Category: Server Administration
Adding Disk Space to an Array on a Dell PERC using AFACLI
Adding Disk Space to an Array on a Dell PERC using AFACLI
This blog describes the commands necessary to add a disk to existing RAID V array in the case where you have an empty available slot where you can add a disk.
The actual manual for afacli can be found here:
http://docs.us.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/57kgr/cli/en/index.htm
Accessing the CLI from the UNIX Prompt
To access the CLI from the UNIX prompt, display a window and type afacli
in any directory. The system displays the FASTCMD>
prompt, which indicates you can now use CLI commands. The path in the startup file (.login
or .cshrc
) must include the directory where the software is installed for the command to work in any directory. See your UNIX documentation for information on setting up directory paths in the .login
and .cshrc
files.
To view all controllers use €˜controller list€™
To connect to the controller with the command line utility, execute:
FASTCMD> open afa0
AFA0>
To show the status of all disks in all arrays and get an overview of the disks in the RAID, execute €˜enclosure show status€™.
AFA0> enclosure show status
Executing: enclosure show status
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) UpTime D:H:M PowerCycle Interval Door Alarm
———– ————– ———- ——– ——– —–
0 0:06:0 0:00:00 0 10 UNLOCKED OFF
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Fan Status
———– — ————-
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Power State Status
———– —– ———— ——-
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Slot scsiId Insert Status
———– —- —— ——- ——————————————
0 0:06:0 0 0:00:0 1 OK ACTIVATE
0 0:06:0 1 0:01:0 1 OK ACTIVATE
0 0:06:0 2 0:02:0 1 OK ACTIVATE
0 0:06:0 3 0:03:0 1 OK ACTIVATE
0 0:06:0 4 0:255:0 0 OK UNCONFIG EMPTY I/R READY NOTACTIVATE
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Sensor Temperature Threshold Status
———– —— ———– ——— ——–
0 0:06:0 0 73 F 120 NORMAL
0 0:06:0 1 69 F 120 NORMAL
Above, there is no disk in slot 4, insert the disk again and execute the command again to see it again.
AFA0> enclosure show status
Executing: enclosure show status
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) UpTime D:H:M PowerCycle Interval Door Alarm
———– ————– ———- ——– ——– —–
0 0:06:0 0:00:00 0 10 UNLOCKED OFF
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Fan Status
———– — ————-
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Power State Status
———– —– ———— ——-
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Slot scsiId Insert Status
———– —- —— ——- ——————————————
0 0:06:0 0 0:00:0 1 OK ACTIVATE
0 0:06:0 1 0:01:0 1 OK ACTIVATE
0 0:06:0 2 0:02:0 1 OK ACTIVATE
0 0:06:0 3 0:03:0 1 OK ACTIVATE
0 0:06:0 4 0:04:0 1 OK UNCONFIG ACTIVATE
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Sensor Temperature Threshold Status
———– —— ———– ——— ——–
0 0:06:0 0 73 F 120 NORMAL
0 0:06:0 1 73 F 120 NORMAL
You can see that the disk in slot 4 is waiting to be configured. lets take a look at the RAID V container that we are going to add the new disk to, execute “container list”
AFA0> container list
Executing: container list
Num Total Oth Chunk Scsi Partition
Label Type Size Ctr Size Usage B:ID:L Offset:Size
—– —— —— — —— ——- —— ————-
0 RAID-5 101GB 64KB Valid 0:00:0 64.0KB:33.8GB
/dev/sda 0:01:0 64.0KB:33.8GB
0:02:0 64.0KB:33.8GB
0:03:0 64.0KB:33.8GB
Even though it is visible in the enclosure list above, you will need to execute a “controller rescan” to find the new disk.
AFA0> controller rescan
Executing: controller rescan
Now initialize the disk so it can be used.
AFA0> disk initialize 4
Executing: disk initialize (ID=4)
Finally you can add the disk to the container, you will simply run the container reconfigure command with the container number (in our case 0) and the device number (in our case 4)
AFA0> container reconfigure 0 4
Executing: container reconfigure 0 (ID=4)
Now, wait for the disk to rebuild. You can view the rebuild process with €˜task list€™.
AFA0> task list
Executing: task list
Controller Tasks
TaskId Function Done% Container State Specific1 Specific2
—— ——– ——- ——— —– ——— ———
101 Reconfg 8.4% 0 RUN 00000000 00000000
Also while adding a new disk to this array I found that the existing array was only using 25.6 GB of each disk and not the full 36 GB
I issued a “container reconfigure” command to utilize the more space on each disk
AFA0> container reconfigure /partition_size=36388763000 0
Executing: container reconfigure /partition_size=36,388,763,000 0
DPM Error 337: Manually Set Name of Allowed DPM Server on Client
DPM Error 337: Manually Set Name of Allowed DPM Server on Client
When installing a Protection Agent from DPM 2007 on a server on a Windows 2003 Domain I ran into a wacky problem where the DPM Administration Console errored out during Install.
