diff --git a/storage/spider/spd_table.cc b/storage/spider/spd_table.cc
index b88579009270f..72a6b2ac3b8f5 100644
--- a/storage/spider/spd_table.cc
+++ b/storage/spider/spd_table.cc
@@ -6288,8 +6288,12 @@ int spider_db_init(
 
   if (my_gethwaddr((uchar *) addr))
   {
-    my_printf_error(ER_SPIDER_CANT_NUM, ER_SPIDER_CANT_STR1, MYF(ME_WARNING),
+    my_printf_error(ER_SPIDER_CANT_NUM, ER_SPIDER_CANT_STR1, MYF(ME_NOTE),
       "get hardware address with error ", errno);
+    /*
+      If we can't get the hardware address, we zero it out.
+      The spider_unique_id will then look like: -000000000000-PID-
+    */
     bzero(addr,6);
   }
   spider_unique_id.str = spider_unique_id_buf;