Category: Data Storage

emc unity host group 1

Data Storage

EMC Unity Host Group, Finally Came!

EMC Unity array was released in 2016 to replace VNX and VNXe family with another mid-range array solution. EMC Unity came with lots of new features and enhancements compare to older families but there was an absent feature that VNX offering. Host access method was changed and each LUN should have been present to each host separately. More than 4 years from GA release, we were waiting for changing host access method because presenting LUN to each host was horrible in large scale environment with many hosts and LUNs. Biggest Change In EMC Unity OE 5.1.0.0.5.394 Previous versions have “Consistency Group” with some limits to present a LUN or more than one LUN to group of hosts. EMC Unity OE 5.1.0.0.5.394 including new feature that the new feature is like VNX Storage Group. The new feature called “Host Group“. You could assign or present multiple LUN to multiple hosts in OE version 5.0 and later but Host Group is the feature that we want. In Dell EMC Unity OE version 5.1 users can logically group hosts and block resources within a host group. Host groups can be created and managed from the Host Groups tab and help to streamline host/resource...

Unity XT Metro Node Differentiators 1

Data Center / Data Storage / Virtualization

Unity XT Metro Node (1st/2nd Generation): Protect Your Data and Applications from Disaster

Unity XT storage arrays are designed for performance, optimized for efficiency and built to work in multi-cloud environment. Actually Unity XT storage array is mid-range storage array family but this family is capable for enterprise workloads. Enterprise businesses needs protection and needs business continuity solutions. Typically, mid-range storage array has no native business continuity solution but Unity XT offers Unity XT Metro Node as business continuity solution.

EMC Unity 3

Data Center / Data Storage / News

Dell EMC Unity OE 5.0.2.0.5.009

EMC has released new upgrade file for Unity family (5.0.2.0.5.009) but I couldn’t find Release Notes link till now. Seems, the upgrade file is contains some minor fixes and security fixes as well. (Now I know that some issues were major!) The file size is as big as previous releases, but as I know, the below security issues have been fixed on this release. (Thanks to “derWolle“, I don’t know him but he has read the post and sent me the link of release notes: https://support.emc.com/docu97010_Dell-EMC-Unity-Family-5.0.2.0.5.009-Release-Notes.pdf?language=en_US Seems, there is new feature and important fixes: Initially Configuring your Unity syste: When initially configuring your system, you will need to reset the default password whether you are using the Unisphere UI, REST API, SMI-S, Service Commands, or CLI. Support for new Power Supply Unit (PSU): Unity Operating Environment 5.0.2.0.5.009 contains updated firmware to support the new PSU part number 071-000-208-XX. The below security issues have been addressed and 21 technical issue which opened from previous releases have been fixed: bzip2 CVE-2016-3189 CVE-2019-12900                curl CVE-2019-5482 glib2 CVE-2019-13012 libgcrypt CVE-2019-13627 Mozilla-nss, libfreebl3, libsoftokn3   CVE-2019-9811 CVE-2019-11709 CVE-2019-11711 CVE-2019-11712 CVE-2019-11713 CVE-2019-11715 CVE-2019-11717 CVE-2019-11719 CVE-2019-11729 CVE-2019-11730 perl CVE-2018-18311 polkit CVE-2019-6133 python CVE-2018-20852 CVE-2019-9636 CVE-2019-10160  Further Reading...

deduplication 0

Data Center / Data Storage / Operating System / Reviews

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

Data Center / Data Storage

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...

Dell EMC Unity XT 1

Data Storage

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.

VNX Domain - Unverified Systems 2

Data Storage / How To

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

Data Storage

[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

News / Data Storage

[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...