Just received an alert from Equallogic this morning regarding hard disk firmware update.

Dell has made improvements in the drive error handling routines of EqualLogic array firmware over the course of the last few years and has worked closely with its drive manufacturers to improve the error handling routines of the hard drives.

We have released the newest version of hard disk drive firmware, EC04, for the below listed 7200RPM based 1TB, and 2TB drives shipped on the PS4100E, PS6100E, PS6110E, and the PS6110E arrays

• Toshiba 7200 RPM NL-SAS MK1001TRKB (1 TB)
• Toshiba 7200 RPM NL-SAS MK2001TRKB (2 TB)

If you are using arrays with these drives, Dell strongly recommends that you update the hard disk drive firmware.

I recall I’ve received the same kind of alert at least 3-4 times regarding 7,200 RPM SATA/NL-SAS firmware update in the past 3 years and none for SAS. Worst many users reported frequent 7,200 RPM disks failure or false positive. In additional, past EQL’s firmware updates constantly indicate there were problems with error detection or false positive of the 7,200 RPM disks. So I think this does provide you a clear picture how reliable those slower disks can be. Now with disks moving into 4TB each, I don’t think it’s pleasant scenario to see one of these failed.

The good thing is Equallogic is always working closely with the disk vendor to improve its reliability over the years. That’s why we see Improved “hard drive monitoring intelligence with an advanced predictive reliability algorithm” has been built into it’s latest firmware again.

We have released recommended software updates for EqualLogic PS Series Arrays: Firmware versions 6.0.5 and 5.2.9, which include key maintenance fixes.
Notably, the v6.0.5 release includes recent improvements to hard drive monitoring intelligence with an advanced predictive reliability algorithm. This algorithm is designed to help preserve overall system reliability and long-term performance by proactively identifying drives which are at risk for failure, copying their data, and allowing you to safely replace them. In a small percentage of storage arrays, this process will occur shortly after the array firmware is updated. More details are included in the release notes. Version 6.0.5 also removes a false error warning that appeared on some arrays following drive replacement, and includes other fixes.

We recommend that you move to the v6 firmware stream and adopt v6.0.5. However, for customers staying on the 5.x code stream, we have released v5.2.9 which includes the drive reliability algorithm mentioned above and additional fixes.