I recently acquired a Powervault MD3000i with several hard drives already installed, and was looking to see if it were possible to purchase additional hard drives without going directly though Dell. The links I found online for the supported hard drive matrix were broken.
Looking under the support section on Dell's website for the MD3000i (http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/product-support/product/powervault-md3000i/drivers), then filter for SAS drives, I found it lists firmware for the following:
- Seagate SAS ST32000645SS and ST33000650SS
- Hitachi SAS HUC106030CSS600 and HUC106060CSS600
Some of these drives are reasonably priced online so I was wondering if it was possible to purchase from another retailer and have them work in the Powervault MD3000i? Dell Support page
If it did not end up coming with the correct Dell firmware (i.e. it came with a generic firmware) woud it be possible to flash the correct firmware from Dell?
Here is a related question but it did not directly address the 4 SAS drives I found firmware for on Dell's website: Can you use your own drives on Dell PowerVault MD3000i?
EDIT:
I found a support matrix guide linked below for the supported hard drives, but am still looking to determine if these hard drives need to be purchased through Dell or if they can be purchased through a third party and then have Dell based firmware applied to them. http://downloads.dell.com/manuals/all-products/esuprt_ser_stor_net/esuprt_powervault/powervault-md3000i_reference%20guide_en-us.pdf