I had to change a drive in my IBM DS3512 SAN, I bought it by model (Seagate model) and not by IBM FRU code. I tried to put the drive but it fails with error "incompatible drive". I saw that the model is really the same of other drives but firmware version and manufacturer name is different.
Probably I have to give the drive back and look for the FRU part, but firstly I want to know if is there any way to override this problem, maybe flashing the IBM firmware in the drive.
This SAN is not in production enviroment but only for testing
I would get the new drive by using the FRU and not use that one. It's important to have a array running off all the same hard drive/firmware.
If you have the firmware in hand, yes, you could flash it, but the fact the manufacturer is not the same I would not use it, as I can't tell if something else than the firmware is different.
Keep in mind that IBM, or other SAN vendor do that as they add function to the drive, to allow the SAN to better use the hard drive, thus to make the SAN more robust.