gptids are not symlinks to /dev/da*
Chris Stankevitz
chrisstankevitz at gmail.com
Mon Feb 24 18:34:40 UTC 2014
Hello,
Can you help fill in some detail for the questions I list below? Thank you!
Facts:
1. zpool status shows "gptids" like so:
gptid/affd7a1f-9c50-11e3-a81e-002590caf078
2. gptids are located under /dev/gptid/ and /dev
3. smartctl does not like gptids but does like /dev/da* "smartctl -a
/dev/gptid/affd7a1f-9c50-11e3-a81e-002590caf078"
4. "man gptid" comes up blank
5. the freebsd handbook does not describe gptid
6. google "freebsd gptid" returns a bunch of random stuff
Questions:
Q1: What is a gptid?
A1: It's some kind of system by which drives have the same device name
across reboots
Q2: How does FreeBSD know which drive corresponds to which gptid?
When is the gptid assigned?
A2: gptids are written to the first block of the disk during manufacture.
Q3: Can I use it like a regular /dev/da? device?
A3: No. For example, smartctl takes /dev/da* but not /dev/gptid/*
Q4: So gptid is not like the linux symlinks called /dev/disk/by-uuid/*
Q4. Apparently not.
Q5: Why am I unable to figure out what is a gptid even after
attempting to read documentation/google?
A5: Maybe you aren't trying hard enough.
Thank you!
Chris
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