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Dell PowerVault MD3600i and

MD3620i Storage Arrays

Owner’s Manual

Regulatory Model: E03J Series and E04J Series

Regulatory Type: E03J001 and E04J001

book.book  Page 1  Tuesday, September 27, 2011  3:13 PM

Summary of Contents for PowerVault MD3600i Series

Page 1: ...Dell PowerVault MD3600i and MD3620i Storage Arrays Owner s Manual Regulatory Model E03J Series and E04J Series Regulatory Type E03J001 and E04J001 ...

Page 2: ...enManage are trademarks of Dell Inc Intel is a registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U S and other countries Microsoft Windows Windows Server MS DOS and Internet Explorer are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and or other countries Red Hat and Red Hat Enterprise Linux are registered trademarks of Red Hat Inc in the United States an...

Page 3: ...Modular Disk Storage Manager 20 Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Configuration Utility 20 Other Information You May Need 21 2 Planning About Your Storage Array 23 Overview 23 Hardware Features 24 Front Panel Features and Indicators 24 Back Panel Features and Indicators 27 Hard Drive Indicator Patterns 28 Power Supply and Cooling Fan Features 29 Power Indicator Codes and Features 30 ...

Page 4: ...s and Features 35 Cache Mirroring 35 Write Back Cache 35 Write Through Cache 36 4 Planning MD3600i Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts 37 Physical Disks Virtual Disks and Disk Groups 37 Physical Disks 38 Physical Disk States 38 Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology 39 Virtual Disks and Disk Groups 39 Virtual Disk States 40 RAID Levels 41 RAID Level Usage 41 Segment Size 43 Virtual ...

Page 5: ...nd Operations Priority 47 Virtual Disk Migration and Disk Roaming 48 Disk Migration 48 Disk Roaming 50 Host Server to Virtual Disk Mapping 50 Host Types 51 Advanced Features 51 Snapshot Virtual Disks 51 Snapshot Repository Virtual Disk 52 Virtual Disk Copy 52 Virtual Disk Recovery 53 Using Snapshot and Disk Copy Together 54 Multi Path Software 54 Preferred and Alternate Controllers and Paths 54 Vi...

Page 6: ...72 Naming or Renaming Storage Arrays 72 Setting a Password 73 Viewing Storage Array Connections 75 Adding Editing a Comment to an Existing Storage Array 75 Removing Storage Arrays 76 Enabling Premium Features 76 Displaying Failover Alert 77 Changing the Cache Settings on the Storage Array 77 Changing Expansion Enclosure ID Numbers 78 Changing the Enclosure Order in the Physical Pane 78 Configuring...

Page 7: ...CHAP Secret 89 Valid Characters for CHAP Secrets 89 Changing the iSCSI Target Identification 90 Changing the iSCSI Target Discovery Settings 90 Configuring the iSCSI Host Ports 91 Advanced iSCSI Host Ports Settings 93 Viewing or Ending an iSCSI Session 94 Viewing iSCSI Statistics and Setting Baseline Statistics 95 Edit Remove or Rename Host Topology 96 8 Configuration Event Monitor 97 Enabling or ...

Page 8: ...st Topology 105 Starting or Stopping the Host Context Agent 106 I O Data Path Protection 107 Managing Host Port Identifiers 108 10 Configuration Disk Groups and Virtual Disks 111 Creating Disk Groups and Virtual Disks 111 Creating Disk Groups 112 Locating a Disk Group 114 Creating Virtual Disks 114 Changing the Virtual Disk Modification Priority 116 Changing the Virtual Disk Cache Settings 117 Cha...

Page 9: ... Spare Drive Protection 133 Enclosure Loss Protection 134 Host to Virtual Disk Mapping 135 Creating Host to Virtual Disk Mappings 136 Modifying and Removing Host to Virtual Disk Mapping 137 Changing Controller Ownership of the Virtual Disk 138 Removing Host to Virtual Disk Mapping 139 Changing the RAID Controller Module Ownership of a Disk Group 139 Changing the RAID Level of a Disk Group 141 Remo...

Page 10: ...up 151 Storage Array Media Scan 152 Changing Media Scan Settings 153 Suspending the Media Scan 154 11 Configuration Premium Feature Snapshot Virtual Disks 155 Scheduling a Snapshot Virtual Disk 157 Common Reasons for Scheduling a Snapshot Virtual Disk 157 Guidelines for Creating Snapshot Schedules 158 Enabling and Disabling Snapshot Schedules 158 Creating a Snapshot Virtual Disk Using the Simple P...

Page 11: ...Host Servers to Re Create a Snapshot Virtual Disk 172 Re creating Snapshot Virtual Disks 173 Snapshot Rollback 174 Rules and Guidelines for Performing a Snapshot Rollback 174 Protecting Against a Failed Snapshot Rollback 176 Previous Versions of the MD Storage Manager 176 Starting a Snapshot Rollback 176 Resuming a Snapshot Rollback 177 Canceling a Snapshot Rollback 177 12 Configuration Premium Fe...

Page 12: ... 185 Failed Virtual Disk Copy 185 Preferred RAID Controller Module Ownership 186 Failed RAID Controller Module 186 Copy Manager 186 Copying the Virtual Disk 186 Storage Array Performance During Virtual Disk Copy 188 Setting Copy Priority 188 Stopping a Virtual Disk Copy 189 Recopying a Virtual Disk 190 Preparing Host Servers to Recopy a Virtual Disk 190 Re copying the Virtual Disk 191 Removing Cop...

Page 13: ...t Best Practices 202 Important Information About Special Partitions 203 Limitations and Known Issues 204 Troubleshooting 205 15 Management Firmware Downloads 207 Downloading RAID Controller and NVSRAM Packages 207 Downloading Both RAID Controller and NVSRAM Firmware 208 Downloading Only NVSRAM Firmware 211 Downloading Physical Disk Firmware 213 Downloading MD1200 Series Expansion Module EMM Firmwa...

Page 14: ...moving a Hard Drive From a Hard Drive Carrier 225 Installing a Hard Drive Into a Hard Drive Carrier 227 RAID Controller Module 227 Removing a RAID Controller Module Blank 227 Installing a RAID Controller Module Blank 228 Removing a RAID Controller Module 229 Installing a RAID Controller Module 230 Opening the RAID Controller Module 230 Closing the RAID Controller Module 231 RAID Controller Module ...

Page 15: ...lane 239 Removing the Backplane 239 Installing the Backplane 242 17 Management Firmware Inventory 243 Viewing the Firmware Inventory 243 18 Management System Interfaces 245 Microsoft Services 245 Virtual Disk Service 245 Volume Shadow Copy Service 245 19 Troubleshooting Your Storage Array Software 247 Start Up Routine 247 Device Health Conditions 247 Storage Array Support Data 251 Automatically Co...

Page 16: ...Nodes 259 Using Go To 260 Recovering From an Unresponsive Storage Array Condition 261 Locating a Physical Disk 264 Locating an Expansion Enclosure 265 Capturing the State Information 266 SMrepassist Utility 267 Unidentified Devices 268 Recovering From an Unidentified Storage Array 268 Starting or Restarting the Host Context Agent Software 271 20 Troubleshooting Your Array 273 Safety First For you ...

Page 17: ...pansion Enclosure Management Modules 275 Troubleshooting RAID Controller Modules 276 Troubleshooting Hard Drives 278 Troubleshooting Array and Expansion Enclosure Connections 279 Troubleshooting a Wet Storage Array 279 Troubleshooting a Damaged Array 280 Troubleshooting RAID Controller Modules 281 Conditions 281 Invalid Storage Array 281 ECC Errors 281 PCI Errors 282 Critical Conditions 282 Noncri...

Page 18: ...18 Contents Index 285 ...

Page 19: ...ut the storage array and its features Configuration Provides information on tasks you must complete to ensure that your storage array performs optimally Management Provides information on tasks that you must complete to ensure the storage array components are up to date and performing properly including removal and installation of storage array components Troubleshooting Provides information on ta...

Page 20: ... a maximum of 120 disks or 192 disks with Premium Feature activation in the entire storage system Connectivity between the storage array and the host server is provided by a standard CAT6 or higher Ethernet connection Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager MDSM is a graphical user interface GUI application used to configure and manage one or more ...

Page 21: ... media contains all system management tools The Systems Support Matrix provides information on supported software and hardware for MD systems The Dell PowerEdge Cluster Documentation is available at support dell com manuals Release Notes or readme files are included to provide last minute updates to the enclosure or documentation or advanced technical reference material intended for experienced us...

Page 22: ...22 Introduction ...

Page 23: ...ts single and dual RAID controller configuration The MD3600i Series storage array provides 1 GBase T or 10 GBase T connectivity to the host server and enables access to 64 physical hosts The MD3600i Series storage array includes RAID controller module s PSU Fan modules Disk drives also called physical disk drives in this document A front bezel optional A system enclosure into which the other compo...

Page 24: ...age Array Hardware Features Front Panel Features and Indicators Figure 2 1 Front Panel Features and Indicators Dell PowerVault MD3600i Figure 2 2 Front Panel Features and Indicators Dell PowerVault MD3620i 1 2 3 5 4 6 1 2 3 4 6 5 ...

Page 25: ...ights blue during normal operation Blinks blue when a host server is identifying the enclosure or when the system identification button is pressed Lights amber as enclosure boots or is reset Blinks amber when the enclosure is either in a fault state or the hosts are not using the preferred path to a virtual disk 2 Power LED The power LED lights green when at least one power supply is supplying pow...

Page 26: ... 5 SAS hot swappable hard drives MD3620i Up to twenty four 2 5 SAS hot swappable hard drives 6 Enclosure mode switch The function of this switch is not applicable to your storage array However if MD1200 Series expansion enclosures are daisy chained to the storage array the enclosure mode switches of the MD1200 Series expansion enclosures must be set to the Unified Mode position NOTE This switch mu...

Page 27: ...tures and Indicators Figure 2 4 Back Panel Features and Indicators Dell PowerVault MD3600i Series Storage Array 1 600 W power supply cooling fan module 2 RAID Controller Module 0 3 RAID Controller Module 1 4 600 W power supply cooling fan module 1 2 3 4 ...

Page 28: ...28 Planning About Your Storage Array Hard Drive Indicator Patterns Figure 2 5 Hard Drive Indicators 1 hard drive activity indicator green 2 hard drive status indicator green and amber 1 2 ...

Page 29: ...tically shuts down to prevent damage Hard Drive Status Indicator Pattern Condition Off The physical disk is not yet discovered by the host server is spun down for removal is not supported for the RAID controller module or is not in the physical disk slot NOTE The drive status indicator remains off until all hard drives are initialized after system power is turned on Drives are not ready for insert...

Page 30: ... fan fault The LED lights amber when the DC output voltage is not within the limit or a fault with the fan is detected If this LED is off it indicates that no fault condition is present 3 AC power The LED lights green when the AC input voltage is within the limit If this LED is off it indicates either there is no power or the AC input voltage is not within the limit 4 Power connector Connect the e...

Page 31: ...toring and controlling enclosure environment elements temperature fans power supplies and enclosure LEDs Controlling access to the physical disks Communicating enclosure attributes and states to the host server and management station Each RAID controller module has multiple iSCSI IN ports for host access The ports provide redundant host connections and support a high availability storage environme...

Page 32: ...net connection 4 Management port Ethernet connector Provides a 100 1000 Mbps Ethernet connection for out of band management of the enclosure 5 Debug port Dell support only 6 SAS OUT port link fault LED Lights green when all four links are connected Lights amber when one to 3 links are disconnected Off when all links in the port are disconnected or cable is disconnected 7 iSCSI IN port link LED Lig...

