Samsung OEM Enterprise SSD Firmware / Firmware Update

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hippyhappo

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Oct 3, 2016
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I purchased a Samsung SM843T SSD, and there are a few things that seem a bit off with it. The SSD was sold as brand new, and came sealed in an antistatic bag. However, the SMART info shows almost 15,000 power_on_hours, and host reads / writes are completely omitted (every Samsung SSD I've ever used has included this info).

I tried to inspect the SSD with Samsung Magician DC V1 (the enterprise / Linux command line version of Samsung Magician which supports the SM843T), and it doesn't recognize the SSD.

A firmware version of DXM87W3Q is specified on the SSD label, however, hdparm reports a firmware version of NS00. Meanwhile, the Samsung Magician DC V1 documentation explicitly states that the SM843T firmware cannot be updated.

Does anybody know what the deal is here / what firmware NS00 is? The firmware installed on every OEM Enterprise Samsung SSD I've used has always been the firmware specified on the label. Could some sort of 3rd party / open-source firmware have been installed (and if so, could this void the warranty)?

Thanks
 

Terry Kennedy

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A firmware version of DXM87W3Q is specified on the SSD label, however, hdparm reports a firmware version of NS00. Meanwhile, the Samsung Magician DC V1 documentation explicitly states that the SM843T firmware cannot be updated.

Does anybody know what the deal is here / what firmware NS00 is? The firmware installed on every OEM Enterprise Samsung SSD I've used has always been the firmware specified on the label. Could some sort of 3rd party / open-source firmware have been installed (and if so, could this void the warranty)?
NS00 is NetApp firmware (link to example). Most 843T's for NetApp show NS00 on the label, but don't have any NetApp branding.
 
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hippyhappo

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NS00 is NetApp firmware (link to example). Most 843T's for NetApp show NS00 on the label, but don't have any NetApp branding.
Thanks a bunch for the info. So NetApp is essentially just another 3rd party that Samsung would manufacture an SSD for (e.g. HP, IBM, Lenovo)? All the Samsung SSDs I've seen that were intended for a 3rd party, have it on the label, or at least specify the correct firmware (as I mentioned, the label specifies firmware DXM87W3Q, thus the reason for the confusion). I'm thinking these are probably refurbs then.

Anyway, thanks again for clearing that up.
 

Terry Kennedy

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Thanks a bunch for the info. So NetApp is essentially just another 3rd party that Samsung would manufacture an SSD for (e.g. HP, IBM, Lenovo)?
Yes.
All the Samsung SSDs I've seen that were intended for a 3rd party, have it on the label, or at least specify the correct firmware (as I mentioned, the label specifies firmware DXM87W3Q, thus the reason for the confusion). I'm thinking these are probably refurbs then.
This is just a guess, as I'm not familiar with NetApp products, but I'd guess that this is for an earlier NetApp system (flash-accelerated, as opposed to all-flash). I've seen HGST HDDs (not SSDs) with "NetApp P/N xxxx" printed on the label, but those came out of arrays where there were hundreds of those drives in a system. If this was a flash accelerator drive, there may have only been a few per system and it may not have been worth either NetApp's or Samsung's effort to brand them. For example, here is a different model of Samsung SSD, noted as "NetApp firmware" (NA00) which also doesn't say NetApp on the label (the "NA" on the label is a different font and shade, so it wasn't put there by Samsung).

I've located a bunch of 843T's labeled NS00 on eBay, so your drive is either an earlier one or one that someone "converted" to a NetApp drive (the NetApp Mars OS update installer includes a "storage disk updatefirmware" utility which could possibly be coerced to flash non-NetApp drives).
 
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hippyhappo

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Yes.

This is just a guess, as I'm not familiar with NetApp products, but I'd guess that this is for an earlier NetApp system (flash-accelerated, as opposed to all-flash). I've seen HGST HDDs (not SSDs) with "NetApp P/N xxxx" printed on the label, but those came out of arrays where there were hundreds of those drives in a system. If this was a flash accelerator drive, there may have only been a few per system and it may not have been worth either NetApp's or Samsung's effort to brand them. For example, here is a different model of Samsung SSD, noted as "NetApp firmware" (NA00) which also doesn't say NetApp on the label (the "NA" on the label is a different font and shade, so it wasn't put there by Samsung).

I've located a bunch of 843T's labeled NS00 on eBay, so your drive is either an earlier one or one that someone "converted" to a NetApp drive (the NetApp Mars OS update installer includes a "storage disk updatefirmware" utility which could possibly be coerced to flash non-NetApp drives).
Yeah, that would make sense. I've always been under the impression that the only difference between the drives manufactured for 3rd parties and the stock Samsung version of the same model, is the firmware, so I wouldn't think it'd be too difficult for them to update a stock drive with their own firmware either.

Thanks again for the info / suggestions.
 

Terry Kennedy

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Yeah, that would make sense. I've always been under the impression that the only difference between the drives manufactured for 3rd parties and the stock Samsung version of the same model, is the firmware, so I wouldn't think it'd be too difficult for them to update a stock drive with their own firmware either.
I really wish that manufacturers (both drive and system) would stop doing this. I've been ranting about this for nearly 3 decades now. Back then it was "Apple Macintosh" SCSI, "DEC" SCSI, or "PC SCSI". At least the manufacturers don't usually insist on completely hiding who made the drive, these days.

All of the system manufacturers will tell you their drives are "better" because they've found and fixed problems with the generic firmware. Even taking them at their word (it is more likely they're doing this to increase their profits, not reliability), they don't get the source for the firmware - the drive manufacturer gets told about a problem and fixes it. It's pretty certain that the fix is going to end up in the generic firmware (if it is ever updated) at some future date, unless it is for an obscure interaction between the drive and a peculiar controller.

OTOH, some system manufacturers (for example, Dell) do a better job of keeping drive firmware up-to-date than the drive manufacturer does for the generic drive. And the Dell updater works with a large number of RAID controllers, while the drive manufacturer usually tells you to "hook the drive up to a motherboard SATA port" and update the drive under Windows.