Identifying the physical drives in Unifi ENVR log messages

by Oct 13, 2025IT Tips0 comments

This post shows how to:

  • View SATA drive information in Unifi Protect ENVR console or via command line (SSH console)
  • map ataXX device to sdX device (e.g. ata15 to sdc)
  • map sdX to device serial number (e.g. sdc = WD-SERIAL03)
  • Use Unifi Protect Control Panel to map the physical HDD enclosure number to device serial number (HDD 3 = WD-SERIAL03)

You need to enable SSH access and set a password to your ENVR via Unifi Protect via Settings (Gear icon) => Control Plane => Console => SSH (check the box)

View boot up messages (kernel ring buffer)

Run dmesg

Here we can see we have a problem with ata15 but what SATA drive is that?

Following is an example of error messages of a bad HDD in /var/log/messages this is mix of complaints about ata15 and sdc (the bad SATA HDD) so you need to be able to map between sdX and ataX references to easily identify the drive or drives with a problem

2025-10-04T09:45:49+10:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: hard resetting link
2025-10-04T09:45:51+10:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: failed to resume link (SControl 0)
2025-10-04T09:45:52+10:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 0)
2025-10-04T09:45:57+10:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: hard resetting link
2025-10-04T09:45:59+10:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: failed to resume link (SControl 0)
2025-10-04T09:46:00+10:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 0)
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15.00: disabled
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#2 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=20s
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#2 Sense Key : 0x5 [current] 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#2 ASC=0x21 ASCQ=0x4 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#2 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 02 52 6b 24 00 00 00 03 80 00 00
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#4 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=20s
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#4 Sense Key : 0x5 [current] 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#4 ASC=0x21 ASCQ=0x4 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#4 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 02 53 1a 2c 00 00 00 03 80 00 00
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: md/raid:md3: read error not correctable (sector 9967381504 on sdc5).
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: md/raid:md3: read error not correctable (sector 9967381632 on sdc5).
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: md/raid:md3: read error not correctable (sector 9967381760 on sdc5).
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: md/raid:md3: read error not correctable (sector 9967381888 on sdc5).
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: md/raid:md3: read error not correctable (sector 9967382016 on sdc5).
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: md/raid:md3: read error not correctable (sector 9967382144 on sdc5).
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: md/raid:md3: read error not correctable (sector 9967382272 on sdc5).
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#5 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=20s
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#5 Sense Key : 0x5 [current] 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#5 ASC=0x21 ASCQ=0x4 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#5 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 02 53 c6 a0 00 00 00 01 00 00 00
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: md/raid:md3: read error not correctable (sector 9978683392 on sdc5).
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: md/raid:md3: read error not correctable (sector 9978683520 on sdc5).
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#8 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=20s
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#8 Sense Key : 0x5 [current] 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#8 ASC=0x21 ASCQ=0x4 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#8 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 02 3a 04 38 00 00 00 01 80 00 00
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: md/raid:md3: read error not correctable (sector 9546512384 on sdc5).
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#9 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=20s
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#9 Sense Key : 0x5 [current] 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#9 ASC=0x21 ASCQ=0x4 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#9 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 02 53 92 d4 00 00 00 03 80 00 00
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#10 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=20s
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#10 Sense Key : 0x5 [current] 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#10 ASC=0x21 ASCQ=0x4 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#10 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 02 53 b2 04 00 00 00 04 00 00 00
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#11 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=20s
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#11 Sense Key : 0x5 [current] 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#11 ASC=0x21 ASCQ=0x4 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#11 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 02 51 e6 04 00 00 00 02 80 00 00
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#12 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=20s
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#12 Sense Key : 0x5 [current] 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#12 ASC=0x21 ASCQ=0x4 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#12 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 02 50 98 6f 80 00 00 00 80 00 00
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#13 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=20s
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#13 Sense Key : 0x5 [current] 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#13 ASC=0x21 ASCQ=0x4 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#13 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 02 50 98 6d 80 00 00 02 00 00 00
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#16 UNKNOWN(0x2003) Result: hostbyte=0x00 driverbyte=DRIVER_OK cmd_age=20s
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#16 Sense Key : 0x5 [current] 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#16 ASC=0x21 ASCQ=0x4 
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] tag#16 CDB: opcode=0x88 88 00 00 00 00 02 53 68 75 00 00 00 03 00 00 00
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: EH complete
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15.00: detaching (SCSI 14:0:0:0)
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] Synchronizing SCSI cache
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] Synchronize Cache(10) failed: Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] Stopping disk
2025-10-04T09:46:01+10:00 MYENVR kernel: sd 14:0:0:0: [sdc] Start/Stop Unit failed: Result: hostbyte=0x04 driverbyte=DRIVER_OK
2025-10-04T09:46:02+10:00 MYENVR /usr/sbin/usd[1191]: [INFO] Clear unload disk sdc
2025-10-04T13:18:23+10:00 MYENVR kernel: Booting Linux on physical CPU 0x0000000000 [0x410fd490]

