VA 7400 SAN Storage problem

[ASIFKHAN]

Hi,

I am facing one problem in VA7400 SAN storage (1 contoller enclosure & 1 Disk Enclosure) connected to 2 hosts via BROCADE 2400 silkworm SAN switch & doesn't have zoning since last 5 years.

Problem:

Indications:1 out of 2 LED's of each hard disk of both enclosures are blinking AMBER and other one is green.
Also 1 out of 2 System LEDs of both contoller cabinet & Disk Cabninet is also going AMBER.

Command Line Error & Symptoms:

yesterday when i tried armdsp -s then it was saying that " NO Device Found".
And for armdiscover "NO device found on host:localhost".
I have stoppped and started the daemons as
/opt/sanmgr/hostagent/sbin/dial_trigger {stop|start}
/opt/sanmgr/hostagent/sbin/HA_trigger {stop|start}

Today when I am trying to run the commands like armdsp -a , armdiscover ,amrdsp -i etc then it is saying that "cann't open the target and plz retry after discovery process".

But you all people will be surprised to know that I am still able to access its LUNS (in ioscan -fnC disk as claimed & with device files) and Our application is still able to access the data form these storage.

One more problem is there that i am not able to get the serial array controller console using DB-9 port with RS-232 cable.

The host over which sanmanager agent is installed i found some interesting logs that i am attaching here so that it can help us in resolving these issue.

Can anyone help me out in solving this problem.
Thanks & Regards
Asif

[Rudy Williams]

I am not surprised that you can still access the LUNs but you are not able to communicate with the VA controllers. I have seen similar issues in the past with VA7400s.

Are you using the controller console cable that came with the VA, or just a plain old RS-232 cable? If I recall correctly, the console cable is special. Maybe it is a null-modem cable or a roll-over cable.

[ASIFKHAN]

Hi Rudy,

Earlier i was using the same serial cable to get the serial console of the VA74000 SAN Storage.

But now its console problem has been resolved after using the "armmgr -R partial" command.
But it is still having problem in its one of the controller that is M/C1 as i saw in the output of the "armdsp -a" --- linkdown ..Hwadware path --unknown..

[Rudy Williams]

Good work on the reset to gain your array console back.

With respect to the M/C1 link down, these errors may be caused by a failed controller, or failed connections to the controller.

At this point, I recommend a full shutdown and restart to see if this error is being caused by the VA being "confused". (It seems that was the cause of the controller console issue.) I have seen this problem before and a shutdown and restart resolved our problem.

Of course, you will want to shut down all of your servers using the VA first.

[Khairy]

hi asif,

i've had this symptom 8 months ago. The LED's of the disks indicate problem with VA.

Turn out to be primary controller failed. Access to LUNs still accessible via surviving secondary controller.

You could confirm this by look at the controllers LED.

you also cld attach serial cable to the surviving controller. From there, type the following to check current controller settings.
dsp -c 1
dsp -c 2

Rgds

[ASIFKHAN]

Hi Rudy & Khairy,

Rudy:
I had done that shutdown of VA7400 with all the servers disconnected and then restarted that but nothing great happened.Still VA7400 "system LED(right one)is blinking AMBER and one LED of all the hard disk in enclosures is also going AMBER.

Khairy:
I think you are right that it is the problem of controller failure.And i will use your commands to get the status.

Thanks
Asif

[ASIFKHAN]

Hi guys finally i replaced Link controller card and got the problem solved.

But thanks for all your support and replies..

I hope it would be one of the good history point for anyone in future to learn from this problem.



Thanks
Asif khan

[ASIFKHAN]

As i had mentioned earlier it was the problem due to Link controller card located at JBOD.
So replacing that resolved the issue.


Thanks to all of you for your support.

Thanks

Asif Khan