Page 33: ... power fails this LED changes to indicate Cache Offload status If the password reset function has successfully changed the password this LED flashes on and off briefly 13 Battery fault Lights amber when battery backup unit or battery has failed Off when battery backup unit is operating normally 14 Password reset switch Activating this switch deletes the password 15 MAC address label Provides MAC a...

Page 34: ...irtual disks When the battery is replaced Write Back is re enabled Storage Array Thermal Shutdown The system automatically shuts down when the system temperature exceeds the safe threshold The battery backup unit protects against data loss by providing power to offload to non volatile memory in the event of power loss It is not necessary to shut down any MD1200 Series expansion enclosures attached...

Page 35: ...he host If a controller fails the surviving controller safely retains all mirrored data By default cache mirroring is enabled in duplex systems and disabled in simplex systems Write Back Cache In write back cache write operations result in a completion signal being sent to the host operating system as soon as the cache receives the data to be written The target physical disk receives the data at a...

Page 36: ...ion status is returned to the host operating system Write through cache is considered more robust than write back cache since a power failure is less likely to cause loss of data The RAID controller automatically switches to write through if either cache mirroring is disabled or the battery is missing or there is a fault condition ...

Page 37: ...p is 120 disks or 192 disks with Premium Feature activation for RAID 0 RAID 1 and RAID 10 and 30 drives for RAID 5 and RAID 6 You can create disk groups from unconfigured capacity on your storage array A virtual disk is a partition in a disk group that is made up of contiguous data segments of the physical disks in the disk group A virtual disk consists of data segments from all physical disks in ...

Page 38: ...Description Physical Disk Status LED Optimal Assigned The physical disk in the indicated slot is configured as part of a disk group Steady green Optimal Unassigned The physical disk in the indicated slot is unused and available to be configured Steady green Optimal Hot Spare Standby The physical disk in the indicated slot is configured as a hot spare Steady green Optimal Hot Spare in use The physi...

Page 39: ...a predicted failure is reported by a physical disk Virtual Disks and Disk Groups When configuring a storage array you must 1 Organize the physical disks into disk groups 2 Create virtual disks within these disk groups Pending Failure Assigned Unassigned Hot Spare in use or Hot Spare Standby A Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology SMART error is detected on the physical disk in the indi...

Page 40: ...rray Table 4 2 RAID Controller Virtual Disk States State Description Optimal The virtual disk contains physical disks that are online Degraded The virtual disk with a redundant RAID level contains an inaccessible physical disk The system can still function properly but performance may be affected and additional disk failures may result in data loss Offline A virtual disk with one or more member di...

Page 41: ... You must select a RAID level based on the type of application access fault tolerance and data you are storing The storage array supports RAID levels 0 1 5 6 and 10 The maximum number of physical disks that can be used in a disk group depends on the RAID level 192 for RAID levels 0 1 and 10 30 for RAID levels 5 and 6 RAID Level Usage To ensure best performance you must select an optimal RAID level...

Page 42: ...sical disks distributed parity to provide high data throughput and data redundancy especially for small random access This is a versatile RAID level and is suited for multi user environments where typical I O size is small and there is a high proportion of read activity such as file application database web e mail news and intranet servers RAID 6 RAID 6 is similar to RAID 5 but provides an additio...

Page 43: ... involved in an array where striping is implemented For example a four disk group with disk striping has a stripe width of four NOTE Although disk striping delivers excellent performance striping alone does not provide data redundancy Virtual Disk Operations Virtual Disk Initialization Every virtual disk must be initialized Initialization can be done in the foreground or the background A maximum o...

Page 44: ...s on a redundant array at least once a month This allows detection and automatic replacement of unreadable sectors Finding an unreadable sector during a rebuild of a failed physical disk is a serious problem because the system does not have the redundancy to recover the data Media Verification Another background task performed by the storage array is media verification of all configured physical d...

Page 45: ...esses Background initialization Foreground initialization Consistency check Rebuild Copy back If a redundant RAID controller module fails with existing virtual disk processes the processes on the failed controller are transferred to the peer controller A transferred process is placed in a suspended state if there are four active processes on the peer controller The suspended processes are resumed ...

Page 46: ...e environment If you use the virtual disk in a single user large I O environment such as for multimedia application storage performance can be optimized when a single I O request is serviced with a single data stripe the segment size multiplied by the number of physical disks in the disk group used for data storage In this case multiple disks are used for the same request but each disk is only acc...

Page 47: ...e fails with an existing disk group process the process on the failed controller is transferred to the peer controller A transferred process is placed in a suspended state if there is an active disk group process on the peer controller The suspended processes are resumed when the active process on the peer controller completes or is stopped NOTE If you try to start a disk group process on a contro...

Page 48: ...on the same array Disk Migration You can move virtual disks from one array to another without taking the target array offline However the disk group being migrated must be offline before your perform disk migration If the disk group is not offline prior to migration the source array holding the physical and virtual disks within the disk group marks them as missing However the disk groups themselve...

Page 49: ... storage array has an existing physical disk use hot virtual disk migration When attempting virtual disk migration follow these recommendations Moving physical disks to the destination array for migration When inserting drives into the destination storage array during hot virtual disk migration wait for the inserted physical disk to be displayed in MDSM or wait for 30 seconds whichever occurs firs...

Page 50: ...be generated Disk Roaming You can move physical disks within an array The RAID controller module automatically recognizes the relocated physical disks and logically places them in the proper virtual disks that are part of the disk group Disk roaming is permitted when the RAID controller module is either online or powered off NOTE The disk group must be exported before moving the physical disks Hos...

Page 51: ...res The RAID enclosure supports several advanced features Virtual Disk Snapshots Virtual Disk Copy High Performance Tier NOTE Virtual Disk Snapshot Virtual Disk Copy and High Performance Tier are premium features that must be activated separately If you have purchased these features an activation card is supplied that contains instructions for enabling this functionality Snapshot Virtual Disks A s...

Page 52: ...al disk or as a target virtual disk in a virtual disk copy If you select a snapshot source virtual disk as the target virtual disk of a virtual disk copy you must disable all snapshot virtual disks associated with the source virtual disk CAUTION Before using the Snapshot Virtual Disks Premium Feature in a Windows Clustered configuration you must map the snapshot virtual disk to the cluster node th...

Page 53: ...tandard virtual disk or the source virtual disk of a failed or disabled snapshot virtual disk NOTE The target virtual disk capacity must be equal to or greater than the source virtual disk capacity When you begin the disk copy process you must define the rate at which the copy is completed Giving the copy process top priority slightly impacts I O performance while giving it lowest priority makes t...

Page 54: ...a virtual disk copy you must disable all snapshot virtual disks associated with the source virtual disk Multi Path Software Multi path software also referred to as the failover driver is a software resident on the host server that provides management of the redundant data path between the host server and the storage array For the multi path software to correctly manage a redundant path the configu...

Page 55: ...essible the storage array automatically uses the alternate path to access data and the enclosure status LED blinks amber Virtual Disk Ownership MDSM can be used to automatically build and view virtual disks It uses optimal settings to stripe the disk group Virtual disks are assigned to alternating RAID controller modules when they are created This default assignation provides a simple means for lo...

Page 56: ...icy is also known as the least I Os or least requests policy This policy routes the next I O request to a data path that has the least outstanding I O requests queued For this policy an I O request is simply a command in the queue The type of command or the number of blocks that are associated with the command are not considered The least queue depth with subset policy treats large block requests ...

Page 57: ...ng interval that you set If the storage array you are monitoring begins in or transitions to an unresponsive state an informational dialog is displayed The dialog informs you that the Performance Monitor cannot poll the storage array for performance data To monitor the performance of the arrays 1 Open MDSM and select the appropriate storage array 2 Open the Array Management Window AMW for the sele...

Page 58: ...rectory 10 Type a file name in the File name text box NOTE The perf extension is the default 11 Select a file type from the Files of type list Use the Report format ASCII text file type if you want to save the data to a report form for viewing or printing Use the Comma Delimited Format file type if you want to save the data in a form that can be imported into a commercial spreadsheet application f...

Page 59: ...second from last start time Read Percentage Percentage of cumulative IO s that are READs Cache Hit Percentage Percentage of cumulative IO s that are in cache Current KB second Snapshot of throughput value per second 1 KB 1024 bytes Maximum KB second Maximum recorded throughput value from last start time Current IO second Snapshot of IO s per second IOP Input output per second or one completed I O ...

Page 60: ...60 Planning MD3600i Series Storage Array Terms and Concepts ...

Page 61: ... You can launch the Array Management Window from the EMW Array Management Window AMW The AMW provides management functions for a single storage array You can launch more than one AMW at the same time to manage different storage arrays The EMW and the AMW consist of the following The title bar at the top of the window Shows the name of the application The menu bar beneath the title bar You can sele...

Page 62: ... managed storage arrays on the local sub network Manually add and remove hosts and storage arrays Blink or locate the storage arrays Name or rename discovered storage arrays Add storage array comments to the Table view Sort rows in the Table view according to different criteria Store your EMW view preferences and configuration data in local configuration files The next time you open the EMW data f...

Page 63: ...ings Select the Setup tab and click Inherit System Settings 2 Select Inherit system settings for color and font 3 Click OK Array Management Window You can launch the AMW from the EMW The AMW provides management functions for a single storage array You can have multiple AMWs open simultaneously to manage different storage arrays To launch the AMW 1 In the EMW on the Devices tab double click the rel...

Page 64: ...can Provide storage array options For example renaming a storage array changing a password or enabling a background media scan Provide the ability to configure virtual disks from the storage array capacity define hosts and host groups and grant host or host group access to sets of virtual disks called storage partitions Monitor the health of storage array components and report detailed status usin...

Page 65: ...Configuration Overview 65 ...

Page 66: ...66 Configuration Overview ...

Page 67: ...anaged storage array This limit does not apply to systems that manage the storage array through the in band management method When you use out of band management you must set the network configuration for each RAID controller module s management Ethernet port This includes the Internet Protocol IP address subnetwork mask subnet mask and gateway If you are using a Dynamic Host Configuration Protoco...

Page 68: ...n about the operating system that you are using see the MD PowerVault Support Matrix at support dell com manuals For more information see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics Access Virtual Disk Each RAID controller module in an MD3600i Series storage array maintains a special virtual disk called the access virtual disk The host agent software uses the access virtual disk...

Page 69: ...e Automatic Discovery option and the Re scan Hosts option in the Enterprise Management Window provide automatic methods to discover managed storage arrays Manual Addition of a Storage Array Use Manual Addition if the storage array resides outside of the local subnet This process requires specific identification information to manually add a storage array To add a storage array that uses out of ban...

Page 70: ...t click the icon corresponding to the array and select Rename Setting Up Your Storage Array A list of initial setup tasks is displayed on the Setup tab in the AMW The list of initial setup tasks shows you how to set up a storage array Using the steps outlined in the Initial Setup Tasks Area ensures that the basic setup steps are completed properly Use the Initial Setup Tasks list the first time th...

Page 71: ...ult Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics After you complete the basic steps for configuring the storage array you can perform these optional tasks Manually define hosts Define the hosts and the host port identifiers that are connected to the storage array Use this option only if the host is not automatically recognized and shown in the Mappings tab Configure Ethernet management ports Co...

