How can i backup the config on my MSA1510i?

[Mathy Tech]

I had to shutdown our 1510i early today to do some maintenance. Upon powering it back up it completely lost all of its ISCSI config. It came with the default IP/username/password. Thankfully , once I got it configured enough to get in I saw that it did still recognize my storage.

All portals, targets, initiators, everything was completely gone.

I desperately need a way to backup the config on this box.

[Nanditha]

Hello Mathy,

By design, the 1510i MSA saves the iSCSI, management, and unit configuration parameters and settings on hard drives in the MSA20 or MSA30 enclosures.

However, you can check the below link for the options to save settings:

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00819725/c00819725.pdf?jumpid=reg_R1002_USEN

(Refer to Page : 6 under â Maintain detailed records of iSCSI settingsâ )

You can also try the below steps to restore the iSCSI configuration and settings:
1)Power down the MSA1510i by pressing the power/standby button for 5 seconds. Power down All connected MSA20 and MSA30 disk enclosures.
2)Power up all connected MSA20 and MSA30 disk enclosures.
3)Confirm that all external disk enclosures connected to the 1510i MSA have completed power initiation and have completed their startup routines.
4)Initiate power to the 1510i MSA. The iSCSI, management, and unit configuration and settings will now load on array boot.

Hope this helps!!

Regards,
Nandita

[Mathy Tech]

Thank you for your response,

I did power everything down, powered on the MSA30 (External Storage) waited till the bootup sequence was complete. Then powered on the MSA1510i and waited until "Startup Complete" then powered on a connected server. I did this several times and each time the MSA1510i had completely lost its configuration. I understand that the config is stored on the storage, and I know the procedure to follow when booting the MSA1510i as I have described. But I STILL LOST all of my configuration. I did have it well documented so I was able to recreate the settings. My concern is that it will happen any time I shut this SAN down. I know how to do a Show Tech Support, but I was hopping that I could backup the Config in such a way that I could restore it easily instead of having to do it all manually.

Also on another note that document you referenced states that I should have been able to migrate my storage from my MSA1000. I tried and it would not recognize the array. I am a little concerned that I may have a problem.

[Allan D'Souza]

Since the configuration is stored on the drives you would at the most have to restart the MSA1510i again till it recognizes the drives. There must be atleast one drive on which the configuration is saved prior to rebooting the MSA1510i. Drives do not have to have an array for this to work.

Do you have more MSA1000 drives being migrated then there are original MSA1510i drives?

[Mathy Tech]

I understand that the Config is stored on the drives. As I stated I booted the MSA30 first waited several minutes until it was booted and there was no drive activity, then booted the MSA1510i. No GO. I even rebooted the MSA1510i at that point to see if that would help still No GO. When the MSA1510i boots I can tell when it is not working. The Default setting for the MA0 interface is to use DHCP. I am not using DHCP so it gets an error. This is really frustrating.

As for the migration of Drives. As I stated The MSA30 was populated with 300GB Drives and was previously attached to an MSA1000. Becuase I could not get the migration to work I ended up re-creating array's and Logical Drives on these drives using the SMU on the MSA1510i. So migration did not occur.

[Hanno_1]

Same here. The MSA1510i controller had a defect and has been replaced. Problem solved.

We have had this problem on 2 boxes now.

[Mathy Tech]

Wow! What support channel did you follow to even find someone to work with you on the device and get it replaced? Our luck on the support side has been spotty at best.

[Hanno Bakkeren NL]

We used the normal support pack tel. number in Holland. Problem is that the diag tool doesn't report an error so you will have to convince the engineer that the controller really is the problem.

[Mark H. Wood]

We just had a somewhat similar problem. I was investigating a different problem and decided to restart the controllers. They came up with the factory config. Disk shelves were all powered up and had not been cycled. What *had* recently happened is that we installed two new drive shelves, and the way the system was originally set up the old shelves were 5 and 7 while the new ones came in at 1 and 3. (That's the way the reseller assembled it.)

I'm guessing that the controller looks for its config. on the lowest-numbered shelf only, and since we had a new lowest-numbered shelf it found nothing and came up empty, while our old config was sitting on shelf 5. Correct?