Author: Angela


Jan
2015

Updating the firmware on Dell EqualLogic arrays with Dell Update Storage Manager

categories: Storage

The Dell Storage Update Manager (DSUM) is a great new tool that makes updating your array firmware, drive firmware  and language packs easier. Launched summer 2014, this application that can be installed locally or ran remotely via a java based app, is your new recommended way to update your groups.  To use it, you must be running at least v5.0.0 PS series firmware or FS series firmware 3.0.0 or higher.  This wizard will walk you through assessing the current state of your groups and guide you through the updates step by step.

To download the application, login to your EQL support account. Also, download your firmware, disk drive firmware and your language packs (if applicable). To run the java web app, follow this link

http://psonlinehelp.dell.com/dell-storage-update-manager/

and open with Java web start launcher.

launch java app

Log into your group with administrative credentials.

Dell Storage Update Manager Login

Once logged in, you can review the status of your group firmware, disk drive firmware and language packs.

group inventory overview

Click on Update plan to being the update wizard.

selectupdates

Here is where you select the updates to be installed.

update plan summary

Review  the updates you’ve selected. The Update plan summary will give you an estimated time for the updates to completed.

Getting Started

On the getting started screen, you’ll get a quick reminder to perform the update when their is low activity and during a pre-planned maintenance windows.  Check the box to confirm you understand the ramifications.

Preparing your update files

Upload the files needed to update your array, drives, and language packs.

Prepare your group

The app will review if their are any issues detected on your group that may prevent updates from running. Some issues that may prevent an update are:

  • RAID is in a degraded state
  • There are active errors or warnings in the log file
  • There are disk errors or issues
  • Controller issues
  • Space issues
  • High I/O
  • Replication is occurring
  • Volumes are migrating

Install Updates

The next screen in the wizard is the 1st step in updating your array’s firmware. Review the information and click install update.

The installation begins and will display the progress  and the current status. you can also review this information in group admin under group operations.

  • The 1st step is the FTP transfer of the zip file to the array.
  • The 2nd step is the actual update.
  • The 3rd step is the update pending restart.

step1

step2

step3

Once the update is complete and pending a restart, click ‘restart’ to proceed.  You’ll be  warned about the restart and it’s ramifications. Repeat for each array.

restart

complete

The update is complete. The HIT Kit compatibility screen with remind you to confirm that all EqualLogic software in use in your environment  is at the versions listed.

hit

Follow the subsequent prompts for updating the drives and language pack (if aplicable)

Once all installs are done, you’ll get the ‘installation complete’ screen that summarizes what took place.

installcomplete

update successful


Sep
2014

Coming down off my VMworld high

categories: vmware

This is my 3rd year attending VMworld and each time I walk away with a renewed focus and energy for my virtual infrastructure and what I can do to better manage and improve it. As I’m writing this post, I’m scrolling through my tweets and notes from VMworld and what stands out is that for my organization, VMware has the tools an SMB needs to deploy, monitor, upgrade, backup, administer, BD/DR, and grow its virtual infrastructure with ease.

My schedule was filled with sessions that covered just the things I needed to hear and to use day-one when I’m back in the office. Using the schedule builder as soon as it was available gave me time to make smarter choices and decide where my time should be spent in a more efficient manner. The VMworld app was a life saver! I knew right where I was suppose to be with notification turned on. The social media section keep me abreast of all the #vmworld tweets easily.

Here are my 3 favorite sessions. The sessions that made me want to roll up my sleeves the minute I had a WiFi connection to VPN back into the office and ‘test’ something out.

Here are my top 3 all-around favs from VMworld 2014:

  • The Solutions Exchange Welcome Reception
    • I got to spend a lot of time looking at what vendors are bringing to the virtualization space. Software, products and services that are moving VMware forward as the leader.
    • The Games at the CDW booth were more fun than I expected to have on opening day. The trivia questions were thought provoking and the ‘game show host’ and his assistant really kept us laughing.
    • Free beer & wine.
  • Winning a scooter (razor type) from Ravello and terrorizing the Moscone Center.
  • Taking a selfie with my SRM mentor, Mike Laverick of VMware.
Me and Mike Laverick of VMware
Me and Mike Laverick of VMware

Here are a few things I would change for next year:

  • The volume of the music at the Monday General Session was deafening. I really didn’t understand why the AV people didn’t rectify that by the end of the keynote. I promised myself I wouldn’t listen to another GS in the Hall D. The hang space was just fine.
  • I was in just ONE session with a woman speaker and I think she was a vendor. ‘Nuff said.
  • I know they’re trying to accommodate those with dietary restrictions, but vegetarians do need protein too.

