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How to have a script locate a specific hard drive.

I am trying to write a shell script to perform some file maintenance on a model of hard drives that I have on several unix boxes. Is there any specific variable that the hard drives report to the OS that I could have the script look for to target these drives if I do not know the name of the volume on each box?

Currently I am just loading the script on that drive and allowing it to work but I would like to be able to just send it to my customer and have them run it without worrying that they got it on the correct drive or doing it myself.

Just in case this differs by manufacturer these are specifically Seagate drives.

Duncan Roe

lsscsi might do the trick

07:42:35$ lsscsi 
[2:0:4:0]    tape    HP       C1537A           L105  /dev/st0 
[3:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      WDC WD2500JD-00G 02.0  /dev/sda 
[5:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8240B  1.06  /dev/sr0 
[9:0:0:0]    cd/dvd  ATAPI    CD-ROM DRIVE-40X T0CP  /dev/sr1 
[9:0:1:0]    cd/dvd  HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H22L 1.00  /dev/sr2 
[10:0:0:0]   disk    ATA      QUANTUM FIREBALL APL.  /dev/sdb 
[10:0:1:0]   cd/dvd  SAMSUNG  CD-ROM SC-152C   CS05  /dev/sr3

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Your script could grep for the disk you want from this output. I have a recent Linux which presents all disks as scsi even if they are ide - you might want to check whether your systems behave likewise. The information comes from the /sys jungle - column 3 is supposed to be Vendor but as you can see it only sometimes is. Still, you get the model.

Christopher Gay

ASKER

Unfortunately these unix boxes do not have lsscsi and I am unable to install it to them.

Duncan Roe

That's too bad. Never mind, it seems you can likely get enough from a shell script

#!/bin/sh
main()
{
  for i in $(ls /sys/bus/scsi/devices);do  echo $i|grep '^[1-9]' >/dev/null 2>&1 && process_target $i;done
}
process_target()
{
  cd /sys/bus/scsi/devices/$1
  [ -d block ] || return
  echo $(cat vendor) $(cat model) /dev/$(ls block)
}
main

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The output looks like

20:41:35$ ~/tests/ee103.sh 
ATA QUANTUM FIREBALL /dev/sdb
SAMSUNG CD-ROM SC-152C /dev/sr3
ATA WDC WD2500JD-00G /dev/sda
HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8240B /dev/sr0
ATAPI CD-ROM DRIVE-40X /dev/sr1
HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H22L /dev/sr2

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In case you're interested, I made up that script from the output of strace lsscsi. The file is attached
strace.txt

Duncan Roe

This is Linux specific sorry. I just noticed you talk about Unix

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Duncan Roe

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Christopher Gay

ASKER

Duncan

Thanks for the information. I am running FreeBSD and have just updated it to 9.1.

Duncan Roe

I think your best course of action is to post a fresh question making it clear you need a solution for FreeBSD. It's far more important to know that than to know we're looking for a Seagate drive.
I suggest a new Q because the chances of anyone else looking through this Q is rather low now, and I don't know FreeBSD at all well. I would title it something like "FreeBSD - how to determine hard drive models programatically" - don't limit yourself to scripting because the information may only be available to a program.