Add ability to label each physical HDD !?

[Hossa]

Hello all,

wouldn't it be great to give each HDD an individual label in the GUI.
So I can name them for example like the Slot I use or else....

So when one drive fails I can simply look at the label and know which drive to change and don't have to look at the extrem looong serial number !?

Who is with me!?

Cheers
Hossa

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

What's wrong with looking at the serial number?

 

[Hossa]

Hi,
there is nothing wrong with it!
You can still do it if you like!

It is just much easier to have a "free" label; especially than you don't have to pull each drive, to check the number!

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

Just put a label with the serial number on a place where you can read it, just like you would have to do with a custom label. You also need the serial number when you want to give them a custom label anyway.

 

[Hossa]

Sure I can write it down and put it somewhere....guess what......but that is not the point!

Counter question: Why are you using a NAS system and not thousands of CDs for your files !? ;-)

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

I can think of a hundred reasons why that comparison is total nonsense, but i will not go into that.

I don't see the difference in putting a label with the serial number on a visible place on your disks vs. putting a label with a custom name/number in a visible place on your disk. Furthermore, you need the serial number anyway, to identify which disk you have to give a custom label in FreeNAS.

But that's just my two cents...

 

[Glorious1]

Hello all,

wouldn't it be great to give each HDD an individual label in the GUI.
So I can name them for example like the Slot I use or else....

So when one drive fails I can simply look at the label and know which drive to change and don't have to look at the extrem looong serial number !?

Who is with me!?

Cheers
Hossa

There already is a field to enter a description for each drive in the drive list, right next to the serial numbers.

 

[Hossa]

There already is a field to enter a description for each drive in the drive list, right next to the serial numbers.

Serious ???
I have looked the first time when I set up my FreeNAS, but didn't see any!

If so. Thanks a lot for the info !!

Will check it asap.

Cheers and Thanks ! ;-)
Hossa

 

[Hossa]

I can think of a hundred reasons why that comparison is total nonsense, but i will not go into that.

I don't see the difference in putting a label with the serial number on a visible place on your disks vs. putting a label with a custom name/number in a visible place on your disk. Furthermore, you need the serial number anyway, to identify which disk you have to give a custom label in FreeNAS.

But that's just my two cents...

See. Thats the point. Everybody has his/her reasons. Don't know if I can find thousands for my "feature request"....
I don't want to discuss about those reasons!

Just asking about a different idea, to maybe improve something.
And it looks like I wasn't the first! ;-)

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

Still don't see what the difference is. Care to explain?

 

[Glorious1]

Serious ???
I have looked the first time when I set up my FreeNAS, but didn't see any!

If so. Thanks a lot for the info !!

Will check it asap.

Cheers and Thanks ! ;-)
Hossa

In "View Disks" it's the 4th column.

 

[Hossa]

In "View Disks" it's the 4th column.

There it is!

Thank you very much for the hint !!!!
I really never saw it. Has it been there for a long time already !?
I set up my NAS about 1 year ago; can't remember that I saw this field back than.

That is exactly what I was looking for. Great so here I can give eacht drive its own name or comment.
Perfect!

For example (pool1, pool2, spare, ...).

You all have a good one!

Cheers
Hossa

 

[cyberjock]

Be warned..... you are better off working by disk serial number than anything else. Saying somethign is in "slot 3" isn't useful if the disk in slot 2 were to fail. The entries will shift and you'll grab the wrong disk. ;)

If ever in doubt about which disk to pull, shutdown the box and use the disk's serial number.

 

[Rilo Ravestein]

Cyberjock, isnt the label linked to the serial number? So if u use a label like "slot 3" for disk with serial number X that is in the slot 3, if the disk in slot 2 fails, how does that change? The disk with serial number X and label "slot 3" will still be in slot 3. Or am i missing something here?

I still don't see the point in using labels btw.

 

[Hossa]

Hi,

that is really one important Info !!!
I would also expect, that the label is linked to the serial number!

So I would change my "Feature request" to:
Fix the "description field" to the corresponding "serial number"!

But I am also curious: What is the description than linked to !?

 

[Glorious1]

If the description is not linked to the serial number, it should only change if you move disks around. If it could change every time you reboot there would be no value to the descriptions at all. The point, to me, is to have one place where you could see the "name" (like ada0), serial number, and then in the description if you want, what kind of disk it is, what pool it's in, and what slot it's in.

By the way, one problem with relying solely on serial numbers is that FreeNAS does not consistently get the serial number for disks on a HBA.

 

[cyberjock]

Last time I tried to use labels (8.0.4 or 8.2.0) it didn't work that way. If the behavior changed, great. Personally, since 'translation' has to take place beween the serial number and the label you used, I'd never ever trust the label in case that translation layer broke. You don't want to be that guy that had one failed disk and now you have two because you trusted that label.

 

[Glorious1]

Definitely I would double-check serial numbers before off-lining and pulling a drive, but I find it handy to have extra information about the drives in that screen. I added the serial number to the label just so I could see if the labels ever got applied to the wrong drive. After an update/reboot they are still in the right place, but will keep an eye on it.

 

[Hossa]

Good idea. Will do this too.....

But if they are changing...whats the use of it !?

 

[Hossa]

Hello all,

I checked with my new build. The label IS fixed to the hdd !!
So I can not use it to label my hdd drive trays ! :-(

Cheers
Hossa