Nimble Factory reset

[GabDerilo08]

Good Day Community,

Anyone here have experience how to Factory reset or wipe out the config of an existing Nimble HF40 Gen5? 

Our Problem is that the credentials are lost and our Nimble Storage doesn't have a Support to create a ticket for it. 

We cannot access the Putty since we do not have Credentials or IPs of the Nimble Storage. 

[buzzsubash]

Factory reset and/or admin password reset is a support assisted procedure as it needs root access. 

Unfortunately, nothing much could be done if the array is out of support contract.

[GabDerilo08]

Does anyone have experience with a hard reset of HPE Nimble by removing the USB? 

I heard before that Nimble can be factory reset by removing the USB then installing it again. 

[Best_Username · Accepted solution]

Hello,

The USB key is used to re-image or wipe an array. You remove it, re-image the key using Rufus, re-insert it, and then boot the array. The array will then automatically boot off the USB key and then re-image itself. After that is done, the key is supposed to be removed in a Gen. 5 model like your HF40. (It stays in for other generations.) The image for the key is obtained from the Nimble Support team. One USB key goes into each controller and they have to perform the re-imaging process at the same time.

However, re-imaging an array will wipe all data on it. So, I wouldn't do that unless you are OK with losing the data. Nimble Support can reset the administrator's password without having to lose any data. But they will probably ask you to renew your contract before doing so.

However, the fact that there is a USB key already in there, as indicated by the picture you attached, tells me that perhaps someone already re-imaged the array. Do you have the dongle for the array? There is a dongle with a phone plug on one end and a DB-9 connector on the other. The baud rate is 115,200. I would remove the USB key, reboot the array, and then connect to Controller A and see if you get a login prompt. Try logging in with the default user name of admin and the default password of admin. If it's in a default state, A will be active. You can only log into the active controller. Logins to the standby will fail. If it's not in a default state, then it's possible B is active. You could also connect the dongle before rebooting to see what state the array is in currently.

Rich

[GabDerilo08]

Appreciate it Rich!

Since we're an HPE Distributor and we lend Demo Machines for POC, Data are unnecessary to be kept and can be wiped out

Assuming the Procedure is to Power off the Nimble HF40, unplug the USB, and then plug the USB again, then Power On? 

[Best_Username]

Not a problem. I believe the key can only be used once to re-image the array. Once the key is used, you have to re-apply the image to the key with Rufus to get it to re-image the array again. The re-image script does something to the key once it's done re-imaging in order to allow the array to boot normally with the key in. (However, sometimes the array fails to boot with the key even after that, so we always recommend customers remove it once they're done re-imaging.) The fact that there's already a key in there tells me it's probably already been used and my guess is you won't have any luck. But I would still hook up the serial dongle to see if it boots off the USB key and tries to re-image itself. Just removing and putting they key back in won't have an effect. Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this, Subash.