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Date:      Mon, 03 Apr 2000 13:25:33 +0200
From:      Sheldon Hearn <sheldonh@uunet.co.za>
To:        rjk191@psu.edu
Cc:        freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: ATA_STATIC_ID 
Message-ID:  <71763.954761133@axl.ops.uunet.co.za>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 31 Mar 2000 17:15:28 EST." <20000331171528.A659@rjk191.rh.psu.edu> 

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On Fri, 31 Mar 2000 17:15:28 EST, Ray Kohler wrote:

> What exactly does the kernel option ATA_STATIC_ID really do? I've
> seen what is said about it both in LINT and in ata(4), but I still
> don't know whether it is something I should use of not.

Normally, ata(4) will name disks sequentially.  For example:

Primary Controller			ata0
	|
	+-> Master	1GB Seagate	ad0
	|
	+-> Slave	24x CDROM	acd0

Secondary Controller
	|
	+-> Master	1GB Fujitsu	ad1
	|
	+-> Slave	512MB Seagate	ad2

Now, suppose that you want to put a 2GB Seagate drive in your system.
You'd like the 2GB Seagate on the same controller as the 1GB Seagate
because, for some reason, it just won't work on the same controller as
the 1GB Fujitsu.  So you decide to take out the 512MB Seagate and move
the CDROM drive onto the secondary controller.

Now the ata(4) driver does this:

Primary Controller			ata0
	|
	+-> Master	1GB Seagate	ad0
	|
	+-> Slave	2GB Seagate	ad1

Secondary Controller
	|
	+-> Master	1GB Fujitsu	ad2
	|
	+-> Slave	24x CDROM	acd0

Note that the 1GB Fujitsu's drive name has changed!  Some people like
this behaviour, because you don't end up with ad0 and ad2 without any
ad1.  Some people find it annoying, because you now have to update your
/etc/fstab to reflect the change.

If you find this behaviour annoying, you use ATA_STATIC_ID, which causes
the numbering to work as follows before the move:

Primary Controller			ata0
	|
	+-> Master	1GB Seagate	ad0
	|
	+-> Slave	24x CDROM	acd0

Secondary Controller
	|
	+-> Master	1GB Fujitsu	ad2
	|
	+-> Slave	512MB Seagate	ad3

Note that the system reserves "ad1" for the drive that would have been
plugged into the primary controller as a slave.

Now, after the upgrade, you have this:

Primary Controller			ata0
	|
	+-> Master	1GB Seagate	ad0
	|
	+-> Slave	2GB Seagate	ad1

Secondary Controller
	|
	+-> Master	1GB Fujitsu	ad2
	|
	+-> Slave	24x CDROM	acd0

Note that the 1GB Fujitsu's drive name hasn't changed.

Ciao,
Sheldon.


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