nStor NexStor 4200F Series User manual

USER'S GUIDE
NexStor® 4200F Series
STORAGE SYSTEMS
4200F.book Page 1 Thursday, January 23, 2003 2:47 PM

4200F.book Page 2 Thursday, January 23, 2003 2:47 PM

USER'S GUIDE
NexStor® 4200F Series
STORAGE SYSTEMS
4200F.book Page 1 Thursday, January 23, 2003 2:47 PM

nStor Corporation, Inc.
Restricted Rights and Liability
No part of this manual may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, in whole or part, without prior written permission from
nStor Corporation, Inc.
nStor Corporation, Inc. shall not be liable for any damages or for the loss of any information resulting from the
performance or use of the information contained herein. Your rights to the software are governed by the license
agreement included with any accompanying software. nStor Corporation reserves the right to periodically revise
this manual without notice. Product features and specifications described are subject to change without notice.
For Regulatory information, see Appendix C.
Copyright
nStor
Corporation
, Inc.
6190 Corte Del Cedro Road
Carlsbad, CA 92009
Copyright © 2003 nStor Corporation, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
nStor, AdminiStor, StorView, NexStor, the NexStor logo, the StorView logo, and the nStor logo are trademarks or
registered trademarks of nStor Corporation, Inc.
Other company and product names herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective
companies.
Agency Notes
WARNING: Drives and controller/adapter cards described in this manual should only be installed in UL-listed and CSA
certified computers that give specific instructions on the installation and removal of accessory cards (refer to your
computer installation manual for proper instructions).
ATTENTION: Les lecteurs et cartes contrôleurs décrits ici ne doivent être montés que sur des ordinateurs homologués (UL et
CSA) et livrés avec des manuels contenant les instructions d’installation et de retrait des accessoires. Reportez-
vous au manuel d’installation de votre ordinateur.
SERVICE NOTE: Remove the power cables prior to servicing this equipment.
!
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i
Contents
About this Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v
Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi
1 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
At a Glance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Front Bezel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
AC Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Cooling Fan Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
SES Controller Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Disk I/O Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Host I/O Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
RAID Controllers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Control and Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Status Indicator LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Drive LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Audible Alarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2 Topologies and Operating Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Operating Mode Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Simplex Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Duplex Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Daisy-Chain JBOD Enclosures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Understanding Mirrored Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Alternate Path Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Controller-Controller Nexus (C-C Nexus) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Fibre Channel Media Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
A Word about Clustering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Minimizing Downtime for Maximum Data Availability . . . . . . . . . 37
How Available are Clusters? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Application of Availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
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ii
3 Setup and Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Storage System Detailed Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Installing the Storage System Enclosure into the Rack Cabinet . . 42
Installing the Storage System into the Tower Stand . . . . . . . . . . 45
Completing the Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Operating Mode Configuration and Cabling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Upgrades . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
A Word About LUN Mapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Powering On the Storage System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Powering Off the Storage System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4 Managing and Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Enclosure Component Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Status Indicator LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Drive LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Audible Alarm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
One-Touch Annunciation Configuration Display . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
VT-100 Interface Enclosure Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
SES Commands Debug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Enclosure Fan Speed Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Uploading SES Controller Card Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Uploading RAID Controller Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5 Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
General Enclosure Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Common Fibre Loop/Bus Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Common Problems and Interpreting the LEDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Terminal and COM Port Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Problems During Bootup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
6 Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Removing the Front Bezel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Replacing the Cooling Fans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Replacing a Power Supply . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Replacing a Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Replacing the Disk I/O Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Replacing the Host I/O Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Replacing the SES Controller Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Replacing a RAID Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
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iii
Replacing the Enclosure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
A Technical Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
B Port and Transceiver Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Service Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Null-Modem Cable Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
Optical SFP Transceiver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
C Regulatory Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Compliance Information Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
FCC Class A Radio Frequency Interference Statement . . . . . . . . . 154
Class A Taiwanese Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Class A Japanese Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
CE Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Power Cord Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
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Table of Contents
iv
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v
Preface
About this Manual
Welcome
Congratulations on the purchase of your new NexStor 4200F Series RAID Storage
System from nStor Technologies. The NexStor 4200F Series is a very
high-performance fully fault-tolerant 2 Gb Fibre Channel-to-Fibre Channel
storage system. It’s unique 2U design is optimized to fit in the compact space of
today’s data center rack enclosures and as a deskside tower system.
At its core is the NexStor 4000F JBOD Fibre Channel storage enclosure which
supports up to twelve hot pluggable 1-inch high Fibre Channel disk drives all in a
2U (3.47-inch) form factor enclosure. Full component redundancy is provided
through hot pluggable Disk I/O cards, Host I/O cards, cooling fan module, and
independent power supplies. RAID functionality is provided through hot pluggable
embedded Fibre Channel-to-Fibre Channel RAID Controllers. The NexStor 4200FS
is available in two model configurations, either as a single controller configuration
designed for Stand-Alone topologies or dual controllers configuration for
Active-Active topologies.
Product Identification
Storage Enclosure Number of Controllers Model of Controller
NexStor 4000F
0 JBOD
NexStor 4210F
1 NexStor -Mylex FFx2
NexStor 4220F
2 NexStor r-Mylex FFx2
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About this Manual
Features
vi
This user’s guide is your complete documentation to set up the storage system
hardware, add components, cable the storage system components, replace parts,
and diagnose/repair your system.
For details on software configuration and management, refer to the software
guide included with your system.
Features
The NexStor 4200F Series Storage Systems are designed for mission critical
applications requiring the highest performance with uncompromised data
reliability, such as mid-range and enterprise server storage, while maintaining
exceptionally high throughput. The storage system is ideally suited for high
bandwidth data intensive applications, such as electronic commerce, digital
video, CAD, seismic research, digital pre-press, 3-D imaging, and SAN
environments.
The following are major features of the NexStor 4200F Series Storage Systems:
■
2 Gb Fibre Channel-to-Fibre Channel storage system enclosure.
■ Hot pluggable FC-to-FC RAID Controllers.
■
Hot pluggable disk drives, 12 per enclosure.
■
Hot pluggable cooling fan modules and power supplies.
■ SES Enclosure management includes onboard environmental monitoring.
■
Designed to fit standard 19-inch rack enclosures and a deskside tower.
■
Front panel LEDs provide notifications of system component status, and
logical and physical drive status.
■ Transparent failover/failback with multiple target ID support using dual
hot-pluggable RAID controllers.
■
Operating system independence – no special software or drivers required.
■
Dual 2 Gb per second Fibre Channel host ports. Fabric ports are optimized
with full duplex operations and autonegotiate features.
■ Dual 2 Gb per second disk side channels for high performance, failure
resilient paths to the drives. Full duplex operations optimize disk channels..
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