Page 72: ... click OK The LEDs stop blinking 3 If the LEDs do not stop blinking select Storage Array Blink Stop All Indications A confirmation message is displayed 4 Click OK Naming or Renaming Storage Arrays You can name rename and add comments to a storage array to facilitate identification of the storage array Each storage array must be assigned a unique alphanumeric name up to 30 characters long A name ca...

Page 73: ... storage arrays NOTE Avoid arbitrary names or names that may lose meaning in the future Setting a Password You can configure each storage array with a password to protect it from unauthorized access MDSM prompts for the password when an attempt is made to change the storage array configuration such as when a virtual disk is created or deleted View operations do not change the storage array configu...

Page 74: ...current management session Password Guidelines Follow these guidelines when you create a password Use secure passwords for your storage array A password must be easy for you to remember but difficult for others to determine Consider using numbers or special characters in the place of letters such as a 1 in the place of the letter I or the at sign in the place of the letter a For increased protecti...

Page 75: ...ating these components you prevent accidentally disconnecting components that are still in operation which could cause an interruption in data flow Adding Editing a Comment to an Existing Storage Array A descriptive comment with an applicable storage array name is a helpful identification tool You can add or edit a comment for a storage array in the EMW only To add or edit a comment 1 In the EMW s...

Page 76: ...levant managed storage array 2 Select Edit Remove Storage Array A message prompts you for a confirmation for the removal of the selected storage array 3 To remove the storage array click Yes Enabling Premium Features You can enable premium features on the storage array To enable the premium features you must obtain a feature key file specific to the premium feature that you want to enable from you...

Page 77: ...ystem error such as a failed host adapter For more information see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics Changing the Cache Settings on the Storage Array To change the storage array cache settings 1 In the AMW select Storage Array Change Cache Settings The Change Cache Settings window is displayed 2 Select or enter the percentage of unwritten data in the cache to trigger a...

Page 78: ...ure ID click Change Changing the Enclosure Order in the Physical Pane You can change the order of the RAID controller modules and the expansion enclosures in the Physical pane to match the hardware configuration in your storage array The Physical pane that initially is displayed is a default view that may not match your storage array The enclosure order change remains in effect until it is modifie...

Page 79: ...SNMP alerts see Configuring SNMP Alerts on page 82 To configure alert notifications for a single storage array 1 In the EMW select the Devices tab 2 Select the relevant storage array then select Edit Configure Alerts The Configure Alerts dialog is displayed To configure e mail alerts see Configuring E mail Alerts on page 79 To configure SNMP alerts see Configuring SNMP Alerts on page 82 Configurin...

Page 80: ...he Simple Mail Transfer Protocol SMTP mail server The SMTP mail server is the name of the mail server that forwards the e mail alert to the configured e mail addresses 5 In Email sender address type the valid sender e mail address The e mail address of the sender the network administrator is displayed on each e mail alert sent to the destination 6 To include the contact information of the sender i...

Page 81: ...ray that has generated the alert 9 For the selected e mail address in Frequency select Every event Sends an e mail alert whenever an event occurs This is the default option Every x hours Sends an e mail alert after the specified time interval if an event has occurred during that time interval You can select this option only if you have selected either Event Profile or Event Support in the Informat...

Page 82: ...dialog is displayed If you selected An individual storage array the Select Storage Array dialog is displayed Select the storage array for which you want to receive alert notifications and click OK The Configure Alerts dialog is displayed NOTE If you do not know which storage array to select click Blink to turn on the LEDs of the storage array 3 Select the SNMP tab to configure the SNMP alert desti...

Page 83: ...ine for SNMP alerts Any SNMP addresses that you had previously configured are displayed in the Configured SNMP addresses area The SNMP Community Name is determined by the system administrator and configured within the management application such as the Dell Management Console More information about the Dell Management Console is available at dell com You can configure multiple SNMP addresses befor...

Page 84: ... the battery settings perform these steps 1 In the AMW select Storage Array Change Battery Settings The Battery Settings dialog is displayed 2 In Battery location select a battery 3 Check these details about the battery Battery status Battery age Days until replacement For more information see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics Setting the Storage Array RAID Controller ...

Page 85: ...Storage Array Synchronize RAID Controller Module Clocks 2 If a password is set in the Enter Password dialog type the current password for the storage array and click Synchronize The RAID controller module clocks are synchronized with the storage management station ...

Page 86: ...86 Configuration About Your Storage Array ...

Page 87: ...t only if you want to use mutual CHAP authentication If you select CHAP but no CHAP target secret is defined an error message is displayed See Creating CHAP Secrets on page 88 3 To enter the CHAP secret click CHAP secret The Enter Target CHAP Secret dialog is displayed 4 Enter the Target CHAP secret NOTE The Target CHAP secret must be between 12 and 57 characters 5 Enter the exact target CHAP secr...

Page 88: ...lick CHAP Secret to enter the initiator CHAP permissions in the dialog that is displayed 6 Click OK 7 Click OK in the Manage iSCSI Settings window For more information see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics Creating CHAP Secrets When you set up an authentication method you can choose to create a CHAP secret The CHAP secret is a password that is recognized by the initiat...

Page 89: ... for the target when defining mutual authentication settings Target CHAP Secret If you are using CHAP secrets you must define the CHAP secret for the target Valid Characters for CHAP Secrets The CHAP secret must be between 12 and 57 characters The CHAP secret supports characters with ASCII values of 32 to 126 decimal See Table 7 1 for a list of valid ASCII characters Table 7 1 Valid ASCII Characte...

Page 90: ...de letters numbers and the special characters underscore _ minus and pound sign No other special characters are permitted NOTE Open iSCSI which is used by Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 with SP1 does not support using target alias Changing the iSCSI Target Discovery Settings To change the iSCSI target discovery settings 1 In the AMW select the Setup tab 2 Select Man...

Page 91: ...g the iSCSI host ports for IPv4 addressing is DHCP Always use this method unless your network does not have a DHCP server It is advisable to assign static DHCP addresses to the iSCSI ports to ensure continuous connectivity For IPv6 addressing the default method is Stateless auto configuration Always use this method for IPv6 To configure the iSCSI host ports 1 In the AMW select the Setup tab 2 Sele...

Page 92: ...ption is selected by default To manually configure the settings select Specify configuration NOTE If you select the automatic configuration method the configuration is obtained automatically using the DHCP for IPv4 settings Similarly for IPv6 settings the configuration is obtained automatically based on the MAC address and the IPv6 routers present on the subnetwork NOTE Click Advanced IPv4 Setting...

Page 93: ...TE For more information on creating and configuring a VLAN with MD Support Manager in the AMW click the Support tab then click View Online Help Ethernet Priority The network priority can be set from lowest to highest Although network managers must determine these mappings the IEEE has made broad recommendations 0 lowest priority default 1 to 4 ranges from loss eligible traffic to controlled load a...

Page 94: ...rage Array iSCSI End Sessions 2 Select the iSCSI session that you want to view in the Current sessions area The details are shown below in the Details area Click Save As to save the entire iSCSI sessions topology as a text file 3 To end the session a Select the session that you want to end and then click End Session The End Session confirmation window is displayed b Type yes to confirm that you wa...

Page 95: ...tatistics To view the baseline statistics Baseline statistics are point in time statistics that are gathered since you set the baseline time After you select the statistics type and either raw or baseline statistics the details of the statistics are displayed in the statistics tables NOTE You can click Save As to save the statistics that you are viewing in a text file 4 To set the baseline for the...

Page 96: ... page 99 Table 7 3 Host Topology Actions Desired Action Steps Move a host Move a host group 1 Click the Mappings tab 2 Select the Host that you want to move and then click Mappings Move 3 Select a host group to move the host to and click OK Manually delete the host and the host group 1 Click the Mappings tab 2 Select the item that you want to remove and select Mappings Remove Rename the host the h...

Page 97: ...agement station that runs 24 hours a day Enabling the event monitor on multiple systems or having a combination of an event monitor and MDSM active can result in duplicate events but this does not indicate multiple failures on the array To use the Event Monitor Set up alert destinations for the managed device that you want to monitor A possible alert destination would be the Dell Management Consol...

Page 98: ...rative Tools Services or Click Start Settings Control Panel Administrative Tools Services 2 From the list of services select Modular Disk Storage Manager Event Monitor 3 Select Action Properties 4 To enable the event monitor in the Service Status area click Start 5 To disable the event monitor in the Service Status area click Stop Linux To enable the event monitor at the command prompt type SMmoni...

Page 99: ... for MD3600i Series storage arrays to automatically detect them Use the Define Host Wizard to define the hosts that access the virtual disks in the storage array Defining a host is one of the steps required to let the storage array know which hosts are attached to it and to allow access to the virtual disks For more information on defining the hosts see Defining a Host on page 101 To enable the ho...

Page 100: ...entifier with a new host port identifier Manually activate an inactive host port so that the port can gain access to host specific or host group specific LUN mappings Change the host port type to another type Move a host from one host group to another host group Remove a host group a host or a host port identifier Rename a host group or a host Using the Mappings Tab In the Mappings tab you can Def...

Page 101: ...ich you want to add the host and select Define Host from the pop up menu The Specify Host Name window is displayed 3 In Host name enter an alphanumeric name of up to 30 characters 4 Select the relevant option in Do you plan to use the storage partitions in this storage array and click Next The Specify Host Port Identifiers window is displayed 5 Select the relevant option to add a host port identif...

Page 102: ...the Specify Host Group window is displayed If you select No see step 11 10 Enter the name of the host group or select an existing host group and click Next The Preview window is displayed 11 Click Finish Removing Host Access To remove host access 1 In the AMW select the Mappings tab select the host node in the Topology pane 2 Perform one of these actions Select Mappings Remove Right click the host...

Page 103: ... the Mappings tab 2 In the Topology pane select the storage array or the Default Group 3 Perform one of the following actions Select Mappings Define Host Group Right click the storage array or the Default Group and select Define Host Group from the pop up menu 4 Type the name of the new host group in Enter new host group name 5 Select the appropriate hosts in the Select hosts to add area 6 Click A...

Page 104: ...f these actions Select Mappings Move Right click the host node and select Move from the pop up menu The Move Host dialog is displayed 3 In the Select host group select the host group to which you want to move the host The Move Host Confirmation dialog is displayed 4 Click Yes The host is moved to the selected host group with the following mappings The host retains the specific virtual disk mapping...

Page 105: ...werVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics Host Topology Host topology is the organization of hosts host groups and host interfaces configured for a storage array You can view the host topology in the Mappings tab of the AMW For more information see Using the Mappings Tab on page 100 The following tasks change the host topology Moving a host or a host connection Renaming a host group...

Page 106: ...r to the RAID controller modules Linux To start or stop the Host Context Agent enter the following commands at the prompt SMagent start SMagent stop You stop and then restart SMagent after Moving a controller offline or replacing a controller Removing host to array connections from or attaching host to array connections to a Linux host server Windows To start or stop the Host Context Agent 1 Click...

Page 107: ...rred RAID controller module for processing This failure or error is called failover Drivers for multi path frameworks such as Microsoft Multi Path IO MPIO and Linux Device Mapper DM are installed on host systems that access the storage array and provide I O path failover For more information on Linux DM see Configuration Device Mapper Multipath for Linux on page 195 For more information on MPIO se...

Page 108: ... select Manage Host Port Identifiers in the pop up menu From the menu bar select Mappings Manage Host Port Identifiers The Manage Host Port Identifiers dialog is displayed You can choose to manage the host port identifiers for a specific host or all of the host port identifiers for all of the hosts in Show host port identifiers associated with 2 If you want to manage the host port identifiers for ...

