Using non IBM drive in RAID5 of IBM drives

[MGotcha]

I was testing the ability for use of a Quantum 18GB drive to use as a replacement for a defunct drive in my Netfinity 5000, setup RAID5 with 5 IBM 18 GB drives (all active, no hot spare). The quantum is a bit bigger than the IBMs (17521 vs 17357MB) but when I attempt to rebuild with the Quanum, I get a "non-warranted drive" msg but the drive is tagged "Rebuilding", with the drive status LED flashing but no activity, no rebuild status in the lower right corner and when left overnight, has not completed being rebuilt. The RAID seems OK using the Quantum as a stand alone drive (I still get a "non-warranted drive" msg, but it works fine). I have another IBM drive that works fine as a replacement, but would like a backup just in case. Is the RAID controller this picky? Thanks!

 

[mauricevo]

I have had the same experience with both Quantum and Fujitsu drives. It does appear to be intentionally coded to prefer IBM drives.

 

[catorze]

Actually, it's coded to detect non-genuine IBM drives. IBM is a world-wide company, and in some other countries, counterfeiting is a huge problem, which as you might imagine poses a problem for warranty support. The 3rd -party HDDs are not on the ServerProven Compatibility page, and consequently, if one failed, you would have little recourse for support to resolve the issue. Granted this is an older system and most likely out of warranty, but if it were mine, I would stick to the supported stuff from ServerProven Compatibility:

http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/compat/index.html

On the up side, since this is an older system, you can usually find genuine IBM parts on eBay, CDW, etc. for a fraction of the original cost.

Just my two cents.

 

[mauricemcse]

Greetings:

I am going through a similar issue. I am using IBM ultrastart drives [RAID 5] in netfinity servers. The particular model is not on the approved list and I am getting "possible non branded" drives message. Is there anything one can do to make the yellow alerts go away? Please advise.

 

[mauricevo]

I'm not convinced that the ServerProven compatibility itself has anything to do with the complaint message because how would the ServeRAID card know about drives tested after the ServeRAID came out? IBM would actually have to incorporate an updated table with each update of the firmware for the card.

I think it is just looking to see if the drive a genuine IBM part and my guess is that what you have isn't. Of course, a smart counterfeiter would just copy the code a real IBM drive provided they could determine what it is.