IBM Support

Customer impact of transition from 10K RPM to 15K RPM Seagate FC-AL hard disk drives (HDDs)

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Abstract

This is an important announcement for all customers with IBM® System Storage™ N series storage systems utilizing Fibre Channel–Arbitrated Loop (FC-AL) hard disk drives (HDDs). Fibre Channel 10K RPM HDDs are transitioning to 15K RPM HDDs, and this change will have an impact in customers’ environments.

Content

The 10K RPM FC-AL HDDs are at the end of their availability. As our HDD supply transitions from 10K to 15K RPM HDDs, customers will have limited options for new storage:
  • 144GB (45E2370) HDDs are only available as a 15K RPM option.
  • 300GB HDDs are available in both 10K RPM (23R2966) and 15K RPM (45E2371) options.
  • After 2008, only 15K RPM HDDs will be offered for new FC-AL storage.
  • Customers may receive 15K RPM HDDs as replacements for 10K RPM HDDs.

For reference, the table below identifies part numbers of the affected HDDs:
 
Hard Disk Drive (HDD) Type
Current Generation
10K RPM


IBM FRU (Part Number)
Previous Generation
15K RPM


IBM FRU (Part Number)
Current Generation
15K RPM


IBM FRU (Part Number)
Seagate: 144GB
23R2965
23R2968
45E2370
Seagate: 300GB
23R2966
N/A
45E2371

As customers integrate 15K RPM HDDs into their environments to add or replace storage, some corner-case issues may arise that may require the customer’s attention. For example:
  • HDD firmware download capability may not be supported in earlier versions of Data ONTAP.
  • Creating new aggregates or adding disks to existing 10K RPM aggregates may generate messages that lead to unnecessary concern.

Recommendations

In order to fully support the transition to 15K RPM HDDs on a customer’s storage system for all currently available capacities, one of the following minimum Data ONTAP releases must be installed:
 
15K RPM HDD Full Support Table
Data ONTAP Major Feature Release
Minimum Data ONTAP Version
7.3
7.3.0
7.2
7.2.5.1
7.1
7.1.3

As a best practice, verify that the latest Disk Qualification Package (DQP) for Data ONTAP is installed on your N series storage systems. Data ONTAP releases and the DQP can be obtained from the IBM Support Portal.

Download/Installation Instructions

Instructions for upgrading HDD firmware are available from the N series support website:

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Document Information

Modified date:
25 September 2022

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ssg1S1003372