Need to put Dell firmware to Seagate SAS drive - need help!

[totolik]

I am trying to convert standard Seagate's SAS drive into something, which Dell's RAID Array would recognize. Dell has exactly the same drives (ST31000424SS) but with their firmware onboard which makes them different. From the first glance it didn't look difficult - I got the actual firmware I need to put (e.g. .LOD file for that model), but this is where I start facing difficulties. There are not many SAS controllers available - so I purchased least expensive FastTrak TX2650 , but apparently it does not allow any firmware update utilities access drive directly (it is visible not as Seagate drive but as JBOD generic drive). And those DOS bootable images don't see it at all. I would appreciate any help with this task. I assume that if I can access drive as JBOD drive - I can send a firmware update commend to it and firmware data itself. There must by some utilities which allow users to perform such task... Appreciate any help!

[guru]

Seagate firmware is locked to specifig customer ID's. Dell drives can be sourced cheaper than generic in most cases.

link://www.seagate.com/staticfiles/supp ... p-1205.exe (good sw)

[totolik]

Yes - I tried this SeaTools for Windows. It actually sees the drive - but not as Seagate, but rather as JBOD. It actually allow me to use Advanced options, but when I select Firmware Download - it starts it, but never actually finish. Just hanging...

[einstein9]

be careful when working with Seagate hdd`s specially SAS
u will need proper controller for it

also another Q
why r u looking for FW update
for some Seagate FW cannot be updated with regular procedures
u will need to contact them and confirm before the act.

finally

backup before things go more complicated which am suspecting on

good luck

[totolik]

My main reason for upgrading is that dell sells exactly the same hard drive (same model, but their FW) for $400 while standard SG is just $120. But standard SG does not work in Dell's MD3200i RAID array - Dell's software sees the drive, but recognizes it as "not supported". Hence I decided to invest a bit into an attempt to upgrade FW, which apparently is very tricky (at least for SAS drives)... Any suggestions on SAS controller which would be better that FastTrak's TX2650?

[Vulcan]

@totolik: I doubt you will be successful, for the reason given earlier by guru

Any suggestions on SAS controller which would be better that FastTrak's TX2650?

I use LSI 3801 series HBAs, running their IT (not IR) firmware, for SAS drive f/w updating.

[enjoy]

I am trying to convert standard Seagate's SAS drive into something, which Dell's RAID Array would recognize. Dell has exactly the same drives (ST31000424SS) but with their firmware onboard which makes them different. From the first glance it didn't look difficult - I got the actual firmware I need to put (e.g. .LOD file for that model), but this is where I start facing difficulties. There are not many SAS controllers available - so I purchased least expensive FastTrak TX2650 , but apparently it does not allow any firmware update utilities access drive directly (it is visible not as Seagate drive but as JBOD generic drive). And those DOS bootable images don't see it at all. I would appreciate any help with this task. I assume that if I can access drive as JBOD drive - I can send a firmware update commend to it and firmware data itself. There must by some utilities which allow users to perform such task... Appreciate any help!

I have the same issue , did you fix it ?

thanks

[savermeat]

Hello! And I have a similar issue too.
I have several HDDs from IBM System Storage, SEAGATE ST32000444SS and DELL MD3200 Storage. Photo attached.
Dell MD3200 Support Matrix contains this Seagete HDD, but with P/N R755K.
If I put drive into storage, it marks as "Unsupported":
http://en.community.dell.com/support-fo ... 51400.aspx
Is it possible to put DELL firmware into these drives to make them work with MD3200? And does anybody have this firmware here? Please, help.

Thanks!

Attachments

Should be as this

My disk

[fzabkar]

IMHO updating a retail drive with OEM firmware is a bad thing to do, but see this thread:
http://forums.seagate.com/t5/Savvio-Che ... 59649#M691

As for Dell's KS68 firmware, you should be able to find it at Dell's FTP site.

