EMC FC4500 Blues

[hidden75]

Hi, My first post. Go easy.

I bought a FC4500 basically from Ebay for educational purposes only. The drives I received in the unit are all 18 GB drives. I believe these are not the orginal drives. The problem I'm having that that I get a FLARE error during boot up. Now some investigation says that I guess since these are not the orginal drives I have no FLARE code.

At this point what is my next step? I called EMC and they are basically not helpful. The unit isn't on warranty or anything.


Can I put FLARE on myself somehow? How would I go about getting the manangement software I need like Navisphere and such?

I guess I'm stuck.


Anybody have any suggestions?

Thank you for your help.

Dave

 

[hidden75]

Maultier,

Here is the information that you suggest and the results.



fcli> lustat
Logical Unit Summary:

Raid Dflt. Unit
LUN Group Owner Type Capacity Cache State Frus
--- ----- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------- ------------------
0 0 SP-A RAID-5 530.9 GB RW- RDY 0(DEAD) 1(DEAD) 2(DEAD) 3(
DEAD) 4(DEAD) 5(DEAD) 6(DEAD) 7(DEAD) 8(DEAD)
1 1 SP-B RAID-5 262.0 GB RW- RDY* 10(DEAD) 11(DEAD) 12(DEAD)
13(DEAD) 14(DEAD) 15(DEAD) 16(DEAD) 17(DEAD) 18(DEAD)

08/15/2005 12:18:02
fcli>




fcli> unbind -rg 1
Insufficient database disks available to unbind

08/15/2005 12:19:34
fcli>



fcli> unbind -rg 0
Insufficient database disks available to unbind

08/15/2005 12:19:48
fcli>

 

[maultier]

I've managed to duplicate the issue you're seeing. I will continue to see if there is a resolution tomorrow. For now, my only suggestion would be .. if you have a 4500 you can deconfigure.. (remove all the raid groups from), you could build a code disk from that. Insert that disk into your array and build the other two code disks one at a time.
Code and database disks are 0,1,2. So start the array with 0 , insert 1... reboot the clariion... insert 2.. reboot the clariion. I'll let you know if I come up with another solution.

 

[hidden75]

This is the only Clariion I have. Its for home use, learning purposes only.

The only FLARE I have is the one that has all the RAID information stored on it already.

 

[maultier]

I went to the Navi gui and unbound one of the drives I couldn't unbind with fcli. It worked easily.
I went back to the fcli and used unbind with the -o option and that allowed me to remove that lun via fcli.
Give it a try and let me now.. example : unbind 1 -o

 

[hidden75]

The unbind 1 -o gives me this error

Insufficient database disks available to unbind



The unbind 0 -o gives me this error

Insufficient database disks available to unbind



I have no idea what it is.

Thanks Dave

 

[maultier]

You might have to go thru and rebuild the database disks.
Power down and remove all but disk 0. Put another disk into slot 1 .. one from the dae would be good.
Power up the array in normal mode (not fcli).
After it has powered up (about 2 minutes), add in the rest of the drives in the dpe until it is fully populated.
Drop back to fcli and try to remove the units again.

 

[hidden75]

A no go on that last idea.


I think I have an idea of what is wrong. however.. I'm not sure how to fix it.

All of the drives I have are not from the orginal DPE. I copied FLARE from a 73 GB drive from slot 2 to slot 3 18 GB drive. I inserted another 18 GB drive and copied FLARE from slot 2 to slot 3 again. I now have FLARE on 2 18 GB drives. I powered the DPE down inserted the two 18 GB drives and then FLARE loaded.

When I do a lustat

I get this as the results:


fcli> lustat
Logical Unit Summary:

Raid Dflt. Unit
LUN Group Owner Type Capacity Cache State Frus
--- ----- ----- ------ -------- ----- ------- ------------------
0 0 SP-A RAID-5 530.9 GB RW- RDY 0(DEAD) 1(DEAD) 2(DEAD) 3(
DEAD) 4(DEAD) 5(DEAD) 6(DEAD) 7(DEAD) 8(DEAD)
1 1 SP-B RAID-5 262.0 GB RW- RDY* 10(DEAD) 11(DEAD) 12(DEAD)
13(DEAD) 14(DEAD) 15(DEAD) 16(DEAD) 17(DEAD) 18(DEAD)

08/15/2005 12:18:02
fcli>




As you can see slot 0,1 and 2 are showing as DEAD. The reason is because I do not have those drives. So it thinks I do not have any drives in slot 0 , 1, 2 where the DATABASE is stored.

At least this is what I think has happened.


Is there anyway to wipe out all this information LUN, RAID information, FLU, VA information.


