詠鉌のIT

A very common issue for server to encounter the P.O.S.T (Power-on Self Test) error as below:

Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the system setup program

Cause:
It may due to the reason below:
- System BIOS updates
- Power-trip cause server shutdown unexpectedly
- CMOS battery (or slot) issue

Workaround:
You may go to System BIOS by pressing F2 during P.O.S.T, and perform as below:

1. Integrated devices
    - Ensure "Embedded Gb NIC 1" and "Embedded Gb NIC 2" are set to "Enabled" (or Enabled without PXE)

2. SATA port
    - Turn all SATA port to OFF, except CD/DVD-ROM.

Then "Save Changes & Exit", and server will proceed for reboot.

Dell MD32x0i iSCSI RAID Controller, v.CFW 07.75.10.60 and NVSRAM N26X0-775890-009, A02

Two days ago, a Taiwan customer called and complaint that he can't update the MD3200's NVSRAM to latest, due to Modular Disk Storage Manager (MDSM) is not showing proper Chinese words, and return an error: NullPointerException, when you wish to update the NVSRAM.

I use almost half a day to troubleshoot/gather relevant info from customer for analysis. Answer derive after 2-3 hours when I found one relevant article from our Knowledge-Base.

Cause:
This is the installer issue with the version A00 image with Spanish and Chinese OS language packages. This image doesn't impact any other language besides the two mentioned above.

Workaround:
1. For Windows:
- Ensure the Modular Disk Storage Manager application is closed
- Disable the Modular Disk Storage Manager Event Monitor service if it is started (through Windows services - Start->Run->services.msc)
- Navigate to the client directory under the MD Storage Manager installation directory (Default: C:\Program Files (x86)\Dell\MD Storage Software\MD      Storage Manager\client)
- Rename the SMclient.jar file to SMclient.orig.jar
- Copy  the provided SMclient-10.70.x6.06.jar file to SMclient.jar
- Re-enable the Modular Disk Storage Manager Event Monitor service (through Windows services)

2. For Linux
- Ensure the Modular Disk Storage Manager application is closed
- Navigate to the client directory under the MD Storage Manager installation directory (Default: /opt/dell/mdstoragesoftware/mdstoragemanager/client)
- Rename the SMclient.jar file to SMclient.orig.jar
- Copy  the provided SMclient-10.70.x6.06.jar file to SMclient.jar

In summary, if your OS language is either Chinese or Spanish, just ensure you download/install the MDSM from version A01 and above.

You may get the latest MDSM A04 from the link below:
http://supportapj.dell.com/support/downloads/download.aspx?c=my&cs=mybsd1&l=en&s=bsd&releaseid=R295070&SystemID=PWV_MD3200&servicetag=&os=WS8R2&osl=en&deviceid=22520&devlib=0&typecnt=0&vercnt=1&catid=-1&impid=-1&formatcnt=0&libid=52&typeid=-1&dateid=-1&formatid=-1&source=-1&fileid=441701

Few weeks back, there is one customer from Taiwan drop me an email with a lot of logs attached. After I read the last line of the content, then only I know he was asking me to analyze the log to ensure whether the storage is working  fine or not. Customer confirm the storage was working time at that time, but the management software: Modular Disk Storage Management (MDSM)

Raw data:

4d 45 4c 48 03 00 00 00 1b 04 00 00 00 00 00 00
0a 21 48 00 4c 99 19 4d 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 04 00 00 00 08 00 00 00 08 00 00 00
ff ff ff ff 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
01 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 00 00

Cause:
May occur when moving Virtual Disk (VD) between two controllers, in the situation of fail-over or when changing the preferred owner of the VD.


This is informational message/log which will shown in Major Event Log (MEL) only, and is often only temporary. When there is any VD changes, write cache is only temporarily disabled, and it cause this event is logged. For older firmware version (before 7-Oct-2009 release), it wouldn't have a log when the write cache is automatically be re-enable once the VD changes have been completed. Hence, consider to update the MD3000/MD3000i to latest firmware to avoid such 'annoying' message logged. :-)


To ensure the write cache has been enabled, you may refers to "StorageArrayProfile" under support bundle, use Ctrl-F, and type "write cache" to search for the status. Below is one of the example of StorageArrayProfile from one of my customer: