Warning: Skipping drive firmware updates cost me a client's data

Last month I had a client with an old Dell server in Phoenix. The RAID controller kept dropping drives, so I swapped one out. That triggered a cascade failure because the new drive firmware didn't match the controller's revision. I lost the whole array. A senior tech from an MSP told me later that Dell has a compatibility matrix for a reason, and I always ignored it. Now I check firmware updates before touching any RAID array. Anyone else ever get burned by skipping firmware checks?

3 comments

3 Comments

nathan54528d ago

Raided my own array once. Lesson learned the hard way.

ryang772d ago

My 8TB Seagate ST8000DM004 died when I swapped the controller board without checking the firmware rev.

milar4628d ago

Walked into a similar mess last year when I ASSUMED all Seagate drives were the same. Turns out different firmware Revisions talk different languages to the controller.