Help: Disk detection order changes when adding disks

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bengtv

Cadet
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Jun 9, 2011
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Using FreeNAS 8.0
I first connected 4x2TB to the 4 SATA ports integrated on the motherboard.
A raidz array using these four drives seemed to be working well.
I then connected another 2TB disk and a 60GB SSD to a 2 port PCI-e SATA card.
When booting it seems like these two new disks are detected first, which
resulted in two of the old 2TB disks being available for creating a new volume. :-O
The BIOS does not seem to have any support for rearranging disk order...
I'm not familiar with FreeBSD disk enumeration... ;)

Question:
Is there a way to lock the raidz members to serial number (or similar) rather than
the order the disks were detected? Or have I misunderstood what is going on?

(Tried to post under "hardware" as well since it is not clear where to find the solution...
But someone didn't like duplicate posts... ) :(


--- Update --------------

Is no one here even A BIT CONCERNED about this behavior?
From a quick scan of the web, it seems like FreeBSD-people recommend labeling the drives to prevent confusion about which disk is which when a disk dies.
But from what I've also read, people seem to be convinced that zfs can handle moving disks by looking at the meta-data stored on them. If that is true, then it is the FreeNAS GUI that is confused about what disks are available for creating new volumes...

Is anyone sitting on the truth? Anyone?
 

Al562

Dabbler
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Jun 19, 2011
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Hi Bengtv,

Please note the FAQs I reference below are not specific to FreeNAS 8 but you should still find them helpful. I do not believe similar FAQs exist specifically for 8 yet.

Bengtv said:
I'm not familiar with FreeBSD disk enumeration...
Lots of people aren't, don't worry, you'll get the hang of it. Please read FAQs:
Q: What should I take into consideration before adding / changing / upgrading controllers and / or Mother Boards, or BIOS settings that affect hard drives?
Q: What is and what causes “device name shifting syndrome” and how can I avoid or fix it?

Bengtv said:
Is no one here even A BIT CONCERNED about this behavior?
Nope, we're used to it.

Bengtv said:
From a quick scan of the web, it seems like FreeBSD-people recommend labeling the drives to prevent confusion about which disk is which when a disk dies.
You can try using labels, please read FAQ: Q: Can I mount disks/file systems using labels instead of device names?


Bengtv said:
If that is true, then it is the FreeNAS GUI that is confused about what disks are available
Correct! One of the aforementioned FAQs has suggestions on how to fix this issue.

Bengtv said:
Is anyone sitting on the truth?
Just the FAQs, man.;)

Regards,
Al
 

markab

Cadet
Joined
Jun 25, 2011
Messages
1
Ok,

So I have just come across this same problem on freenas 7x, I really thought freenas would have been a little smarter! anyway...

I did have 6 disks in raid 5 ad4, ad6, ad8, ad10, ad12 and ad14 I put a 2 port sata card in which seemed to snad id's ad4 and ad6 so now the webgui is not playing nice.

If I check status on the raid5 it reports that all is well and it's disks are now on ad8, ad10, ad12, ad14, ad16 and ad18, could I safely assume that all the original disks have just been pushed up those 2 id slots, so if I go into /conf/config.xml and change all ad4 to ad8, ad6 to ad10, ad8 to ad12, ad10 to ad14, ad12 to ad16, ad14 to ad18 then reboot and then add the 2 new disks in the correct place with the webgui then all will be good again?

Thanks,
Mark
 

Tekkie

Patron
Joined
May 31, 2011
Messages
353
The FAQ link Q: What should I take into consideration before adding / changing / upgrading controllers and / or Mother Boards, or BIOS settings that affect hard drives? is broken :(
 

bengtv

Cadet
Joined
Jun 9, 2011
Messages
6
I have been told that the 8.0.1 release contains a fix that will
make the GUI better at keeping track of the disks. :)
 
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