DC S3700 Series on LSI 9271-4i as Cashcade : drives marked as Failed.

[NVerh]

Hi,

I have 3 intel SSD DC S3700 Series 200GB drives on my LSI 9271-4i Raid controller. 2 of them are configured as a mirrored Cashcade drive, while the 3rd drive serves as Hot Spare.

I've been testing on VMWare ESXi 5.5 and 2012r2 hyper-V with latest Raid controller firmware and drivers.

The isue:

- i keep getting the error : 'Power on, reset, or bus device reset occured' on all SSD drives in any slot on the enclosure.

- in the end the drive is marked as 'bad' and the hot spare kicks in. But, after a few hours/days this drive also gets marked as defective.

I contacted LSI, and they tell me to replace the drives.

I've connected the drives to a desktop PC and ran the intel software for some testing. No error could be found.

I've checked the LSI hardware Compatibility list, and the drives are supported for cashcade.

Has anyone else experienced this isue?

thank you,

Nico.

[NVerh]

After me contronting LSI with their hardware compatibility list i get this answer:

"

These drives are on the compatibility list but they had a different firmware version as tested as compared to the version your drives have.

They were tested with drive firmware version 0265, your drives have firmware version 5DV10270.

"

Would it be wise to downgrade the firmware? I gues not.

[jbenavides]

Hello NicoV,

We are aware that when using a RAID controller card, having a non-validated firmware version in the hard drives can cause unexpected behavior.

Intel only supports firmware upgrades on the drives. The support tools for our drives do not have the option to downgrade the SSD firmware.

In this case, we advise you to check with the RAID card manufacturer if they have plans for a future firmware with updated drive compatibility.

Also, it may be worth to confirm if the cables or drive back-plane is OK. This can be check by testing supported drives with the adapter.

[NVerh]

Hi Jonathan,

I can confirm that all the slots on the backplane are working as I haven been testing for weeks now. So, it has to be a case of incompatability by firmware. This somewhat puts me in the 'screwed' area as both manufacturers will say their hardware works fine. Just the firmware is not compatable.

This has cost me way to much time allready and now I probably have to trow more money at it .

I'll contact LSI again.

thanks.

N.