Technical Support Bulletins

SED Authentication Keys Must Be Backed Up to External Media (SPT-TSB-0141)

In the event of a dual controller replacement or other extraordinary circumstances, it is possible for the SED authentication keys stored with SFA OS to be lost. When this occurs, key backup on external media or key storage on a KMIP authentication server is required to access the data stored on the SEDs. If these keys cannot be found, access to the data on these drives cannot be recovered. All customers MUST back up their authentication keys to external media.

Do Not Upgrade to SFA OS 12.9.0.0 (SPT-TSB-0197)

When upgrading to SFA OS 12.9.0.0, the baseboard management controller (BMC) for SFA NVX2 storage platforms can, under a very restricted set of circumstances, cause data loss. Out of an abundance of caution, DDN has determined that SFAOS 12.9.0.0 will be removed from upgrade planning. Upgrade to version 12.9.0.1 or higher instead.

Data Risk Found with Older Solidigm Firmware

Due to an issue with drive firmware versions 5CV10322 and older, Solidigm SSDs in the D5-P5336 drive family may be subject to slow background data relocation (BDR) behavior in certain workloads. This may cause uncorrectable data read errors or may place the drive in a mode which makes all data permanently inaccessible. Data may be lost. If you have this older drive firmware installed, contact DDN Support immediately for a firmware upgrade.

Mandatory Upgrade to SFA OS 12.8 Due to Partial Rebuild Issue

Under complex conditions, a partial rebuild may not complete on drives with capacities greater than 8 TB under declustered RAID versions of SFA OS. When encountered, this issue results in data corruption. Upgrade to SFA OS 12.8.0 or higher resolves this issue and is MANDATORY for all customers running SFA OS versions 11.0.0 through 12.7.x.

Please contact DDN Support as soon as possible to obtain the latest firmware and an upgrade plan.

Drive Firmware Update Advisory January 2026

Drive firmware updates for 10 drives from Phison and Western Digital/Sandisk became available from 16 November 2025 through 31 January 2026.

Drive firmware updates are never cosmetic and are MANDATORY for all affected customers. If any of these drives are installed in your DDN storage system, please contact DDN Customer Support as soon as possible to obtain the latest firmware and an upgrade plan.

Drive Firmware Update Advisory November 2025

Drive firmware updates became available for 22 drive models from Phison, Solidigm, and Western Digital from 16 August 2025 to 15 November 2025.

Drive manufacturers release these updates to address issues with performance, reliability, availability, or serviceability and to fix defects that may pose risks to customer data. Drive firmware changes are never merely cosmetic, and update installation is MANDATORY for affected DDN customers.

EXAScaler Log Agent Technical Support Advisory

Enable EXAScaler Log Agent on EXAScaler & A3I Systems

DDN recommends enabling the EXAScaler (ES) Log Agent, a built-in utility within EXAScaler that collects system health and configuration data from EXAScaler and associated SFA systems. When enabled, it supplies diagnostic data for DDN Support’s AI-assisted analysis, allowing faster issue detection, more accurate diagnosis, and quicker resolution.

Drive Firmware Update Advisory June 2025

Drive firmware updates became available between March 15th and June 30th of 2025 for 10 drive models from Kioxia, Solidigm, and Western Digital. All are MANDATORY updates for affected DDN customers. Drive product IDs for SHOW PD are provided in the bulletin linked below. Affected customers are advised to update their drive firmware as soon as possible.

Drive Firmware Update Advisory March 2025 (SPT-TSB-0188)

Newly qualified drive firmware updates became available from January 15 to March 15 of 2025 for 6 drive models from Phison and Solidigm. If any of these drives are installed in your DDN storage systems, please contact DDN Support to obtain the latest firmware and an upgrade plan. Instructions for checking installed firmware versions are provided in the bulletin.

ALERT! Drive firmware updates are never merely cosmetic. All drive firmware updates are designated MANDATORY by DDN Engineering.

DataFlow May Delete Data When Management Task Is Removed (SPT-TSB-0187)

In certain versions of DDN DataFlow, under certain specific conditions, data may be deleted in error or advanced task configurations may be lost if a data management task is removed from the system. Lost task configurations must be restored manually. Deleted data must be recovered from backup. Upgrading to DataFlow 4.2.2.21 or higher prevents this issue. Details in bulletin.