Category Archives: Dell EMC Elect - Page 2

How to expand a LUN on VNX using the CLI

Posted by on November 16, 2018 No comments

Once in a while you come across a storage system that cannot be managed through the GUI or you just want to script or use the CLI to perform management tasks on a VNX. Recently I came across an old VNX2 which GUI wasn’t responding the way I’d like, so I decided to use the CLI instead.

In this particular case I needed to expand a LUN.

First I listed the current size:

naviseccli -h [SPA/B ip#] -user [user] -password [password] -scope [scope] getlun [LUN#]

Then I expanded the LUN to the new size:

naviseccli -h [SPA/B ip#] -user [user] -password [password] -scope [scope] lun -expand -l [LUN#] -capacity [new capacity] -sq [mb/gb/tb/bc]

Pay attention to the number and the prefix! It could be a lot of work if you needed to resize a LUN from 50GB to 60GB and instead GB, you used TB…..

And finally I checked if the new size was actually available:

naviseccli -h [SPA/B ip#] -user [user] -password [password] -scope [scope] getlun [LUN#]

Sometimes CLI is so much easier than the GUI!

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How to remove an offline VNX from a Unisphere domain

Posted by on September 3, 2018 No comments

When decommissioning a VNX, I recently forgot to remove the array from the existing domain. After the VNX was “unracked and unstacked” I saw my mistake and tried to remove it from the domain by using the “add/remove systems” in Unisphere, but the remove-button was grayed out. Even engineering mode didn’t help me.

There is another way to remove unwanted VNXs from a domain! You might have guessed it already, because it’s by using the command line!

First you’ll have to find out what existing VNX is the domain master. This can be done in Unisphere by looking up the current master. Click on “Domains” followed by “Select Domain Master”.

The outcome will show you the list of domain in the domain as well as the current master.

Now you can open a command line box and enter the following command to deleted the unwanted VNX from the domain:

naviseccli -Address -User -Password -Scope 2 domain -remove

Changing the time of Cisco DCNM

Posted by on June 20, 2018 No comments

You’ve just deployed the DCNM appliance and you notice that the reports are displayed in the PDT timezone format. How do you change this into your own timezone?

For this you can log on to the command line of the appliance using SSH.

Check if DNS is working by performing a ping to your favorite NTP server.

To edit your timezone settings use your favorite editor (like “vi”).

vi /etc/ntp.conf

# Use public servers from the pool.ntp.org project.
# Please consider joining the pool (http://www.pool.ntp.org/join.html).
server 0.centos.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 1.centos.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 2.centos.pool.ntp.org iburst
server 3.centos.pool.ntp.org iburst

If you want to use your own NTP server, put a hashtag in front of the 4 example servers in the config file and put your own NTP server in.

# Use public servers from the pool.ntp.org project.
# Please consider joining the pool (http://www.pool.ntp.org/join.html).
ntp.mycompany.com iburst

The “iburst” parameter will try 8 times to collect new time info if necessary, instead of the default, which is only once per interval.

To change the timezone, remove the /etc/localtime file and create a new symbolic link to the file you need.

rm /etc/localtime

The list of location files can be found here:

/usr/share/zoneinfo

for example “Europe/Amsterdam” would be the file /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Amsterdam. You can simply list the available locations by listing the available files in these folders.

ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Amsterdam localtime

Now restart the NTP daemon:

service ntpd restart

And check the current date and time:

root@dcnm01 etc]# date
Tue Jun 19 13:22:06 CEST 2018
[root@dcnm01 etc]# date
Tue Jun 19 13:26:00 CEST 2018
[root@dcnm01 etc]#

Dell Technologies World 2018, here I come!

Posted by on April 18, 2018 1 comment

It’s that time of the year again: Las Vegas time! This year I once again got an invite from Dell EMC to visit this yearly conference. It’s less than two weeks before the event, but I already have a full agenda: from networking with the Dutch in the “Dutch Delegation” to a super secret meeting with the Dell EMC Customer Council and maybe even some interviews!

Remember last year? Well, here’s a quote of mine as a reminder:

Let’s see if we can do some more of that this year 😉

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Cisco DCNM server unresponsive

Posted by on July 17, 2017 2 comments
Cisco MDS

You’re running a DCNM virtual appliance and when you’re trying to log on, it looks like the appliance’s webserver is no longer active.

Connect to the Linux prompt of the appliance and do the following:

Stop DCNM services:

/usr/local/cisco/dcm/dcnm/bin/stopLANSANServer.sh

Open the psql prompt:

/usr/local/cisco/dcm/db/bin/psql dcmdb

log on with root password (user root is assumed)

Type the command:

VACUUM FULL ANALYZE VERBOSE;

This will produce tons of output, but just let it run and eventually it all ends and you just need to start the DCNM services again.

When done, quit the psql prompt:

dcmdb=> \q

Start DCNM services:

/usr/local/cisco/dcm/dcnm/bin/startLANSANServer.sh

Source: cisco.com