topic Replacing hard drive with a different model in ONTAP Hardware

Replacing hard drive with a different model

sector007 — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 10:29:14 GMT

I have a NetApp FAS3250 with a DS2246 shelf. The hard drives in the shelf are using Seagate 10K 6GB SAS (Model # X417A-R6). One of the hard drives have failed. I have spare (unused) FAS2650 that have Seagate 10K 12GB SAS (Model # x341A-R6).

Can I replace the defective hard drive with a known good one from the FAS2650. The working one is a 12GB SAS and the defective one is 6GB SAS. The firmware versions will probably be different as well.

Re: Replacing hard drive with a different model

andris — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 19:19:19 GMT

Ordinarily a 12Gb SAS drive is still compatible with a 6Gb SAS shelf. HWU can confirm or deny. X341A-R6

BUT... you have a different compatibility issue.

X417A-R6 appears to be a NetApp Storage Encryption (NSE) FIPS drive.

Storage system HA pairs with NSE drives cannot mix with regular drives, such as the X341A-R6.

Re: Replacing hard drive with a different model

sector007 — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 15:50:03 GMT

Thank you for your reply. If we disable encryption, can we mix the drives?

Re: Replacing hard drive with a different model

andris — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 16:45:43 GMT

Technically, NSE drives always encrypt. The question is whether you "lock" them with an encryption key or not...

In any case... No. You can't mix NSE and non-NSE drives in an HA pair - period.

Re: Replacing hard drive with a different model

andris — Wed, 31 Mar 2021 17:23:01 GMT

ONTAP 9 Encryption Power Guide reference:
http://docs.netapp.com/ontap-9/topic/com.netapp.doc.pow-nve/GUID-5DD87E19-F311-4B2C-898C-285032E0B116.html