Nimble CS220 - Boot Loop

[mogti6r]

Good Day

We currently have a Nimble CS220 which is in a boot loop and i am unable to get back online.

I have removed both controllers, reseated the ram, powered off and on multiple times to no avail.

This has happened in the past, however eventually boots correctly, this time not so lucky as its in a boot loop now for 48hours and counting.

It gets to the screen: 

Booting 'Nimble Array Appliance Standard Boot'

[Linux-bzImage, setup=0x3000, size-0x2917e0

Then boot loops continuously 

Any advise on what i can try to get the Nimble to boot or any way to retrieve the data?

Thank You

[Sheldon Smith]

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@mogti6r wrote:

We currently have a Nimble CS220 which is in a boot loop and i am unable to get back online. ...
This has happened in the past, ...
Any advise on what i can try to get the Nimble to boot or any way to retrieve the data?

---

Contact Nimble Support. Preferably the first time it happened.

[mogti6r]

Thanks for your response Sheldon

I had contacted Nimble support - unfortunately they were not willing to assist due the appliance being end of life.

[Sheldon Smith]

Not good. I've been checking; the system went end of support on 31 Dec 2019, more than a year ago.
It sounds like it has a HW problem, and we do not carry stock for replacement parts for these systems as of that date.

Maybe some Third-party (not HPE) support?

[mogti6r]

Thanks for your efforts - any idea how i can determine point of failure?

[mogti6r]

Thank You Sheldon for your responses and efforts.

I managed to get the Nimble going - turned out to be a corrupt boot image.

To resolve - i cloned the live USB and done a file recovery using EaseUS to recover all files from the live USB.

I then made an iso image of the live USB, the boot image file from the iso created was inaccessible.

From the file recovery - i found the boot image to not be corrupt. Repackaged all the files together with recovered image and created a new bootable live USB.

Plugged in to the appliance and booted up!

[Sheldon Smith]

Happy to hear you got it running. Being past end-of-Support, I hope it doesn't have anything too important on it.

This would be a Real Good Time to consider replacing it with an AF20.

[mogti6r]

It hosts all our VM's, we are considering replacing it with a newer model or may migrate our production VM's to the cloud.

Besr Regards

[Sheldon Smith]

Since the CS220 is past the end-of-Support date, you should replace it with a new model ASAP!

And, for future disaster purposes, a new Nimble can replicate to HPE Cloud Volumes (Block), which can then be used as storage for compute running on AWS, Azure and/or Google.

[RamaRoad]

Are you able to share the image? How did you create the bootable USB?

[RamaRoad]

Are you able to share the image? How did you create the bootable USB?

[mogti6r]

Sure - when i am back at the office, i will arrange to make an ISO of the live USB and upload for you. 

Not sure how useful it may be to you - as the configs when booted will be applicable to my appliance.

To create the bootable USB i think i used PowerISO - im not 100% certain as this was a little while back

[RamaRoad]

Thank you so much!

[RamaRoad]

Hey, Were you able to get image?


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[RamaRoad]

Were you able to get image?

[mogti6r]

Hey There,

I sent you a PM with a link of the boot image files from the Live USB i had created

You would need to create a bootable USB with these files - Once created and you boot from the USB, you need to amend the boot command - remove additional commands that were added when creating the boot image to match below

Once you have been successful in above - let me know

[Squigley]

Hi mogti6r,

I work for a data centre company, and a former customer gave us their old Nimble array. We want to use it in our lab, but we don't know the credentials. We'd just like to reset it, so if you could provide me with the image too, I'd like to see if it will work for us. I don't know what model it is yet, but figured this is a start.

Thanks,.

[mogti6r]

Hey There

Sent you PM with a link to the ISO

[1973novass]

would you be willing to share that iso also?  I'm fighting with a 300 and sounds very familiar to my issue.

[mogti6r]

Hey There, 

Heres the link below for anyone needing it

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3dmduhn4rf3wvd7/Nimble.iso?dl=0

[mathisokle]

Good day
I have a similar problem. I received a CS3000 which had an expansion shelf connected. Can I reset it with this image or is it only possible if the server has a maintenance contract.

Also how can I format a stick for this procedure.

Thanks

[1973novass]

The one I had I actually had a controller that had a good usb stick still.  After I migrated all my vm's off of it, I did a sector by sector copy to a new drive I received from a reseller.  Booted up perfectly after that.  To get the image, I have heard you need that from HPE.  However, there are resellers out there that sell the drive.  Some in MSP that possibly would have one.

[Mahesh202]

Hi Mathisokle

Resetting the HPE Nimble Storage CS3000 should be possible using the image regardless of whether or not the server has a maintenance contract, but it is recommended to HPE support for specific instructions.

To format a USB stick, insert it into your computer and open the Disk Management tool (on Windows) or Disk Utility (on macOS). From there, you should be able to select the USB stick and choose the option to format it with the desired file system. Be sure to choose a file system that is compatible with the HPE Nimble Storage CS3000.

Hope this helps.!!

Regards
Mahesh.