詠鉌のIT

Image 1: OM_6.5.0_SMTD_A01.iso.001 Image 2: OM_6.5.0_SMTD_A01.iso.002 

copy /b OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.001+OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.002 OM_640_SMTD_A00.iso

cat OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.001 OM_6.4.0_SMTD_A00.iso.002 > OM_640_SMTD_A00.iso

Many customers, especially those Server Admin with technical knowledge wouldn't ask this question but take action to the server which they think is right. However, it just messed up everything, and worst will cause data lost. Then, we have a lot of job to do afterward.

Sometimes, I feel funny that customer call to the toll-free number only if they ruined everything. When I tried my very best to 'reverse' the situation, but failed, they will shout at me with the sentence as below:

"..I pay so much for the warranty, but you said you can't help me?.."

Therefore, I beg you guys (Server admin) give call to Technical Support to confirm before you take any action that you think is right.

Hard disk failure may have 2 different situation:
i) Single hard disk failure

• Check the hard disk status from OpenManage Server Administrator or DSET
• After confirm the status is FAIL, you may re-seat the hard disk while the server is ON/Power-up, to see the hard disk can proceed to rebuilding or not.
• If the hard disk is able to rebuild, monitor the rebuilding progress. If the rebuilding progress can reach 100%, monitor the hard disk status for 1 day.
• If it fail to kick-start the rebuild, or fail during the rebuilding progress, you may call up Technical Support to claim the hard disk replacement.

ii) More than two hard disks failure

• Check the hard disk status from OpenManage Server Administrator or DSET 
•  After confirm the status is FAIL, check Controller Log so that we know which hard disk failed the first.  (E.g. PERC Log)
• We always Force Online the hard disk failed the first, due to the hard disk that failed the last will contained latest data.
• If this isn't work, kindly call Technical Support for assistance.

*re-seat: Pull out and push in the hard disk (applicable for hot-swap hard disk)

If you feel sick or lazy to call up Dell Technical Support's toll-free number, wait in the queue just to check your system's warranty, you can just click on the link below, then key-in the Service Tag, and you will get the warranty status within a second:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/my_systems_info/details?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz&~ck=anavml

If your server, storage, switch or other Dell system is out-of-warranty, or warranty near to expiry date, a message will prompt as below:

Warranty contracts for your PowerEdge [model] have expired or will expire within 90 days.

Ensure your system is covered by contacting a Dell Extended Services Sales Agent at [toll-free for your region]

The real message as attached:
After that, you should see Service Contracts & Warranties, Original System Configuration, and Current System Configuration.


From the above attached picture, you can see the Start and End date, and how many days left for the valid warranty. If you wish to use the server/storage for another one or two years, do plan to get the quotation
from your sales account manager at least 21 days before the warranty expired.

Reference: http://supportapj.dell.com/support/index.aspx

Dell PowerEdge R805, is one of the AMD-based server from Dell. However, not much customer own one, and this may due to its supported platform quite different if compared with Intel-based server. Few days ago, one India customer called, and throw a lots of question to me before I can response to him:

"..I checked your documentation, found that this server should support Memory Sparing, but I just can't find the option from BIOS.."

Customer even share with me on how he tried to configure/modify the BIOS option, but end with FAIL.I checked his server specification, and I got the answer:

Server doesn't fully populated with Memory.

In summary, if you wish to configure Memory Sparing in this model, you should ensure:

• System is populated with full Memory module
• F2 System BIOS -> Memory Information -> Node Interleaving -> Disabled
• DIMMs must be paired as spares also

Please refers to the table below for more info:

Processor 1				Processor 2				Available Memory	Spared Memory
DIMMA1	DIMMA2	DIMMA3	DIMMA4	DIMMB1	DIMM B2	DIMMB3	DIMMB4	1 CPU / 2 CPUs	1 CPU / 2 CPUs
512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	1 GB / 2 GB	1 GB / 2 GB
1 GB	1 GB	1 GB	1 GB	1 GB	1 GB	1 GB	1 GB	2 GB / 4 GB	2 GB / 4 GB
2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	1 GB	1 GB	1 GB	1 GB	4 GB / 8 GB	2 GB / 4 GB
2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	2 GB	4 GB / 8 GB	2 GB / 4 GB
4 GB	4 GB	4 GB	4 GB	4 GB	4 GB	4 GB	4 GB	8 GB / 16 GB	4 GB / 8 GB
	Indicates a spared single-rank DIMM (512-MB, 1-GB, or 2-GB). The entire capacity of this DIMM is reserved for sparing.
	Indicates a spared dual-rank DIMM (2-GB and higher). One-half of this DIMM's capacity is reserved for sparing.