A server errored out with a 337 error.
You cannot install the protection agent on MYSERVER because access to the computer has been denied.
The Microsoft Documentation says that the recommended action is “Do the following to troubleshoot this issue: ”
1) If another DPM server is currently protecting MYSERVER use that DPM server to uninstall the protection agent from MYSERVER. Then, use this DPM server to install the protection agent on MYSERVER.
2) Verify that the time on the DPM server and the selected computer is synchronized with the domain controller. At a command prompt, type “net time /set” to synchronize the time with the domain controller.
3) If the computer is a domain controller, verify that the primary domain controller (the PDC Emulator) is running Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1), and that Active Directory has completed replication between the domain controllers since the Windows Server 2003 SP1 installation.
So I start debugging with item 1. Since I am not the first Administrator to work on this installation AND there is another DPM server located elsewhere on the network which was recenctly installed, it seems possible that something odd was done with this computer wpointed to another DPM Server.
First I try uninstalling the client locally on the system and I log into the server to remove the program using Add/Remove Programs, however the Add/Remove Programs listing is completely blank. I do a bunch of research on this and eventually I determine that the Unistall information must somehow be corrupt, the system needs a OS restore or something. I cant afford this and will plan to do this another day. I start browsing around in the Program Files directory for the DPM Client to try and find an uninstall program or something and I happen upon an executable that looks interesting. I open a command prompt and run the program to find out what it does.
#> cd C:Program FilesMicrosoft Data Protection ManagerDPMbin
#> setDPMServer.exe /?
This shows me how to run this program
#> SetDPMServer -dpmservername < servername>
So I run it with the name of my DPM server
#> SetDPMServer -dpmservername MYSERVER
And it clearly does something giving me the following information.
Configuring dpm server settings and firewall settings for dpm server =[MYSERVER]
Configuring dpm server settings and firewall settings for dpm server =[W2K.DOMAIN.COMMYSERVER]
Configuration completed successfully!!!
Now I head back over to my DPM server and run the install again from the Management Tab of the DPM 2007 Administrator Console. And would you beleive it? It installed perfectly. So there are two things I need to get in order to address the other issues on my network (find out why Add / Remove Programs is not coming up, find out if anyone is trying to protect some of the computers using another DPM server on the network).
The thing I never found out was if it could have been items 2 or 3 where there is a time sync problem between the AD controller and the server. It might have been better to start with the easy fixes described in those steps since that would have been easier and would have ruled it in our out.
Until then though this will work; Mystery Solved!
DPM Error 307: Manually Uninstalling Microsoft System Center DPM Protection Agent
DPM Error 307: Manually Uninstalling Microsoft System Center DPM Protection Agent
When installing an Protection Agent from DPM 2007 on a server on a Windows 2003 Domain I ran into a wacky problem.
A server errored out with a 307 error.
The protection agent operation failed because DPM detected an unknown DPM protection agent on MYSERVER.
The Microsoft Documentation says that the recommended action is to:
Use Add or Remove Programs in Control Panel to uninstall the protection agent from MYSERVER, then reinstall the protection agent and perform the operation again.
So I log into the server to remove the program using Add/Remove Programs, however the Add/Remove Programs listing is completely blank. I do a bunch of research on this and eventually I determine that the Uninstall information must somehow be corrupt, the system needs a OS restore or something. I cant afford this and will plan to do this another day. In the mean time I need to get this program uninstalled so I can reinstall the DPM Agent on this server.
I couldn’t find an MSI or anything to use to uninstall it but I found a post describing where in the registry to find uninstall program locations is for certain programs.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowCurrentVersionUninstall
Well, there is supposed to be an entry here for each of the programs that are installed on your system, but there was not one for the DPM agent, I did find all sorts of UID type entries and I looked through them and low and behold, I found an entry for Microsoft System Center DPM Protection Agent (the name of the agent was in the ‘DisplayName’ string key) I then copied the string in the ‘UninstallString’ key
MsiExec.exe /I{D58FCD22-5818-412B-93C3-D03CF3D6A2CE}
Note: do not run this on your system, the UID above should correspond to your systempasted it into a command prompt window and it then ran the uninstall program for “Microsoft System Center DPM Protection Agent” and prompted for a reboot.
I rebooted and the system came back up, out of curiosity I went back into the registry and I could not find the entry in the registry any more. I am not going to do more investigation into at this point however it makes me think that the items that show in this registry folder with a UID instead of a program name are somehow corrupted even though this one ran okay. I looked on my windows XP workstation (which Add/Remove Programs works on) and I have dozens of UID entries in this registry area so I am sure that this is not the cause of the “corrupted” Add/Remove programs issue.
