msa2040 - expansion enclosure problems

[Theo_dor]

I am trying to add a expansion enclosure to a msa2040
I have 2 msa2040 for testing , and 3 enclosures
when ever i connect one of the enclosures to one of the msa I get the following error

Health Reason: The enclosure expansion port is degraded; some, but not all, of the PHY lanes can support activity.

also tried different cables , the enclosure were used with a direct connection to a raid controller
do I have to reset them in some way ?

[JonPaul]

@Theo_dor 
What expansion enclosure are you attempting to connect?
What version of firmware is on the expansion enclosure?  see https://www.hpe.com/storage/MSAFirmware   for supported versions
Are you using straight-thru cabling of fault-tolerant/reverse cabling?  Have you accidentally connected the SAS busses?
Lastly, what sas ports are available?  CLI:  show expander-status
You should see EGRESS ports on the controllers in enclosure 1 and INGRESS and EGRESS for the other enclosures.  This may point in a direction to look but may just be 'other data'

[Theo_dor]

hello
this one is a D2700 AJ940A  firmware 150
cabeling is one cable from each controller to a single enclosure
"have you accidentally connected the SAS busses?" not sure what you mean
MSA view

expansion enclosure

drive 2.6 and 2.8 is not installed

[BruceW]

The cables should be HPE 6gb SAS cables.  The cables have four wires which show up as ingress or egress.  You have only one wire connected on each of the I/O modules on enclosure 2. That would indicate iether two bad cables or two incorrect cables.. Also be sure your controller shelf is down when you connect this. Hot adding can cause issues.. If you did hot add this, you may want to restart both controllers and try again.  

We recommend when you move an enclosure from direct attached to an MSA that you clear configuration on the drives first. In most cases, you will lose any configuration one way or another.

[Theo_dor]

i tested several cables 407344-003 , 408767-001
yes it was hot added , controller rebooted
I will try reboot without disks

[BruceW]

The cables should be fine judging by the part numbers. If all else fails, shut down the controller shelf, disconnect power from the controlller shelf, then pull power from the add on enclosures. Wait 30 seconds,  plug the add in shelf first, allow drives to initialize, then plug in power to the the controller shelf.

[Sunitha_Mod]

Hello @Theo_dor,

Let us know if you were able to resolve the issue.

If you have no further query and you are satisfied with the answer then kindly mark the topic as Solved so that it is helpful for all community members.

[Steinbacher2023]

problem still remains
after shutting down erverything , and booting starting with enclosure
also tried firmware downgrade to 149

any ideas ?

[BruceW]

Please upload a store.zip log to the following site.

HTTPS Access: https://hprc-h2.it.hpe.com/hprc
User: info erased
Password: info erased

[BruceW]

i noticed a log on the site. I see the enclosure fine but we still have an issue.  I don't see any drives in the add/on enclosure. Do we have any drives installed on the second enclosure?  If not, please install at least one drive in this enclosure. 

I also see events about the cabling. The D2700 (add/on emc;losure) has IOM A (top) and IOM B (bottom). Eah IOM has two ports,  You have an in port on the left of eah IOM. The right port is an out port for use only if you have a third enclosure. Be sure there isn't anything plugged into either out port. We should have two cables, one from A controller to the in port on IOM A, the second from Controller B to the IOM B port. 

Once you have added a drive and confirmed the cabling, please provide a new log. 

[Theo_dor]

this morning i had all 25 drives installed , after that i tried with all drives pulled. also swaped cable from A to B on one side.
(the error with outgoing port was a colleague, now cabeling is correct)
i will do further testing tomorrow

[Theo_dor]

inserted 1 drive , no change
( uploaded log )

[BruceW]

It appears that the cabling is good now. I see a drive in slot 1 of the second enclosure. If you open the Webui, you should see that. The led's on the drive should be dark at this point because the drive is in available state (unconfigured)..  One thing we should try to avoid is to get upsupported drives in the array. You can now plug in drives without any shutdown, If a drive doesn't show up, you may want to check the link below.

https://h41111.www4.hpe.com/storage/msafirmware.html

The link above has a search window near the MSA drives section. If you paste the model of the drive in this search window, it should pull up the drive and current firmware if it is supported in any MSA. from 2040, 2050, and 2060.

[Theo_dor]

ok , i will try some other drives and configure a pool
(will take some days , because this msa is in a remote location)

BTW: the enclosure is a AJ840A may this be a problem ?
controller & firemware are identical with aj941a

[BruceW]

Certainly it could make a difference.  AJ840A is actually a HPE M6625 2.5-INCH SAS DRIVE ENCLOSURE. As you noticed the hardware is the same as a D2700. Because you managed to get 0149 firmware on the enclosure, it will likely work with the MSA.  This enclosure was used in some of the older EVA solutions..

[Theo_dor]

tomorrow i will test an other d2700 unit with a single disk eg0600fblsh
any sugestions what to test else ?

[BruceW]

I would recommend you power down the controller shelf.  Shutdown both controllers, when the blue led is on both controlllers, disconnect the power cables on the controller shelf only. Then add the 3rd shelf with no drives installed. Plug in power cables on controller shelf, allow time for both controllers to come up. Add drives to these  shelves after the system is up.

[Theo_dor]

i would remove/replace the 2nd enclosure with the new one . ( not add a 3rd)

[BruceW]

I'm assuming you haven't configured any drives in the current add/on enclosure.. If this is true, my recommendations are the same but after powering down, you would add the step to disconnect the second enclosure, then replace this with the other enclosure. 

[Steinbacher2023]

@BruceW  problem still the same
what i did today on a different msa2040
- shutdown from webinterface
- wait for blue LED
- disconnect power

- power on a new replacement AJ941A without disks
- connect with new sas cables  (both controllers to P1 / left port)
- connect power to MSA
- wait , login

see same old problem  "some but not all of the PHY lanes ......"

so i have this problems with 3 different MSA , tried 3 pairs of cables , tried 3 different expansion enclosures
maybe a firmware issue ? all msa are on GL225P002-02

added a disk to the empty enclosure , made no difference