SSD DC S3700 Wearout Measuring

[rmare2]

For our product, we are developing with DC S3700 series "INTEL SSDSC2BA400G3" SSDs and we are trying to understand the life span. From the SMART data we get conflicting numbers from the "Total LBAs Written (0xf1)" and "Media Wear out Indicator (0xE9)."

Could you help us understand how to determine SSD Life? And why the two SMART parameters tell a different story?

Intel Spec:

400 GB SSDs should have a life of 7.30 PBW

SMART Data:

"Total LBAs Written": 0xf1 : 100: 100: RAW: 0x00000cc41bab

This translates to 7.18 PB written = (214178731 count)*(65536 sectors/count)*(512 bytes/sector)/(1000^5).

Though, the media wear smart parameter shows 55

"Media Wearout Indicator": 0xe9 : 55: 55: RAW: 0x000000000000

So, why do the "Media Wearout Indicator" and the "Total LBAs Written" when using the drive specification limit differ so greatly?

[jbenavides]

We will check with our resources about you inquiry and will let you know once we have more information.

[jbenavides]

Hello Wlrm04,

The monitoring tools provided by Intel for this drive (Intel® Solid-State Drive Data Center Tool and Intel® Solid-State Drive Toolbox) do not include the option to send emails or notifications, they are basic tools designed to manage and monitor the drive upon user request.

There are a variety of storage management solutions and system monitoring applications in the market that can monitor S.M.A.R.T. data and send alerts when appropriate. Intel does not recommend one over the other so we advise you to research about the different options available.

[rmare2]

Hello jonathan_intel,

I humbly request that you may have missed answered my question. My question was related to understanding life left based on SMART values. I am not asking about system monitoring tools in the market.

Following your recommendation of using the "Media Wearout" indicator, is there a deterministic way to calculate the time to move from 10 to 1 for the "Media Wearout" indicator?

[jbenavides]

Wlrm04, I apologize for the confusion, we were under the impression that you were looking for way to receive a warning if Media Wearout Indicator or other SMART counter was about to reach the advertised threshold or a specific value.

We appreciate your feedback and will check if there is a way to do the calculation you mentioned. We will get back as soon as we have more information.

[jbenavides]

Hello Wlrm04,

We reviewed the details of your request and the Timed Workload Endurance Indicators functionality in our SSD's may help in this situation. The Timed Workload Endurance attributes are used to measure the amount of media wear that the drive is subjected to during a timed workload.

If the Intel® SSD DC S3700 has a consistent and typical workload, you can do the test using the Timed Workload Indicators. The results may help you estimate how much time the Media Wearout Indicator might take to decrease to a specific value, for example, from 10 to 1 as you mentioned before.

Section 5.4.1.1, in pages 24-26, of the Intel® Solid-State Drive DC S3700 Series Product specifications has a good description of how to use the timer and related counters to estimate the endurance impact or your typical workload.