News
Abstract
Specific 1.92 TB and 3.84 TB Tier 1 Flash drives, running 6402 firmware, are exposed to an issue that can cause drives to fail prematurely - potentially on multiple drives in an array, causing loss of data.
Upgrade to the latest 6406 drive firmware is strongly recommended, to prevent this issue.
Content
Problem description
Tier 1 Flash drives which are running 6402 firmware are exposed to an issue which can cause excessive use of flash memory cells. As data is written to the array, wear-levelling and rebalancing occurs when a cell has an excessive program/erase cycle count. In 6402 firmware, the threshold for this process is too low, meaning flash memory cells are consumed at a higher than expected rate. When all flash cells have been consumed, the drive will fail.
If multiple drives in the same array reach this point at the same time (before a rebuild can complete), there is a risk of data loss occurring.
Upgrading to the 6406 firmware will prevent further consumption of flash capacity at an increased rate. This is included in the latest drive microcode package available on Fix Central.
Affected drives
| Product ID | Capacity | Affected firmware |
| PX05SRB192 | 1.92 TB | 6402 |
| PX05SRB384 | 3.84 TB | 6402 |
Note: Drive is only affected if firmware level is 6402. Any other firmware level is unaffected.
How to identify affected drives
The software upgrade test utility can automatically check for affected drives; see the following page for details:
Alternatively, manually check the firmware level using either the GUI or CLI.
Determining the drive firmware using the GUI
- Click Pools > Internal Storage to display the list of installed drives
- Right-click on one of the table headers such as Drive ID and select the Firmware Level option
The firmware level is now added to the table.
Determining the drive firmware using the CLI
The firmware level for an individual drive can be displayed through the lsdrive Drive_ID command, where Drive_ID specifies an individual drive. The following short script will display the firmware levels for all drives in the system.
lsdrive -nohdr | while read drive etc; do echo "Drive $drive:"; lsdrive $drive | grep firmware ; echo "__________"; done
[{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"ST3FR7","label":"IBM Storwize V7000"},"Component":"","Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"All Versions","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB26","label":"Storage"}},{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"STPVGU","label":"SAN Volume Controller"},"Component":"","Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"All Versions","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB26","label":"Storage"}},{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"STHGUJ","label":"IBM Storwize V5000"},"Component":"","Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"All Versions","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB26","label":"Storage"}},{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU054","label":"Systems w\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"STKMQV","label":"IBM FlashSystem V9000"},"Component":"","Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"All Versions","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB26","label":"Storage"}},{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"STSLR9","label":"IBM FlashSystem 9x00"},"Component":"","Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"All Versions","Edition":"","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB26","label":"Storage"}},{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"STSLR9","label":"IBM FlashSystem 9x00"},"ARM Category":[],"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"All Version(s)","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB26","label":"Storage"}},{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"SSA76Z4","label":"IBM FlashSystem 7x00"},"ARM Category":[],"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"All Version(s)","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB26","label":"Storage"}},{"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"STHGUL","label":"IBM Storwize V5000E"},"ARM Category":[{"code":"a8m0z000000bqPRAAY","label":"Configuration"}],"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"All Version(s)","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB26","label":"Storage"}},{"Type":"MASTER","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB26","label":"Storage"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU058","label":"IBM Infrastructure w\/TPS"},"Product":{"code":"ST3FR9","label":"IBM FlashSystem 5x00"},"ARM Category":[{"code":"a8m0z000000bqPRAAY","label":"Configuration"}],"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"All Versions"}]
Was this topic helpful?
Document Information
Modified date:
28 March 2023
UID
ibm16495365