IBM finds glitch in its firmware

IBM has detected glitch in its firmware which can lead to complete failure of some of its Seagate SATA drives in BladeCentre and xSeries servers.

Some customers have reported that their 1 TB Barracuda ES.2, 750 GB, 500 GB and 250 GB drives are occasionally not starting up after switching on power. This could create serious problems for organisations, since Seagate drives are extremely important for use in Tier-2, business critical sites.

IBM, in its warning note about flaw on its website informed that symptoms for the SATA drive were no longer available after a power cycle and becomes unresponsive. The data also becomes inaccessible due to lack of response.

There is no complex fix for the glitch, but IBM assured that it will provide a fix by end of first quarter. IBM’s web site has suggested users to limit their exposure to glitch by avoiding or limiting frequency of power cycles performed.

The affected SATA drive model numbers are: ST3750330NS ST3500320NS, ST3250310NS and ST31000340NS. To get affected, these drives need to have BB10 firmware level installed.

IBM, in its note, explained that ‘rare’ condition was caused by firmware issue which allows ‘event log’ pointer of the drive to be set on invalid location. The problem will be apparent at start up of system and would not occur while it is running in use.

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