SAS SSD Advice Sought | Samsung PM1635

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madao86

New Member
Apr 8, 2021
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Hello Servethehome people,

I apologize in advance if this is not the right place to post this. If it isn't please let me know and I will move it to the right forum.

I would like to know if anyone here has experience with the 800gb Samsung PM1635 SAS SSD? I am planning on using it in an IBM series x3550 m5 with the 5210 RAID controller(1gb cache) in a RAID 5 configuration. Specifically if these have a firmware lock which might render it unusable/unformattable to 512b sector sizes? Has anyone gotten these drives to work with the 5210 controller?
Link to drive.

I have already burnt my fingers on:
1. Toshiba PX03SNU080 which did show up but got set to UBAD by the RAID controller during an attempt at making a VD using the IMM interface (working on getting an HBA to try and set this back to UGOOD and try again, ebay $125/drive, 25h powered on)
2. IBM branded Seagate ST800FM0183 which also showed up but the RAID controller could not use them, probably as the sector size was set to 4k (ebay $120/drive, 10 hours powered on)

I am currently limited to just having this server(no OS) which has SAS capability.
Would also be grateful if you guys have any recommendations on any other SAS SSD's that I might be better off buying if these are not workable.

Thank you
 

Whaaat

Active Member
Jan 31, 2020
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Toshiba PX03SNU080 which did show up but got set to UBAD by the RAID controller during an attempt at making a VD using the IMM interface (working on getting an HBA to try and set this back to UGOOD and try again, ebay $125/drive, 25h powered on)
SED security locked drive. If your raid controller is security aware you don't need HBA to unlock it.
IBM branded Seagate ST800FM0183 which also showed up but the RAID controller could not use them, probably as the sector size was set to 4k
What do you mean under 'the RAID controller could not use them'? Unable to make VD? Is your controller JBOD capable?
 

madao86

New Member
Apr 8, 2021
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SED security locked drive. If your raid controller is security aware you don't need HBA to unlock it.
I tried setting them to UGOOD using stocli but it returned with the error code 255. So maybe my controller is not security aware?

What do you mean under 'the RAID controller could not use them'? Unable to make VD? Is your controller JBOD capable?
The drives show up in the MEGARAID interface but show up as un configurable. I tried setting the controller in JBOD mode but again the controller could not do anything with these drives.

What do you think about the PM1635 drive?
Thank you
 

Whaaat

Active Member
Jan 31, 2020
301
157
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The drives show up in the MEGARAID interface but show up as un configurable.
If the drive is shown as unsupported than yes, problem is in sector size. Buy an HBA and use seachest to change it to 512.
What do you think about the PM1635 drive?
NetApp firmware can make this drive unusable in ordinary system, I saw several listings for 1625 with netapp fw and sellers warned about reformat issues.
 

madao86

New Member
Apr 8, 2021
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NetApp firmware can make this drive unusable in ordinary system, I saw several listings for 1625 with netapp fw and sellers warned about reformat issues.
The seller said its formatted to 512b. But alright will stay away from this one. Thank you
 

madao86

New Member
Apr 8, 2021
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So I finally got an HBA card and tried to format the ST800FM0183 drive and got the below results from sg3 utils:
Code:
[root@localhost madao]# sg_format --format --size=512 --six -v  /dev/sg1
    inquiry cdb: 12 00 00 00 24 00
    IBM-SSG   SSVW800           6214   peripheral_type: disk [0x0]
      PROTECT=0
    mode sense (6) cdb: 1a 00 01 00 fc 00
    mode sense (6): pass-through requested 252 bytes but got 24 bytes
Mode Sense (block descriptor) data, prior to changes:
  Number of blocks=1515466048 [0x5a542d40]
  Block size=528 [0x210]
    mode select (6) cdb: 15 11 00 00 18 00
mode select (6):  Fixed format, current;  Sense key: Illegal Request
Additional sense: Invalid field in parameter list
  Field replaceable unit code: 17
  Sense Key Specific: Error in Data byte 9 bit 7
bad field in MODE SELECT (6)
The TOshiba Drives show up as below
Code:
    inquiry cdb: 12 00 00 00 24 00 
    TOSHIBA   PX03SNU020        0802   peripheral_type: disk [0x0]
      PROTECT=1
      << supports protection information>>
    mode sense (6) cdb: 1a 00 01 00 fc 00 
mode sense (6):  Fixed format, current;  Sense key: Hardware Error
 ASC=44, vendor specific qualification ASCQ=d7 (hex)
    pass-through requested 252 bytes but got 0 bytes
MODE SENSE (6) command failed

So basically these drives would be no good? Do you guys think there is anyway to get them to be usable?
 
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