Samsung SSD PM1643 3.8TB SAS 12Gb/s MZ-ILT3T8A 2.5" @ $289.98

[Bert]

I bought 5 of these, $50 each.

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I am a little bit gambling here (they are coming from china) but I want to check, is there a known issue/firmware bug with these drives? I found the price too good to be true.

 

[mrpasc]

If the ones you receive are exactly the same like on the picture: with NetApp firmware NA054 you are good to go. Might come with 520B formatted and might have heavy wear-out as lot of customers tend to use the NetApp C190 for more write-intensive workloads than expected. But for 50$ definitely worth a try...

 

[Bert]

If the ones you receive are exactly the same like on the picture: with NetApp firmware NA054 you are good to go. Might come with 520B formatted and might have heavy wear-out as lot of customers tend to use the NetApp C190 for more write-intensive workloads than expected. But for 50$ definitely worth a try...

Thank you for confirming!

 

[Bert]

If the ones you receive are exactly the same like on the picture: with NetApp firmware NA054 you are good to go. Might come with 520B formatted and might have heavy wear-out as lot of customers tend to use the NetApp C190 for more write-intensive workloads than expected. But for 50$ definitely worth a try...

I put these drives to my server with SAS3 controller. I put the controller in JBOD mode but these drives were labelled as "Blocked". Are they paper weight or should I try some other sas controller like LSI 9201 in IT mode. It seems to me that I need to update the firmware on them. Any guides I can follow to update the firmware?

 

[itronin]

I put these drives to my server with SAS3 controller. I put the controller in JBOD mode but these drives were labelled as "Blocked".

I've seen that on DELL controllers when they're running a firmware version that DELL locked out non DELL drives...
If have sen JBOD / pass through for a device on DELL raid controllers too.

@Bert you using a DELL controller?

If you are using Adaptec/microsemi then IDK as I have no experience there.

Are they paper weight or should I try some other sas controller like LSI 9201 in IT mode. It seems to me that I need to update the firmware on them. Any guides I can follow to update the firmware?

The drives should show up on an IT Mode LSI 9201 assuming you have the correct cables to make the connections.
The drives are almost fof sure in 520B so you will need to take care of that before using them.
If you are going to update the firmware - just my 2 cents. use a real IT mode controller.

FWIW and IMO If you are going to run unraid/truenas or ZFS on some platform I'd look at an IT mode controller and not jbod/pass-through on your current controller.

if you decide they are paperweights then I'll gladly take them off y our hands and even pay shipping!

 

[itronin]

Maybe LSI9201 does not support 520B, you should format to 512B with sg_format before...

typically when the drive is blocked the controller will NOT let you talk to the drive.
OP speaks about current state and that controller is not an LSI 9201
so its pretty unlikely you will get sg_format to function.

See this example why I specifically referenced DELL controllers. Dell's response specifically calls out the oem "blocking behavior" Ignore what they go through further in the thread as it is not germaine to the discussion here.

IDK if OP is using a DELL controller. I do know there are DELL IR controllers that show drives blocked, and also support flagging specific drives for JBOD (or pass through) mode.

JBOD or pass through mode is also available on some Adaptec / microsemi controllers but IDK if they will flag a drive as blocked . I suspect not unless they are running some OEM firmware and said firmware BLOCKS non oem drives.

The drive should talk to a an LSI 9201 controller as SAS3 drives typically downgrade and can communicate with a SAS2 controller. The block size (and possibly type protection) may prevent you from using it on a typical OS deployment but you should be able communicate through the HBA to the drive, reformat it, and update the firmware. There are links in many thread topics linking netapp firmware packs that may contain newer firmware than what OP is running.

Lastly as of the posting OP was not yet using the LSI 9201 and they asked the question would it work.

 

[Bert]

This is an onboard supermicro controller that comes X10DRT-PT system. It is an Avago/Broadcom controller. I am not sure why this controller is marking them as blocked.

I have several other controllers, I guess I have to try to see which one works with these drives. I will keep you updated

I am going to try to access them on a debian based system. I have several SAS controllers (HP, LSI, Broadcom, Adaptec), enclosures (Sans Digital, NetApp, SuperMicro). My guess is that controller is the key and enclosures are not important. I will also use debian as the OS. Once I find a controller that works with the drives, I will try to reformat it with a sg_format.

I have no idea how to find the right firmware or update them. If there is any instruction on that, it would be great.

