A unit with no flare and no support is... garbage?

[EMC4Me]

I'm a computer hobbiest and professional, but this post is just to support the hobby. I was given an EMC FC4400 head unit, along with 7 fully loaded drive bays. I've managed to connect the serial console and got it to the point where it tells me it needs a few more pieces of flare to really be effective.

I've done a good bit of reading here, and based on what I've read, it sounds like without a drive already loaded with flare, there's nothing I can do beyond either finding someone with another FC4400 (I'm gonna bet that will never happen!), or contacting EMC and paying a few year's salary to get a seed drive from them. Did I get that right?

I've gone through the 10 drives in the head unit one at a time, rotating them each into position 0, leaving another drive in position 1 and powering up (I read somewhere that I should only need 2 drives to get past flare) with no success. What I haven't done is gone through the other 70 drives in the auxiliary drive bays. It seemed like a stretch, but would those drives possibly have flare?

If all else fails (and I'm thinking it already has...), what can be done with one of these beasts? Is it destined for the scrap yard? Is contacting EMC really a viable option for a hobbiest?

 

[maultier]

I'm afraid that is the case. You need at least one drive with the flare code on it. But, I wouldn't give up on finding a drive with the code. It is possible that the drives were scrambled and that there is a drive in the mix that has the code on it. Good luck.

 

[EMC4Me]

Thanks for the encouragement... am I correct in my testing procedure - I need only two drives in the head unit, I don't need the head connected to any of the other drive bays, and I can just keep swapping out the drive in position 0 until it works (or I run out of drives to test)? I did read one post on here that seemed to indicate I needed three drives, and those three had to be in the correct order. I'm thinking if I have to get the right three drives in order, it really is hopeless when dealing with 70 drives. If I only need to find the "one" though, I at least have a chance. Along the same line of questioning - if it is just 2 drives I have to concern myself with, do they both need to be the same size, or would it work as long as the drive in slot 1 is => the drive in slot 0?

I know it's a long shot, but does anyone else have a FC4400 sitting around that they could pop one of my drives into and send back? If I'm understanding things correctly, that would do the trick as well...

 

[maultier]

Use whatever your largest drive is for the slot 1 drive. The need for two drives was an old issue with a low revision of flare on the FC5400 series. It shouldn't be a factor for you but, having the drive there will negate that as a possible issue.
You install the first drive and power up the clariion.
If the amber light on the storage processor goes out, you have flare. If not, power down,plug in the next drive and try again. It's tedious but,if you have a flare drive, that should find it for you.

 

[maultier]

Forgot to mention, you'll need to give it a good 2 minutes to cycle up unless you get the info from the serial connection.

 

[EMC4Me]

I've been going off the serial console - haven't yet learned what all the lights are. I started with 2 drives from one of the other units and the startup sequence got through ABCDabEabFabcdefghGa then stopped and hasn't responded for about 8 minutes now. (Previously, it never stopped in the middle of it's sequence for more than a few seconds) The 2 drives I have in there have been making quite a bit of stepper motor noise, so I'm hopeful at this point - though it hasn't reached the part of it's message where it says searching for FLARE... so I'm a bit unsure now. They're 73GB 10K drives... how long should I let it sit before giving up and moving on to the next drive?

 

[EMC4Me]

Unbelievable!! My very first set of drives I chose from one of the other bays had the Flare on it! Now I can spend the next 3 months learning how to make it all work...

Thanks for the help!

 

[sadaf04]

Hi EMC4ME

I'm in the same position where you were few month ago. I got CX700 Clariion with 15 disk but no Flare. My drives are FC 146Gb, any chance if I send the drive you can copy the flare. I really appreciate if you could help me.

regards
Ashraf

ashraf33@hotmail.com