MD3000 SMcli errors

[dave.lawson]

I've been trying to muddle through the SMcli configuration of an MD3000 for the last few days and I've been consistently stymied by this issue.  I at least strongly want SMcli exclusive configuration because, obviously, the unit will be running headless and it's going to be a pain to get an X server on it and get connected.

Everything goes fine right up until the point where I try to configure host ports, then I run into this error:

create hostPort identifier="50022191a00c0500" userLabel="das-head1-0" host="das-head1" hostType="Linux";

An internal error, error code 12, has occurred.  This is possibly due to initialization problems when loading the necessary internal files.  Please check your installation of SMclient. If problems continue to persist, re-install SMclient.

SMcli failed.

The interesting twist to this is if I create ONE host port through the MD Storage Manager GUI, then try that command again, it succeeds. I've tried dumping the configuration after everything's set up through the GUI and then piping that into SMcli and that fails with the same error.  Has anyone else seen this?  Or, maybe, is a Dell engineer watching who knows what this is?

[dzenz]

The "host" parameter has to be specified when creating a host port so that the array knows what host container to put it in.

I have an alternate suggestion that greatly simplifies creating hosts and which will generally work on any configuration as host port identifiers (WWIDs), which are unique, do not have to be specified.

accept storageArray pendingTopology allHosts

This command will automatically create all of the hosts along with the associated WWIDs of each host. The only requirements are that the proper powering sequence of storage array first followed by the attached servers is followed as well as no existing host configuration (the latter is a general rule but doesn't always apply).

What happens is that on startup or restart the SMagent will push it's information to the array and the array holds it in a "pending" area until it's accepted. This SMcli command is the analogous to the GUI Configure Host Access (Automatic) operation.

[dave.lawson]

The "host" parameter has to be specified when creating a host port so that the array knows what host container to put it in.

Right, I create the host, then the create hostPorts command specifies the host.  If you remove that parameter, it fails with a different error message.

However!  Your suggestion works perfectly, than you SO much.

I'd still love to know what's causing that error, but it's much less urgent now, thanks again.

[dzenz]

Ok, let's dig into this. 

In your original post you seem to have indicated that you created the configuration through the GUI, saved the configuration into a script file (e.g. save storageArray configuration) and then played back that script file, encountering the same error.

Is this correct?

[dave.lawson]

Yes, that's correct.  I created a configuration via the GUI identical to the one I've been trying to create via SMcli, saved the configuration out, cleared the configuration, then played back the saved config and got the same error.

I've, frankly, tried about every combination I can think of to expose the difference between how it's behaving in the GUI and how it's behaving in the CLI and haven't been able to find anything yet.

[dave.lawson]

Incidentally, the method you described earlier worked perfectly the first time I tried it, and then later while making sure the process was repeatable, I cleared the storage array config, re-kickstarted the management host, ran through the process again, and it didn't work.  Told me there were no pending host topology changes to apply.  I think that's related to the array being managed via out of band management rather than the in band manager, so there's no host topology being pushed from the agent, but I'm really not sure.

[dzenz]

>  I cleared the storage array config, re-kickstarted the management host, ran through the process again, and it didn't work.

The process I described is independent of how the storage array is being managed.

Going back to the process, "What happens is that on startup or restart the SMagent will push it's information to the array and the array holds it in a "pending" area until it's accepted.". 

To clarify, the SMagent is on the host server, so to reproduce this process needs to be re-kicksarted. This typically is only applicable during initial deployment and following the recommended power-on process will.

[dave.lawson]

Right.  I'm in the process of rekicking the host and trying it again, but the information didn't appear to be pushed from SMagent when I tried it yesterday.  Like I said, the error I got said there were no pending topology changes to be accepted.  We'll see how it flies this time through.

[dzenz]

> I've, frankly, tried about every combination I can think of to expose the difference between how it's behaving in the GUI and how it's behaving in the CLI and haven't been able to find anything yet.

Dave - I've sent you a request. Please review.

[WojciechTurek]

Hi, did you get to the bottom of this? I am getting exactly the same problem when trying to reply configuration file.