[PLUGIN] Disk Location


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screenshot_01_devices.thumb.png.4e2e306bc4439a30a12267adca28d521.png

 

Disk Location is a different disk tray layout plugin which uses the hard disk path to locate the drives. It supports only drives found by the SCSI Generic drivers, which is usually SATA and NVMe including devices attached to hardware storage/raid cards.

 

This also include a handy "Locate" function which help you allocate the tray from where the disk is installed in, if you have hotswap trays with their own HD-activity LED (or made your own custom ones). This might not work on SSD's or maybe even some other types of hard drives.

 

You can change the direction of the trays horizontal and vertical as well as the numbering direction of the trays, make some override to add more storage "not included in the hotswap tray area", change the background colors of the different type of storage (unraid, unassigned and empty), and more. Doing changes will not delete or clear any configuration and values are mainly stored based upon serial number and model name of the hard disk.

 

For more information and help, use the inline Help function from Unraid (this will solve most of the questions asked):

screenshot_00_unraid_top.png.d2a525781ab5ccd2ac5dc2ed9bf53356.png

 

It might take some time to install and update the plugin as it goes trough all your drives, more you have, longer it will take. For me it takes about 10-15 seconds with 15 hard disks, but up to 30-60 seconds if they need to wake up from standby.

 

The plugin is primarily developed for the current stable Unraid branch and might lag a bit behind for new releases with new functions.

 

Disk Location will be installed under "Tools" (from 2024.02.23 update).

 

Install the plugin via "Community Applications" plugin, search for "Disk Location" under "Apps"

For manual installation or you wish to use the development build, check below under "Available Builds"

 

TROUBLESHOOTING

 

  • First thing you should try is simply clicking "Force Update All" button under "System" tab. This solves a lot of problems and have been repeated over the forum thread.
  • Make sure the plugin is updated to the latest version, having an up to date Unraid isn't too bad either. The plugin might work from 6.9 and onwards, but for sure guaranteed from 6.12.
  • Press the help symbol as pointed out above, it will display a lot of information related to configuration and whatnot. RTFM.
  • Your answer might be found in the thread, but as it's getting quite large and difficult to find the information you might need, please read at least a few last pages as it might point out your issue. You can always use the search function, but you might end up with some old deprecated answers.
  • Read the Change Log, it might give a hint about some changes.

 

DEPRECATION INFO

 

This plugin support now only Unraid 6.9 and onwards! Development build might be installed otherwise, but is not recommended or supported!

 

AVAILABLE BUILDS

 

Stable:

 

Development (not recommended at all - but you know, brave ppl's!):

 

To swap between stable and development builds, please delete existing plugin from the plugin manager before you install the other one. Be aware that database changes are not always backwards compatible, but the old databases are backed up. New backup system will have the option to perform backups by user intervention. Other info might be available via me on this forum, usually for debugging purposes.

Do not update development builds automatically unless instructed to do so, unless you like risk. After testing and debugging and the new stable release containing the fixes is launched, I advice you to remove the development build and install the stable one instead!

 

Please report bugs and feature requests at github:

https://github.com/olehj/disklocation

 

YouTube/SoMe mentions (newest first). These might be a bit outdated, but can still be helpful for you. Big thanks for the guys making these videos ❤️ Know some more? Tell me about it!

 

 

 

Edited by FlamongOle
Updated for Overhaul '24.
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51 minutes ago, uldise said:

i'm running unraid on top of esxi. so not all drives belongs to unraid VM.

but if i could store info from all 24 bay server drives in this plugin, this would be very cool :)

If the VM got passthrough or any recognizable harddisk device under unraid, it should work. I dunno if you already tried the plugin and checked the contents in the "Config" page?

Eventually, how does the drives identify under /dev/ ? and can you do a smartctl on these?

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Hello Olejh!

 

First, I was really awaiting this plugin, and it looks amazing! Testing it on 6.6.6, on a Dell R510, with a H200 in IT mode. Drive lights seems to be working normally when I access the array or preclear disks.

 

However, I get no disk light activity when I hit the Locate buttons. Tried different disks, and waited a bit to see if it would light up, to no avail.

 

Any idea?

 

Thanks in advance

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2 hours ago, TeeNoodle said:

Hello Olejh!

 

First, I was really awaiting this plugin, and it looks amazing! Testing it on 6.6.6, on a Dell R510, with a H200 in IT mode. Drive lights seems to be working normally when I access the array or preclear disks.

 

However, I get no disk light activity when I hit the Locate buttons. Tried different disks, and waited a bit to see if it would light up, to no avail.

 

Any idea?

 

Thanks in advance

Hello and thank you!