Map ataX to sdX

Disk related Error messages also appear in /var/log/messages

Given this example of /var/log/messages how do you know which drive ata15 it relates to?

2025-10-12T09:20:03+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: hard resetting link
2025-10-12T09:20:05+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 310)
2025-10-12T09:20:05+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15.00: configured for UDMA/33
2025-10-12T09:20:05+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: EH complete
2025-10-12T09:20:38+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: hard resetting link
2025-10-12T09:20:40+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 310)
2025-10-12T09:20:40+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15.00: configured for UDMA/33
2025-10-12T09:20:40+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15.00: retrying FLUSH 0xea Emask 0x10
2025-10-12T09:20:40+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: EH complete
2025-10-12T09:21:13+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: hard resetting link
2025-10-12T09:21:14+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 310)
2025-10-12T09:21:19+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
2025-10-12T09:21:19+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
2025-10-12T09:21:19+11:00 MYENVR kernel: ata15: hard resetting link

You can run ls -l /sys/block/sd* to show the ata to sd mapping in this case ata15 maps to /dev/sdc

root@MYENVR:/sys/block# ls -l /sys/block/sd*
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct  6 14:22 /sys/block/sda -> ../devices/platform/0.soc/878070000000.pci/pci0007:00/0007:00:00.0/0007:01:00.0/ata14/host13/target13:0:0/13:0:0:0/block/sda/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct  6 14:22 /sys/block/sdb -> ../devices/platform/0.soc/878050000000.pci/pci0005:00/0005:00:00.0/0005:01:00.0/ata6/host5/target5:0:0/5:0:0:0/block/sdb/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct  6 14:22 /sys/block/sdc -> ../devices/platform/0.soc/878070000000.pci/pci0007:00/0007:00:00.0/0007:01:00.0/ata15/host14/target14:0:0/14:0:0:0/block/sdc/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct  6 14:22 /sys/block/sdd -> ../devices/platform/0.soc/878050000000.pci/pci0005:00/0005:00:00.0/0005:01:00.0/ata7/host6/target6:0:0/6:0:0:0/block/sdd/
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 Oct  6 14:23 /sys/block/sde -> ../devices/platform/0.soc/878050000000.pci/pci0005:00/0005:00:00.0/0005:01:00.0/ata8/host7/target7:0:0/7:0:0:0/block/sde/
root@MYENVR:/sys/block#

/sys/block/sdc -> ../devices/platform/0.soc/878070000000.pci/pci0007:00/0007:00:00.0/0007:01:00.0/ata15/host14/target14:0:0/14:0:0:0/block/sdc/

Getting Drive Serial Numbers from the CLI

Method 1

You can get extra information from /var/log/messages

# if the reboot is recent query /var/log/messages
cat /var/log/messages | grep 'usd.*INFO.*disk.*scanned'

# if the ENVR rebooted days in the past you might need to view the gzipped rotated logs
cat /var/log/messages.2.gz | gunzip | grep 'usd.*INFO.*disk.*scanned'

# See method 2 if the above command doesn't give you the output as follows

The output of the above is some `info:` JSON blocks. If you have rebooted a few times they may be listed multiple times in the log. So copy and paste disk[1] to disk[5] or however many you have in your enclosure.

