Modern SSDs are able to determine their remaining write endurance and this is reported by Storwize along with the expected remaining lifespan in the output of the lsdrive command.

Some models of early drives do not have this ability. As a result when these drives reach the end of their “write endurance” lifespan write transactions can stop functioning without prior warning. In the worst cases the drives may become totally unresponsive resulting in data loss. These drives can be identified from the part numbers in the table below

IBM advises that customers running these SSDs take precautions to prevent against data loss which may occur from multiple drives reaching the end of their life in a short space of time. We also would advise customers who have these drives nearing five years of age to plan in for replacements.

IBM strongly advises that any customers with these drives monitors for drive failure events with the detailed message of “SCSI Check Condition: Write Protected”. This is the signature for a drive reaching the end of its life, and as this event is based on age and usage it is anticipated that other drives in the same system could reach end of life shortly afterwards.

Table of affected drive models:

Feature	IBM PN	Supplier Model
146GB 2.5″ SSD	31P1550	Z16IZD2B_146
300GB 2.5″ SSD	85Y5861	HK230041S