Now that I’m back in the office, I’m ready to, upgrade to vSphere 5.5, tweak SRM  and  test out the vSphere 6.0 beta. I can’t talk about it (NDA), but you can find out more about it here.

Looking forward to next year.

 


Aug
2014

EqualLogic Cloning an Inbound Replica

categories: Storage

I have a dev server that’s my sandbox for VMware VCA studying. This Dell PowerEdge 2900 is on it’s last leg. It has an iSCSI disk that houses a bunch of ISOs, installers, docs, etc that is being replicated to another EQL array. The old PE is located behind my desk and is loud as a 747 taking off when it powers up.I will NOT miss this thing at ALL!

I have a new PowerEdge R420 that I’ve moved my development environment to and it lives in an offsite data center. I want my iSCSI disk attached to my new server, but I don’t want to stop replication on my current disk until the server is wiped and hauled off. The beauty of EqualLogic is their arrays are wonderfully easy to administer and makes any takes relatively easy.

Since the disk is replicated and I don’t want it to stop replicating right away, but still would like to have the current data to use and access immediately on my new server. Yes, I could have mapped a drive, but if the 2900 dies, I’m still up and running without even a hitch.

That’s where cloning an inbound replica comes in.

From the outbound group manager, make sure you’ve replicated your volume.

confirm_volume_replicated

From the inbound group manager, Go to replication and expand inbound replicas. Select your replica so the information appears in the right pane. Click clone replica.

clone_replica

The wizard will guide you through the process of cloning your replica. On step 2, change the snapshot reserve if you need to. Step 4, review the summary and click finish.

change_snap_reserve

finish_clone_replica

Your new volume will appear in the volume list. Present it to the new server if you didn’t during the clone volume replica wizard and you’re in business.

 

new_vol

 

 

 

 


Jul
2014

Activating Windows Server 2012 with MAK key

categories: server administration, Windows Server 2012

It appears the default activation in Windows Server 2012 is KMS.

win_isnt-activated

Since I’m a primarily a 2008 R2 shop and this is my first ‘real’ 2012 server, I was waiting for the prompt to activate it with my MAK key, but when I clicked Activate, it gave me an error about KMS.

The quick way to activate your server with MAK is to Open a command prompt and run as administrator.

Run As Administrator

At the prompt, enter: slmgr.vbs /ipk xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx

replace the Xs with your MAK Key and hit enter.

Enter Key

Your copy of Windows Server is now activated.

activated


Jan
2014

Updating Java to 1.7 Breaks Dell EqualLogic VSM

categories: vmware

I loathe updating Java because you never know what it will break. This morning, it was the Dell EqualLogic VSM plug-in for vCenter.

Upon launching the plug-in, I got these errors:

Image

Image

I thought to disable the current version and enable the previous version, but there is a way to add this URL as an exception.

Launch the Java control panel (I’m running 2008 R2) and click on the security tab.

Click the edit Site List button:

Image

Add the URL in the above mentioned error, by clicking Add, then typing in the URL.I also added the IP to vcenter as well. Click OK.

Image

Image

One more warning about the HTTP location you’ve entered. Just click continue. Apply the changes and close the java applet. Be sure to close the vCenter client as well.

Launch the client and log into VSM as usual.

Update- info on Windows 7

In Windows 7, there is no exception list under the security tab. To add your site to an exception list, you can create an exception.sites file and add the URL.

win7-java-securitytab

Browse to this location: C:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Sun\Java\Deployment\security

If  there is a file named exception.sites, add the URL to that file. One URL per line.

If not, you can create it and add your URL.

exception-site

 


Jan
2014

The command has timed out as the remote server is taking too long

categories: vmware

I’m running vSphere 5.1 and I can’t launch the vSphere Client. I am able to launch the web client just fine. Upon launching the fat client, I get an error:

vsphere client could not connect

We updated our domain from 2003 to 2008 R2 and replaced all old domain controllers  (DCs). I’d changed the primary and secondary server URL (there was no port number previously) during the cut over and all has been working well for the past 26 days and today, nothing.

I logged into the web client as admin@system-domain to confirm I was pointing to the new domain controllers and I was. So now I’m really stumped. KB article 203918 solved the riddle.

Web client login as admin

To view the identity sources:  Administration > Sign-On and Discovery > Configuration. Here you can view the identity sources. Click the pencil to edit and see more detail.

Edit Identity Sources

Here are my current settings:

Current Server URL

I added the port number to both the primary and secondary server URLs and tested the connection. Click OK to close the dialog box.

Updated URL with Port Number

test-success

I was then able to launch the fat client without error.

Don’t forget to log out of the web client as admin@system-domain.

It’s safe to assume when I installed 5.1, I didn’t enter the port number as suggested in the Configuring vCenter Single Sign on doc and it worked just fine. Upon upgrading, the port became a required setting.

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