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Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2014 09:35:49 +1000
From: andrew clarke <mail@ozzmosis.com>
To: Johan Hendriks <joh.hendriks@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Labeling SATA ports
Message-ID: <20140405233549.GA7062@ozzmosis.com>
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Cc: FreeBSD <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>, Tobias Famulla <dev@famulla.eu>
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On Wed 2014-04-02 12:33:34 UTC+0200, Johan Hendriks (joh.hendriks@gmail.com) wrote:

> > Now I would like to label the slots (not the partitions or drives,
> > because this is done by ZFS) to a name like (slot0...slot7) to put a
> > sticker on the enclosure to be easily able to change a HDD with a
> > failure and do not have to guess in which slot the HDD is located.

...

> I took another route.
> I label my disks with gpart. Then I label the drive with a sticker 
> matching the gpart label.

I also use gpart labels, but using the unique serial number of the
drive as reported by smartctl. This is the same as the serial number
on the sticker attached to the drive by the manufacturer. Of course,
once the drive is installed in the chassis the sticker may no longer
be visible, so using your own stickers might still be necessary.