 

The Locate function is very vague and only calls smartctl -x /dev/bsg/PATH every half second.

 

You can test manually by using that command, just replace PATH with the path number available (you can see it from the list, or by ls /dev/bsg). Everytime you run the command, the LED on the HD might light up. If the smart data does not work, goes too fast, then the locate button won't work either.

 

Sometimes I also discovered I might need to click "Locate" maybe more than one time, or just go to another device before clicking the other one.

 

Consider this function neat if it works, else, don't really expect it. I just discovered that smartctl activated the LED's for the mechanical drives here, so I thought it would be a fun and useful addition to the plugin.

 

But give the above command a go, and check the light when you press enter. It uses -x because it typically takes longer time than other.

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This is cool, thanks.

 

Would you consider adding a way to mark a "tray" as hidden / not really there?

 

My case has 5 hot swap bays and 3 trays across the bottom. I could add 2 columns of 5 rows, but I'd like to hide/remove two of the "trays" from the first column since they don't really exist.

 

Also, would you consider putting in a request to upgrade smartmontools in the 6.7 series? Then you wouldn't have to overwrite it.

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46 minutes ago, ljm42 said:

This is cool, thanks.

 

Would you consider adding a way to mark a "tray" as hidden / not really there?

 

My case has 5 hot swap bays and 3 trays across the bottom. I could add 2 columns of 5 rows, but I'd like to hide/remove two of the "trays" from the first column since they don't really exist.

 

Also, would you consider putting in a request to upgrade smartmontools in the 6.7 series? Then you wouldn't have to overwrite it.

 

You can add 1 row of 5, then you set override to 8. Then you will have 5+3 as a tray layout.

 

smartmontools is easily written into it and seems to cause no trouble, and it will only update as long as it is newer than existing package. It will be removed when Unraid updates the system to use it native, I don't think there's any point for a special request for it now, as it is probably around the corner anyway ;)

 

edit: smartmontools 7 is already a part of the 6.7 branch.

Edited by olehj
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1 hour ago, olehj said:

You can add 1 row of 5, then you set override to 8. Then you will have 5+3 as a tray layout.

Hey that worked!  To complicate things further, I also have this 8 drive external case :) 

  https://www.pc-pitstop.com/sata_enclosures/scsat84xt.asp 

any thoughts on having columns of 3, 5, and 8 drives? I'll probably add a second 8 drive case in the future to max out the LSI 9201-16e card.

 

update... actually I can add the 5 and 3 together and have two columns of 8. That will work.

 

1 hour ago, olehj said:

edit: smartmontools 7 is already a part of the 6.7 branch.

Oh you're right! Does the plugin install the package only when needed?

Edited by ljm42
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6 hours ago, ljm42 said:

Hey that worked!  To complicate things further, I also have this 8 drive external case :) 

  https://www.pc-pitstop.com/sata_enclosures/scsat84xt.asp 

any thoughts on having columns of 3, 5, and 8 drives? I'll probably add a second 8 drive case in the future to max out the LSI 9201-16e card.

 

update... actually I can add the 5 and 3 together and have two columns of 8. That will work.

 

Oh you're right! Does the plugin install the package only when needed?

If the disks are recognized in your system as internal single SCSI drives, you should be good to go. Else we have only this one option for override, so yes, 2*8 trays is what you'd be looking at then. As a side note, you can also invert the override, by setting it to like 3 trays (row or columns) and override to 8 (but it might be displayed different). Play around :P

 

The plugin installs it via installpkg and are completely managed via Unraid itself, my plugin just list it as a thing to be installed. So yes, it will only install if the installed version is older than the one already installed.

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17 minutes ago, spacebender said:

Great app, thank you! Feature request. Support for 36 bay servers (24 front & 12 back) or just more granular control over tray layout. 

Should support 36 (and more) just fine, just define your rows and columns and eventually overrides. As for now the tray layout would require a total redesign and the configuration would be to excessive if it should be configured for every possible server layouts, so I believe it won't happen any time soon.

Rather try to work around it like setting it up to 24 in front eg. 4*6 (or whatever it looks like) with 36 set to override to get your extra 12 on the side.

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screenshot_04_config_override.thumb.png.197edb097412763eb393f9b110bc0daf.png2019.01.28 released: Added slightly better support for 36 tray servers and in general override tray optimization.

 

For 36 tray servers, set trays to ex:

 

Grid: 4 columns * 6 rows

Override: 36

 

This will make 2 sections, one for 24 trays and the last for the remaining 12: 4*6 + 4*3

 

Edited by olehj
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1 minute ago, godfellaz3 said:

Thanks for the update.  It looks great.  Thanks for the fast response.  Any plans for future results for adding in exact warranty date vs the number of months.

