md3200 reporting attached md1200 dual EMM failures

Question

Hi all,

We have a functional MD3200 with no issues. We had an MD1200 that we were attempting to use with 2012r2 Storage Spaces by directly connecting it to the other ports on our sas6/e controllers. While we could see the drives at one point, after we updated the EMM Firmware to 1.05, we lost contact with the drives and the enclosure gave us a solid amber light on the EMM leds.

We finally gave up on getting it working directly connected, and instead went ahead and cabled it into the MD3200 to daisy chain it and use MDSM to see what we could see.

MDSM is reporting EMM card status: Failed for both 1200 EMMs even though it can read information from them and see some drives. The few of the drives (we removed some others) it sees show in bypass status. I am unsure how to reset the MD1200 so that it will function properly - not sure if it is getting some kind of configuration information from the drives, or where to go from here.

Thanks!

Wes

DELL-Daniel Ca · Answer

Hello, wlazara.

I'm curious how you connected them. It's not clear from what I've read whether you've been using it direct attached for quite some time, or if this is a new setup.

Either way, I would recommend this: Shut down the host, and the MD1200. Wait for 2-3 minutes. Power on the MD1200 and wait for 2-3 minutes. THEN power on the Host, and check for the drives again.

(this is the best config for Windows Storage Spaces)

If you're wanting to attach it as more storage on the back of the MD3200, then I'd recommend the same solution.

Power down Host, MD3200 and the MD1200. Power up the MD1200 and wait a couple minutes. Power up the MD3200 and wait a couple minutes. THEN power up the host, and verify the MDSM see's the drives.

Always remember SAS cables shouldn't be hot swapped / added.

Let me know how that works for you.

wlazara · Answer

Hi Daniel,

Initially we followed the storage spaces guide from Dell and had both the in and out ports connected to the sas 6/e cards in our servers. We were able to see the drives in device manager, but the firmware was out of date. So we updated to firmware 1.05 and that's when the EMM started giving us the amber light.

We then powered the MD1200 off and disconnected it from the servers. We took two cables and connected each MD1200 EMM in port to the out ports on the MD3200, and powered the MD1200 back on.

When we can coordinate a downtime we'll try your method of also powering off the MD3200 so that everything is off. Do you think that will make a difference?

Also, what relationship if any do the drives in the MD1200 have to do with the config? Should we remove all drives before powering things back on?

Thanks!

Wes

wlazara · Answer

Hi Daniel, any thoughts on this?  Thank you!

wlazara · Answer

Hello Daniel, could you help us out?  We removed all drives and power cycled the MD1200 and we're still getting failed on both EMMs.

DELL-Daniel Ca · Answer

Hey, Wes. I sent you an email with a request for a support bundle. Looking forward to getting that from you. Let me know! :)

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md3200 reporting attached md1200 dual EMM failures

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