Expanding DX4000 HDD List

I have recently ran into where two brand new units from WD came with HDDs that are actually not supported.  While the units ran flawlessly, when we were asked to repurpose them to another department we bagan wiping the HDDs to a clean slate to then recreate storage, and eventually install the OS from scratch using the recovery ISO.  After many head scratching frustrated hours of Invalid config, Invalid Drive Count, and a few others that I ran into only once or twice.  I finally looked into the recovery.log generated by RaidCfg64.

2015.06.17 13:43:15 - WARN - Drive 2 serial WD-WMC### model WDC WD4000F9YZ-09N20L1 does not match any in white list
2015.06.17 13:43:15 - WARN - Powering drive 1243976 off
2015.06.17 13:43:15 - WARN - Drive 0 serial WD-WMC### model WDC WD4000F9YZ-09N20L1 does not match any in white list
2015.06.17 13:43:15 - WARN - Powering drive 1243976 off
2015.06.17 13:43:15 - WARN - Drive 1 serial WD-WMC### model WDC WD4000F9YZ-09N20L1 does not match any in white list
2015.06.17 13:43:15 - WARN - Powering drive 1243976 off
2015.06.17 13:43:15 - WARN - Drive 3 serial WD-WMC### model WDC WD4000F9YZ-09N20L1 does not match any in white list
2015.06.17 13:43:15 - WARN - Powering drive 1243976 off

Well, uh how is that possible when they are factory drives?  Well, I have a theory.  WD probably pre-images these things so it doesn’t matter what drive THEY put in.  But in the Server Recovery ISO someone didn’t bother to update the WHITELIST.XML files to include the newer drives.  *Hint Hint WD*

**I’m not responsible for what you do with this.  I simply want to bring this to someones attention so it will get fixed.**

So rather then wait for WD to ship me new drives and hassle with sending the perfectly good ones back.  All you need to do is when you create your USB images for the recreate storage image AND recovery image, go into the USB drive and you will see a folder called WDRECOVERY, inside this folder you will see WHITELISTS.XML and WHITELISTL.XML.  Simply follow the preexsisting format and add your WD Drive MODEL.

<Model description="Enterprise Storage 2 TB" size="1907730" etype="constant">WDC WD2000F9YZ-09N20L0</Model>
  <Model description="Enterprise Storage 2 TB" size="1907730" etype="constant">WDC WD2000F9MZ-09NVPL0</Model>
  <Model description="Enterprise Storage 2 TB" size="1907730" etype="constant">WDC WD2000F9MZ-76NVPL0</Model>
  <Model description="Enterprise Storage 3 TB" size="2861589" etype="constant">WDC WD3000F9YZ-09N20L0</Model>
  <Model description="Enterprise Storage 3 TB" size="2861589" etype="constant">WDC WD3000F9MZ-09NVPL0</Model>
  <Model description="Enterprise Storage 3 TB" size="2861589" etype="constant">WDC WD3000F9MZ-76NVPL0</Model>
  <Model description="Enterprise Storage 4 TB" size="3815448" etype="constant">WDC WD4000F9YZ-09N20L0</Model>
  <Model description="Enterprise Storage 4 TB" size="3815448" etype="constant">WDC WD4000F9YZ-09N20L1</Model> *NEWLY ADDED DRIVE*
  <Model description="Enterprise Storage 4 TB" size="3815448" etype="constant">WDC WD4000F9MZ-76NVPL0</Model>

As I said you need to do this on both the Recreate Storage Image AND the Recovery Image.

2 Hours later and Im back up and running.

*Before anyone bashes me and claims my warranty is void etc etc.  These were factory installed drives, WD needs to update their software if they are going to keep shipping out “unsupported” drives.

2 Likes

Glad you got it going.

Thanks !

Congratulations!

The other way round, but your is most likely much better as will rely on the original WD raid drivers and configuration, is to install the Intel RST drivers. After the installation you can use any hard drive regardless of the WD list and you can manage RAID in a much more flexible way. However you losse LEDs and fan always run at full speed

Regards

Davide

DTM

Well I don’t see how that would help me when the HHDs are blank so there is no OS to install them too. Short of modifying the recovery ISO to add the drivers. That seems like a massive undertaking compared to adding a line of code to a few files.

P.S. I religously modify OS installs with custom drivers. But for the sake of all the others…

Actually it is much simpler and faster than modifying the list and performing a full re-install. You just download from the intel website the RST driver from W2008 R2, you install them and that’s it. No more than five minutes of time and you can then use any hard disk. You do not have to re-install the OS from the USB. Pros: Any HD can be used and you have full control on the type of RAID you can use (i.e. you can decide to have two RAID 1 or even no RAID at all) while with WD built.in RAID you have no control at all. Cons: LEDs are not blinking anymore. Fan seems not controlled anymore (always at max speed).

I would like to install the RST, but I am entirely ignorant about how to do that. The consumer grade existing interface does not seem to allow for that. With apologies for my complete ignorance, would someone mind stepping me through the process to install the driver?

Thank you!

If you really want to do it you just download and run setupRST but while you may gain more raid functions you will probably lose some WD functions.

Read this thread here and it has a link

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-Sentinel-Products/Expanding-DX4000-Complete-recovery-is-the-only-possibility/td-p/874105

Gramps already redirected to the original post, the direct link for download is the following:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/24779/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-RAID-Driver

You can refer to my original posts for pros and cons of using Intel Raid driver instead of the WD original one. I would rate the pros significantly outpacing the cons. Probably the most significant cons is that in a home environemnet the DX4000 with the fan at full speed is a little bit noisy. However from a functional point of view I have noticed that the hard disks are much cooler than on my second DX4000 where I still have the original WD drivers (check done by removing the HD soon after switch-off).

I have read many posts in this forum of owner of the DX4000 experiencing many faults of the very expansive and “nowhere to be found” dedicated HD units. I suspect these are due to excessive temperature of the HD due to insufficient air cooling. Or maybe the RST driver is just more efficient in managing the HD powering than the WD original one.

Hello,

Thank you for this method.

I have a DX4000 and i have two new HDD Seagate 2To ST2000DM001

What is the line to add in my case for my White List ?

Thank you and good day.

Nicolas

Try this

I just added two drives to my server. I suggest adding one drive at a time, and do it on a weekend, as the migration can take a LONG time.

Hi,

I understand with the new WD Patch you managed to install hard drives not in the recommended list. This appears a very good news. I also understood WD released (even if not available for official download) a new DX4000 sw version which includes in the white list WD hard drives still availble in the shops. This is quite important as for the first install (in case of recovery for instance) you need to have disks in the original recommended list. For information I successfully upgraded one of our two DX4000 units with the latest sw version, however as I am still using drives in the original recommended list, I cannot confirm it correctly manages the added WD drives.

regards

Davide