Roller is a major part in steel rolling production. Under complex stress, it is easy to produce surface crack, which has serious influence on the service life of roll and the quality of rolled products. Therefore, the roll surface crack damage detection is important. The effects of surface cracks at different positions on the natural frequency, displacement mode, strain mode and axial displacement frequency response function in first order mode of the roll were compared and analyzed by using vibration method. The results show that the axial displacement in first order mode is the most sensitive to the detection and identification of the crack position on the surface of the roll, so it can be used as the main marker to judge the crack position.