 

No timeline for that yet - it's likely that this will be included if I have to do any other adjustments to the existing database. As for now I try to limit that, and consider rather either changing the purchase date so it fits your warranty. I expected warranty to be valid from the purchase date (at least it is here in this country), and not when the factory sets it.

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41 minutes ago, olehj said:

I expected warranty to be valid from the purchase date (at least it is here in this country), and not when the factory sets it.

Here in the USA, purchase date is the official warranty term, but if you are doing an online RMA, it's a pain to get warranty after the factory date even if you legally still have warranty. Digging out a receipt and getting the manufacturer to honor it isn't worth the hassle most of the time.

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15 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

Here in the USA, purchase date is the official warranty term, but if you are doing an online RMA, it's a pain to get warranty after the factory date even if you legally still have warranty. Digging out a receipt and getting the manufacturer to honor it isn't worth the hassle most of the time.

Alright, I will probably add this in a future update. Feel free to add a feature request at github, nice for a reminder

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Hi Olehj. 

 

Thank you for this. It is very helpful.

 

Is there a way to select what fields show up on the main page? Currently it shows everything. It would be nice to turn off things like path, model #, speed, temp, etc. This way it’s easier to read.

 

I have not yet assigned all my drives, but it takes like 60 seconds to load the page. I have 15 drives. Is this normal? I only have one un-assigned drive. 

 

Thanks again.

 

h.

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4 hours ago, hernandito said:

Hi Olehj. 

 

Thank you for this. It is very helpful.

 

Is there a way to select what fields show up on the main page? Currently it shows everything. It would be nice to turn off things like path, model #, speed, temp, etc. This way it’s easier to read.

 

I have not yet assigned all my drives, but it takes like 60 seconds to load the page. I have 15 drives. Is this normal? I only have one un-assigned drive. 

 

Thanks again.

 

h.

Currently no ways of selecting what to display, it might be added in the future. I also had some issues adding a 5th tab - but I guess I have another idea of implementing this.

It's hard to say what's normal or not, it really depends on how fast it scan's trough all of your drives with smartctl -x. I have 15 drives as well, and it takes ~5 seconds. It might be that your drives needs to be spun up from a standby state and wakes up drives one by one, so the question is: does it happen even after a page refresh, or only after "a while"?

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Sudden UPDATE!

 

###2019.01.30(b)

- Commit #21 - FEATURE: Added options to select what to show at Devices page

- Commit #20 - FEATURE: Added temperature unit selection, C/F/K

- Commit #19 - BUG: Fixed HDD reported as SSD if rotation was 0

- FEATURE: You can now choose between Unraid version (select months: 12/24/36...) or Manual ISO dates (YYYY-MM-DD) in the warranty section, a config switch is required before this is accessible.

- Updated Help for new features.

- Database will be backed up during install because it will be upgraded.

Edited by olehj
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20 hours ago, hernandito said:

I have not yet assigned all my drives, but it takes like 60 seconds to load the page. I have 15 drives. Is this normal? I only have one un-assigned drive. 

With the new update 2019.01.30b, you can try to deselect "Disk Operation LED" and check if the response will be faster. This runs an additional smart query for drives not in Unraid array. Then you can enable it when the creation of the array is done. A smart query is likely to run slower if the system is very busy, and also slower if it is an unassigned drive because it can't get cached unraid data.

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On 1/23/2019 at 9:32 PM, olehj said:

The Locate function is very vague and only calls smartctl -x /dev/bsg/PATH every half second.

 

You can test manually by using that command, just replace PATH with the path number available (you can see it from the list, or by ls /dev/bsg). Everytime you run the command, the LED on the HD might light up. If the smart data does not work, goes too fast, then the locate button won't work either.

 

After multiple tests, targeting the same device for consistency:

 

- manual smart -x test always works. of course it's a short bleep, but it works flawlessly. if i shell loop it, i definitely get some flashing action.

- tried targeting the same exact device with the plugin (in this case 1:0:1:0). nothing. not even a tiny blink. tried triggering other disks. also tried spamming the Locate button multiple times. got nothing.

 

I definitely think there might be a code glitch there. The shell command definitely does what it should. The plugin, unfortunately, doesn't. Hope this helps.

 

Cheers!

 

EDIT: went ahead and checked the code on GIT and noticed you use a shell function called smartlocate. So, went ahead and tested it. Works flawlessly. So the issue seems to be between your PHP code shell call and the function. But I can't really debug deeper.

Edited by TeeNoodle
addon information
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