IronWolf Health Management compatibility

[dvb]

I purchased four IronWolf 12TB drives and an Asustor AS6404T from Amazon (Amazon was the seller in the case of the IronWolfs), with the understanding that the IronWolf Health Management feature would be supported. When the drives arrived, one drive was DOA, so I returned it. Amazon is taking a really long time to ship right now (even replacements for DOA), so I ordered from Newegg instead, opting for two drives so I could have a cold spare.

While I waited for the Newegg order, I naturally started getting familiar with the AS6404T interface. The three drives were recognized as IronWolf drives, but the IronWolf Health Management interface elements I expected to see were not there (Disk Doctor tab, IronWolf health status line, etc.). That seemed odd, but I had some other things going on, so I didn't dwell on it too much.

When the Newegg drives arrived, I installed one of them in the empty slot and then went into the Storage Manager to make sure it was recognized and healthy. I immediately noticed that I had the additional interface elements for the new drive, so I decided to tear down the new array config (RAID 10) and build anew with the other Newegg drives replacing one of the Amazon drives. Sure enough, the second Newegg drive also had the additional IHM interface elements.

There are some notable differences with the drives:

Drives with IHM present:

ST12000VN0008-2JH101
Firmware: SC60

Drives with IHM not present:

ST12000VN0008-2PH103
Firmware: SC61

So, the drive with the lower firmware version has the feature, but the later firmware does not. Strange.

I've opened a ticket with Seagate, but I thought I would seek input here as well, particularly from Asustor support folks who may have encountered this and might know where the issue lies. e.g., whether the drives were built without the feature or if ADM simply cannot detect it for some reason.

I'm on ADM version 3.5.0.R5D3, having just updated to that version last night.

Edit: So I just registered these drives and I find that there are more differences.

The drives purchased from Newegg show on the My Products page as having a slightly different model number (ST12000VN0008) than the ones purchased from Amazon (ST12000VNZ008). Also, the capacity is expressed differently (but still the same raw capacity).

It is rather strange that I am finding these differences with drives that I purchased within the same 1-month period and which were supposed to be the same product.

IronWolf health status present

With IHM blurred.png (33.57 KiB) Viewed 6796 times

IronWolf health status not present

No IHM blurred.png (35.02 KiB) Viewed 6796 times

Drive model number differences

VN VS VNZ.png (98.86 KiB) Viewed 6793 times

[ilike2burnthing]

It's surprising you got any of them to work. Asustor's IHM only supports ST12000VN0007 and ST12000NE0007, not the *8 variants - https://www.seagate.com/www-content/pro ... 1709us.pdf

By comparison, Synology's IHM doesn't support any 12TB drives - https://www.seagate.com/www-content/pro ... -22717.pdf

[dvb]

It's surprising you got any of them to work. Asustor's IHM only supports ST12000VN0007 and ST12000NE0007, not the *8 variants - https://www.seagate.com/www-content/pro ... 1709us.pdf

By comparison, Synology's IHM doesn't support any 12TB drives - https://www.seagate.com/www-content/pro ... -22717.pdf

That first document looks to be from 2017, which I think would be right around the time that the first 12TB IronWolfs came on the market. The *8 drives are newer. A lot can change in 3 years. Hopefully one of the Asustor guys can help us make sense of it.

[ilike2burnthing]

Ah, my mistake, I assumed Seagate would have kept their documents up to date...

This is a community forum, so while you might get help from other users with insight, if you want to talk to Asustor support you'll need to open a ticket - https://support.asustor.com/index.php?/Tickets/Submit

[dvb]

Ah, my mistake, I assumed Seagate would have kept their documents up to date...

This is a community forum, so while you might get help from other users with insight, if you want to talk to Asustor support you'll need to open a ticket - https://support.asustor.com/index.php?/Tickets/Submit

Yeah, you're probably right about opening a ticket. I'll report back here if I find out anything interesting. One of my goals when I post in a forum like this is to leave something that helps the next guy.

[ilike2burnthing]

Yes! Thank you! I can't tell you how much it annoys me when I find a forum post describing my exact issue, and there is no solution. Or worse, "Nevermind, I fixed it." HOW!? lol

Anyway, fingers crossed someone here or over at Support can give you a solution!

[dvb]

I have not yet contacted Asustor support, as I was waiting to hear from Seagate. Of course, now that I have heard from Seagate, I am not much further along in my knowledge than I was before.

What I got from them was a canned answer with two choices: Either 1. start a warranty replacement (but only if the drives have actually failed, which of course they haven't) or 2. return the drives to Amazon. Seagate did not admit or deny anything as far as whether or not these particular drives actually support IHM. I think they're pretty tight-lipped about these things (kind of like the WD Red SMR thing). Problem is, the drives are advertised as supporting it and I would really like to know where the issue lies: hardware/firmware in the drive or identification by the NAS. It it's the latter, I could perhaps work with the Asustor folks or simply wait for the drive to be added to a list of supported part numbers. But if it's baked into the hardware or part of firmware code that Seagate will never update, then I should probably just send the blasted things back to Amazon. And if I do that, I'll need to do it fast.

Edit: Screw it. I went with returning them to Amazon and placed a new order with Newegg. Now I just have to hope that what Newegg sends me is the same as what they sent me the last time. Otherwise, this nonsense starts all over again.

[ilike2burnthing]

Well I was going to suggest contacting Seagate and Asustor pre-sales (pretending to be looking to buy them), to see if they would give you a direct answer. But fingers crossed for the Newegg delivery, and if that fails, see above

[dvb]

Seagate Support ultimately did admit that the ST12000VNZ008 (detected by the NAS as ST12000VN0008-2PH103) does not support IHM. At all. They got a lecture about this, since this is not something that is documented anywhere. Will anything come of it? I doubt it, but it had to be said.

The replacements from Newegg all support IHM, so if you find yourself looking for a 12TB IronWolf that supports IHM, Newegg has the good stuff.

[oberger]

FWIW, it seems that Ironwolf Health Management / IHM isn't supported by disks less than 4 TB (as mentioned on the Seagate site), so don't be surprised if the Storage management app displays a message, referring to IHM installation... even if it's already installed (by default), it won't be used. It shouldn't display that message then, IMHO :-/