Reference:
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/pet605/en/hom/install.htm

Yesterday, I were surprised by a Singapore customer with the inquiry as below:

"...I suspect is your RAID card limitation to detect the full size of my 3TB SATA Hard Disk..."

Wow, I feel shame as my hardware knowledge not really up-to-date. I use around 12mins of researching, confirm that H200 does not able to detect hard disk with more than 2TB at this moment. According to Dell, this support features may come out this year (2011), but it doesn't really mentioned the exact release date.
If you really have budget to upgrade all Hard Disks to the size of 3TB SATA, you may consider to upgrade the RAID card as well. Currently, Dell PERC H700 & H800 are support hard disk with more than 2TB (need to fulfill the minimum requirement of firmware).

Dell PERC H700 and H800 – The following firmware revision (or later) must be applied on the Storage Controller Cards to obtain support for >2 TB drives. The firmware release numbers and revisions are below:  

For SAS drives >2TB: 7.1 FW A02/12.3.0-0032 

R269683 – H800; A02 ( listed as DELL_PERC-H800-ADAPTER_XX_XXXXXXX.exe at the below download link) 

R269684 – H700I: A02 ( listed as DELL_PERC-H700-INTEGRATED_XX_XXXXXXX.exe at the below download link) 

R269685 – H700A; A02 ( listed as DELL_PERC-H700-ADAPTER_XX_XXXXXXX.exe at the below download link) 

R269686 – H700M; A02 ( listed as DELL_PERC-H700-MODULAR_XX_XXXXXXX.exe at the below download link)

SATA Support – SATA drives will be supported in Q1, 2011.


The above mentioned releases of firmware can be downloaded from http://ftp.us.dell.com/sas-raid/.

Dell H200 – Support is planned for the H200 in 2011

Therefore, Dell PERC H200 is yet to have latest firmware to support hard disk with size larger than 2TB. Hopefully the newer firmware is out soon to eliminate this limitation.

For more info, you may visit Dell official website: Click Here!
**The abovementioned info are obtained from Dell TechCentre for sharing purpose

Dell System E-Support Tool (DSET) is very useful for troubleshooting especially when we deal with non-technical IT Personnel, or 'lazy' customer who totally not cooperative to provide further information. The key features is provides the ability to collect hardware, storage and operating system information of a Dell PowerEdge or PowerVault server.


Compatibility list:
i) PowerEdge Server:

800, 830, 840, 850, 860, 1800, 1850, 1855, 2800, 2850, 6800, 6850, 1900, 1950, 1955, 2900, 2950, 2970, 6950, NX1950, SC1420, SC1425, SC1430, SC1435, SC420, SC430, SC440, R805, R905, R900, T100, T105, T300, T605, R200, R300, M600, M605, M805, M905, R610, T610, R710, M610, M710, R410, T410, T310, R310, R210, T110, R510, R910, R810,R715,R815, R415, R515, M610x, M710HD and M910

ii) PowerVault Storage:

100T, 110T, 122T, 124T, 132T,136T, ML6000, 200/210, 220S/221S, MD1000, RD1000 Internal SATA Drive, TL2000,TL4000, MD1120, NF110, DL2100 and DL2200

iii) Microsoft Operating System:

* Microsoft Windows 2003 Server x86 and x64
* Microsoft Windows 2003 Server x86 and x64 R2
* Microsoft Windows 2008 Server 32-bit and 64-bit 
* Microsoft Windows 2008 Server 32-bit and 64-bit SP2
* Microsoft Windows 2008 Server R2

How to use DSET to generate log and clear hardware log?
1. Download the DSET Utility:
    Download here. (latest version 2.1)


2. Execute the file, and you have the interface as below, then click "Next >":


3. Select "I Accept the license agreement", and click "Next >"


4. After read the [readme] info, click "Next >"


5. From here, if you wish to generate logs, select "Create DSET Report only". If you would like to clear hardware log for troubleshooting purpose (especially for system SBE error), select "Gather then Clear Dell Hardware Log only"


6. Then, progress bar appear, and it will run for approximately 5 minutes.


According to the Readme, after the process done a single compressed configuration report file called "DSET Report of <computer name> Tag-<service tag> -<model name>" would be copied to the Desktop by default.


Do not unzip, but send the ZIP file to the Technical Support Specialist for analysis.