PowerVault MD3260 - persistent monitor cannot reach storage array

Question

I have two PowerVault MD3260's. A few days ago, I received a series of alert messages from one of them about the persistent monitor being unable to reach the indicated storage array, followed by recovery messages. At the time, I was running some processes that were heavily accessing files on this array, so I thought that it was just busy.

Yesterday, I received the same alerts, only fewer, from the other MD3260.

Everything seems to be fine except for these alert messages. The firmware on both units was updated a few months ago, and the website for MD3260 does not list any new drivers that are needed. What could be causing these errors?

This is the error message:

User-Supplied Information
The alert was generated from the Dell Storage Manager Service on
myhostname

Summary
Node ID: xxxxx-MD1
Host IP Address: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
Host ID: myhostname
Event Error Code:  
Event occurred: Jul 29, 2014 9:01:42 PM
Event Message: The persistent monitor running on Host myhostname cannot reach the indicated Storage Array.
Event Priority: Critical
Component Type:  
Component Location:

DELL-Sam L · Answer

Hello schengps,

Can I get you to pull a support bundle from your MD3260 so that I can review it for you & see why you are getting the error? I will send you an email to the email address that is listed in your profile.

Please let us know if you have any other questions

schengps · Answer

I have uploaded the support bundles for both MD3260's that have had this issue.

DELL-Sam L · Answer

Hello schengps,

First off I wanted to thank you for sending over the logs sot that I could review them. I was able to review them & all looks good for both MD3260. The persistent message means that the machine running MDSM cannot contact the array. The persistent monitor is a service that runs on the box. If you have more than one copy of MDSM running on the network that can cause it, if there is a communication loss between the machine running MDSM and the array, that can cause it, if the machine is too busy to contact the array, or the array is too busy to contact the MDSM host machine. There is no real worry about this error as it is similar to a heartbeat signal.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

techuser124 · Answer

I too am having this problem.  This never used to be an issue until I installed the most recent set of Windows updates.  I am using an MD3600i that has been configured for more than 6 months without sending any alerts.  It is suspicious that this would start happening after updates.  Thanks for providing any advice.

PowerVault

PowerVault MD3260 - persistent monitor cannot reach storage array

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