Dell Networking VEP4600 reporting read-only file system with certain SSD date codes

The VEP4600 may experience read/write failures with the file system. The logs show similar to the following:

Apr  9 11:07:05 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421388.862593] ata4.00: failed command: FLUSH CACHE EXT
Apr  9 11:07:05 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421388.881723] ata4.00: status: { DRDY }
Apr  9 11:07:05 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421388.867741] ata4.00: cmd ea/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 21
Apr  9 11:07:05 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421388.855371] ata4.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6 frozen
Apr  9 11:07:05 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421388.885569] ata4: hard resetting link
Apr  9 11:07:10 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421394.207142] ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
Apr  9 11:07:15 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421398.915488] ata4: hard resetting link
Apr  9 11:07:15 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421398.910945] ata4: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
Apr  9 11:07:20 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421404.246725] ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
Apr  9 11:07:25 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421408.934531] ata4: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
Apr  9 11:07:25 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421408.939075] ata4: hard resetting link
Apr  9 11:07:30 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421414.290309] ata4: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
Apr  9 11:08:00 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421444.001617] ata4: limiting SATA link speed to 3.0 Gbps
Apr  9 11:08:00 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421443.997078] ata4: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
Apr  9 11:08:00 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421444.001619] ata4: hard resetting link
Apr  9 11:08:05 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421449.029612] ata4: EH complete
Apr  9 11:08:05 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421449.025412] ata4: reset failed, giving up
Apr  9 11:08:05 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421449.029600] ata4.00: disabled
Apr  9 11:08:05 versa-flexvnf kernel: [5421449.020870] ata4: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)

VEP4600’s with specific date codes are at a risk of experiencing SSD becoming read-only. The specific date codes affected are:

1. 2308
2. 2310
3. 2312

Finding the Date Code

Run the following command as root in Versa OS or Dell DIAG-OS: "smartctl -i /dev/sda"
The response should contain a Serial Number field on the fifth line of the response with a value that looks similar to: YCA12310230490181

The date code is the four digit value starting after YCA1 in the serial number. In the example below, 2310 is the date code. 

versa@versa-flexvnf:~$ sudo smartctl -i /dev/sda
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-linux-4.4.0-151-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
 
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     256GB SATA Flash Drive
Serial Number:    YCA12310230490181
LU WWN Device Id: 6 71190a 55bd0d0d0
Firmware Version: SFDN004E
User Capacity:    256,060,514,304 bytes [256 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    Solid State Device
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   ACS-2 (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Wed Apr 21 22:17:43 2021 PDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

This example device is affected.

If the code identified code matches any of the above date codes, please contact support to begin the service replacement process.