Category: Data Storage

EMC Unity 1

Dell EMC Unity OE 5.0.1.0.5.011

Yesterday, EMC has released new Operating Environment (OE) for Dell EMC Unity family. The new release includes lot of fixes and especially security vulnerability (CVE-2018-19636 – CVE-2018-19637 – CVE-2018-19638 – CVE-2018-19639 – CVE-2018-19640). There is just one new feature for Unity VSA, a new variant of the UnityVSA called the Dell EMC Unity Cloud Edition is now available, which is optimized for the VMC (VMware Cloud) on AWS. Also the UnityVSA Deployment Utility will only be available for Windows 64-bit environments with releases 5.0.1 and later. Here is the fixed issues in Unity OE 5.0.1.0.5.011: External Links EMC Downloads

deduplication 0

Linux Deduplication and Compression: The Ultimate Guide to Saving Space

Cost of storage is the biggest piece of IT budget in any company (Of course not EMC, HPE or other like them 😀 ) and the storage spaces is eating by databases, other data files and backup files as well. Lot of those data file not be used once generated!. I have serious issue with these types of data and especially log files that one of dark data types. I can’t stop generating those data and the related teams are always crying about free space on their servers. They want just Linux servers (Seems, they don’t know Windows has NFS services as well), because they are using shared space on application servers to storing log files and others via NFS. I have offered other solutions such as using Windows as NFS server and use deduplication on Windows Servers, this feature is really good. I have used Windows deduplication on our backup proxy servers and result was incredible. Anyway, they want to Linux server (Not even other Unix-Like!), so I started to googling these: Don’t panic, most Linux’s modern file systems have no native deduplication and transparent compression and must be enabled with third-party software. Let’s see what is deduplication and...

EMC Unity 0

Some Lower-End Unity Models Could Experience Single or Dual SP Reboots When Running Unity OE 5.0

This is warning and workaround about EMC Unity OE 5.0 on some Unity systems with fewer memory capacity. Let’s see what happened? The lower-end Unity systems, in particular the Unity 300 and 300F, contain less physical memory than the higher-end Unity models.  The lower available system memory makes them more vulnerable to experience an SP reboot brought about by the “mergelogs” component of NGTRiiAGE which is run by uDoctor on SRS enabled arrays.   It is also run periodically on non-SRS enabled arrays. If your Unity system is SRS enabled, “mergelogs” will run at least once per day. Changes intro-duced in Unity OE 5.0.x make the “mergelogs” function more memory intensive, which causes the process to run closer to the limits of the available memory budget.  If the available memory is exceeded, the SP may reboot. A hotfix is available for this issue if you are running Unity OE 5.0.0.0.5.116.  To acquire this hot-fix, please contact Dell EMC Technical Support or your authorized service vendor and reference KB article 536786.  This knowledge base article also stipulates a work-around available to customers who have service credentials. You can disable the daily triage service within uDoctor by connecting to your system via SSH...

STOR2RRD Schema 0

Stor2rrd 2.60 Will be Released Mid of September 2019

Stor2rrd is my favorite storage monitoring tool, it’s free and has active community. New version (2.60) with some new features will be announced mid of September. Let’s review new features and enhancements in Stor2rrd 2.60 . What’s New in Stor2rrd 2.60? Stor2rrd 2.60 will support two new storage devices from Lenovo and Hitachi products: Hitachi NAS Platform (HNAS) Lenovo ThinkSystem DE Series (DE2000/4000/6000) Stor2rrd does support more than 40 storage systems in new version. Enhancements in Stor2rrd 2.60 Stor2rrd 2.60 is including the below enhancements: Storage access management is done through UI only ACL: introduced read-only role, members can see everything but nothing can change Heatmap: enhanced about table visualization IBM SVC/Storwize: support of Zero B2B (%) for 16Gbit adapters (only 8Gbit adapters have been supported till now) IBM XIV: support of host mapping on gen3 hardware EMC VNX: support of cache stats for newer firmwares EMC Unity: support of 4.5.0.0.5.096+ firmwares NetApp: support of ONTAP 9.5P1+ HPE Nimble: support of more than 255 LUNs Huawei OceanStor: implemented compression and deduplication graphing SAN: switches in access gateway mode are grouped into the same fabric called “Access Gateway” If you are using current version or older versions, I recommend that upgrade to Stor2rrd...

