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Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 08:25:55 +0000
From: Arthur Chance <freebsd@qeng-ho.org>
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To: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de>
Subject: /dev/ada and /dev/ad (Was: Re: Free disks enumeration needed)
References: <1422065A4E115F409E22C1EC9EDAFBA4220D87FE@sofdc01exc02.postbank.bg>
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On 20/11/2014 03:20, Polytropon wrote:
[snip]
> The usage does not depend on what kind of disk it is.
> Actually, both disk types can be used for ZFS and UFS.
> SATA disk show up as /dev/ad* or /dev/ada* (preferred),
> while SCSI disks will be /dev/da*, the generic naming
> for direct access disks and media.

Slightly off topic, but possibly useful to a wider audience. If you're 
fully converted to using /dev/ada* rather than /dev/ad*, you can make 
the /dev/ad* names go away by adding

kern.cam.ada.legacy_aliases=0

to /boot/loader.conf. This tidies up /dev a little and loses the "Used 
to be adN" messages during boot.

This option was added at 9.0, when ada(4) was introduced but if, like 
me, you took a while to convert disk naming you may have forgotten that 
you could get rid of the old names.