I think the only way to do it is to load FLARE from a BIN onto a drive with no RAID or LUN information and then copy to slot 1 and slot 2.

Is there anyway to get FLARE off a drive so that I can then reload it on another drive without the database information?


This is really getting frustrating.

Thanks for your help.

Dave

 

[maultier]

I'm afraid the only way to go is to get a 'seed' drive.
EMC would happily provide one for a price. A 'seed' drive is basically just Flare with no database info. The next best thing is to get a flare drive from a clariion where all the drives have been unbound and build your system from there.
Loading a new version flare on the your existing drives would still retain the database information even if you went to an Access logix version.

 

[hidden75]

But what if I installed the new FLARE bin on a drive that preivously has no FLARE installed? Then it wouldn't have database information correct?


I have quite a few drives without FLARE on them right now.

 

[maultier]

You can't load new flare unless the Clariion is up and running on existing code. That means you can't escape having the configuration written to any new disks you try to build flare on because it is part of the flare uprev procedure. It is a protection scheme to prevent data loss when a Clariion is uprev'd.

As for assuming that the drives you have don't have flare on them.. I wouldn't. Since we don't know the history of those drives or the Clariion, they could contain flare and database information in the reserved areas of the disk. Those reserved areas for flare and db info are only accessed when the drive is in positions 0 thru 2 ( the first three drives). Unless you get a drive directly from emc, there is no assurance that the drive is clean.

It might be worth cycling the disks you have thru slot 0 with the other two drives 1 & 2 removed just to see if you happen to come up with a drive that will allow you to clear the config.

You can tell if flare is loading by watching the console or look at the sp lights on the back.. if it stays yellow.. no code is being loaded. If the sp shows a panic on hyperterm, ..same thing .. no code is being loaded.

 

[hidden75]

Is there anyway to load FLARE on a blank drive outside the SAN or within the SAN?

I have the FLARE bin file? So bascially I want to build a seed drive.

Thanks

PS. I got into the EMC DS-8B switch.

 

[hidden75]

K finally got my system up and working..

Question is now.


What is the LAN ports for? Would I point NAVI agent to that?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[hidden75]

Forgot to ask this too..


How come in engineering mode with navi 4.3 when I try to format a drive I get an error saying you cannot format with this storage subsystem.


If you need the exact error let me know..I'll send it.

Dave

 

[maultier]

The LAN port is used to manage the array.
Click on manage array under the engineering mode.
Select the Lan interface
Put in the ip address you want to use. I use a 192.168.1.1 but it can be anything.
I use one navi management station to attach to 2 different clariions (4 sp's). Each sp has a mac address on the label. I set up four bat files with the arp -s command to associate the ip address to the particular sp's mac address. I place the lan cable in the sp I want to look at, execute the bat file for that sp, set engineering mode for the lan and I'm ready to go.
You want to format the drive with your operating system not thru navi. The format command may have some functionality in other iterations of the open systems Clariions. I have never needed to format a disk from eng. mode. Since it's an engineering mode function, it may have a specific use in the lab and may even require a different password to fully engage the command. It may even be a holdover from older clariions. If you are having problems seeing certain disks, it's likely that the drive is not supported in the version of flare you are running and has nothing to do with the format command.

 

[hidden75]

Ok I'm in engineering mode. I do not have an option to connect via LAN.. I'm using NAVISPHERE 4.3.

Also.. Do I always have to have a bound lun in order to connect with Navisphere. I mean what if I want to blow out all the LUNS and rebuild them. If I blow them out will I loose connectivity and I will have to go back into FCLI to build a LUN just to connect with Navi again..

I've been runing to problems building luns with Navisphere where it locks up sometimes and doesn't show me the status of the lun. if I close out navisphere and open it back up it will finally show that the lun was built and is ready to go. Just seems very picky and locks up alot.


Dave

 

[maultier]

sorry.. my instructions are for 5.3.
And the n/w cable needs to be a xover.

The serial port is very finicky. If you disconnect the cable without first stopping the agent, the port will hang.
If you have screensaver on, the port will hang. The message you usually see is 'no devices being managed'. That means the port is hung or the cable is off or you have a setup issue.

If all drives are unbound, you cannot access the array via Navisphere unless you go thru the serial port. Navisphere Agent can be changed to go thru con1 and should then be able to access the array for set up.

 

[maultier]

From what I can tell, in 4.3, you just change the device from com1 to the ip address you want to manage in the agent.config.
Of course, the workstation you are using would have to have the network configured properly as well. ie: 192.168.1.1 for the workstation and .2 for the Clariion or whatever network address you want to use as long as they fall into the same subnet. Once you've done the arp -s , and the network setup you should be able to ping the Clariion. Save the file and start the agent. It should talk to the lan port.