Help On legacy FC4400 1

[POPKORN]

Hello Everyone,

I recently aquired and FC4400 and I need some help figuring out how to configure it. First off, All lights are green, front and back. I am used to the old FC5600 which everything was done via serial console " Thanks to Maultier for all his help on that one" MY questions would be the followings.

1- Since this has an ether interface does it work as a stand alone systems or do I need to connect it to an emulex 8000 card on a windows system to configure it or can it be done via network inerface.

2- If question 1 does not apply, what would be the correct approach to configure this unit?

3- I have a silkworm 2250 fibre switch, would this be usefull for this system?



any help would be greatly appreciated..


Thanks in advance..

POPKORN

 

[POPKORN]

Hi All, I still need help on the FC4400, I have a windows station with Navisphere installed with user setup already. The question is how do I connect to it. Do I connect navi via serial com1 to the network interface in the FC4400 or to the FC SPA or SPB. How do I setup the IP so that I can managed via navi. Does the windows Box that has navi needs to be connected vi FC to the FC4400 to configure it??

Thanks in advance for your help...




Anyway here is what I found on the Silkwork Switch just in case anyone is interested.




Well, I have done my own research on the silkworm and yes, it can be very helpfull. As far as I understand, you connect all SPU's to the silkworm and then you connect all systems with emulex cards as well. What the Switch does is basically the same thing as an ip network but using arp

http://www names

or local loop addresing. The switch basically translates and helps share all connections, in fact it acts as a liason so that you can interconnect any of the storage systems to any computer you have connected via Fibre channel to the silkworm switch.


let me give you the visual so that anyone reading this needing the help can have a better understanding.


LAN
10+ stations with emulex cards
|---------------|
|
SILKWORM SWITCH |
|------------------------------------|
| | | |
|fibre |fibre |fibre |fibre
|
| SPA B| | SPA B|
+--------+ +--------+
|Clariion| |Clariion|
+--------+ +--------+
80 x 18G 30 x 36G

Basically any of those 10 stations can use storage on any of these two Clariion units. As far as how to make this work you will need to read the switch documentation as all differ depending on brand and model. You will also need to do some reading on fibre topology as depending on the model of clariion unit you have and on the fibre channel card you are using as some have some limitations. There are a lot of variables to take in consideration but they are too much to be explained here but as a basic rule of thumb here are a few.

as your self the following questions...

1- what protocols does my fibre channel card support?
2- what protocols does my clariion unit support?
3 what protocols does my fibre switch support?

The are the escential questions you should always.

why?

let me give you an example.

I have an FC5600 a FC4400 and an IP4700
computers have emulex lp7000, 8000, 6000

the fc5600 does not have a network interface so it is limites to arbitrated loop using

http://www name

or arp
fc4400 and ip4700 do have ip network connectivity so I-scsi protocol is supported
emulex cards, some only support arbitrated loop or better known as FC-AL, some support iscsi and some both

what you need to take into consideration is what card, what protocol and to what system? once you have the answere to these questions you should be able to configure them into the fibre switch and this will enable what I have just explained above......

I really hopes this helps someone out..

 

[hidden75]

Well I finally got my FC4500 up today. I went back to the place and found the drives with the FLARE on it. They were 73 GB drives and I didn't buy those. So I quickly found out how to copy FLARe off to other drives and now I have my own FLARE on three 18 GB drives.

I also have a switch DS-8B. So I will be doing the same thing your doing. Yes this is a learning box and SAN only.

My question is, where do I get Navisphere? Is that all I need to configure this puppy with a GUI or do I need a host agent or something like that?

I have a FCLI prompt right now and that is the only way I can do anything.


Your help would be appriciated.

POPKORN and others. I have learned a great deal from you in the past two days.. Thank you guys so much.

Dave

 

[maultier]

The IP port on the fc4500 and fc4700 is for management. If you know what ip address was assigned (if it ever was assigned by the previous owner( then you can manage the arrage via the ethernet port on the array. The serial port on these units can also be used to manage the array. In the case where you want to configure the array to be used on a brocade, the array must be running flare code that includes Access Logix to control lun masking. Another product ( the IP 4700 ) is intended to be used as network accessed storage. The storage processors for the IP4700 include lan ethernet cards instead of the fibre cards that come with the fc4700.
Back to managing the array....Because the Navi work station is monrmally set up on a different network, I tend to use the 'Engineering Mode' to manage the array with the Lan port. You need a password to access the engineering mode.

I have my management station set up so that I can move the ethernet cable to the different arrays. I also have batch files set up to run an arp -s Mac IP command. For instance, arp -s 08-00-0f-da-bb-01 192.168.1.2. Then, once Navi is up, I go to engineering mode and select the lan as the management port and I put the 192.168.1.2 as the address to be managed. It is much quicker than the serial port.

 

[hidden75]

Maultier,

That is a little scary. I bought this switch and FC4500 thinking I would use the switch and so forth. So are you saying I cannot use the switch now? I'm not sure about Access Logic. Of course I probably don't have it.

I really should have bought a DELL powervault 650. Alot more support from Dell. EMC isn't much help.


Dave

 

[maultier]

You may have Access Logix already.. Flare rev with Access Logix is 6.32.xx without is 5.32.xx

 

[POPKORN]

Maultier,

Here is the what my serial looks like...


