Failed Minihub Canister

What Caused the Problem?

Communication with the minihub canister has been lost. This may be the result of a minihub canister failure, a controller failure, or a failure in an internal backplane communications board. If there is only one minihub failure, the storage subsystem is still operational. The Recovery Guru Details area provides specific information you will need as you follow the recovery steps.

Caution
Electrostatic discharge can damage sensitive components. Use a grounding wrist strap or other anti-static precautions before removing or handling components.

Important Notes

Recovery Steps

1

Disconnect the failed minihub canister.

If...

Then...

The cables are connected directly to the minihub canister

Remove the cables. Label each cable to ensure that they are properly reconnected when the minihub canister is replaced.

Go to Step 2.

The cables are connected to an interface transceiver such as a GBIC or SFP

Leave the cables connected and remove the interface transceivers from the minihub canister. Label each interface transceiver to ensure that they are properly reconnected when the minihub canister is replaced.

Go to Step 2.

2

Remove the failed minihub canister (The fault indicator light on the affected minihub should be lit).

3

Insert a new canister securely into place.

4

Using the labels created in Step 1, reconnect the cables to the replaced canister.

5

Select Recheck to rerun the Recovery Guru to ensure that the failure has been fixed.

If...

Then...

The failure is fixed

You are done with this procedure.

The failure is not fixed

Follow the procedures in steps 6 - 11.

Note: If the minihub canister has failed on the host side, the Recovery Guru Details area will indicate which controller (A or B) is connected to the failed minihub canister.

Note: If the minihub canister has failed on the drive side, you cannot identify the controller connected to the failed minihub. Start by replacing the controller in slot A.

6

In the Physical View of the Subsystem Management Window, highlight the affected controller and select Controller>>Place>>Offline.

Note: The transition to Offline may take several minutes. During the transition, logical drives assigned to the controller are assigned to the other controller. Wait until the controller changes to Offline before continuing.

7

Remove the Offline controller. Wait at least one minute before inserting the new controller.

Note: Before you insert a new controller canister into a Directly Managed Storage Subsystem (refer to the Network Management Type column in the Enterprise Management Window), you must update the DHCP/BOOTP server so that it will associate the new controller's hardware Ethernet address with the host name and IP address previously assigned to the removed controller.

To update the DHCP/BOOTP server, find the entry associated with the removed controller and replace its Ethernet address with the new controller's Ethernet address. The controller's Ethernet address is located on an Ethernet ID label on the controller canister in the form xx.xx.xx.xx.xx.xx. If you need more details, consult the Storage System Planning Guide.

8

Insert the new controller firmly into the controller enclosure.

9

Highlight the controller in the Physical View of the Subsystem Management Window. Then, select Controller>>Place>>Online.

Note: The transition to Online may take several minutes. Wait until the controller changes to Online before continuing.

10

While the cables are still connected, remove the minihub canister you just installed in step 3, wait 30 seconds, and then install it again.

11

Select Recheck to rerun the Recovery Guru to ensure that the failure has been fixed.

If...

Then...

The failure is fixed.

If you have logical drives mapped to hosts that have Automatic Logical Drive Transfer (ADT) disabled, it may be necessary to redistribute the logical drives to their preferred controller. Use the following steps to determine the ADT status of the hosts connected to your storage subsystem:

a

Open the Storage Subsystem Profile by selecting the View>>Storage Subsystem Profile menu option from the Subsystem Management Window. Then, select the profile's Mappings tab.

b

Scroll to the NVSRAM Host Type Internal Definitions section.

c

If...

Then...

There are hosts mapped to logical drives on this storage subsystem that have an ADT status of disabled

OR

There are hosts mapped to logical drives on this storage subsystem that are not running a host-based, multi-path failover driver

It may be necessary to redistribute the logical drives to their preferred controller. If the Subsystem Management Window's Storage Subsystem>>Redistribute Logical Drives menu option is visible, select the option.

Note: If you have a mix of hosts with ADT enabled and ADT disabled, all logical drives will be immediately assigned back to their preferred path. However, until the host-based, multi-path failover driver detects the valid preferred path (may take several minutes), the logical drives mapped to the ADT-enabled hosts may get temporarily returned back to the non-preferred path.

If the menu option is not visible, the logical drives are already associated with their preferred controllers and no action is needed.

There are NO hosts mapped to logical drives on this storage subsystem with an ADT status of disabled

AND

All hosts mapped to logical drives on this storage subsystem are running a host-based, multi-path failover driver

No action is required.

If logical drives need to be redistributed to their preferred controller, the host-based, multi-path failover driver will automatically initiate the transfer.

Note that detection of a restored preferred path by the multi-path failover driver can take several minutes.

The failure is not fixed and the failed minihub canister is on the drive side.

Replace the controller in slot B using steps 6 - 11.

Note: If you have already replaced the controller in slot B, you may have a problem with the internal backplane communications board. Contact your technical support representative.

The failure is not fixed and the failed minihub canister is on the host side.

You may have a problem with the internal backplane communications board. Contact your technical support representative.