LSi 9240-8i - does a HDD firmware update rebuild the RAID?

[AGTDenton]

Hi

Does anyone have experience with updating firmware on multiple hard drives that are part of a RAID1 configuration on a LSI 9240-8i/4i?

I have 2 Seagate disks both the same model number but on different firmware versions. I'm experiencing a data corruption problem but before I go into that in detail I already have a list of tasks to carry out in order to attempt to resolve the main problem at hand, this item being one of those tasks on the list.

I cannot obtain the firmware version of the disk with the newest revision, so I will have to upgrade both disks to the most recent firmware available on Seagates website.
Also rather annoyingly I cannot obtain release notes of the Seagate firmware, so if someone knew a direct link of where to get this information that would be extremely useful.
So will the LSI 9240-8i see a new firmware as a replaced disk and then rebuild the RAID or will it see it as the same drive and maintain the data?

I plan on upgrading only one of the disks first so that if a rebuild has to happen I should have some luck in keeping the data.

Any help appreciated.
Many Thanks

 

[popatim]

The firmware update should not effect the data unless Seagate specifically says its destructive but its always best to play it safe and do it the way you have planned. Kudos for your excellent planning.

 

[AGTDenton]

The firmware update should not effect the data unless Seagate specifically says its destructive but its always best to play it safe and do it the way you have planned. Kudos for your excellent planning.

Thanks popatim, I'm happy with the fact the firmware for the disk is non destructive, however, the key issue for me is that some RAID cards see an updated firmware as a new disk when it is actually the original disk, so knowing if the RAID will suddenly rebuild when I re-insert the disk is what I'm after.

Thanks.

 

[popatim]

As far as I know, no. The drive wont be auto rebuilt because you dont have it installed as a hot spare. Plus the firmware shouldn't change model/serial number so you shouldn't even loose the raid to begin with.

 

[AGTDenton]

I upgraded the firmware on both disks to the latest version successfully with the server offline. No loss of data and the LSI 9240 did not require rebuilding the array. - In the large scheme of things it did not solve my main problem, but it is one item crossed off the list.