Can Not Reassign Drive Letters

[anhloc]

Is there anyway we'll be able to get to reassign drive letters?

I know it's not broken, and my array is functioning properly, however, there's got to be a way to change these.

Before I added my new LSI HBA and put in 2 new drives, everything was proper and in order.

Now they are all out of whack.

 

I've done the new config/reassign fun stuff already, and it just doesn't change. When I reassign the drives, they keep the old sdX assignment.

 

Any chance we can get to change this in 6.01?

[anhloc]

This is what it was before.

[interwebtech]

My understanding is drive "letters" as you refer to them are assigned each time it boots up (in the order unRaid detects them I assume). So its luck of the draw who gets what.

[itimpi]

Is there anyway we'll be able to get to reassign drive letters?

I know it's not broken, and my array is functioning properly, however, there's got to be a way to change these.

Before I added my new LSI HBA and put in 2 new drives, everything was proper and in order.

Now they are all out of whack.

 

I've done the new config/reassign fun stuff already, and it just doesn't change. When I reassign the drives, they keep the old sdX assignment.

 

Any chance we can get to change this in 6.01?

As was mentioned - drive letters are never fixed, but assigned dynamically at the Linux level as devices are recognised during the Linux boot stages.  This means it can change between boots although the recognition order tends to be consistent but this is not guaranteed.

 

The order is largely determined by the location that drives are plugged into the motherboard, and so not anything that can be changed at the unRAID level as it is hardware dependent.  You could work out what slot tends to get what letter and arrange your drives around that (with the earlier caveat that it letters can change between boot).  However you are probably better off just ignoring the drive letters and working off drive serial numbers (which is what unRAID uses to recognise drives).

[RobJ]

there's got to be a way to change these.

 

How well do you know Linus and some of the other top Linux developers, and are you willing to give up your firstborn (or you have another suitably large inducement)?  If yes, then there's a very remote possibility that you can talk them into changing Linux for you!   

 

 

[dgaschk]

Why do people get so fixated on these letter? They ephemeral. You may as well ask that the same pattern of clouds passes overhead each day.  These assignments are not meant to be fixed. They were never meant to be fixed. You will need to learn Unix in oder to work closely with the drives. Whomever is teaching that the drive shorthand designators should be the same each time the system boots is doing mankind a great disservice.

[Squid]

Why do people get so fixated on these letter? They ephemeral. You may as well ask that the same pattern of clouds passes overhead each day.  These assignments are not meant to be fixed. They were never meant to be fixed. You will need to learn Unix in oder to work closely with the drives. Whomever is teaching that the drive shorthand designators should be the same each time the system boots is doing mankind a great disservice.

For someone who is (based upon the number of posts) a new user, and presumably only familiar with a windows system where drive letters are static its not an unreasonable question.

[dgaschk]

Why do people get so fixated on these letter? They ephemeral. You may as well ask that the same pattern of clouds passes overhead each day.  These assignments are not meant to be fixed. They were never meant to be fixed. You will need to learn Unix in oder to work closely with the drives. Whomever is teaching that the drive shorthand designators should be the same each time the system boots is doing mankind a great disservice.

For someone who is (based upon the number of posts) a new user, and presumably only familiar with a windows system where drive letters are static its not an unreasonable question.

 

It's always reasonable to blame Windows!

[anhloc]

Thanks squid.

 

As for why people get fixated on these; if I'm not the only one, obviously there's a (small) demand for it. And it's probably for the same reason why a lot of people reserve a specific IP for their server via their router, even though you can access it via //tower or tower.local.

[dgaschk]

Thanks squid.

 

As for why people get fixated on these; if I'm not the only one, obviously there's a (small) demand for it. And it's probably for the same reason why a lot of people reserve a specific IP for their server via their router, even though you can access it via //tower or tower.local.

 

Not exactly the same. The shorthand designation letters are not like the designators in windows and should not be use in the same manner. The misunderstanding comes from a Windows centric view. The letters are assigned in the order devices respond. There is nothing more compacted then that. There are several more permanent ways to reference drives. Serial number is the most likely candidate, next comes physical attachment point reference. The serial number never changes and the physical connection will only change if the physical connection of the drive changes. Both of these designators have a lot of characters in the reference and "/dev/sdx" is much more convenient.

 

The demand that the shorthand designators in Linux behave like the drive letter assignments in Windows will never happen. By the time one understands how to satisfy the demand it becomes apparent that there is no real need for a solution. Study Linux and its elegance will be revealed!

 

[Squid]

Thanks squid.

 

As for why people get fixated on these; if I'm not the only one, obviously there's a (small) demand for it. And it's probably for the same reason why a lot of people reserve a specific IP for their server via their router, even though you can access it via //tower or tower.local.

 

Not exactly the same. The shorthand designation letters are not like the designators in windows and should not be use in the same manner. The misunderstanding comes from a Windows centric view. The letters are assigned in the order devices respond. There is nothing more compacted then that. There are several more permanent ways to reference drives. Serial number is the most likely candidate, next comes physical attachment point reference. The serial number never changes and the physical connection will only change if the physical connection of the drive changes. Both of these designators have a lot of characters in the reference and "/dev/sdx" is much more convenient.

 

The demand that the shorthand designators in Linux behave like the drive letter assignments in Windows will never happen. By the time one understands how to satisfy the demand it becomes apparent that there is no real need for a solution. Study Linux and its elegance will be revealed!

Or put another way, think of the disk## as the drive letters... These never change unless you change them.  And if you do ever choose to access the drives directly you will be using the disk## designation anyways

[dgaschk]

/dev/md## is a good reference.