Can I use any Hard Drive in my SAN?

[AB_IT]

Long story short, I just wanted to double check before I do this but our old IBM SAN has two drives showing red and is running really slow. It's in a RAID so I'm sure we haven't lost any data but I need to bring the performance up as quick as possible.

 

The drives themselves are IBM 9RZ268-039 1TB models but they're incredibly hard to get hold of now. Is there any downside to getting 2 new 1TB drives and putting them in it's place. Obviously I understand there's the issue of reliability and consumer vs server grade but as a temporary fix would this be okay?

 

Sorry if I'm being dumb I just wanted to make sure.

[DavR]

I don't think using non-IBM drives should be an issue, as long as you match the specs (size, speed, etc) as closely as possible. Unless there is some IBM specific reason why not.

 

For safety, I would change out the drives one at a time, allowing the array to rebuild before moving to the next one.

[mbedford]

I have used Hitachi (HDS) and HP SAN's in the past. The HP one didn't have as much of a problem and accepted disks of matching spec but not manufacturer. The HDS however, was very, very selective. Disks had to be Hitachi and even had to match a firmware level on the disk. Luckily our third party warranty provider was very patient in sending out the right disks until we found ones that were acceptable and now they have a note on our record to essentially say to the engineer dealing with the case to only send out those disks.

[AB_IT]

I don't think using non-IBM drives should be an issue, as long as you match the specs (size, speed, etc) as closely as possible. Unless there is some IBM specific reason why not.

 

For safety, I would change out the drives one at a time, allowing the array to rebuild before moving to the next one.

Thank you, good call on changing the drives out one at a time. The best I could get for tomorrow delivery is a 5400rpm WD Blue which really isn't ideal as these are 7200rpm drives but hopefully it'll tide us over until I can get the proper replacement.

[Primus]

Thank you, good call on changing the drives out one at a time. The best I could get for tomorrow delivery is a 5400rpm WD Blue which really isn't ideal as these are 7200rpm drives but hopefully it'll tide us over until I can get the proper replacement.

 

Is that WD Blue 5400rpm SAS?

 

Just a quick google points to IBM 9RZ268-039 1TB being SAS but all the WD Blues I've seen have been SATA.

 

If it is SAS I'd really not want to put a drive in now and swap it again, the rebuilding of the array is very intensive on the disks, you want to rebuild arrays as few times as possible otherwise other drives might die.

Edited February 9, 2022 by Primus

[steveg]

https://www.techbuyer.com/uk/9rz268-039-ibm-ibm-1tb-7-2k-6g-nl-2-5inch-sas-hdd-139264?ppc_keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAiA6Y2QBhAtEiwAGHybPXH6MtvJDINoV58u5e6FPzV8QYxsQQ1LiB5RasRg4Hm3Fhdq2oYkoxoCLdEQAvD_BwE

 

Never purchased from them before, and it's a refurb, but that may be the only option with aging hardware. With 2 drives failed double check all your backups are ok before rebuilding.

[AB_IT]

Thank you all for your help

 

I'm an idiot, yes they're SATA and the SAN uses SAS obviously so best not put them in. I'm waiting currently as I've ordered some 7.2k 1TB SAS Drives from IBM but I don't think they're exactly the same model. I'd expect they'd be okay though as everything seems very much the same, speed, capacity, SAS over SATA etc...

[Ruklaw]

Hopefully this is all sorted for you now, but if issue is still ongoing we used ETB tech for some refurb SAS drives last year (and some refurb switches more recently) and have been very happy with them.

[Guest Guest]

Hopefully this is all sorted for you now, but if issue is still ongoing we used ETB tech for some refurb SAS drives last year (and some refurb switches more recently) and have been very happy with them.

+1 for ETB. We've had servers and switches from them, the quality is always very good and the service is excellent