6.4TB Samsung PM1725a 5DWPD Enterprise TLC V-NAND PCIe 3.0 x8 NVMe HHHL AIC SSD NEW $999

[HecatesChild]

A *BIG* thank you. I have 4 of these cards and they have a super annoying issue where if power is lost they lose their namespace. It's a firmware bug and it drives me nuts. I have a solid UPS but just the thought of accidentally pulling a power plug and losing all data is ridiculous.

I'm just so glad we all got some luck.. and a great vendor, SuperMicro.. They have moved up to the top of my list when I replace/supplement HW next, due to their customer service. They deserve a special thanks for helping us and the community out.

These cards are incredible.. I moved data between two of them earlier (had to move between a non-patched to a patched drive for safety reasons, one of the UPS batteries is "flat" on that server as well (even though I cross-connect my UPS/PS connections, can't take the risk)... 1.2 TB data moved in 20ish min or so between the two... neither drive went over 1 disk queue length.

Don't forget to enable SR-IOV if your MB/Proc supports it, as the cards WILL USE IT (and save you CPU cycles/interrupts)!

Incredible drives. I'm considering purchasing more (as I originally bought a "10 pack" of them) - All factory sealed, in a factory sealed 10-pack, consecutive serial numbers.

 

[HecatesChild]

well damn now i might part with 1k with all this new firmware goodness

It will be well worth your $$.. I'm not sure if you can find a drive with equivalent specs (AND 5 DWPD) for 3 or 4 times the cost at the moment, on an HHHL (vs SAS 12Gps X 2, which it WOULD saturate fully with one drive)

 

[vangoose]

It will be well worth your $$.. I'm not sure if you can find a drive with equivalent specs (AND 5 DWPD) for 3 or 4 times the cost at the moment, on an HHHL (vs SAS 12Gps X 2, which it WOULD saturate fully with one drive)

HGST sn260 is faster and probably cheaper.

 

[StevenDTX]

HGST sn260 is faster and probably cheaper.

where?

 

[HecatesChild]

But as I recall, it wasn't DWPD 5 , it was 1 or 3 (from memory)

 

[HecatesChild]

Confirmed my memory, DWPD 3... which isn't a slouch.. by any means.. but was why I mentioned that..Not many vendor's offerings hit 5, without going nutty for cache size drives.... (generalizing, I'm sure there are exceptions)

 

[HecatesChild]

(And I'm not knocking the HGST either, if you don't need that DWPD rating) it's supposed to be a great drive as well ( I don't own one, so can't comment)

 

[StevenDTX]

I’m seriously considering getting two of these to run in a mirror in NappIT.

 

[FlorianZ]

@HecatesChild thank you for the instructions on how to upgrade the firmware! Do you think this will work on a PM1725a with different capacity, as well? I have the 1.6 TB version.

 

[vangoose]

(And I'm not knocking the HGST either, if you don't need that DWPD rating) it's supposed to be a great drive as well ( I don't own one, so can't comment)

1725a is 5 DWPD, SN260 is 3 DWPD. Doesn't make any difference for home lab.
1725a is TLC, sn260 is MLC.
1725a has higher sequential write, sn260 has higher 4K random io.
1725a supports ? namespace, sn260 supports 128 namespace.

Never got hit with any weird bug with sn260. But they are both great drives with the proper firmware.

 

[HecatesChild]

@HecatesChild thank you for the instructions on how to upgrade the firmware! Do you think this will work on a PM1725a with different capacity, as well? I have the 1.6 TB version.

The capacity has no effect on the firmware in the 1725a line, judging from Dell, HP, and IBM releases listing all the sizes with one firmware. It also self-verifies and will tell you "no" during the "Verification step " (-A 0 above) if it doesn't like the firmware. (That's what catches the OEM vs Non-OEM firmware issues), even if some companies add additional checks ahead of it.

 

[HecatesChild]

1725a is 5 DWPD, SN260 is 3 DWPD. Doesn't make any difference for home lab.
1725a is TLC, sn260 is MLC.
1725a has higher sequential write, sn260 has higher 4K random io.
1725a supports ? namespace, sn260 supports 128 namespace.

Never got hit with any weird bug with sn260. But they are both great drives with the proper firmware.

Yeah the Samsung bugs in the early firmware should have never left the factory IMHO.. Not all the features (1 NS, can't format, etc), and a some crazy data loss bugs..
The current firmware (and as advertised/spec'd from Samsung) are 32 Namespaces, and the firmware above will show all of them. You can do a nvme id-ctrl before and after upgrade and see what features were MISSING from the OLD OLD firmware (quite a number of important ones)

 

[vangoose]

Yeah the Samsung bugs in the early firmware should have never left the factory IMHO.. Not all the features (1 NS, can't format, etc), and a some crazy data loss bugs..
The current firmware (and as advertised/spec'd from Samsung) are 32 Namespaces, and the firmware above will show all of them. You can do a nvme id-ctrl before and after upgrade and see what features were MISSING from the OLD OLD firmware (quite a number of important ones)

If I have to get new ones, I'll probably look for micron. At least they make firmware available.
HGST is same as samsung, no firmware and not even HDM tool.

 

[gigatexal]

Why is this so cheap? NEW Dell NVMe HGST SN260 7.68TB Enterprise PCIe 3.0x8 HHHL AIC SSD Vmware Window | eBay

 

[gigatexal]

Are these locked to Dell? Dell 7.6TB NVMe PCIe 3.0 x8 HHHL HUSMR7676BHP3Y1 SN260 (2Y12T ) 8717306638647 | eBay

 

[Evan]

Is that cheap ? It’s for sure not expensive but not too cheap either. Sometimes people pay more for Dell or HPE and sometimes not, different people different ideas.

 

[gigatexal]

there was a listing for one not with Dell Branding that went for almost double. So has me wondering if it’s some kind of OEM lock down idea

 

[Evan]

there was a listing for one not with Dell Branding that went for almost double. So has me wondering if it’s some kind of OEM lock down idea

not that I am aware, but you can only update firmware easily if it’s in a dell server and warranty is only relevant in a dell server.
was it a straight dell part for servers or EMC part for a disk system and if it’s EMC then that maybe a problem.

 

[gigatexal]

The wife would legit murder me Right now if I got one. Oh well

 

[Mistruster]

I've tested it and it flashes properly, now allows all 32 namespaces, and formatting the namespace (as well as who knows what other bug fixes).

How to hide these namespaces in Windows Server ?

I just upgraded the firmware, but found that it will display 32 disks in the Windows system, I don’t want to display so many, as long as one is valid.