Page 109: ...ifier information area 9 Perform one of these actions for the selected host port identifier To edit the host port identifier Select the appropriate host port identifier and click Edit the Edit Host Port Identifier dialog is displayed update User label and Associated with host and click Save To replace the host port identifier Select the appropriate host port identifier and click Replace the Replac...

Page 110: ...110 Configuration About Your Host ...

Page 111: ... disk group and then define the parameters for the first virtual disk in the new disk group Create a new virtual disk in the free capacity of an existing disk group You only need to specify the parameters for the new virtual disk A disk group has a set amount of free capacity that is configured when the disk group is created You can use that free capacity to subdivide the disk group into one or mo...

Page 112: ...on 1 To start the Create Disk Group Wizard perform one of these actions To create a disk group from unconfigured capacity in the storage array On the Logical tab select an Unconfigured Capacity node and select Disk Group Create Alternatively you can right click the Unconfigured Capacity node and select Create Disk Group from the pop up menu To create a disk group from unassigned physical disks in ...

Page 113: ...n the Manual Physical Disk Selection window is displayed 8 Select the appropriate RAID level in Select RAID level You can select RAID levels 0 1 10 6 and 5 Depending on your RAID level selection the physical disks available for the selected RAID level are displayed in Unselected physical disks table 9 In the Unselected physical disks table select the appropriate physical disks and click Add NOTE Y...

Page 114: ...osts can have 256 logical unit numbers LUNs mapped per storage partition but the number varies per operating system After you create one or more virtual disks and assign a mapping you must register the virtual disk with the operating system In addition you must make sure that the host recognizes the mapping between the physical storage array name and the virtual disk name Depending on the operatin...

Page 115: ... disk type and select Virtual Disk Create Alternatively you can right click the unassigned physical disks and select Create Virtual Disk from the pop up menu To create a secure virtual disk On the Physical tab select one or more unassigned security capable physical disks of the same physical disk type and select Virtual Disk Create Alternatively you can right click the unassigned security capable ...

Page 116: ...ck Finish The virtual disks are created Changing the Virtual Disk Modification Priority You can specify the modification priority setting for a single virtual disk or multiple virtual disks on a storage array Guidelines to change the modification priority of a virtual disk If more than one virtual disk is selected the modification priority defaults to the lowest priority The current priority is sh...

Page 117: ...D controller module has temporarily suspended caching operations This action may occur when a new battery is charging when a RAID controller module is removed or if a mismatch in cache sizes is detected by the RAID controller module After the condition is cleared the cache properties selected in the dialog become active If the selected cache properties do not become active contact your Technical S...

Page 118: ...loss of data Selecting the Enable write caching without batteries option allows write caching to continue even when the batteries are discharged completely or are not fully charged Typically write caching is turned off temporarily by the RAID controller module until the batteries are charged If you select this option and do not have a universal power supply for protection you could lose data In ad...

Page 119: ...E The operation to change the segment size is slower than other modification operations for example changing RAID levels or adding free capacity to a disk group This slowness is the result of how the data is reorganized and the temporary internal backup procedures that occur during the operation The amount of time that a change segment size operation takes depends on The I O load from the host The...

Page 120: ...dynamic cache read prefetch setting For more information about the Automatic Configuration Wizard see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics NOTE The dynamic cache read prefetch setting can be changed later by selecting Virtual Disk Change Cache Settings You can change the segment size later by selecting Virtual Disk Change Segment Size The I O characteristic types shown be...

Page 121: ...rent media types and different interface types within a single storage array In this release of MDSM the following media types are supported Hard physical disk Solid State Disk SSD Physical Disk Security with Self Encrypting Disk Self Encrypting Disk SED technology prevents unauthorized access to the data on a physical disk that is physically removed from the storage array The storage array has a ...

Page 122: ...log The status information reports whether the physical disk is Security Capable Secure Security enabled or disabled Read Write Accessible Security locked or unlocked You can view the self encrypting disk status of any disk group in the storage array The status information reports whether the storage array is Security Capable Secure Table 10 1 shows how to interpret the security status of a disk g...

Page 123: ...array NOTE The Secure Physical Disks option is inactive if these conditions are not true The Secure Physical Disks option is inactive with a check mark on the left if the disk group is already security enabled The Create a secure disk group option is displayed in the Create Disk Group Wizard Disk Group Name and Physical Disk Selection dialog The Create a secure disk group option is active only whe...

Page 124: ...other media When you create a security key you also provide information to create a security key identifier Unlike the security key you can read or view the security key identifier The security key identifier is also stored on a physical disk or transportable media The security key identifier is used to identify which key the storage array is using To create a security key 1 In the AMW toolbar sel...

Page 125: ...es part of the secure key identifier You can enter up to 189 alphanumeric characters without spaces punctuation or symbols Additional characters are generated automatically and is appended to the end of the string that you enter The generated characters help to ensure that the secure key identifier is unique 7 Enter a path and file name to save the security key file by doing one of the following E...

Page 126: ...er you have created a security key you can create secure disk groups from security capable physical disks Creating a secure disk group makes the physical disks in the disk group security enabled Security enabled physical disks enter Security Locked status whenever power is re applied They can be unlocked only by a RAID controller module that supplies the correct key during physical disk initializa...

Page 127: ...ow is displayed 2 Type yes in the text field and click OK The Change Security Key window is displayed 3 In Secure key identifier enter a string that becomes part of the secure key identifier You may leave the text box blank or enter up to 189 alphanumeric characters without white space punctuation or symbols Additional characters are generated automatically 4 Edit the default path by adding a file...

Page 128: ...de a pass phrase The pass phrase you choose does not need to match the pass phrase used when the security key was created or last changed The pass phrase is applied to the particular copy of the security key you are saving To save the security key for the storage array 1 In the AMW toolbar select Storage Array Physical Disk Security Save Security Key File The Save Security Key File Enter Pass Phra...

Page 129: ...ne storage array to another the appropriate security key must also be imported to the new storage array Otherwise the data on the security enabled physical disks that were moved is inaccessible For more information on validating the security key see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics Unlocking Secure Physical Disks You can export a security enabled disk group to move th...

Page 130: ...e secure erase procedure see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics Configuring Hot Spare Physical Disks Guidelines to configure host spare physical disks You can use only unassigned physical disks with Optimal status as hot spare physical disks You can unassign only hot spare physical disks with Optimal or Standby status You cannot unassign a hot spare physical disk that h...

Page 131: ...al disk Hot Spare Coverage Right click the physical disk and select Hot Spare Coverage from the pop up menu The Hot Spare Physical Disk Options window is displayed 4 Select the appropriate option you can select View change current hot spare coverage to review hot spare coverage and to assign or unassign hot spare physical disks if necessary See step 5 Automatically assign physical disks to create ...

Page 132: ...tolerance to the storage array A hot spare is an idle powered on stand by physical disk ready for immediate use in case of disk failure If a hot spare is defined in an enclosure in which a redundant virtual disk experiences a physical disk failure a rebuild of the degraded virtual disk is automatically initiated by the RAID controller modules If no hot spares are defined the rebuild process is ini...

Page 133: ...physical disk to the hot spare physical disk When you have physically replaced the failed physical disk a copyback operation occurs from the hot spare physical disk to the replaced physical disk If there are secure disk groups and security capable disk groups in the storage array the hot spare physical disk must match the security capability of the disk group For example a non security capable phy...

Page 134: ... consequently another physical disk in the disk group causes a double physical disk failure and loss of data Enclosure loss protection is achieved when you create a disk group where all of the physical disks that comprise the disk group are located in different expansion enclosures This distinction depends on the RAID level If you choose to create a disk group by using the Automatic method the sof...

Page 135: ...a six physical disk disk group 3 mirrored pairs you can achieve enclosure loss protection with only two expansion enclosures by specifying that the physical disk in each mirrored pair are located in separate expansion enclosures For example Mirror pair 1 Physical disk in enclosure 1 slot 1 and physical disk in enclosure 2 slot 1 Mirror pair 2 Physical disk in enclosure 1 slot 2 and physical disk i...

Page 136: ...pping is assigned to every host created from the Default Group To prevent this action from occurring remove the access virtual disk mapping from the Default Group Most hosts have 256 LUNs mapped per storage partition The LUN numbering is from 0 through 255 If your operating system restricts LUNs to 127 and you try to map a virtual disk to a LUN that is greater than or equal to 127 the host cannot ...

Page 137: ...on is inactive until a host group or host LUN and virtual disk are selected 8 To define additional mappings repeat step 4 through step 7 NOTE After a virtual disk is mapped it is no longer available in the Virtual Disk area 9 Click Close The mappings are saved The Topology pane and the Defined Mappings pane in the Mappings tab are updated to reflect the mappings Modifying and Removing Host to Virt...

Page 138: ...apping The Topology pane is also updated to reflect any movement of host groups or hosts NOTE If a password is set on the storage array the Enter Password dialog is displayed Type the current password for the storage array and click OK 7 If configuring a Linux host run the rescan_dm_devs utility on the host and remount the virtual disk if required This utility is installed on the host as part of t...

Page 139: ...rtual disk is changed during the virtual disk copy ownership of the target virtual disk is also changed Under certain operating system environments it may be necessary to reconfigure the multi path driver before an I O path can be used To change the ownership of the virtual disk to the connected controller 1 In the AMW select the Logical tab and select a virtual disk 2 Select Virtual Disk Change O...

Page 140: ...t virtual disk is restored to its preferred RAID controller module If ownership of the source virtual disk is changed during the virtual disk copy ownership of the target virtual disk is also changed Under certain operating system environments it may be necessary to reconfigure the multi path driver before an I O path can be used To change the RAID controller module ownership of a disk group 1 In ...

Page 141: ...signed physical disks use the Disk Group Add Free Capacity Physical Disks option to add additional capacity to the disk group Then retry the operation To change the RAID level of a disk group 1 In the AMW select the Logical tab and select a disk group 2 Select Disk Group Change RAID Level 3 Select the appropriate RAID level and click Yes to confirm the selection The RAID level operation begins Rem...

Page 142: ...he device you want to delete 4 Delete the paths related with this device using the following command echo 1 sys block sd_x device delete where sd_x is the SD node disk device returned by the multipath command Repeat this command for all paths related to this device For example echo 1 sys block sdf device delete echo 1 sys block sde device delete 5 Remove mapping from MDSM or delete the LUN if nece...

Page 143: ...ceed the limit imposed by the restricted host type Consider the case of the Default Group that has access to LUNs up to 256 0 to 255 and a restricted host type is added to the Default Group In this case the host that is associated with the restricted host type is able to access virtual disks in the Default Group with LUNs within its limits For example if the Default Group had two virtual disks map...

Page 144: ...n change the mapping to a higher LUN Changing the RAID Controller Module Ownership of a Virtual Disk or a Disk Group You can change the RAID controller module ownership of a virtual disk or a disk group You can change the RAID controller module ownership of a standard virtual disk or a snapshot repository virtual disk You cannot directly change the RAID controller module ownership of a snapshot vi...

Page 145: ...elect the RAID controller module CAUTION Possible loss of data access If you do not use a multi path driver shut down any host applications that are currently using the virtual disk This action prevents application errors when the I O path changes e Click Yes The ownership of the virtual disk is changed I O to the virtual disk is now directed through this I O path You are finished with this proced...

