Identifying hard drives

[rlgs]

I've recently built a NAS box using an 8 port RAID card. I'm not using it for RAID, and I have a single ZFS pool.. N4F can see the drives and has assigned them names of mfid0 - 7 but it can't identify the drive model or serial number.

Now one of the drives has failed (mfid7) but I don't know which one it is. Is there a way to identify it other than by removing each drive one by one and rebooting N4F?

Also, since N4F can't read the SMART status of the drives I can't use the email report to notify me of a drive failure. Is there a way to query the ZFS status with a script?

[dnar]

Have you enabled SMART for each drive in N4F?

Drive 0 should be the one connected to the first card port and so on.

[raulfg3]

Add disk one At time, And write serial number in name field.
Once done , print/save your disk config. So If one disk fail, You can easy identify.


Other option is to label disk using gpart, prior to add to zfs pool.

[rlgs]

Thansk for the replies dnar and raulfg3. SMART is enabled but it can't be read through the RAID card. I have 2 more drives connected to the motherboard and N4F can see them and their SMART data OK. The SATA cables I'm using have a 4 to 1 configuration, so I can't trace which one is which.

I guess I should have taken the time to identify the drives properly when I set it up. Using gpart is a good idea.
It looks like I'll have to do it the hard way now

[esyan]

HI:
I am assuming you have a Perc5 or Perc6 sata controller?
I believe it's the controller that's changing yout drives when a drive fail.
Nas4free does not have a module buiild in for your mfid0-7 drives.

This is How I find my drives location.
You have 2 options:
a) Get a usb dvd player and load FreeBSD 8.3 or 9.1 DVD and boot up with it.
After it boots, You do not want to install FreeBSD but goto " FIXIT ".
It's the option I use to run " MFIUTIL " .
ie: mfiutil show drives
This will list the drives you have at your controller.
Do a search mfiutil
b) Copy an image to a usb drive with FreeBSD 8.3 or 9.1.
Use the same instruction above.
Using mfiutil will get the serial numbers and location of the drives.

Turn " OFF " your nas sytem.
Pull out the bad drive and compare the serial number with the printout.
install new drive, turn your system back "ON"

I find you have to go into Perc5 controller bios first to rename all the drives that connected to the controller.
ie: disk00, disk01, disk02, ... disk07.
it's like seting up your controller the first time.
This will set your original confiiguration before a drive had fail.
Exit from controller bios and let Nas4free complete boot up.
You can use putty to connect to your NAS.
Login in putty and initialize your new drive and add to your zpool.

That' it...

I am trying to compile mfiutil into nas4free but no success at the moment.
If someone know's howto. Please let me know.

[dreesedatalink]

depending on the raid card manufacturer most have an identify disk function. and from nas4free you should be able to match drive serial numbers from webUI to raid bios then in raid bios its usually labeled as blink drive or locate disk something along those lines.


hope it helps.

[rlgs]

Esyan, it's an LSI card. I don't think it was changing the drives, I just hadn't identified them properly when I built the NAS and so I was unprepared when a drive failed. Your suggestion looks interesting and I'll try it next time, but I have already identified the drives now by adding them one at a time. Mfiutil looks like it would be a good addition to N4F, good luck with implementing it.

Dreesedatalink, unfortunately there were no drive serial numbers in the webui, otherwise the job would have been much simpler. There no lights on my hard drives either, it's a budget NAS built from spare parts and leftover hard drives from an office upgrade. It would be a good idea to have HDD lights though, I'm not sure if this card supports that but I'll have a look and see if it does.