The Oracle Solaris DDI interfaces enable drivers to provide the device ID, a persistent unique identifier for a device. The device ID can be used to identify or locate a device. The device ID is independent of the /devices name or device number (dev_t). Applications can use the functions defined in libdevid(3LIB) to read and manipulate the device IDs registered by the drivers.
Before a driver can export a device ID, the driver needs to verify the device is capable of either providing a unique ID or of storing a host-generated unique ID in a not normally accessible area. WWN (world-wide number) is an example of a unique ID that is provided by the device. Device NVRAM and reserved sectors are examples of non-accessible areas where host-generated unique IDs can be safely stored.