topic Re: monitor an MSA 1000 in Operating System - OpenVMS

monitor an MSA 1000

labadie_1 — Fri, 22 Oct 2004 02:38:55 GMT

Hello

Vms 7.3-2, DS25 and MSA 1000.

I would like to know how I can monitor the disks of the MSA 1000, in order to know if some disks have failed.

Regards

Gerard

Re: monitor an MSA 1000

Uwe Zessin — Fri, 22 Oct 2004 03:06:53 GMT

As far as I can tell, concerning the MSA1000, OpenVMS is a third-class citizen meaning there is nothing provided.

You might receive the usual SCSI data into the error log, but I am not aware if there is a bit-to-text translator for the MSA.

You can watch the controllers through the CLI interface at the front and there is a program (SYS$ETC:MSA_UTIL.EXE) that can query a controller. Unfortunately the output from the controller CLI and MSA_UTIL is quite different - try it, you will see what I mean.

Re: monitor an MSA 1000

Åge Rønning — Fri, 22 Oct 2004 07:07:05 GMT

MSA1000 errors will be written to the OpenVMS errorlog. That mean that tools like webes reading the errorlog will report the error.

Re: monitor an MSA 1000

Peter Hofman — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 01:37:53 GMT

You can write a tool that connects to the MSA1000 over the console port (e.g. via a console server) and lists the status with the "show units" command at regular intervals.

I prefer the CLI over MSA_UTIL, since it provides progress information about the mirroring, and it also is more clear on which disk is being replaced by the spare disk.

Re: monitor an MSA 1000

Wim Van den Wyngaert — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 02:30:11 GMT

I don't know if this works on a msa1000 but I use "set ho /scsi dev show failed" where dev is a disk name. You need hszterm$scsipad.exe to be able to use it (unsupported).

Wim

Re: monitor an MSA 1000

Uwe Zessin — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 02:35:21 GMT

Please be *VERY* careful when trying HSZTERM - you can send your HSG 'into space' (make it hang).

Re: monitor an MSA 1000

Wim Van den Wyngaert — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 06:46:19 GMT

Uwe,

When is is giving problems ? I dayly use set ho/scsi several times per day without problems (towards hsg80).

Wim

Re: monitor an MSA 1000

Uwe Zessin — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 06:56:41 GMT

HSZTERM does not lock the controller against other agents (SWCC, SMA). The controller can also become confused when it is fed commands via HSZTERM and the maintenance port.

If you are running ACS V8.7-7, I suggest you read the customer advisory embedded in the following archive:
ftp://ftp.compaq.com/pub/products/storageworks/acs/HSG80_V87F-7.zip

While this only talks about the ability to process commands we have customers who were able to completely freeze their controllers.

Re: monitor an MSA 1000

Wim Van den Wyngaert — Mon, 25 Oct 2004 08:06:29 GMT

This bank doesn't allow to open zips.

I tested it several times on a dual hsg80. The commands are serialized (v86f-13).

May be it can be used but test it first.

Wim