@snafu I have not forgotten about this thread and thanks for the update.
Did you ensure that the db entry containing the unexpected ‘null’ serial was removed entirely. It may well have been re-assered seconds later? And what was the sql command you used to achieve this. I suspect we have a bug re nvme and your chosen udev rules.
By way of helping to explain the part a devices serial plays within Rockstor’s device management we now have a new technical manual entry within our wiki in this forum Device management in Rockstor This may help with our progress on your current findings.
Thanks for offering to help and I await your feedback on confirming successful removal of the entire disk entry that had the null serial assigned to it. The referenced doc should help with where to add logging to narrow down what’s going wrong here.
From a serial perspective the latest stable doesn’t differ from the testing channel but there are major enhancements to the disk name management in testing channel updates that may well help with logging. And it also incorporate your original finding of nvme smartmontools support (or current lack there of in the Rockstor available versions) so thanks for your efforts on this one. The addition is as indicated earlier in this thread nvme wise. If all these changes hold up they should appear in the next stable channel release anyway.
Thanks and no rush or worries.