Drive serial numbers show as different in different places.

So first off, because I have recently asked for help with one running in a VM, this server is not. It is a physical machine.

Its actually a HP ProLiant ML350p Gen8 with a HP Smart Array P420 controller, as well as a HP Smart Array P420p (I think its p) both in HPA mode. 1 have 4 mechanical drives connected to the controllers, 3 3 TB drives, and 1 4 TB drive. To the SATA port on the mainboard I have a kingston SSD to boot from.

When I go to Storage-disks the SN for every drive shows as about 17 what appears to be hexidecimal (numbers and letters, no letter above f) characters long, and all of them start with 500 (Even the drives from at least 2 different manufacturers)

When I go to storage-smart-devices they come up as something totally different, and what I assume is the correct SN based on what I am seeing (No physical access to the machine at this time to check) as the kingston SSD has a SN that matches that which is located in the storage-disks section, and the mechanical drives have what appears the be the correct serial numbers. (the 2 drives of the same model have a small random string of chars, one from another manufacturer has a bit longer string. Bottom line, they look more like serial numbers then what is in the storage-drives section.

Mainly posting this in case its a bug or something. It doesn't really affect me, except for the time in the future I look in the wrong place and then get mad cause I can't find the drive.

Quote from geaves

It's a something, OMV is only as good as the hardware it's run on, you could try ssh into OMV as root and run; hdparm -I /dev/sd? replace the ? with the drive reference in Storage -> Disks and see what that gives you. Compare that to the physical drive

Then I would suggest you create a drive layout (which is what I do) and transfer that to a spreadsheet or word doc, this contains information where the drive is connected, make, model, serial number etc (you can get the make, model and serial number from the drive itself)

If each of the cards are in HBA mode have you checked the information in the bios for each drive, the fact you are running two of the same cards albeit one is a 420i could be a mitigating factor

Thats a good idea. Spreadsheet with info on all the drives. Location, serial number, notes, etc. Thanks you.

Quote from geaves

According to the 2015 specs of the machine it has a 420i which states 2 x external and 4 x internal ports, you have 4 drives have you not considered connecting all 4 drives to the 420i in the machine and removing the other 420 from the system, process of elimination

I don't know why it says there are 2 external ports, and 4 internal. All my ports are internal. But I have found a lot of conflicting information about that system online. I found one place that says the 420i can support 60 drives... WTF? I think its because its enterprise hardware, there isn't as much of it out there, and even less of it in the hands of people like myself that both give it a second life as something different when intended, and don't have as much knowledge of the workings of the hardware.

And the reason I have kept everything in there is because I have 8 more drives OTW. That will fill up all of the available SAS ports provided by both controllers.

Quote from votdev

OMV is displaying what sysfs or UDEV provides. OMV does not call external commands like smartctl or other tools by intention because calling those commands is very expensive.

So that leads me to a few other questions then. I have found that these are device ID's it seems. Is that correct? Its at least something Linux uses to identify the drives individually I am guessing.

And either way, be it correct or not, how is this hexdecimal number assigned? Is it random? Or is based off something else? And if I put that drive in another system, would it have the same ID, it would it be reassigned? When is it assigned? Like it is assigned with a drive is formatted? And if whatever happened to assign it was done again (ie. if formatting assigned it) would doing it again assign a new one, or the same one?