Well, it’s about time, battery normally last for 3 years, this is the first time I encountered such error and the 2nd time EQL went wrong, the first time was due to a failed disk.
event: 28.4.31
time: Sun Jul 14 21:43:29 2013
NVRAM battery failed. Power failure could result in loss of data.
Critical health conditions exist.
Correct immediately before they affect array operation.
NVRAM battery failed and must be replaced.
There are 1 outstanding health conditions. Correct these conditions before they affect array operation.
Active control module cache is now in write-through mode. Array performance is degraded.
Note the Write Latency shoots up right away because Write Back Mode is disabled although you can force to use Write Back mode.
Called Dell Pro-Support, will replace by tomorrow, cause I don’t feel doing it tonight.
Update: 7/15/2013
Dell’s engineer came to the site this afternoon and fixed the problem within 5 minutes, simply swapped out the active controller card (where NVRAM battery failed), and almost right away the standby controller kicked in, I noticed only 2 ping were lost in both grpadmin and vm IP address during the controller switch over. Finally the engineer said I’m probably the first one in Hong Kong who had a battery failed in EQL, most of the problems are related to disk, the power supply, then controller card.
I can’t think of any reason anyone don’t like this kind of high redundancy with easy maintenance built in mind! Bravo! Equallogic!
The EQL GM Java Applet stays as blank screen for about 2 minutes and then throws an exception as shown in the picture below, simply ignore the error then group manager login screen will appear agin. This problem doesn’t occur if I launch the EQL GM in web browser, strange!
Seemed quite a few having the same problem on Dell’s EQL forum after upgrading to Java 7 Update 25, Yes, we selected to upgrade because there is a serious security hole in Java 6.
This is the warning showing in Firefox Add-On Page.
The other problem is after I clean the Java Cache, my EQL Group Manager icon on desktop has also gone, does anyone know how to recreate such icon? I don’t want to re-install HIT for Windows again just for getting the icon back for sure.
Just received an alert from Equallogic this morning regarding hard disk firmware update.
Dell has made improvements in the drive error handling routines of EqualLogic array firmware over the course of the last few years and has worked closely with its drive manufacturers to improve the error handling routines of the hard drives.
We have released the newest version of hard disk drive firmware, EC04, for the below listed 7200RPM based 1TB, and 2TB drives shipped on the PS4100E, PS6100E, PS6110E, and the PS6110E arrays
Toshiba 7200 RPM NL-SAS MK1001TRKB (1 TB)
Toshiba 7200 RPM NL-SAS MK2001TRKB (2 TB)
If you are using arrays with these drives, Dell strongly recommends that you update the hard disk drive firmware.
I recall I’ve received the same kind of alert at least 3-4 times regarding 7,200 RPM SATA/NL-SAS firmware update in the past 3 years and none for SAS. Worst many users reported frequent 7,200 RPM disks failure or false positive. In additional, past EQL’s firmware updates constantly indicate there were problems with error detection or false positive of the 7,200 RPM disks. So I think this does provide you a clear picture how reliable those slower disks can be. Now with disks moving into 4TB each, I don’t think it’s pleasant scenario to see one of these failed.
The good thing is Equallogic is always working closely with the disk vendor to improve its reliability over the years. That’s why we see Improved “hard drive monitoring intelligence with an advanced predictive reliability algorithm” has been built into it’s latest firmware again.
We have released recommended software updates for EqualLogic PS Series Arrays: Firmware versions 6.0.5 and 5.2.9, which include key maintenance fixes. Notably, the v6.0.5 release includes recent improvements to hard drive monitoring intelligence with an advanced predictive reliability algorithm. This algorithm is designed to help preserve overall system reliability and long-term performance by proactively identifying drives which are at risk for failure, copying their data, and allowing you to safely replace them. In a small percentage of storage arrays, this process will occur shortly after the array firmware is updated. More details are included in the release notes. Version 6.0.5 also removes a false error warning that appeared on some arrays following drive replacement, and includes other fixes.
We recommend that you move to the v6 firmware stream and adopt v6.0.5. However, for customers staying on the 5.x code stream, we have released v5.2.9 which includes the drive reliability algorithm mentioned above and additional fixes.
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