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dcgallimore

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20 years ago

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24184

May 10th, 2007 04:00

Dell PE 2650 and Clarion CX320

We have a CX320 that is connected to two file servers one 2650, and one 2950 PE server.  Both use QLogic HBAs, of course the 2650 unit is PCI-X, and the 2950 is PCI-E.  We rolled out to users on Monday and the 2650 has hung up 4 times in the 3 days since load was put on the servers.  The SAN fabric is two Cisco switches and both servers have a pair of HBAs, each connecting to opposite but corresponding SPs on the fabric, (i.e., 1 switch managing SPa-0 and SPB-1, 2 switch managing SPa-1 and SPB-0) as Dell and EMC both recommend is best practice.  When we began troubleshooting this afternoon, after extensive searching through the event logs, and reboots to get the file shares back online.  We found that Navisphere showed the 2650 as an unknown host, marked with a U in the GUI.  So we double checked the navi agent config files on the server and they appear to be correct.  We then removed the luns & storage group from the server and unregistered all in navisphere, then restarted the server to get the host to remove from navisphere on the storage tab, it never disspeared from the host tab.  Then we removed navi CLI, navi Agent, Powerpath, SANsurfer from the server and restarted.  Removed the fibre cables and restarted the server, and started adding the software back in this order - SANsurfer first, making sure to run the registration wizard for both HBAs then we connected the fibre cables back, then installed Powerpath, and then NAVi agent -working through the registration wizard, and then navi cli.  After all this, the navisphere website brought back up the server in the storage tab and it came back with a U, when you check properties, it says the OS is "unkown", this server is running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise R2, with SP2 installed, just as the 2950.  It seems that no matter what we try we can NOT remove the "U" marker in navisphere, and we believe that is the root of the server hangs.  There have not been any errors in the windows event logs prior to or directly after the hang ups.  We have re-verified DNS, and host resolution b/w the server and the CX320 SPs, all resolve.  We have set up dependencies with the networker remote execute service and the ONC/Portmap service so as not to cause conflicts, but still we have these hangups.  We moved the print spool from the system drive to a data drive - not SAN based and still the file shares hosted on the SAN LUNS on this server become unreachable.  We are at a loss to determine what else could be going on.  Any suggestions to resolve the "U" problem or to track down the file serviing hang ups would be appreciated.
  • Dev Mgr

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    Posted May 10th, 2007 13:00

    The "U" is irrelevant.

    It means the storage processors cannot communicate with the Navisphere Agent on the server, and therefor the host is "Unmanaged".

    This doesn't affect host functionality or fibre connectivity.

    So I wouldn't worry about the "U" too much. A firewall could be blocking your Navisphere agent from communicating with the storage processors (over the tcpip/ethernet network). For information about which network ports you have to open to allow the agent to be able to talk to the storage processor, check the EMC KB (log into your Powerlink account) and search for the article that talks about which "service ports" Navisphere uses.

    You aren't sharing luns between servers are you?
  • 776

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    Posted May 10th, 2007 19:00

    No we are not sharing LUNS across servers.  We have run Windows clusters in the past, and are familiar with the LUN sharing on MS server resources.  We had another outage today, I found that we did not have an adapter team on the network side today, which we are using on the other 2950 server, so at the outage, I updated the Broadcom software and created an adapter team for the server utilizing two 1gb network links.  Still no eventlog errors at the outage time, we did notice that the server will respond to a ping, but not a net view.  Not sure what to try next.
  • JTGlenn

    96 Posts

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    Posted May 11th, 2007 14:00

    I would recommend you contact Dell's support, they will most likely want to pull some diagnostic reports.
  • laoise87

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    Posted May 22nd, 2007 23:00

    Hi,
     
    I think I may have an idea why you are getting the U.
     
    If it is a cluster you will probably have 1 NIC for the HEARTBEAT and the other for the PUBLIC LAN.
     
    Check in the (2) servers in Windows (Advanced Settins) the BINDING order of the 2 adapters.  Probably in the one that appears with the U the HEARTBEAT is on the top.  Put the PUBLIC LAN NIC on the top.
     
    That is why navisphere can´t find the Server.
     
    In navisphere manager , go into connectivity status, double click the Server Name (you will see 4 entries) of the Server with the U.  Check that IP registered.
     
    Also you can create with notepad and small file called AgentID.txt and put into the first line the SERVER NAME and in the second line its IP.
    Save it as AgentID.txt into the Navisphere Agent directory.
     
    Hope this help.