(I have changed the drive serial number to WD-SERIAL01, 02 etc but usually its something like "WD-AN3ZBUBN"

# output of cat /var/log/messages | grep 'usd.*INFO.*disk.*scanned'
2025-10-06T14:23:06+11:00 MYENVR /usr/sbin/usd[1005]: [INFO] disk[1] scanned, info: {"node": "sdd", "info": {"vendor": "", "model": "WDC WD8002PURP-85C9JY0", "serial": "WD-SERIAL01", "firmware": "82.00A82", "physical_block": 4096, "logical_block": 512, "blocks": 15628053168, "type": "HDD", "rotation_rate": 7200, "size": 8001563222016, "ata": "ACS-4", "sata": "SATA 3.2"}}
2025-10-06T14:23:06+11:00 MYENVR /usr/sbin/usd[1005]: [INFO] disk[2] scanned, info: {"node": "sdb", "info": {"vendor": "", "model": "WDC WD8002PURP-85C9JY0", "serial": "WD-SERIAL02", "firmware": "82.00A82", "physical_block": 4096, "logical_block": 512, "blocks": 15628053168, "type": "HDD", "rotation_rate": 7200, "size": 8001563222016, "ata": "ACS-4", "sata": "SATA 3.2"}}
2025-10-06T14:23:06+11:00 MYENVR /usr/sbin/usd[1005]: [INFO] disk[3] scanned, info: {"node": "sdc", "info": {"vendor": "", "model": "WDC WD8002PURP-85C9JY0", "serial": "WD-SERIAL03", "firmware": "82.00A82", "physical_block": 4096, "logical_block": 512, "blocks": 15628053168, "type": "HDD", "rotation_rate": 7200, "size": 8001563222016, "ata": "ACS-4", "sata": "SATA 3.2"}}
2025-10-06T14:23:06+11:00 MYENVR /usr/sbin/usd[1005]: [INFO] disk[4] scanned, info: {"node": "sda", "info": {"vendor": "", "model": "WDC WD8002PURP-85C9JY0", "serial": "WD-SERIAL04", "firmware": "82.00A82", "physical_block": 4096, "logical_block": 512, "blocks": 15628053168, "type": "HDD", "rotation_rate": 7200, "size": 8001563222016, "ata": "ACS-4", "sata": "SATA 3.2"}}
2025-10-06T14:23:06+11:00 MYENVR /usr/sbin/usd[1005]: [INFO] disk[5] scanned, info: {"node": "sde", "info": {"vendor": "", "model": "WDC WD8002PURP-85C9JY0", "serial": "WD-SERIAL05", "firmware": "82.00A82", "physical_block": 4096, "logical_block": 512, "blocks": 15628053168, "type": "HDD", "rotation_rate": 7200, "size": 8001563222016, "ata": "ACS-4", "sata": "SATA 3.2"}}

Method 2

Another way of mapping sdX device to serial number is using udevadm

root@MYENVR:~# udevadm info --query=all --name=/dev/sda | grep SERIAL
E: ID_SERIAL=WDC_WD8002PURP-85C9JY0__WD-SERIAL01
E: ID_SERIAL_SHORT=_WD-SERIAL01

root@MYENVR:~# udevadm info --query=all --name=/dev/sdb | grep SERIAL
E: ID_SERIAL=WDC_WD8002PURP-85C9JY0__WD-SERIAL02
E: ID_SERIAL_SHORT=_WD-SERIAL02

root@MYENVR:~# udevadm info --query=all --name=/dev/sdc | grep SERIAL
E: ID_SERIAL=WDC_WD8002PURP-85C9JY0__WD-SERIAL03
E: ID_SERIAL_SHORT=_WD-SERIAL03

root@MYENVR:~# udevadm info --query=all --name=/dev/sdd | grep SERIAL
E: ID_SERIAL=WDC_WD8002PURP-85C9JY0__WD-SERIAL04
E: ID_SERIAL_SHORT=_WD-SERIAL04

root@MYENVR:~# udevadm info --query=all --name=/dev/sde | grep SERIAL
E: ID_SERIAL=WDC_WD8002PURP-85C9JY0__WD-SERIAL05
E: ID_SERIAL_SHORT=_WD-SERIAL05

Identifying which Drive Bay a disk is in by Serial Number and the Unifi Protect Console

Finally map to the physical enclosure using the Unifi Protect GUI and SERIAL number by clicking on each entry under Settings => Control Plane => Storage and get the bay number info for each HDD

The drive layout to the physical enclosure is marked on each column of bays but here it is marked on the front of each bay, more obviously

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