Factory Reset for 4.0.1 SimpliVity nodes

[jlangmead]

Hi

I'm in the process of testing a pair of SimpliVity nodes in a lab and have managed to get things to look decidedly unstable - Long story short is that I would like to undertake a factory reset on both nodes and re-install. The issue was due to an issue with our DNS during the deployment and the nodes were added to the vCenter as IP addresses and not DNS names - during remediation attempts the nodes were removed from the cluster and now fail to rejoin. This may be fixable but I planned to test the factory reset option anyway and so will take this apporach.

I believe there should be a factory reset funtion as part of 4.0.1 and want to use this procedure or alternatively set these nodes back to discoverable (if that is an option without doing a full factory reset - not sure)

How do I do this - I think I might need to full image as I can't see any factory reset option and the downloadable zip file only comes with the 800MB tiny usb image. Am I missing something that will allow me to do a factory reset

kind regards

[DowS]

The mechanisim to deploy redeploy the nodes has changed in 4.0.1.

Previously the large image ~ 9GB  was the way to reset and redeploy a node and contained superfolus VMware images you did not need. ie you may have been running 6.5 and you are running 6.7 and hyperV 

The old large image gave 2 options deploy/factory reset

Deploy was primarily when you burned a physical usb drive and intended to leave the usb in the server for the duration of the deployment.

Factory reset was writing the contents of the large image to the boot drives (you could then remove the flash drive and continue the deployment)

The new mechanisim is the tiny image ~800MB  Deploy Installer (DI)

This 800MB image is booted from virtual media .

The factory reset option has been removed.

The Deployment manager  wil then handle the uploading of the Virtual controller and hypervisor image required from a local folder on the machine running deployment manager.This will be done over https not over ILO.

Pros to this new method are you not need to use ilo to trandfer ~9gb of data ibly part of which you need + you can have different versions of esxi deployed rather then whatever version comes with the older deployinstller.

[jlangmead]

yeah - ok

So my options are?

Do I perhaps need to factory reset using the 4.0.0 version and then simply run the 4.0.1 deployment manager which will upgrade to 4.0.1 as part of the deployment process?

[jlangmead]

Well - lets park the idea of a factory reset - perhaps it's easier to just sort out the

Is there a procedure to remediate the issue where the SimpliVity nodes have been added to vCenter by IP address and not DNS name? Can I perhaps just use the process that would work for standard ESXi hosts?

thanks

[DaveOb · Accepted solution]

The below command should fix the issue for you.

svt-host-rename --from <hostname> --to <hostname>

svt-host-rename --from x.x.x.x --to xxxxxxxxxx@domain.com 

[Haithem]

A factory reset is no longer needed with 4.0.1 , if you want to clean up old data (not mandatory), you can just boot to the SVT SPP, select the interactive mode, and using SSA to remove all data volume. Boot volume should be kept.

4.0.1 allows bare metal deployment like previous versions, the only difference is that it no longer contains ESXi images and OVC OVF file. These files are now uploaded during the deployment using the deployment manager.

Unzip the deployment package to your c:\Users\<username>\Download directory for deployment managers to pick up the required files and upload them. 

Hope it helps!

[jlangmead]

Brilliant - thanks very much.

Just out of curiosity - can the OVC hostname also be changed to something more appealing?

[cgauthierInetd]

HI,

I also need a factory reset, from nodes deployed in 3.7.5.

Bought 3 more node, deployed on 4.0.1. planning for strech cluster, after migrating all vm production.

But i don't get it,in the img from 4.0.1 (the tiny), threre is no factory reset on boot.

Also when you say, "and using SSA to remove all data volume", do you means recreate the logical volumes ?

So how can i get node back in mode "waiting to be discoverd" in 4.0.1 ?

[jlangmead]

Hi @cgauthierInetd 

So it took me a while to get it but  essentially the factory reset option has been removed in 4.0.1 but the procedure is the same. Download the deployment package and unpack it into your 'Downloads' folder. Copy the .img file to a USB and boot from the USB ( I was using iLO in which case use IE to start the iLO browser and use the 'Java' console - I had no success with Chrome and the HTML console). Then you wait - the screen goes blank and it takes about 30mins before you see anything back. Eventually it will boot into the familiar 'waiting to be discovered' screen where you can set an IP address if you need to.

Now here's the thing. Next you go to your downloads directory and install the deployment manager and run this as normal - it will work as normal and you'll find it will build the nodes with 4.0.1 and the latest version of ESXi 6.5 or 6.7 (depending on what you selected during the Deployment Manager setup) as this is what has been downloaded into your 'Downloads' folder.

btw - because this thread has already been marked as 'solved' it may not get looked at by the HPE support guys - you could try starting a new thread if you don't hear anything back.

Hope that helps

thanks

[cgauthierInetd]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply, i managed to get it on "discovered state", it is very frustating since we cannot see the usual grub throught the ILO.I will proceed with the deploy.