[mdlug] Drive Assignment Changed when Reinserted into Server

[Robert Adkins II]

Hello all,
 
My big new server project is moving along smoothly, the transition of the
Samba install to the new hardware and new Samba Revision went flawlessly.
 
One thing popped up that has given me a few questions.
 
I have been unable to find something specifically for allowing me to deal
with my hotswap question from earlier. In terms of an easy command or string
of commands for dealing with yanking and restoring a drive to the system
with some speed and efficiency.
 
I did discover 'hdparm' which will allow you to spin down, park, standby and
power off a drive that is in the chassis.
 
In experimenting, I discovered that it is possible to demount, remove
entries from fstab, run hdparm on the /dev/sd* of the drive in question.
Pulling the drive at that point didn't do anything immediately untoward on
the system. It remained running, no crashing and no burning.
 
When I reinserted the drive, the drive powered up and was recognized by the
server. Here is where the issue has arisen.
 
When I pulled the drive, it was listed as /dev/sdh and when it was
reinserted and "automatically" recognized by the hardware the drive was
assigned to /dev/sdi.
 
I am unsure if this will prove to be an issue down the road where the system
will "run" out of /dev/sd* assignments or if there is something that I can
or should have done to flush the old /dev/sdh so that the next inserted
drive would take the /dev/sdh spot when inserted.
 
Any pointers?
 
Thanks!
 
Regards,
Rob