Here are some likely sources. There may be others.

http://ftp.dell.com/SATA/R287826.txt
http://ftp.dell.com/SATA/DELL_MULTI-DEV ... 287826.exe

http://ftp.dell.com/firmware/Readme_A02_R304271.txt
http://ftp.dell.com/firmware/MD32x0_MD3 ... 304271.zip

http://ftp.dell.com/firmware/Readme_A10_R283133.txt
http://ftp.dell.com/firmware/MD3000_MD3 ... 283133.zip

http://ftp.dell.com/firmware/Readme_A01_R291189.txt
http://ftp.dell.com/firmware/MD32XX_MD3 ... 291189.zip

[caustic]

Hi,
I'm quite new here.
Was anybody successfull in branding a hdd with a dell firmware?
For the moment I'll try to do so with an ST990080SS .
I tried out several ways and I made several changes via hexeditor with the CS09.fwh firmwarefile.

There where only some small diffrences between orgiginal Seagate CP-SAS-0004.LOD file and CS09.fwh
I removed the Dell header from the file and tried megacli without success.

But I'm not sure whether the firmware is not the only diffrence between Dell branded harddrive and original Seagate drive.

[fzabkar]

There where only some small diffrences between orgiginal Seagate CP-SAS-0004.LOD file and CS09.fwh

I'm glad you found them. Now can you post the links so that we can see what you are talking about.

I assume this is one of them:
http://downloads.dell.com/FOLDER0100017 ... 09_A07.EXE

[caustic]

quite easy you can download the original file here:
https://apps1.seagate.com/downloads/request.html
A working serialnumber :
6XS10Q1V
Modellnumber:
ST9900805SS

then you take a hexeditor and compare the seagate and the dell file

my next idea is to inject some data to the original seagate lod file and try to flash. Perhaps these data are expected by dell's updatsoftware. For example Seagates firmware rev is always 000X . The Dell fwupdater expects CSXX . This FW Rev is always part of the serialnumber, when I read these data.

It would be nice if someone ever was successfull in flashing a non oem hdd to oem and tells me how to.
For the moment I'm fishing in the dark.
But it doesn't matter when I'll destroy 2 or 3 hdd's when I'm able to get a solution.

[caustic]

Short info about my attemts to flash a manipulated firmwarefile.

For the moment I'm not able to get the right algorithem to create checksums for the fwfiles.
This seems to be the main reason, why these files were not accepted during flashprocess....

( I'm programming in delphi and I tried several diffrent types of algorithem but I didn't got a hit )

Is someone knowing which checksum algorithems are used?

[guru]

Checksum will not help you.....

[caustic]

hmm,
in the moment the file upload fails because of failjures by checking file integrity.
Why do you think it will fail with the right checksums at the end of the data blocks?

For the moment I'll try to analyze an old sf.exe and I'll try to extract the crc algo, which checks the datablocks.
It is a simple CRC16bit code but for the moment I do not know which is the entry point and where I'v to stop.
There are several information in the header of the lod file datablocks. For example a block is always starting with 0x07 and the next info is the counter for fillingbytes 0x00 and so on....but no information where I've to start and where to stop counting bytes...

Next step is to check if I have to unpack something before I'll change for example the firmwar rev. string and then it must be repacked.
(But the packing algo seems not to be active.)

We'll see what is possible.

[HaQue]

If this is in any sort of production environment, I would not be mucking about with disks in this was and get the recommended ones. as Time is Money, you will be saving in the long run and may not get as many grey hairs as I have!

[guru]

I wish you luck. Luck will not help but I wish it for you anyway

[fzabkar]

See Moltke's ZOC script for parsing Seagate LOD files:

http://malthus.zapto.org/viewtopic.php? ... 2845#p2845

Seagate's firmware updates are modular. That is, the LOD file will consist of several modules. Each module appears to have its own checksum. I don't know whether the LOD file has an overall checksum, though.

Here is an open source checksum calculator that handles 96 algorithms:

Fsum Frontend:
http://fsumfe.sourceforge.net/

[caustic]

thank you very much for this link.
I'll try it. But have to install XAMPP...

[fzabkar]

Attached are the headers of each of the component modules of CS09.LOD and 0004.LOD. The CS09.LOD file was generated from the CS09.fwh file by stripping off Dell's header.

Attachments

Savvio10K5-Compass-SAS-StdOEM-0004_LOD_headers.7z

(1.12 KiB) Downloaded 1670 times

CS09_LOD_headers.7z

(767 Bytes) Downloaded 1568 times