 

[itronin]

This is an onboard supermicro controller that comes X10DRT-PT system. It is an Avago/Broadcom controller. I am not sure why this controller is marking them as blocked.

oh interesting. I'm guessing that is a 310x SAS3 raid controller. I did not know that had a jbod pass-through mode. I'd say the blocking is probably not OEM vs. non OEM drive AV/BC/SM tends to like whatever you throw at it.

Is it "locked" or "blocked"? Definitely give it a shot on a 92xx IT mode!!!

 

[Bert]

a picture is worth a thousand words

 

[itronin]

I've just not seen this on anything other than Dell H700/H710 running certain Dell firmware versions. How strange. Here's a similar report regarding a cisco C240. but Dayummm... SM not OEM... something quirky going on. I'd expect an older HBA in IT mode with older firmware might give you a bit more access (ie. less restrictions) to poke at the drives so I think you're initial thought is still a good - lsi 9201

edit -

additional thoughts - SED? I'd expect locked not blocked. If you can reformat / reblock from 520 under a 9201 then I'd do it. If you can get additional details out of the 9201 I'd check for type II or type III protection on the drive and get rid of that too! Could be your megaraid controller doesn't want to touch it because so many restrictive options are enabled? I'm guessing / grasping at straws here...

 

[mrpasc]

According to this older Reddit post the „connect it to a real plain HBA“ seems to be the solution:
https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/w5mgln

 

[LodeRunner]

Yeah, that's what I did to format my 7.68 Netapps to 512 BPS. I have a vanilla LSI SAS HBA card just for dealing with this sort of issue. The RAID cards see the 520 BPS format and just nope right on out.

 

[JoeKamel]

So wondering if anyone can help before I put these in my truenas box....

Just bought 7x off of ebay before I found out about the hours on bug and hoping to avoid any issues.

P/N: MZILS960HHCP-000C3
Model: MZ-ILS9600
EMC P/N: 118000201, rev 01

Listed as PM1633 / PM1649 Rev 0
Shipped firmware was VET22C1Q.

So wondering if anyone knows if there is a firmware I can upgrade to in order to avoid the 32k hours issue.

 

[yukas]

Samsung PM1633 ex EMC Storage is easy to be formatted 512B with HPE H240 HBA Mode by sg_format, try it!

Friend, why you are already post this?!
Topic it's about SMART Locked 32k hours, but not for logical size sectors!!!! Please attention

ps. update: Sorry, my mistake -i''ve confused the two topics on the forum - selling and discussing discs.

 

[Tim_E]

Might be outside of scope for this thread but... I picked up a 3.84tb netapp branded PM1643a. It's sadly on firmware version NA51. Does anyone have good ideas for where to look for X357_S164A3T8ATE.NA54.LOD? (doesn't appear in the all.zip referenced on page 8)

 

[bandit8623]

X357_S164A3T8ATE.NA53.LOD

drive.google.com

only have na53. but here it is

 

[mrpasc]

Go here for recent NetApp firmware as of June 2023:

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/xyratex-sbb-enclosures-and-compatible-controllers.24160/post-383376

 

[Tim_E]

Go here for recent NetApp firmware as of June 2023:

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/xyratex-sbb-enclosures-and-compatible-controllers.24160/post-383376

Go here for recent NetApp firmware as of June 2023:

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/xyratex-sbb-enclosures-and-compatible-controllers.24160/post-383376

Thank you for the help! Upgrade was a cinch with the right file in hand. I'm really happy to be off of NA51.

 

[Yunochi]

so i'm rather confused.

i have about 15 MZ-ILS3T80 (PM 1633 1632 REV 0) ish drives.

Model: P1633N38 EMC3840
Revision: EQPC

unfortunately i can't read this one in my possession but i also bought some other drives that are showing up as:
(1633a)
Product: PA33N3T8 EMC3840
Revision: EQL8
@ 33834 hours currently

how does one actually know if the ssd's are affected?

thanks

Well, I also have dozens of PM1633N38 EMC3840 disks w/ EQPC firmware rivision and it's working well over 53000 hours.

That disk has been working flawlessly in my array for the past few months, at least, I don't think it's affected by the 32000 hour issue.
If we had access to EMC's firmware revision documentation, we might be able to confirm this more definitively - does anyone have an update on that?

 

[mrpasc]

Here ya go: https://supportkb.dell.com/attachme...V20-GPG-2022-06-13 RN_pkb_en_US_1_en_US_1.pdf
According to this both EQPC for P1633N38/EMC3840
and EQL8 for PA33N3T8/EMC3840
seems to be latest FW as of 2022. You should be good