How to identify a HDD in a server?

Question

Are there any identifiers on an HDD that can be either seen physically on a "sticker" on the HDD, and the same number/identifier could be read with software solutions?

I mean if I see with e.g.: S.M.A.R.T. that an HDD (in RAID) is failing, then I give out the command:

SOMEMAGIC

then I get an OUTPUT, e.g.: 9835923759237489

and then are ther any stickers on the HDD that has a label: 9835923759237489 ? so the hdd that has to be changed could be identified.

thank you!

Answer 1

You can read the disk serial number with S.M.A.R.T.

If you use Linux and smartmontools then

smartctl -i /dev/sda

will reveal the S/N for your SDA disk. For all disks i've seen up to now, the S/N was also printed on the device. If you use a hardware RAID controller the syntax is different, for example for the 3ware RAID controller that we use the syntax is

smartctl /dev/twa0 -d 3ware,0 -i

to talk S.M.A.R.T. to the first disk connected to the controller, 3ware,1 for the second one and so on.

Answer 2

With server hardware from large vendors (Dell, HP, etc) there is usually a way to make the drive indicator lights on individual disks in an array to blink. Check the software/manuals that came with your RAID controller. Even with an aftermarket 3rd party controller, this may still be possible (I'm not familiar enough with them to say).

If this is a whitebox/homebrew server with on-board RAID, this may not be an option, and you might have to resort to physically looking at the drives for serial numbers/connections.