Copyright (c) EMC Corporation , 1999-2000
Disk Array Subsystem Controller
Model FC4400
Firmware Revision 02.08 - Apr 21,2000


ABCDabEabFabcdefghGabcdHabIJabKabLabMNabc

Verifying Firmware Revision...

Initializing back end FIBRE...

Starting FLARE ...

Copyright (c) EMC CORPORATION 1991 - 2000 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

LICENSED MATERIAL - PROPERTY OF EMC CORPORATION, HOPKINTON MA 01748

Unpublished - all rights reserved under the copyright laws of the United States

CORE SOFTWARE

This software is considered to be "Core Software". Core Software may
be used only by users properly licensed to use Core Software, and only
according to the terms of that license.

The Subsystem is Currently Powering Up...Please Wait!
Entering Serial Application Mode


It stops right there and I dont get a cli like in the fc5600. I do not have the ip of the management port nor I do not have access to Engineering password. Would it be correct to say that once the fc4400 goes into serial app mode, the only way to manage it it via navi and that the only way to acomplish this would be placing a serial connection on COM1 and the workstation and place the other end on one of the storage processors A or B?

I am a bit lost since I am used to the old fasion fc5600.

The FC4400 ethernet port looks like its for management only but I am not sure. Im going to try my theory going through the serial port and let you know my findings.


Thanks

POPKorn

 

[POPKORN]

Maultier , I forgot to mention that I did entered in the serial console and you can program a new MAC for the interface but you cannot assign an ip to it from there, there is no menu to do that on serial.

 

[maultier]

The unfortunate part of not having either Navi Cli or Navi Gui is that you can't manage the device once it is up. The screen shot you show is a normal boot of a Clariion. Once it is in Serial App mode, you can no longer comunicate with the SP unless Navi Agent is installed and talking to either Navi Cli or Navi GUI.
So, to change configurations, you would have to drop to fcli and do what you need to do. Then set it back to normal boot mode and let it come up. Very tedious ... Life would be much easier if you had the gui or at least the cli interface.

 

[hidden75]

POPKORN,


Enter @$@$ at the serial mode.

Then, it will display a bunch of stuff and at the prompt enter MENU.

From the menu you go into Nonvol and then serial mode. select 1 for fcli mode. Exit that menu go to flare menu. Then start flare. Once it reboots you should see fcli this time.


I don't have access logic. I'm running the 5.32.


Darn.. So I can't use a switch without access logic?

 

[POPKORN]

I installed navi on the workstation, the questions is if when navi gives me the option to log in do I user the serial mode which selects 192.168.1.1 ip by default.

the other question is, will navi use the already placed serial connection that I used to copy paste the info I pasted above...?



thanks in advance

POPKORN

 

[POPKORN]

Also when i try using the serial method like i described , when i sed serial it tells me " unable to find security settings" or something like that and does not log in.

I do have a user correctly setup as I checked the file and I have my admin account and an user account with admin rights..

Right now the management station is windows with an emulex lp8000 connected direcly to the storage processor and all lights are green.

 

[maultier]

Normally, the use of a switch implies that you will use two or more processors to access the Clariion. You can still do that but then all luns on the Clariion are visible to all connected processors. I doubt that is what you would want..ergo the need for Access Logix.
Popkorn --- I assume you're talking about the agent.config file info? It should have COM1 as the connection device and the ip address would only come in if that is navi host... in other words you could either be using the host name or the ip address as the managing host.

 

[POPKORN]

unable to access security information is what it says..

This system is for a private lan in my house no real need for tight security as the only people that could access it would be people phisically in my house. and if some one tries to access from internet they would run into firewall plus ecrypted network traffic. not really concerned about that part

 

[POPKORN]

settings for the file are


clarDescr
clarContact
poll 60
baud 9600
eventlog 2048
user username@hostname

and I tried on both SP over serial and still get the same error.

 

[maultier]

the useranme should say either 0@yourhostname or 0@yourhostipaddress. (That's Zero@hostname)... for instance... maultier@mylaptop or 0@mylaptop or you could subsititute the mylaptop for the ip address of the laptop.
drop the eventlog down to 100.. it'll speed up the connection.
No need to fillin ClarDescr or clarContact.

I am surprised that this file is not set up. NaviAgent usually brings up an Agent Configurator to allow you to set these parameters.

Remember to start the AGent first.. Then bring up Navisphere GUI.

 

[POPKORN]

AHHHHHH, very niceeeeeeeeeeee......

hidden75 you were right. After following the steps ..


go into Nonvol and then serial mode. select 1 for fcli mode. Exit that menu go to flare menu. Then start flare. Once it reboots you should see fcli this time.


I was able to change the IP of both Storage processors, Now I should be able to use navi and point it to the SP. I will point out my findings as usual for the benefits of others.



is there a way to find out if I have access logic on this array?

thanks in advance

POPKORN

 

[POPKORN]

I have something that says navisphere management server is running is this what I need or is the agent something else
?

 

[maultier]

Sorry forgot to add.. you need an entry that says Device COM1

You could also bring up agent configurator program and set the values.

 

[hidden75]

I guess you need Flare rev with Access Logix is 6.32.xx

Are you running 5.32?