Page 146: ...levels of every virtual disk that comprises the disk group Performance may be slightly affected during the operation Keep these guidelines in mind when you change the RAID level of a disk group You cannot cancel this operation after it begins The disk group must be in Optimal status before you can perform this operation Your data remains available during this operation If you do not have enough ca...

Page 147: ...ility More than one storage partition is required if Specific hosts must access specific virtual disks in the storage array Hosts with different operating systems are attached to the same storage array In this case a storage partition is created for each host type You can use the Storage Partitioning Wizard to define a single storage partition The Storage Partitioning Wizard guides you through the...

Page 148: ...e capacity to a disk group is achieved by adding unconfigured capacity on the array to the disk group Data is accessible on disk groups virtual disks and physical disks throughout the entire modification operation The additional free capacity can then be used to perform a virtual disk expansion on a standard or snapshot repository virtual disk Disk Group Expansion To add free capacity to a disk gr...

Page 149: ...y from the CLI If you receive a warning that the snapshot repository virtual disk is becoming full you may expand the snapshot repository virtual disk from MDSM See Snapshot Repository Capacity on page 169 for step by step instructions Using Free Capacity You can increase the capacity of a virtual disk using the free capacity on the disk group of the standard virtual disk or the snapshot repositor...

Page 150: ...group NOTE You must export a disk group before you move the disk group or import the disk group Export Disk Group The export disk group operation prepares the physical disks in the disk group for removal You can remove the physical disks for offline storage or you can import the disk group to a different storage array After you complete the export disk group operation all of the physical disks are...

Page 151: ...y can support the new virtual disks 4 Verify that the latest version of firmware is installed on the RAID controller module Import Disk Group The import disk group operation adds the imported disk group to the target storage array After you complete the import disk group operation all of the physical disks have Optimal status Any associated virtual disks or free capacity nodes are now shown in MDS...

Page 152: ...during the import disk group procedure These components are removed during the procedure Persistent reservations Mappings Virtual disk copy pairs Snapshot virtual disks and snapshot repository virtual disks Storage Array Media Scan The media scan is a background operation that examines virtual disks to verify that data is accessible The process finds media errors before normal read and write activ...

Page 153: ...l disk The error is reported to the event log For more information see the PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Manager online help topics Changing Media Scan Settings To change the media scan settings 1 In the AMW select the Logical tab and select any virtual disk 2 Select Virtual Disk Change Media Scan Settings The Change Media Scan Settings window is displayed 3 Deselect Suspend media scan if select...

Page 154: ...rming another long running operation on the disk drive such as reconstruction copy back reconfiguration virtual disk initialization or immediate availability formatting If you want to perform another long running operation you must suspend the media scan NOTE A background media scan is the lowest priority of the long running operations To suspend a media scan 1 In the AMW select the Logical tab an...

Page 155: ...s based called the source virtual disk must be a standard virtual disk in your storage array Typically you create a snapshot so that an application such as a backup application can access the snapshot and read the data while the source virtual disk remains online and accessible NOTE No I O requests are permitted on the source virtual disk while the virtual disk snapshot is being created A snapshot...

Page 156: ...u perform a backup For more information see Re creating Snapshot Virtual Disks on page 173 If you delete a snapshot virtual disk you also delete the associated snapshot repository virtual disk NOTE If the Source Virtual Disk is in the offline state the corresponding Snapshot s Repository ies and Snapshot s Virtual Disk s is in Failed state NOTE Deleting a snapshot does not affect data on the sourc...

Page 157: ... For example if an application stores business critical data on two virtual disks in the storage array you may choose to perform an automatic backup every day To implement this backup select the first virtual disk and create a backup schedule that runs once a day Monday through Friday at a time between the end of the work day and 11PM Do not select an end date Apply the same schedule to the second...

Page 158: ... a schedule also deletes the schedule Snapshot schedules are stored in the configuration database on the storage array The Management Station does not need to be running for scheduled snapshot operations to occur Snapshot schedules can be created when the snapshot virtual disk is initially created or can be added to existing snapshot virtual disks Enabling and Disabling Snapshot Schedules A schedu...

Page 159: ...the advanced path option you can choose to place the snapshot repository virtual disk in another disk group or you can use unconfigured capacity on the storage array to create a new disk group About the Simple Path Using the simple path you can specify Snapshot Virtual Disk Name A user specified name that helps you associate the snapshot virtual disk to its corresponding snapshot repository virtua...

Page 160: ...icrosoft Windows clustered configuration you must first map the snapshot virtual disk to the cluster node that owns the source virtual disk This ensures that the cluster nodes correctly recognize the snapshot virtual disk NOTE Mapping the snapshot virtual disk to the node that does not own the source virtual disk before the Snapshot enabling process is completed can result in the operating system ...

Page 161: ... creating a snapshot virtual disk the host server has to be in the proper state To ensure that the host server is properly prepared to create a snapshot virtual disk you can either use an application to carry out this task or you can perform the following steps 1 Stop all I O activity to the source 2 In the AMW select the Logical tab and select a valid source virtual disk 3 Select Virtual Disk Sna...

Page 162: ... conflict depends on the host operating system and any virtual disk manager software in use 12 To register the snapshot virtual disk with the host operating system run the host based hot_add utility 13 To associate the mapping between the storage array name and the virtual disk name run the host based SMdevices utility NOTE If your operating system requires additional instructions you can find tho...

Page 163: ...repository virtual disk within the disk group of the source virtual disk This ensures that if drives associated with the disk group are moved to another storage array all the virtual disks associated with the snapshot virtual disk remain in the same group Snapshot Repository Virtual Disk Capacity The snapshot repository virtual disk capacity is expressed as a percentage of the source virtual disk ...

Page 164: ...Vault MD3600i and MD3620i Storage Arrays With Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clusters at support dell com manuals The destination of a snapshot repository virtual disk is determined based on the free capacity available in the disk group A snapshot repository virtual disk requires a minimum of 8 MB free capacity You can choose your preferred creation path simple or advanced if the disk group of ...

Page 165: ...e host server must be in the proper state To prepare your host server 1 Stop all I O activity to the source 2 Using your Windows system flush the cache to the source At the host prompt type SMrepassist f filename identifier and press Enter For more information see SMrepassist Utility on page 267 3 Remove the drive letter s of the source in Windows or unmount the virtual drive s in Linux to help gu...

Page 166: ...n accessing the source virtual disk and unmount the source virtual disk 2 In the AMW select the Logical tab select a valid source virtual disk 3 Select Virtual Disk Snapshot Create Alternatively right click the source virtual disk and select Create Snapshot Virtual Disk from the pop up menu The Create Snapshot Virtual Disk Wizard Introduction dialog is displayed 4 Select Advanced and click Next Th...

Page 167: ... between the snapshot virtual disk and the host that accesses the snapshot virtual disk 14 To register the snapshot virtual disk with the host operating system run the host based hot_add utility 15 To associate the mapping between the storage array name and the virtual disk name run the host based SMdevices utility Specifying Snapshot Virtual Disk Names Choose a name that helps you associate the s...

Page 168: ...oftware For example if you give the first snapshot of source virtual disk Accounting the name Accounting 8 and do not use the software supplied sequence number of 1 the default name for the next snapshot of Accounting is still Accounting 2 The next available sequence number is based on the number of existing snapshots of a source virtual disk If you delete a snapshot virtual disk its sequence numb...

Page 169: ...controller that has ownership of this virtual disk is currently adding capacity to another virtual disk Each controller can add capacity to only one virtual disk at a time No free capacity exists in the disk group No unconfigured capacity is available to add to the disk group NOTE You can add a maximum of two physical disks at one time to increase snapshot repository virtual disk capacity To expan...

Page 170: ...hows a status of Operation in Progress In addition the snapshot repository virtual disk shows its original capacity and the total capacity being added The virtual disk involved shows a reduction in capacity If all of the free capacity is used to increase the size of the virtual disk the Free Capacity node involved is removed from the Logical tab 7 If unassigned physical disks are not available do ...

Page 171: ...ation in Progress In addition the snapshot repository virtual disk shows its original capacity and the total capacity being added The Free Capacity node involved in the increase shows a reduction in capacity If all of the free capacity is used to increase the size of the virtual disk the Free Capacity node involved is removed from the Logical tab A new Free Capacity node is created and shown in th...

Page 172: ...he snapshot virtual disk in its output even after the snapshot virtual disk is disabled To disable a snapshot virtual disk 1 In the AMW select the Logical tab select the snapshot virtual disk and select Virtual Disk Snapshot Disable 2 In the text box type yes and click OK The snapshot virtual disk is disabled The associated snapshot repository virtual disk does not change status The copy on write ...

Page 173: ...ount the virtual drive s in Linux to help guarantee a stable copy of the drive for the Snapshot If this is not done the snapshot operation reports that it has completed successfully but the snapshot data is not updated properly 5 Follow any additional instructions for your operating system Failure to follow these additional instructions can create unusable snapshot virtual disks NOTE If your opera...

Page 174: ...pshot virtual disk is set as read only during the rollback operation and becomes available for write operations immediately after the rollback is complete The snapshot virtual disk cannot be restarted deleted or disabled during the rollback operation The associated snapshot repository virtual disk must have sufficient capacity to process the rollback operation and the write operations from the hos...

Page 175: ...in the associated snapshot repository virtual disk contains unreadable sectors the snapshot rollback fails If an error occurs during the rollback the operation is paused and the base virtual disk and snapshot virtual disk displays Needs Attention icons The RAID controller module also logs the event to the Major Event Log MEL Follow the Recovery Guru procedure to correct the error and repeat the ro...

Page 176: ...er if you revert to an older version of the MD storage management software after you have performed a snapshot rollback the older MD storage management software does not support the snapshot virtual disk Starting a Snapshot Rollback To start a snapshot rollback 1 In the AMW select the Logical tab 2 Choose one Select the snapshot virtual disk and select Virtual Disk Snapshot Rollback Right click th...

Page 177: ...th virtual disks display Needs Attention icons Check the Major Event Log MEL for details and follow the Recovery Guru procedure to correct the issue Canceling a Snapshot Rollback WARNING Risk of data loss If you cancel a snapshot rollback in progress the base virtual disk may remain in an unusable state and the snapshot virtual disk displays as failed in the MD storage management software Therefor...

Page 178: ...178 Configuration Premium Feature Snapshot Virtual Disks ...

Page 179: ...ce virtual disk and a target virtual disk on the same storage array The source virtual disk is the virtual disk that contains the data you want to copy The source virtual disk accepts the host I O read activity and stores the data until it is copied to the target virtual disk The source virtual disk can be a standard virtual disk a snapshot virtual disk or the source virtual disk of a snapshot vir...

Page 180: ...al disk as a resource for system testing or to copy data to another device such as a tape drive or other media NOTE Recovering from a backup copy You can use the Edit Host to Virtual Disk Mappings feature to recover data from the backup virtual disk you created in the previous procedure The Mappings option enables you to unmap the source virtual disk from its host and then to map the backup virtua...

Page 181: ...e storage array A snapshot virtual disk and a snapshot repository virtual disk are created during the online copy operation The snapshot virtual disk is not an actual virtual disk containing data instead it is a reference to the data contained on the virtual disk at a specific time For each snapshot taken a snapshot repository virtual disk is created to hold the copy on write data for the snapshot...

Page 182: ...Permissions After the virtual disk copy is complete the target virtual disk automatically becomes read only to the hosts The target virtual disk rejects read and write requests while the virtual disk copy operation has a status of Pending or In Progress or if the operation fails before completing the copy Keep the target virtual disk Read Only enabled if you want to preserve the data on the target...

