24 drive New Install - Disk Labels

[mshanley]

Hi Everyone! New Member here.

I have been trying out different ZFS Solutions out there for my new 24 Drive Norco case build. I have tried freeNas, Nexenta, and a couple others.
I LIKE NAS4FREE the best! so Congrats!

Anyway.. I have been doing allot of reading and there is little info or conflicting info on how to label the hard drives / trays for ZFS build.
I did an install on a separate drive and then added each of the 24 drive 1 at a time. I labled the drive tray as I added them when they appeared in the GUI ada1 ada2 ada 3 etc, only to find they shifted again

I am now thinking it might be a BETTER idea to label each drive tray with the drive serial number? I want to be able to identify which drive is going bad so I can replace and then what steps they are to replace.

It seems that the drives will shift around in ZFS so I'm not sure if there is a better way to do this? (I'm using Supermicro Sata controllers - non raid)

I'm open to suggestions and I can certainly blow it away and re-do it again as I am testing right now before I actually move data to it.
What is the right way to label the trays so I know which one to pull?

[raulfg3]

I am now thinking it might be a BETTER idea to label each drive tray with the drive serial number? I want to be able to identify which drive is going bad so I can replace and then what steps they are to replace.

remember that Nas4Free is intended for home users and low end hardware, you are in the other point of focus of N4F, but perhaps this can help you:
put all disk together ( do not add disk one by one), and use new button "Clear config and import disk", this new feature, identify disk by Serial number:

see my 10 disk NAS:

10 disk.jpg

You only need to save a screen capture or .mht of this page, and save in a safe place, when a disk fail, you can easy identify what disk and what serial number is comparing old (saved), and new page.


PD: It's not the prefered way for industrial grade pools, but it's enought for home users.

If still it do not like you , there are several topics that refer of how to label disk prior to use:

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=2929&p=15899
viewtopic.php?f=69&t=1678&p=7523

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?quer ... &sektion=8

http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=28181