In fact it is prudent to completely test each drive before use. I
recommend scripting several rounds of dd, badblocks, all smart tests,
and some hdparm interaction.
On Wed, Oct 2, 2013 at 11:24 AM, Steve Brooks <steveb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Hi All,
>
> I know many of us here manage RAID on our Centos based servers so this may
> be of interest to us all.
>
> I ordered three new "Enterprise hard drives" this month from a well known
> UK online retailer. The drives arrived as new in their anti-static
> packaging. Before using one of the drives in a mission critical hardware
> raid I checked the SMART attributes and was amazed at what I saw; see a
> few of the attributes listed below
>
> 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x002f 200 200 051 Pre-fail - 2600
> 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032 098 097 000 Old_age - 2106
> 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0032 100 100 000 Old_age - 80
> 198 Offline_Uncorrectable 0x0030 196 196 000 Old_age - 398
> 200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate 0x0008 180 180 000 Old_age - 4077
>
>
> So for a brand new packaged drive this was a bit of a surprise. "2106"
> power on hours, obviously should be zero for a new drive and "398"
> "Offline_Uncorrectable sectors" this is a well used and faulty drive. I
> contacted the (very well known) manufacturer of the drive and asked for
> information on the serial number. I was told the serial number of the
> drive was region specific to the USA and should not even be in the UK. I
> opened and tested the second and third drives with similar results. I was
> told two of the drives had already been returned under warranty and
> replaced with new drives. Wow... I was also told by the online retailer
> this is known as a grey import and is not that uncommon..
>
> So it may be a good policy to check the SMART attributes of drives before
> deployment!
>
> Cheers, Steve
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--
Billy Crook • Network and Security Administrator • RiskAnalytics, LLC
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