Firmware downgrade on MSA 2040

[rtyqa]

Dear Community members,

We have a MSA 2040 in production (We understand that this is EOSL and we are working on tech refresh as I write). Recently we have bought some new drives which are J9F48A shipped with firmware HPD6. Existing drives of same types are currently running in HPD5 as per the advise from the MSA Healthcheck.

So, our question here is, is it possible to downgrade the firmware on the new drives from HPD6 to HPD5?

Actually we have tried downgrading the firmware with the respective firmware bundle and it is not getting through with "Device flash not attempted during flash due to health reason of the disk or vdisk/disk-group! - EG1200JEHMC : disk:1:17" error.

Assist us if possible.

[JonPaul]

@rtyqa 
The HPE Smart Component will downgrade the drives to HPD5  BUT requires the disk-groups to be healthy prior to flashing.

Are you certain you are not mixing the EG1800JEHMD with the EG1200JEHMC?   The first is a 1.8TB drive and the second is a 1.2TB drive.
I can not find the HPD6 firmware for the 1.2TB drive anywhere on HPE support pages.
https://support.hpe.com/hpesc/public/swd/detail?swItemId=MTX_cc53fa5f3998475b9113784ce8  show the revision history stops at HPD5
1.8TB should be on HPD6
1.2TB should be on HPD5

Can you show the cli commands:
CLI>  show disks <disk number>     ex:  show disks 1.5
CLI>  show disks encl <disk number>   ex.  show disks encl 1.5

[rtyqa]

@JonPaul Dear,

I was also amused on the firmware which shipped with these disks but find the ssh outputs below.

# show disks 1.17
Location Serial Number Vendor Rev Description Usage Jobs Speed (kr/min) Size Sec Fmt Disk Group Pool Tier
Health
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.17 *removed* HP HPD6 SAS VIRTUAL POOL 10 1200.2GB 512n ERP_PROD_DB_TER A Standard
OK

# show disks encl
Status Encl Slot Vendor Model Serial Number Size

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Up 1 17 HP EG1200JEHMC *removed* 1200.2GB

[Moderator edit: Erased the confidential info.]

[JonPaul]

@rtyqa 
Still looking into this.  It is amusing and confusing.  You mentioned you just received these drives.  Was that a new purchase from a reputable vendor?
Part of the problem is that this model of drive is quite old.  You may have noticed that the HPD5 firmware was release (initially) in 2017, the components to use the HPD5 'payload' have been updated as recently as 2023 but the firmware is that old .... the drive is that old.

My opinion, you are following the right course of action, continue using the drives as is until you get your new storage gear.  If you want to get a clean bill of health from the MSA HealthCheck then downgrade the HPD6 drives to the HPD5 that is included in the MSA drive firmware bundle.
HealthCheck:  https://www.hpe.com/storage/msahealthcheck
Firmware:  https://www.hpe.com/storage/msafirmware

[support_s]

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