Page 183: ... virtual disk is available for read I O activity only After the virtual disk copy is complete read and write I O activity to the source virtual disk are permitted A virtual disk can be selected as a target virtual disk for only one virtual disk copy at a time A virtual disk copy for any virtual disk cannot be mounted on the same host as the source virtual disk Windows does not allow a drive letter...

Page 184: ...rom occurring do not attempt to access a source virtual disk that is participating in a virtual disk copy while the virtual disk copy has a status of In Progress Also make sure that the Read Only attribute for the target virtual disk is disabled after the virtual disk copy has completed to prevent error messages from being displayed The Virtual Disk Copy premium feature includes The Create Copy Wi...

Page 185: ... virtual disks Setting the copy priority for the virtual disk copy When you have completed the wizard dialogs the virtual disk copy starts and data is read from the source virtual disk and written to the target virtual disk Operation in Progress icons are displayed on the source virtual disk and the target virtual disk while the virtual disk copy has a status of In Progress or Pending Failed Virtu...

Page 186: ...to the alternate RAID controller module to allow the virtual disk copy to complete under all of these conditions A virtual disk copy has a status of In Progress The preferred RAID controller module of the source virtual disk fails The ownership transfer does not occur automatically in the failover Copy Manager After you create a virtual disk copy by using the Create Copy Wizard you can monitor the...

Page 187: ...O activity to the source virtual disk and the target virtual disk 2 Unmount any file systems on the source virtual disk and the target virtual disk 3 In the AMW select the Logical tab and select the source virtual disk 4 Select Virtual Disk Create Copy The Select Source Virtual Disk and Copy Type window is displayed 5 In the Select source virtual disk area select the appropriate virtual disk 6 In ...

Page 188: ...py than standard virtual disks During a virtual disk copy resources for the storage array are diverted from processing I O activity to completing a virtual disk copy This affects the overall performance of the storage array When you create a new virtual disk copy you define the copy priority to determine how much controller processing time is diverted from I O activity to a virtual disk copy opera...

Page 189: ... an In Progress status a Pending status or a Failed status Stopping a virtual disk copy that has a Failed status clears the Needs Attention status displayed for the storage array Keep these guidelines in mind when you stop a virtual disk copy To use this option select only one copy pair in the Copy Manager When the virtual disk copy is stopped all of the mapped hosts have write access to the sourc...

Page 190: ...sk Close all applications including Windows Internet Explorer to make sure all I O activity has stopped NOTE Removing the drive letter of the associated virtual disk s in Windows or unmounting the virtual drive in Linux helps to guarantee a stable copy of the drive for the virtual disk copy Before creating a new virtual disk copy for an existing copy pair both the host server and the associated vi...

Page 191: ...to start it again or when a virtual disk copy has failed or completed The virtual disk copy starts over from the beginning Possible loss of data The re copying operation overwrites existing data on the target virtual disk Possible loss of data access While a virtual disk copy has a status of In Progress or Pending source virtual disks are available for read I O activity only Write requests are all...

Page 192: ...n you remove a virtual disk copy from the storage array the Read Only attribute for the target virtual disk is also removed After the virtual disk copy is removed from the Copy Manager you can either select the target virtual disk as a source virtual disk or the target virtual disk for a new virtual disk copy If you remove a virtual disk copy the source virtual disk and the target virtual disk are...

Page 193: ...n the array restarts To upgrade from a standard performance tier storage array to a high performance tier storage array you enable the high performance tier premium feature using the Dell PowerVault Modular Disk Storage Management MDSM software When the high performance tier feature is enabled or disabled the array restarts During this time data access and management access to the controller is te...

Page 194: ...194 Configuration Premium Feature Upgrading to High Performance Tier ...

Page 195: ...age arrays NOTE The required Device Mapper software components are installed on a Linux host server by running the MD3600i Series resource media installation program on the server and selecting either the Full or Host install option For detailed installation procedures see the Dell PowerVault MD3600i and MD3620i storage arrays Deployment Guide at support dell com manuals Benefits of using DM Multi...

Page 196: ...ore information about step 4 see Creating Virtual Disks on page 114 1 Install the host software from the MD3600i Series resource media Insert the Resource media in the system to start the installation of Modular Disk Storage Manager MDSM and Modular Disk Configuration Utility MDCU NOTE Red Hat install of 5 x requires a remount of the DVD media to make contents executable 2 Reboot when prompted by ...

Page 197: ...ltipath device topology See Display the Multipath Device Topology Using the Multipath Command on page 198 3 Create a partition on a multipath device node See Create a New fdisk Partition on a Multipath Device Node on page 199 4 Add a partition to DM See Add a New Partition to Device Mapper on page 200 5 Create a file system on a DM partition See Create a File System on a Device Mapper Partition on...

Page 198: ...on the host server These devices are the same as any other block devices in the host To list all the multipath devices run the following command multipath ll The output must be similar to this example which shows the output for one mapped virtual disk mpath1 3600a0b80005ab177000017544a8d6b92 dm 0 DELL MD32xxi size 5 0G features 3 queue_if_no_path pg_init_retries 50 hwhandler 1 rdac rw _ round robi...

Page 199: ...g controller for the device Sdcl is the physical path to the non owning controller for the device Create a New fdisk Partition on a Multipath Device Node The fdisk command allows creation of a partition space for a file system on the newly scanned and mapped virtual disks that are presented to Device Mapper To create a partition with the multipathing device nodes dev mapper mpath x for example use...

Page 200: ...ise Linux RHEL hosts a partition node has the format dev mapper mpath x p y Where x is the alphabetic number for the multipathing device y is the partition number for this device On SUSE Linux Enterprise Server SLES 11 x hosts a partition node has the format dev mapper mpath x part y Where x is letter s assigned to the multipathing device and y is the partition number On SLES 10 3 hosts a partitio...

Page 201: ...tup and ready to be used Future reboots automatically find multipathing devices along with their partitions NOTE To ensure data integrity protection reboot a Linux host server attached to an MD3600i Series storage array using the procedure given below Blacklist Local Drive in Multi path Driver If your multipath drivers are connecting to storage area networks SANs it may be useful to be able to exc...

Page 202: ...running the dracut force command 3 Reboot the host Linux Host Server Reboot Best Practices It is recommended that you follow the procedures given below while rebooting your Linux host server using Device Mapper multipathing with an MD3600i Series storage array 1 Unmount all Device Mapper multipath device nodes mounted on the server umount mounted_multipath_device_node 2 Stop the Device Mapper mult...

Page 203: ...mmands such as lsscsi displays one or more instances of Universal Xport devices These device nodes must never be accessed mounted or used in any way Doing so could cause loss of communication to the storage array and possibly cause serious damage to the storage array potential making data stored on the array inaccessible Only multipathing device nodes and partition nodes created using the directio...

Page 204: ...st server or storage array is rebooted while I O is active All I O to the storage array must be stopped before shutting down or rebooting the host server or storage array After a failed path is restored on an MD3600i Series array failback does not occur automatically because the driver cannot auto detect devices without a forced rescan Run the command rescan_dm_devs to force a rescan of the host s...

Page 205: ... this issue Troubleshooting Question Answer How can I check if multipathd is running Run the following command etc init d multipathd status Why does the multipath ll command output not show any devices First verify if the devices are discovered or not The command cat proc scsi scsi displays all the devices that are already discovered Then verify the multipath conf to ensure that it is updated with...

Page 206: ...r example if a device related with dev dm 1 is deleted you must run multipath f dev dm 1 to remove dev dm 1 from DM mapping table If multipathing daemon is stopped restarted run multipath F to flush out all stale mappings Failback does not happen as expected with the array Sometimes the low level driver cannot auto detect devices coming back with the array Run rescan_dm_devs to rescan host server ...

Page 207: ...rom EMW and AMW or only EMW You can activate the files immediately or wait until a more convenient time You may want to activate the firmware or NVSRAM files at a later time because of these reasons Time of day Activating the firmware and the NVSRAM can take a long time so you can wait until I O loads are lighter The RAID controller modules are offline briefly to load the new firmware Type of pack...

Page 208: ...e firmware and click OK NOTE The RAID Controller Module Firmware area and the NVSRAM area list the current firmware and the current NVSRAM versions respectively 3 To locate the directory in which the file to download resides click Select File next to the Selected RAID controller module firmware file text box 4 In the File Selection area select the file to download By default only the downloadable ...

Page 209: ...dule firmware or the NVSRAM You can select more than one storage array NOTE The Details pane shows the details of only one storage array at a time If you select more than one storage array in the Storage Array pane the details of the storage arrays are not shown in the Details pane 11 Click Firmware in the Download area If you select a storage array that cannot be upgraded the Firmware button is d...

Page 210: ...d in the NVSRAM file information area The attributes indicate the version of the NVSRAM file 16 If you want to download the file and activate the firmware and NVSRAM later select the Transfer files but don t activate them activate later check box NOTE If any of the selected storage arrays do not support downloading the files and activating the firmware or NVSRAM later the Transfer files but don t ...

Page 211: ...ck OK to close it and select a compatible file 3 To locate the directory in which the file to download resides click Select File 4 Select the file to download in the File selection area and click OK By default only downloadable files that are compatible with the current storage array configuration are displayed When you select a file in the File selection area applicable attributes if any of the f...

Page 212: ...e not shown in the Details pane 9 Click NVSRAM in the Download area NOTE If you select a storage array that cannot be upgraded the NVSRAM button is disabled The Download NVSRAM dialog is displayed The current firmware version and the NVSRAM version of the selected storage arrays is displayed NOTE If you select the storage arrays with different RAID controller module types that cannot be updated wi...

Page 213: ...sks The physical disk firmware performs these functions The physical disk firmware records the location of the physical disk in an expansion enclosure If you take a physical disk out of an expansion enclosure you must insert it back into the same physical disk slot or the physical disk firmware cannot communicate with the RAID controller module or other storage array components RAID configuration ...

Page 214: ...ntroduction window is displayed 2 Click Next The Download Physical Disk Firmware Add Packages window is displayed 3 In the Selected Packages area click Add 4 Navigate to the location of the packages and click OK The selected package is added to the Packages to be transferred area 5 Click Next The Download Physical Disk Firmware Select Physical Disks window is displayed 6 In the Compatible Physical...

Page 215: ...on enclosure EMM unusable Do not make any configuration changes to the storage array while downloading expansion enclosure EMM firmware Doing so could cause the firmware download to fail and make the selected expansion enclosure unusable 1 Perform one of these actions In the AMW select Advanced Maintenance Download EMM Firmware Select the Support tab and click Download Firmware In the dialog that ...

Page 216: ...e download failed The status of one expansion enclosure shows Failed and the remainder of the expansion enclosures show Canceled Make sure that the new firmware file is compatible before attempting another firmware download Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology SMART Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology SMART monitors the internal performance of all physical disk component...

Page 217: ...g maintained by the controller Other conditions under which sectors are added to the unreadable sector log include A media error is encountered when trying to access a physical disk that is a member of a non redundant disk group RAID 0 or degraded RAID 1 RAID 5 or RAID 10 An error is encountered on source disks during rebuild NOTE Data on an unreadable sector is no longer accessible ...

Page 218: ...218 Management Firmware Downloads ...

Page 219: ...rray Components 219 16 Management Installing Array Components Recommended Tools You may need the following items to perform the procedures in this section Key to the system keylock 2 Phillips screwdriver Wrist grounding strap ...

