Seagate ST31000333AS in a RAID6, different firmwares?

Running on an LSI Logic 8708ELP RAID controller, installed my (8) drives in
a RAID 6 configuration today. As luck would have it, during the init
process, towards the end, one of the drives dropped and got marked as
failed. All drives were firmware CC1F. None were listed as having the
recent issue fixed by a firmware update.

I had a spare drive kicking around, but it's marked as firmware CC1H.

I'm RMAing the drive, assuming it's bad, but a search on the web has got me
concerned about this whole recent Seagate firmware/drive situation. Lots of
people having problems with 7200.11 drives in a RAID configuration, and lots
of people with dying drives. Overall I've been extremely happy on average
with all the Seagate drives I've used (hundreds or thousands even), but have
had more problems/failures with WD drives. Based on current forum activity,
it seems the tables may have turned.

I have a few questions, looking for advice.

- I put in a call to Seagate support, and they tell me these drives should
function fine in a RAID configuration. Anyone have any GOOD experiences to
share?

- The Seagate rep told me that different firmware versions in a single RAID
configuration WILL cause problems. They also tell me firmware is not
upgradeable. This is a bit disturbing to me, because years down the road
when a drive does fail how I can replace with the same model, nevermind
firmware rev? I realize that identical drives/firmware is ideal, but is it
truly necessary? Is this accurate information?

Bottom line is I'm questioning my purchase of these drives and I'm not sure
how to proceed. Any opinions welcome.

Hi!

Kremlar wrote:

- I put in a call to Seagate support, and they tell me these drives
should function fine in a RAID configuration. Anyone have any GOOD
experiences to share?

Yes. First, specify which drives you have in that array, FW is not so
important (Seagate affected drives had a different one, and it happened
with specific models only).

- The Seagate rep told me that different firmware versions in a single
RAID configuration WILL cause problems. They also tell me firmware is
not upgradeable. This is a bit disturbing to me, because years down the
road when a drive does fail how I can replace with the same model,
nevermind firmware rev? I realize that identical drives/firmware is
ideal, but is it truly necessary? Is this accurate information?

Actually, that guy should start selling potatoes, not disks. First, FW
is upgradeable (although Seagate does not provide FW upgrades very
often), and second, you can have array with not only different FW, but
also with completely different disks.

There might be some problems if you have disk with specific FW (usually
not easily found in the general market), but it doesn't look to me like
that you have something like that.

Bottom line is I'm questioning my purchase of these drives and I'm not
sure how to proceed. Any opinions welcome.

Don't worry if you don't need to.

Best regards,

Iggy

On Fri, 3 Apr 2009 17:50:54 -0400, "Kremlar" put
finger to keyboard and composed:

- I put in a call to Seagate support, and they tell me these drives should
function fine in a RAID configuration. Anyone have any GOOD experiences to
share?

RAID problems with 7200.11 drives:
http://forums.seagate.com/stx/board/...11184#M1118 4

- Franc Zabkar
--
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