FC5600 / PV 650F - have FLARE, how to load?

[spuggy]

Hi,

Lot of great info here, hope you can help me out...

I have a Dell PV650F FC5600 and a bunch of Dell/Seagate disks for home lab use. None of the disks seem to have any flare code on them, but I have an old Dell CD with a couple of .bin files on it...

I know the easiest way is to make a seed disk in a running 650F, but I don't have one or know of one.

Does anyone know a way to get the flare code onto the disk? I'm guessing it would just start at block 0, but can anyone confirm this or provide hints to a procedure?

Thanks!

 

[maultier]

The seed disk is the only published way I know of.
I assume that the sp's have an amber light (indicating no flare is loaded). The only thing I can suggest is to rotate the disks thru slot 0 and 1, two at a time to see if the flare might be on one of the other disks.
Sometimes a bad disk in a code slot will cause the same problem. You could try backing out one disk at a time in the 0 thru 2 slots and see if that buys you anything when you reboot.
Getting a disk from another 5600 is going to be your best shot if that doesn't work.

 

[spuggy]

Thanks for the fast response Maultier!

Yes, I tried booting the unit with each of the 10 disks in slot 0 in turn, with all other drives removed.

As you say, the amber "!" LED on the front panel is lit, and both the SPs light their check LED. After it inits the back-end fiber, there's a repeated, scrolling message (from memory) on SPB:

Error Loading Flare!

Error Code 0x0000007F

and disk seeking accompanies each repeat of the message.

Oh, I notice you're saying to try booting with more drives loaded; I'll try that later.

Re: the "bad disk in a code slot" comment - all the drives seem to spin up and go on-line with green lights; is this usually a reliable indicator?

 

[maultier]

I've had cases where the drive was 'green' and the arrany would not cycle up. So, the ready light is not always a good indicator of health. ( It was a bad code disk)
The only reason I said to use two disks is that there was a problem with that series that, in some cases, required two drives be installed in code slots and at least one had to have code on it.

 

[spuggy]

Booted every disk paired with every other disk, in slot 0, 1 or 2. No joy. I think all these drives were wiped or just came out of 630s...

Hooked up the back-end fibre loop to a Brocade, zoned it to a host and transferred the Flare starting at sector 0. No love there, either.

It would pretty much bite to have to get another 650 just ot get this one working. Logically, there has to be a way to build seed disks from scratch..

 

[maultier]

I'm sure there is a way to image the disk but you're not likely to get that procedure out of the company. I know that the drives have a reserved area where the flare is held. But, exactly how it's laid down on the drive..sorry.
The path of least resistance is going to be to get your hands on a code disk. Since these are past their prime, many companies are decommissioning these units (as we are) in favor of the faster cx series.

 

[hidden75]

Contact this guy..

http://www.bltserv.com/

He got me a FLARE disk for my 4500 and it didn't break the bank at all.