Page 220: ...left end of the bezel away from the front panel 4 Unhook the right end of the bezel and pull the bezel away from the system Figure 16 1 Removing and Installing the Front Bezel Installing the Front Bezel 1 Hook the right end of the bezel onto the chassis 2 Fit the free end of the bezel onto the system 3 Secure the bezel with the keylock See Figure 16 1 1 bezel 2 keylock 3 release latch 4 hinge tab ...

Page 221: ...ives are connected to a backplane through hard drive carriers and can be configured as hot swappable Removing a Hard Drive Blank CAUTION To maintain proper system cooling all empty hard drive bays must have drive blanks installed 1 If installed remove the front bezel See Removing the Front Bezel on page 220 2 Press the release tab and slide the hard drive blank out until it is free of the drive ba...

Page 222: ... bezel See Installing the Front Bezel on page 220 Removing a Hard Drive CAUTION Many repairs may only be done by a certified service technician You must only perform troubleshooting and simple repairs as authorized in your product documentation or as directed by the online or telephone service and support team Damage due to servicing that is not authorized by Dell is not covered by your warranty R...

Page 223: ...rive is powered down When the drive indicators are off the drive is ready for removal 3 Press the release button to open the drive carrier release handle See Figure 16 4 4 Slide the hard drive out until it is free of the drive bay CAUTION To maintain proper system cooling all empty hard drive bays must have drive blanks installed 5 Insert a drive blank in the empty drive bay See Installing a Hard ...

Page 224: ...sted and approved for use with the MD3600i Series CAUTION When installing a hard drive ensure that the adjacent drives are fully installed Inserting a hard drive carrier and attempting to lock its handle next to a partially installed carrier can damage the partially installed carrier s shield spring and make it unusable 1 If applicable remove the front bezel See Removing the Front Bezel on page 22...

Page 225: ... the slide rails on the hard drive carrier and separate the hard drive from the carrier See Figure 16 5 for PowerVault MD3600i and Figure 16 6 for PowerVault MD3620i Figure 16 5 Removing and Installing a Hard Drive Into a 3 5 Hard Drive Carrier 1 screws 4 2 hard drive 3 SAS screw hole 4 hard drive carrier 2 4 1 3 ...

Page 226: ...226 Management Installing Array Components Figure 16 6 Removing and Installing a Hard Drive Into a 2 5 Hard Drive Carrier 1 screws 4 2 hard drive carrier 3 SAS screw hole 4 hard drive 4 1 3 2 ...

Page 227: ...st install the RAID controller module blank in slot 1 CAUTION RAID controller modules can be removed and installed without turning off the array It is recommended that you do not remove the RAID controller module while data is being transferred Replacing or installing a RAID controller module that is connected to a host server causes it to loose communication with the array and may require a reboo...

Page 228: ...rver Figure 16 7 Removing and Installing a RAID Controller Module Blank Installing a RAID Controller Module Blank To install a RAID controller module blank 1 Align the blank with the RAID controller module bay 2 Insert the blank into the chassis until it clicks into place 1 release latch 2 RAID controller module blank 1 2 ...

Page 229: ...ell is not covered by your warranty Read and follow the safety instructions that came with the product 1 Disconnect the cables connected to the RAID controller module 2 Push down on the release tab and pull the release lever away from the chassis See Figure 16 8 3 Grasp the release lever and pull the module away from the chassis NOTE To avoid damage to the sensitive EMI contacts on the RAID contro...

Page 230: ...re for the RAID controller module For information about the latest firmware see support dell com Opening the RAID Controller Module CAUTION Many repairs may only be done by a certified service technician You must only perform troubleshooting and simple repairs as authorized in your product documentation or as directed by the online or telephone service and support team Damage due to servicing that...

Page 231: ...ervicing that is not authorized by Dell is not covered by your warranty Read and follow the safety instructions that came with the product 1 Place the cover onto the RAID controller module and offset it slightly toward the back so that the hooks on the cover fit over the corresponding slots on the RAID controller module 2 Slide the cover toward the front till it snaps into place See Figure 16 9 3 ...

Page 232: ...Read and follow the safety instructions that came with the product 1 Turn off the array and host server 2 Disconnect all the cables connected to the array 3 Remove the RAID controller module See Removing a RAID Controller Module on page 229 4 Open the RAID controller module See Opening the RAID Controller Module on page 230 5 Loosen the screw that secures the backup battery unit to the RAID contro...

Page 233: ...is not covered by your warranty Read and follow the safety instructions that came with the product 1 Align the backup battery unit with the slots on the RAID controller module 2 Slide the backup battery unit toward the connector on the RAID controller module 3 Tighten the screw that secures the backup battery unit to the RAID controller module 4 Close the RAID controller module See Closing the RAI...

Page 234: ...e repairs as authorized in your product documentation or as directed by the online or telephone service and support team Damage due to servicing that is not authorized by Dell is not covered by your warranty Read and follow the safety instructions that came with the product NOTE If you remove a fully functioning power supply cooling fan module the fan speed in the remaining module increases signif...

Page 235: ...Management Installing Array Components 235 Figure 16 11 Removing and Installing a Power Supply Cooling Fan Module 1 release tab 2 power supply 3 power supply handle 1 3 2 ...

Page 236: ... with the product 1 Slide the power supply cooling fan module into the chassis until it is fully seated and the release tab clicks into place See Figure 16 11 2 Connect the power cable to the power supply cooling fan module and plug the cable into a power outlet 3 Secure the power cable using the strap See Figure 16 12 Figure 16 12 Securing the Power Cable CAUTION When connecting the power cable s...

Page 237: ...rVault MD3620i See Removing a Hard Drive on page 222 NOTE Mark each hard drive with it s slot position as you remove it 4 Slide the control panel out of the chassis after Pushing the release tab toward the front of the array in PowerVault MD3600i See Figure 16 13 Pulling the release pin toward the front of the array in PowerVault MD3620i See Figure 16 14 Figure 16 13 Removing and Installing the Co...

Page 238: ... Slide the control panel into the array until The release tab clicks into place in PowerVault MD3600i See Figure 16 13 The release pin clicks into place in PowerVault MD3620i See Figure 16 14 3 Replace the hard drives in their respective slots See Installing a Hard Drive on page 224 4 Connect all the power cables to the array 5 Turn on the array and the host server 1 release pin 2 control panel 1 ...

Page 239: ...See Removing a RAID Controller Module on page 229 5 Remove the power supply cooling fan modules See Removing a Power Supply Cooling Fan Module on page 234 6 Remove the control panel See Removing the Control Panel on page 237 7 Remove the screws that secure the RAID controller module power supply cage to the chassis 8 Grasp the cage removal ring at the bottom center of the array and pull the RAID c...

Page 240: ...240 Management Installing Array Components Figure 16 15 Removing and Installing the RAID Controller Module Power Supply Cage 1 screws 6 2 RAID controller module power supply cage 2 1 ...

Page 241: ...nts 241 Figure 16 16 Removing and Installing the Backplane PowerVault MD3600i Figure 16 17 Removing and Installing the Backplane PowerVault MD3620i 1 screws 5 2 backplane 3 captive screw 1 screws 4 2 backplane 3 captive screw 2 1 3 2 1 3 ...

Page 242: ...0i 4 Align the slots on the RAID controller module power supply cage with the tabs on the chassis See Figure 16 15 5 Push the RAID controller module power supply cage toward the front of the array 6 Replace the screws that secure the RAID controller module power supply cage to the chassis 7 Replace the control panel See Installing the Control Panel on page 238 8 Replace the power supply cooling fa...

Page 243: ...t representative to detect any firmware mismatches Viewing the Firmware Inventory To view the firmware inventory 1 Perform one of these actions based on whether you want to view the firmware information for one storage array or all storage arrays One storage array From the Array Management Window select Advanced Maintenance Firmware Inventory All storage arrays From the Enterprise Management Windo...

Page 244: ...244 Management Firmware Inventory ...

Page 245: ...a For more information on VDS see microsoft com Volume Shadow Copy Service The Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service VSS is a component of the Microsoft Windows operating system The VSS component utilizes third party vendor specific software modules known as providers to access and utilize snapshot and disk copy functionality provided by third party storage resources such as MD3600i Series storage ...

Page 246: ...during your Windows setup the registration graphical user interface GUI prompts you to provide the name of your array because settings in the GUI are array specific not host specific Storage Management VSS Hardware Provider Tips The number of snapshot virtual disks that can be created using a single snapshot set varies with the I O load on the RAID controller modules Under little or no I O load th...

Page 247: ...determines the current storage array status The current status is represented by icons next to the managed storage array The status icons shown in the Tree view in the EMW represent a summary status for each storage array If a storage array has a status of Needs Attention or a status of Fixing determine the condition that is causing this status before attempting any management actions You can dete...

Page 248: ...information see Recovery Guru on page 256 For the status of a storage array the icons shown in the following table are used in the Tree view the Table view and both the EMW Status Bar and the AMW Status Bar Table 19 2 Status Icon Status Icon Description Optimal Each component in the managed storage array is in the desired working condition Needs Attention There is a problem with the managed storag...

Page 249: ...d storage arrays with either condition The EMW Tree view has additional status icons that are shown in the following table Table 19 3 Additional Status Icons Status Icon Description Unsupported Alerts with a Needs Upgrade Status Setting an alert on a storage array with a Needs Upgrade status is not supported In this case the storage array shows both a Needs Upgrade status and an Unsupported Alerts...

Page 250: ... Contacting Storage Array icon is shown in the Tree view and Table view until the current status of each managed storage array is known The Contacting Storage Array icon is shown in the EMW Status Bar and the AMW Status Bar and the tooltip shows Contacting Storage arrays As each storage array is contacted its current status is obtained and shown in the Tree view and Table view The applicable statu...

Page 251: ...verwrite an existing file The suffix zip is added automatically to the file if you do not specify a suffix for the file 3 Enter the Execution summary 4 Click Start After all of the support files are gathered they are archived using the file name that you specified 5 Click OK NOTE If a support data operation is running it must complete before another support data operation can begin Concurrent coll...

Page 252: ...race buffers to record processing activity including exception conditions that may be useful for debugging Trace information is stored in the current buffer and can be moved to the flushed buffer after being retrieved Because each RAID controller module has its own buffer there may be more than one flushed buffer The trace buffers can be retrieved without interrupting the operation of the storage ...

Page 253: ...odule 1 or both If the RAID controller module status message to the right of a check box indicates that the RAID controller module is offline the check box is disabled 3 From the Trace buffers list select the relevant option 4 To move the buffer select Move current trace buffer to the flushed buffer after retrieval Move current trace buffer to the flushed buffer after retrieval is not available if...

Page 254: ...isk data 1 In the AMW perform one of these actions To collect data from all of the physical disks in the storage array select Advanced Troubleshooting Collect Physical Disk Data Collect All Physical Disk Data To collect data from a single physical disk that is selected in the Physical tab select Advanced Troubleshooting Collect Physical Disk Data Collect Single Physical Disk Data The Collect Physi...

Page 255: ...y view Shows an event summary in a tabular format Detail view Shows details about a selected event To view the event log 1 In the AMW select Advanced Troubleshooting View Event Log The Event Log is displayed By default the summary view is displayed 2 To view the details of each selected log entry select View details A detail pane is added to the event log that contains detailed information about t...

Page 256: ...lved Storage Array Profile The storage array profile provides a description of all of the components and properties of the storage array The storage array profile also provides the option to save the storage array profile information to a text file You may want to use the storage array profile as an aid during recovery or as an overview of the current configuration of the storage array Create a ne...

