Show where drives are located in racks

[Sawtaytoes]

Problem

I'd like a way to show where drives are located in the rack. You can see the front panel, but if you have Storinators like me, you can't see what drives go where.

I'm currently using a spreadsheet for this, but I have over 200 drives in my rack, and while I could show what's in the rack, what's more important to me is drives are located.

Proposed solution

This is a bit outta scope for Rackula atm, but I'd like a way to "pull out" a rack item and "look inside" to see where each drive is physically located as well as add some notes like "this had a reported SMART error" or "watching this drive for possible issues".

Alternatives considered

🤷‍♂️

How important is this to you?

Nice to have

[FDrebin]

This is a bit outta scope for Rackula atm, but I'd like a way to "pull out" a rack item and "look inside" to see where each drive is physically located as well as add some notes like "this had a reported SMART error" or "watching this drive for possible issues".

This would be really cool to have added, today I have a 44 bay JBOD and I just slap a text label over the drive caddy slot with the serial , but it would be cool to have expandable details, or a "pull out" mode for chassis that have a cover over the drives and aren't so much front/rear facing.

[ggfevans]

Hey @Sawtaytoes & @FDrebin thanks for contributing this idea. I can definitely imagine in the case @FDrebin mentioned, keeping track of 44 individual drive sleds is a pain

@FDrebin are you talking a chassis like this?

[FDrebin]

Hey @Sawtaytoes & @FDrebin thanks for contributing this idea. I can definitely imagine in the case @FDrebin mentioned, keeping track of 44 individual drive sleds is a pain

@FDrebin are you talking a chassis like this?

Yea indeed, a JBOD chassis with external SAS connectors. It has a front and rear bays

[Sawtaytoes]

I have ones like that too.

I also have ones like this:

[ggfevans]

gotcha, makes sense - so some way of visualizing these. A grid of course is the obvious option, a list is probably the only other and simpler option. I'll definitely put this on the roadmap, though no promises on timeline.

also omg @Sawtaytoes I have some real chassis envy, those storinators are f'n beasts

[ggfevans]

Quick update on this one. We've just kicked off a structural change that lays the foundation this feature needs: #2158 reworks how devices mount, so a rack item can be a parent device with a grid of cells that hold child items (the immediate use case is mounting brackets like the MikroTik K-79, which holds four half-width routers in a 2x2 grid within 1U).

That's the same shape as a drive chassis: a Storinator is a parent device with a 4x15-ish interior grid, and each bay can carry its own notes, serial, and custom fields. We've deliberately designed the grid model so it doesn't assume small grids or that cells are visible from the rack face, specifically so chassis like yours fit it later.

What this discussion still needs on top of that foundation is the "look inside" part: an interior detail view for grids that aren't in the face plane (top-loading Storinators, covered JBOD bays), plus how a tracked drive should be represented when you have 200 of them. That's its own design spike and it stays on the roadmap. Still no promises on timeline, but it's now a feature on top of shipping infrastructure rather than a from-scratch build, which moves it a lot closer - see #2164