Dell EMC Unity XT 0

What’s Dell EMC Unity XT Storage?

Simplify the path to IT transformation and unlock the full potential of your data capital with the new Dell EMC Unity XT
storage arrays that feature up to 2X more IOPS, more memory, and up to 50% more drives than previous Dell EMC
Unity models. These All-Flash and Hybrid storage systems with dual-active controller architecture and enterprise-class
features are designed for performance, optimized for efficiency with up to 5:1 data reduction, and built to simplify your
multi-cloud journey.

EMC Unity 0

Dell EMC Unity Family Version 4.5.0.0.5.096

Dell EMC has been released new version of Unity Operating Environment (OE) for Dell EMC Unity family. The new version (4.5.0.0.5.096) is included new features and fixes to improve Unity products stability, performance and deliver some solutions as new features. This new release is a minor release, so there is no fundamental changes.

VNX Domain - Unverified Systems 3

VNX 2 Series: Best Solution to Remove Unverified Systems

VNX Storage arrays can be added to a domain for centralization logging and management for multiple storage arrays. Also Unisphere Central can be added to a VNX domain.

Sometimes, storage administrator makes mistake about adding or removing VNX storage arrays from VNX domain. As an example, administrator has to remove a VNX for send to repairing but forget removing storage array from domain. Another example, when there is multiple domains with multiple range of IP addresses, may be administrator add array to domain wrongly and after that, change IP and add to another domain.

In these situations, domains will contain some systems as unverified system, the unverified systems should verify again and otherwise should be removed.

EMC Unity 0

DELL EMC Unity OE Version 4.4.1.1539309879

This release has no new feature but there is lot of fixes for problems in the previous versions. DELL EMC recommends that updating Unity OE to this version to preventing impact of the below problems in production environments.

EMC Unity 0

[Update]: EMC Unity Storage Systems – Drive and OE Compatibility Matrix (Feb 2018)

EMC Unity Drive and OE Compatibility Matrix EMC Unity storage systems supporting the below disk drives: Unity SAS Flash 2 Drives – For use in FAST Cache, FAST VP or all-Flash-pools Unity SAS Flash 3 Drives – For use in all-Flash-pools only Unity SAS Flash 4 Drives – For use in all-Flash-pools only Unity Spinning Drives To function properly drives installed in an EMC Unity storage system require that the array be running the minimum required revision of the Operating Environment (OE). EMC provides a document  which lists the drive part numbers supported for Unity storage systems and the minimum software revisions required for each drive model. Notes: The drive part number (PN) appears on a label on the front of the drive carrier. Note that although the OE GUI may display an alpha suffix at the end of the PN (like EFD) these characters are not part of the actual orderable PN. All drives listed in this document are RoHS compliant. Unity drive models use the following prefixes: D3 = AC storage D3FC = AC FAST cache D3AF = AC storage when used in All-Flash-Array (AFA) D3N = DC NEBS storage D3NFC = DC NEBS FAST Cache The following...

EMC VNX 1

[Update]: EMC VNX2 Storage Systems – Drive and OE Compatibility Matrix (Feb 2018)

EMC VNX2 Drive and OE Compatibility Matrix The document will help you to know that the minimum compatibility between VNX storage system OE and disk drives. The supported part numbers and minimum version of software are listed. Before installing a new disk in a storage system, use the EMC Unisphere Manager to determine the VNX OE revision running on the storage system. In Unisphere Manager, the VNX OE revision appears on the Software tab of the Storage System Properties dialog box for the storage system. Note 1: Changes and additions in the tables since the last revision of this document are noted in red type. Note 2: The disk part number (PN) appears on a label on the front of the disk carrier. Note that although the OE GUI may display an alpha suffix at the end of the PN (like PWR or SSD) these characters are not part of the actual orderable PN. Note 3: PNs in tables with a ‘YES’ entry in the Spin-Down Support column may report a suffix of PWR through the OE GUI (EX: 005049278PWR). This PWR suffix is used by the OE and is not part of the actual orderable PN. Supported Disk Drives...