Page 257: ... on the current tab the term is highlighted in the storage array profile information NOTE The search is limited to the current tab If you want to search for the term in other tabs select the tab and click the Find button again c Click the Find button again to search for additional occurrences of the term 5 To save the storage array profile a Click Save As b To save all sections of the storage arra...

Page 258: ...s dialog click Close Viewing the Physical Associations You can use the Associated Physical Components option to view the physical components that are associated with source virtual disks snapshot virtual disks snapshot repository virtual disks disk groups unconfigured capacity and free capacity in a storage array To view the physical associations 1 In the AMW select a node in the Logical pane of t...

Page 259: ... Search by special criteria see step 4 3 Type the name of the node to be found in Find Node See step 8 4 Based on the search criteria select one of these options and go to the indicated step Find all virtual disks with RAID level Go to step 5 Find all virtual disks with capacity Go to step 6 Find all free capacity nodes Go to step 7 5 To search for all nodes based on their RAID level perform these...

Page 260: ...search criteria 9 To close the dialog click Cancel To continue searching for nodes with the same criteria after the Find dialog is closed press F3 Using Go To Use the Go To option to quickly jump to an associated snapshot repository virtual disk snapshot virtual disk source virtual disk or target virtual disk These virtual disks are displayed in the Logical pane of the Logical tab The Go To option...

Page 261: ...ponsive Storage Array Condition A storage array can have an Unresponsive status for several reasons Use the procedure in this topic to determine a possible cause and solution MDSM can take up to 5 minutes to detect that a storage array has become unresponsive or becomes responsive again Before completing this procedure make sure that you wait for some time before you decide that the storage array ...

Page 262: ...e appropriate network configuration tasks are performed For example make sure that IP addresses are assigned to each RAID controller module 11 If there is a cable or network accessibility problem see step 20 if not step 12 12 For an in band managed storage array make sure that the host is network accessible by using the ping command to verify that the host can be reached Type one of these commands...

Page 263: ...twork traffic to one or more RAID controller modules This problem is self correcting because the EMW software periodically retries to establish communication with the RAID controller modules in the storage array If the storage array was unresponsive and a subsequent attempt to connect to the storage array succeeds the storage array becomes responsive For an out of band managed storage array determ...

Page 264: ...nk Physical Disk The LEDs on the selected physical disks blink 4 When you have located the physical disks click OK The LEDs stop blinking If any other blink operations Blink Disk Group Blink Storage Array Blink Physical Disk Ports or Blink Expansion Enclosure are currently being invoked from another storage management station these LEDs also stop blinking 5 In the rare case that the LEDs on the ph...

Page 265: ...re 1 Select the Physical tab 2 Select a physical disk in the expansion enclosure that you want to locate 3 Select Physical Disk Blink Expansion Enclosure The LED or LEDs on the expansion enclosure or physical disks come on 4 When you have located the expansion enclosure click OK The LEDs stop blinking If you have an expansion enclosure with a blue LED the LED goes off If any other blink operations...

Page 266: ...ecify filename text box enter a name for the file to be saved or browse to a previously saved file if you want to overwrite an existing file Use the convention filename dmp for the name of the file The suffix dmp is added to the file automatically if you do not specify a suffix for the file 4 Click Start NOTE Each test shows a status of Executing while it is in progress The test then shows Complet...

Page 267: ...dows navigate to C Program Files Dell MD Storage Manager util and run the following command SMrepassist f filesystem identifier where f flushes all the memory resident data for the file system indicated by filesystem identifier and filesystem identifier specifies a unique file system in the following syntax drive letter mount point path The file system identifier may consist of only a drive letter...

Page 268: ... band connections The opposite situation can also occur If a storage array is managed through more than one host it is possible that the storage array may become unresponsive to communication over the connections given by one host However you may still be able to manage the storage array over the connections provided by another host Recovering From an Unidentified Storage Array To recover from an ...

Page 269: ...e and that they are tightly connected g If you have recently replaced or added the controller restart the Host Context Agent software so that the new controller is found If a problem exists make the appropriate modifications to the host 4 If you have an out of band storage array use the following procedure Click Refresh after each step to make sure of the results a Make sure that the network can a...

Page 270: ... with the controllers in the storage array at regular times If the storage array was unresponsive and a subsequent attempt to connect to the storage array succeeds the storage array becomes responsive 7 For an out of band storage array look to see if management operations are taking place on the storage array from other storage management stations The type of management operations being done and t...

Page 271: ...g select Modular Disk Storage Manager Agent 3 If the modular disk storage manager agent is running click Action Stop then wait approximately 5 seconds 4 Click Action Start Linux To start or restart the Host Context Agent software in Linux enter the following command at the prompt SMagent start The SMagent software may take a little time to initialize The cursor is shown but the terminal window doe...

Page 272: ...272 Troubleshooting Your Storage Array Software ...

Page 273: ...if The array emits a series of beeps The array fault LEDs are lit See RAID Controller Modules on page 31 There is a constant scraping or grinding sound when you access the hard drive See Getting Help on page 283 Troubleshooting Loss of Communication For information about troubleshooting loss of communication see Troubleshooting Array and Expansion Enclosure Connections on page 279 Troubleshooting ...

Page 274: ...ify if it is working Connect the cable to a different power source Replace the power cable If the problem is not resolved see Getting Help on page 283 If the DC power LED is not lit verify that the power switch is turned on If the power switch is turned on see step 2 If the power supply s fault indicator is lit see Getting Help on page 283 CAUTION Power supply cooling fan modules are hot swappable...

Page 275: ...oting Power Supply Cooling Fan Module on page 274 If the problem is not resolved see Getting Help on page 283 Troubleshooting Expansion Enclosure Management Modules CAUTION Many repairs may only be done by a certified service technician You must only perform troubleshooting and simple repairs as authorized in your product documentation or as directed by the online or telephone service and support ...

Page 276: ...system is fully booted d Turn on the server e Check the link status LED If the link status LED is not green replace the cables If the problem is not resolved see Getting Help on page 283 Troubleshooting RAID Controller Modules CAUTION Many repairs may only be done by a certified service technician You must only perform troubleshooting and simple repairs as authorized in your product documentation ...

Page 277: ...30 seconds See Installing a RAID Controller Module on page 230 f Check the RAID controller module status LED g Replace the RAID controller module h Turn on the host server If the problem is not resolved see Getting Help on page 283 If the link status LEDs are not green see Troubleshooting Array and Expansion Enclosure Connections on page 279 a Turn off the server storage array and expansion enclos...

Page 278: ...r more information see the Support Matrix at support dell com manuals 2 Remove the hard drive from the system See Removing a Hard Drive on page 222 NOTE You must ensure that you check the hard drive indicators before removing the faulty hard drive from the system 3 Check the hard drives and the backplane to ensure that the connectors are not damaged 4 Reinstall the hard drive 5 Reboot the host ser...

Page 279: ...e system is fully booted 6 Turn on the server 7 Check the link status LED If the link status LED is not green replace the cables If the problem is not resolved see Getting Help on page 283 8 Reboot the host server NOTE You must turn off the host server before resetting the cables on the storage array or expansion enclosure If the problem is not resolved see Getting Help on page 283 Troubleshooting...

Page 280: ...mple repairs as authorized in your product documentation or as directed by the online or telephone service and support team Damage due to servicing that is not authorized by Dell is not covered by your warranty Read and follow the safety instructions that came with the product 1 Ensure that the following components are properly installed Hard drives RAID controller modules Power supply cooling fan...

Page 281: ...hile the RAID controller module completes these initial tests and the controllers are booted successfully If the RAID controller module detects a non Dell supported storage array the controller aborts startup The RAID controller module does not generate any events to alert you in the event of an invalid array but the array status LED is lit with a flashing amber color to indicate a fault state For...

Page 282: ... power supply has failed Two or more temperature sensors are unreadable Failure to detect or unable to communicate with peer port NOTE If both RAID controller modules fail simultaneously the array cannot issue critical or noncritical event alarms for any array component When the array is under critical condition its array status LED blinks amber Noncritical Conditions A noncritical condition is an...

Page 283: ...lephone based support and service options Availability varies by country and product and some services may not be available in your area To contact Dell for sales technical support or customer service issues 1 Visit support dell com 2 Click your country region at the bottom of the page For a full listing of country region click All 3 Click All Support from Support menu 4 Select the appropriate ser...

Page 284: ...284 Getting Help ...

Page 285: ...38 I O Type 120 iSCSI Target Authentication 87 iSCSI Target Identification 90 RAID Controller Module Ownership of a Disk Group 139 RAID Controller Module Ownership of a Virtual Disk or a Disk Group 144 RAID Level of a Disk Group 141 146 Segment Size of a Virtual Disk 119 Virtual Disk Cache Settings 117 Virtual Disk Modification Priority 116 CHAP Secrets Creating 88 Initiator CHAP Secret 89 Target ...

Page 286: ...apacity Expansion 46 Disk Groups and Virtual Disks Creating 111 Download NVSRAM Firmware 211 Physical Disk Firmware 213 RAID Controller and NVSRAM Firmware 208 RAID Controller and NVSRAM Packages 207 RAID controller module Firmware 215 drive carrier hard drive 225 E Edit Remove or Rename Host Topology 96 Enclosure Loss Protection 134 Entering Mutual Authentication Permissions 88 Enterprise Managem...

Page 287: ... host 104 Removing a Host Group 105 Host Topology 105 Host to Virtual Disk Mapping 135 Host to Virtual Disk Mappings Creating 136 Modifying and Removing 137 Removing 139 Hot Spare Drive Protection 133 Global Hot Spares 132 Operation 133 Hot Spares and Rebuild 132 I I O Data Path Protection 107 Inside the box 19 installing backplane 242 control panel MD1200 238 EMM 230 EMM blank 228 front bezel 220...

Page 288: ...83 Physical Disk Security with Self Encrypting Disk 121 Physical Disk States 38 Physical Disks 38 Erasing Secure 130 Unlocking Secure 129 Physical Disks Virtual Disks and Disk Groups 37 Power Indicator Codes 30 Power Supply and Cooling Fan Features 29 Preferred RAID Controller Module Ownership 186 Preparing Host Servers Simple path 160 R RAID 41 Changing Level of disk group 146 RAID 0 41 RAID 1 42...

Page 289: ...path 159 Snapshot Virtual Disks Disabling 172 Re create 173 Re creating 173 Starting or Stopping the Host Context Agent 106 Storage Array RAID Controller Module Clocks 84 Storage Array Media Scan 152 Storage Arrays 68 Automatic Discovery 69 Manual Addition 69 Storage Partitioning 147 support contacting Dell 283 T telephone numbers 283 Troubleshooting Automatically Collect the Support Bundle Data 2...

Page 290: ...Interface AMW 63 EMW 62 Overview 61 Using Go To 260 V Viewing iSCSI Statistics and Setting Baseline Statistics 95 Viewing or Ending an iSCSI Session 94 Virtual Disk Background Initialization 43 Consistency Check 44 Copy and Modification Operations 185 Copy Restrictions 183 Copying 186 Creating 184 Creating a Copy for an MSCS Shared Disk 182 Cycle Time 44 Failed Copy 185 Foreground Initialization 4...

Page 291: ...Index 291 Virtual Disk Operations Limit 45 Virtual Disk Ownership 55 Virtual Disk States 40 Virtual DiskCopy Target 53 Virtual Disks and Disk Groups 39 ...

Page 292: ...292 Index ...

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