Understanding disk addresses

About disk addresses

You identify a disk by its address, which is listed in the Disk ID column of the Disk - Management page (Maintenance tab > Disk > Management) of the Appliance Manager. The Disk ID is represented in x.y format, where x refers to the host adapter and y refers to the disk ID number.

You use the disk address to do the following:

Interpret system messages (for example, command output or error messages) that you see on your screen
Locate a disk that a system message refers to

Locating a disk by its identifier

Use the Disk - Management page (Maintenance tab > Disk > Management) of the Appliance Manager to display disk information about all the disks on your appliance. This page lists the disk ID, the type (data, parity, or spare), the size, and the current status of every disk on your appliance.

This information is useful when you need to locate a disk referenced by the RAID disk number in a system message.

The following is an example of the Disk - Management page output.

SCSI disk addresses

For SCSI disks, the Disk ID is a combination of the disk's SCSI adapter number and the disk's SCSI ID number. For example, disks attached to disk adapter 0 are number 0.0 through 0.6.

Fibre channel disk addresses

For fibre channel disks, the Disk ID is a combination of the disk's adapter number and disk's fibre channel loop ID. To create the fibre channel loop ID, multiply shelf ID by eight and add it to the bay number. For example, host adapter 8, shelf 1, disk 2 has disk ID of 8.10.