sectors, you must set \fBashift=12\fR at pool creation time.
+.RE
+