August 24, 2012
NOTICE:
THIS FIELD NOTICE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND DOES NOT IMPLY ANY KIND OF GUARANTEE OR WARRANTY, INCLUDING THE WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY. YOUR USE OF THE INFORMATION ON THE FIELD NOTICE OR MATERIALS LINKED FROM THE FIELD NOTICE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. CISCO RESERVES THE RIGHT TO CHANGE OR UPDATE THIS FIELD NOTICE AT ANY TIME.
Revision History
Revision Date Comment
Products Affected
Products Affected
Problem Description
Certain hard disk drives have the possibility of premature failure due to contamination resulting from a defective top cover seal. Affected drives can be identified by serial number, and were shipped by Cisco between April 3, 2012 through June 1, 2012.
Background
A high failure rate of hard disk drives was detected during Ongoing Reliability Testing at the manufacturer's facility, and root cause was determined to be the seal on the top cover. The defective seal causes contamination of the read/write heads, and can result in eventual degraded Bit Error Rate or complete failure of the drive. There is a 50% chance of drive failure within the first 500 hours of operation. The drive manufacturer has taken the corrective action of replacing the disk drive top cover gasket Form In Place Gasket material from 3M 4302 heat cured epoxy to Huntsman TX-09 UV cured acrylate.
Problem Symptoms
Symptoms exhibited by affected hard disk drives include increased read/write errors or complete failure.
Workaround/Solution
Cisco recommends replacing any hard drive affected by this issue. Affected hard disk drives should be replaced even if they are not currently in a failed state. Please use the order form below to order your replacement drive(s).
How To Identify Hardware Levels
Affected hard disk drives are identified by serial number, and are applicable for use in Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers and UCS C-Series Rack Servers. If you are using hard disk drives in the list of affected products at the top of this Field Notice, you can retrieve the serial number from your drive and use the Serial Number Validation Tool link to confirm whether the unit is on the list of affected units.
Checking HDD Serial Number on UCS B-Series Blade Servers:
Note: This method also applies to UCS C-Series Rack Servers using integrated UCSM management.
1. Log into UCS Manager (UCSM)
2. Navigate to Chassis > Server > Inventory > Storage.
3. Note the serial number for each hard disk drive that matches a Product ID noted in the Products Affected section at the top of this Field Notice. If the displayed serial number is longer than 8 alphanumeric digits, note only the first 8 digits. See the following example:
4. If desired, the command line interface can also be used to capture hard disk drive serial numbers. See the following command line example:
UCSexample1 /chassis/server/raid-controller # sh local-disk detail expand
Local Disk:
ID: 1
Block Size: 512
Blocks: 1758174768
Size (MB): 858483
Technology: Hdd
Operability: Operable
Presence: Equipped
Product Name: 900GB 6Gb SAS 10K RPM 2.5 in. HDD/hot plug/drive sled mounted
PID: UCS-HDD900GI2F106
VID: V01
Vendor: SEAGATE
Vendor Description: Seagate Technology LLC
Serial: 6XS23BLZ
HW Rev: 0
ID: 2
Block Size: 512
Blocks: 1758174768
Size (MB): 858483
Technology: Hdd
Operability: Operable
Presence: Equipped
Product Name: 900GB 6Gb SAS 10K RPM 2.5 in. HDD/hot plug/drive sled mounted
PID: UCS-HDD900GI2F106
VID: V01
Vendor: SEAGATE
Vendor Description: Seagate Technology LLC
Serial: 6XS23BV90000M236L2X7
HW Rev: 0
5. After collecting serial numbers from potentially affected hard drives, check whether they are affected by using the Field Notice 63499 Serial Number Validation Tool
found at: http://serialnumbervalidation.com/63499
Checking HDD Serial Number on UCS C-Series Rack Servers:
1. Log into the Cisco Integrated Management Controller (CIMC)
2. Select Inventory > Storage > Physical Drive Info
3. For C-Series CIMC users, the manufacturer model number is displayed in the Product ID field instead of the orderable Product ID. See the table below to identify affected model numbers:
Manufacturer Model Product ID Product Description ST9300605SS A03-D300GA2 300GB 6Gb SAS 10K RPM SFF HDD/hot plug/drive sled mounted ST9600205SS A03-D600GA2 600GB 6Gb SAS 10K RPM SFF HDD/hot plug/drive sled mounted ST9900805SS UCS-HDD900GI2F106 900GB 6Gb SAS 10K RPM SFF HDD/hot plug/drive sled mounted
3. Note the serial numbers of any hard disk drive(s) which have a Model/Product ID listed in the table above. See the following example:
4. After collecting serial numbers from potentially affected hard drives, check whether they are affected by using the Field Notice 63499 Serial Number Validation Tool
found at: http://serialnumbervalidation.com/63499
Upgrade Program
For More Information
If you require further assistance, or if you have any further questions regarding this field notice, please contact the Cisco Systems Technical Assistance Center (TAC) by one of the following methods:
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