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Equallogic PS6110X Controller Module battery failure - which controller to pull from SAN?
I have an old equallogic internally running testing - which I don't want to turn off or restart at the moment. Meaning a replace of battery without turning off the SAN:
I have a battery failure, and have a challenge to pick the correct Controller module to pull from SAN, ref Fig 1 and Fig 2 below.
Fig 1. There is a battery failure in Secondary Controller Module/Type14
It does not specify which is the secondary module from the back of the SAN, ref Fig2 below. My thinking was that the secondary module would be the one with no activity: But bottom module shows activity on the ethernet while the top module I connect to via the management port and shows activity on the management port. FYI I pulled the management cable from the top module - and I could not connect to the SAN. It seems both modules are in use? Pull Top Module or Bottom Module for battery replacement? Please advice.
Fig2.
Origin3k
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June 20th, 2021 13:00
You should re-connect the network cable from CM0 and on the switch. Than you can pull the cable on the CM1 and see if the connection fail back to the active CM.
If this happens than its save to pull the CM1 to swap the battery.
Note: A EQL Group needs some minimum of disk space to work and for me it looks like that there is only little space left. If you have deployed SANHQ i expect mail notification about the very low space.
Regards,
Joerg
Origin3k
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June 20th, 2021 13:00
If you click on the status TAB within GroupManager and select "rear view" you can see the topology of the CMs and also the active network ports when hover with the mouse. IIRC the CM0 it the top and CM1 is the bottom one.
There is also a ACT LED which shows which of the two is the active one and which is the standby. On the PS6110 they re-introduced the vertical port failover which can confused the admin. But when there was never be a Switch problem than the NIC ports on the active controller are used.
Regards,
Joerg
dwilliam62
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June 20th, 2021 13:00
Hello,
Yes. As mentioned either Ethernet port can be active. It is switched internally so in the case of a switch or port failure a connection to the active controller will be maintained.
So you can safely remove the passive controller when you swap out the battery.
Regards,
Don
dwilliam62
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June 20th, 2021 06:00
Hello,
Both controllers are not active. Only one will see the drives. However, an ethernet port on the passive can be used by the primary if the the connection on that primary port is lost. I.e. switch port drop, or switch restart. It will vertically failover to the physical port on the passive. So it will appear that both are active.
If you go into the GUI, under Member then Controllers tab. It will show you a picture of the controller and the rear view will allow you to confirm which is active. Then if the battery failure is on the passive you can remove that controller without downtime. If not, then you will need to do a restart to fail over to the passive.
Regards,
Don
paalchristian
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June 20th, 2021 13:00
Thanks for Advice.
I took another printscreen, which seems to show that the bottom module = slot 1 = is the one that has a failed battery. Ref fig 2 above from actual picture from rear of SAN: Even if the ethernet port at the bottom module has active led lights, I can remove it without powering down the SAN?
dwilliam62
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June 21st, 2021 11:00
Hello,
Were you able to get the battery swapped out OK ?
Don
paalchristian
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July 15th, 2021 03:00
Yes. Worked fine.