Anyway, thats it, the “corrupt” DPM protection agent was removed and so I was able to rerun the install process from the DPM 2007 Administrator Console again. It succeeded without issue and now I can backup my server.
PowerEdge 1750 RAID Array Repair
PowerEdge 1750 RAID Array Repair
This blog describes some basic commands to repair an array in the case of a failed disk on the Dell 1750 running Linux via Dells afacli command line utility.
The actual manual for afacli can be found here:
http://docs.us.dell.com/support/edocs/storage/57kgr/cli/en/index.htm
Accessing the CLI from the UNIX Prompt
To access the CLI from the UNIX prompt, display a window and type afacli
in any directory. The system displays the FASTCMD>
prompt, which indicates you can now use CLI commands. The path in the startup file (.login
or .cshrc
) must include the directory where the software is installed for the command to work in any directory. See your UNIX documentation for information on setting up directory paths in the .login
and .cshrc
files.
To view all controllers use ‘controller list’
To connect to the controller with the command line utility, execute:
FASTCMD> open afa0
AFA0>
To show the status of all disks in all arrays, execute ‘enclosure show status’.
AFA0> enclosure show status
Executing: enclosure show status
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) UpTime D:H:M PowerCycle Interval Door Alarm
———– ————– ———- ——– ——– —–
0 0:06:0 0:00:00 0 10 UNKNOWN OFF
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Fan Status
———– — ————-
0 0:06:0 0 OK
0 0:06:0 1 OK
0 0:06:0 2 OK
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Power State Status
———– —– ———— ——-
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Slot scsiId Insert Status
———– —- —— ——- ——————————————
0 0:06:0 0 0:00:0 0 OK ACTIVATE
0 0:06:0 1 0:01:0 0 OK ACTIVATE
0 0:06:0 2 0:02:0 0 ERROR FAILED CRITICAL WARNING ACTIVATE
0 0:06:0 3 0:03:0 0 ERROR FAILED CRITICAL WARNING ACTIVATE
0 0:06:0 4 0:04:0 0 ERROR FAILED CRITICAL WARNING ACTIVATE
0 0:06:0 5 0:05:0 0 ERROR FAULTY FAILED CRITICAL WARNING ACTIVATE
Enclosure
ID (B:ID:L) Sensor Temperature Threshold Status
———– —— ———– ——— ——–
0 0:06:0 0 82 F 120 NORMAL
0 0:06:0 1 86 F 120 NORMAL
Above, the disk in slot 5 is bad, so first deactivate the slot:
AFA0> enclosure prepare slot 0 5
Wait for the lights to go out, then remove the disk. Replace the disk with a functional, identical replacement disk.
Then, activate the slot:
AFA0> enclosure activate slot 0 5
Now, wait for the disk to rebuild. You can view the rebuild process with ‘task list’.
AFA0> task list
Executing: task list
Controller Tasks
TaskId Function Done% Container State Specific1 Specific2
—— ——– ——- ——— —– ——— ———
101 Rebuild 0.7% 1 RUN 00000000 00000000
The disk may be ready for use once this is complete however if it’s not try the command ‘disk initialize’
disk initialize
To initialize a SCSI disk for use with the currently opened controller, use the disk initialize
command. This command writes data structures to the disk so that the controller can use the disk.
HINT: If you need to actually see which disk to pull out of the server ‘disk blink’ causes the disk drive light to blink.
Workaround Solution – Cold Fusion Transient Error – Invalid Method Signature Options
Workaround Solution – Cold Fusion Transient Error – Invalid Method Signature Options
Occassionally I have run into a strange error which I could never duplicate.
It read something like
Invalid method signature: xxxxxx;)Ljava/lang/Object; null
with different values at xxxxx
I did a bunch of research into the problem and it seems that the end result is that there is a bug in ColdFusion 7 with the “evaluate()” function.
I was querying dynamically named queries and there appeared to be some sort of problem with the class files that were being written.
The solution was to uncheck the “Save Class Files” in the Cold Fusion Administrator, delete the /cfclasses directory and restart Cold Fusion.
Macromedia also said there was a fix released in ColdFusion 7.0.1. (you can find your ColdFusion version by following the simple instructions in Ben’s post )
Here are links to a forums with the some discussion of the error and the update.
Thanks for the help!
http://groups.google.com/group/macromedia.coldfusion.cfml_general_discussion/
If your ISP has not upgraded to this version yet you can point them to Adobe’s website to get the update.
http://www.adobe.com/support/coldfusion/downloads_updates.html#mx7