symdev show -sid throws "The specified RA group is not valid"

Dreamer,

My guess is that the remote DMX you're seeing in your SYMAPI database is a "ghost" -- there was likely an SRDF relationship between these two arrays at one time, but it has since been removed. Perhaps SRDF was used to migrate data from the DMX-3 to the VMAX, and the DMX-3 has since been decommissioned.

Does a "symrdf -sid ping" succeed?

If you can confirm that the DMX-3 no longer exists, or is no longer in an SRDF relationship with the local VMAX, then you can delete and rebuild the SYMAPI database to get rid of the "ghost" DMX. Just rename the symapi_db.bin file to something else (e.g. symapi_db.bak), and recreate a new one with the "symcfg discover" command. Keep in mind that any info that if you're not using GNS, local device groups will not be moved to the new SYMAPI DB. You can export/import them with the symdg/symcg export/import commands.

Thanks,

- Sean

Hi Sean,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Looks like SRDF relationship is in-tact between local VMAX and remote DMX. I am able to ping both the arrays.

And I am also able to get the device list (symdev list –sid ). However I am unable to create thin device on (fails with an error ‘ The operation is not supported to Symmetrix Systems two (or more) hops away’).

Please see below for the cmd details.

C:\Program Files\EMC\SYMCLI\bin>symrdf -sid ping

Successfully pinged (Locally) Symmetrix ID:

C:\Program Files\EMC\SYMCLI\bin>symrdf -sid ping

Successfully pinged (Remotely) Symmetrix ID:

C:\Program Files\EMC\SYMCLI\bin>symconfigure.exe -sid -file add_new_unboundtdevs.cmd commit

Execute a symconfigure operation for symmetrix (y/ ) ? y

A Configuration Change operation is in progress. Please wait...

    Establishing a configuration change session...............Failed.

    Error occurred while Starting

    The operation is not supported to Symmetrix Systems two (or more) hops away

The configuration change session has failed.

C:\Program Files\EMC\SYMCLI\bin>type add_new_unboundtdevs.cmd

create dev count=1, size=1 GB

emulation=FBA, config=TDEV;

Best Regards!

Thanks Sean - that helps. That should give me quick start as i am able to get to the RDF groups. i will try to look in detail to identify the invalid 'RA group' and see if i can figure it out.

Regards!

Dreamer,

Looks like the DMX doesn't have a direct SRDF relationship with the VMAX; it is more than one SRDF hop away. So the VMAX your working on has an SRDF relationship with at least one of two VMAX/SE's you pasted in a previous post, and at least one of those VMAX/SE's has an SRDF relationship with the DMX. You should be able to execute the command from a SYMAPI server that's attached to the VMAX/SE that has an SRDF relationship with the DMX, or from the DMX itself -- but not from the VMAX, which is two "SRDF hops" away from the DMX.

You can list all of the RDF Groups (and their partner arrays) with the 'symcfg -sid xxx list -rdfg all' command.

Thanks,

- Sean

Dreamer,

To list the devices in the group, try 'symrdf -sid xxx list –rdfg '.

To remove the group — assuming it's dynamic, and not static — you'll first have to execute 'symrdf deletepair' operations on all of the pairs in the group (and you may need to use half_deletepair if the remote array is permanently unreachable), and then you can run a symrdf removegrp to tear down the group (and if the remote array is permanently unreachable, you'll need to use the –symforce option).

If it's a static group, removing it will require a bin change. The flags in the 'symcfg –sid xxx list –rdfg all' output will tell you whether it's static or dynamic. Hard to tell in your output excerpt, since the output is edited and in a proportional font…

Thanks,

- Sean

Hi Sean,

As suggested I have used 'symcfg -sid xxx list -rdfg all' and it enumerated bunch of existing RDF groups. However three out of them don't have any information w.r.t remote side (RA-Group or SymmID) – so those should be the invalid groups that the is complaining about. It’s easy to identify once I know which command to execute – thanks to you

Now, I tried to list the devices in existing RDF groups, but couldn't figure it out how to do it. Basically, I tried to query for devices by passing group name and without passing group name as well – please see below cmds. And Symm also says that there are not device groups. So, QA might have created these using device files.

So, can you please let me know how to do following things?

1. How to get to the devices information of the RDF groups? (I want to know, as I want to make sure the device that’s throwing invalid RA group (symdev.exe show Dev01 -sid {remoteDmxSystemSid}) belongs to one of these groups.

   2. How to delete the RDF group?

Excerpt from the output of 'symcfg -sid xxx list -rdfg all'

                S Y M M E T R I X   R D F   G R O U P S

    Local                  Remote                                Group                RDFA Info

--------------         ---------------------             -------------------------- ---------------

            LL                                                                                Flags   Dir Flags Cycle

RA-Grp  (sec) RA-Grp  SymmID       T Name    LPDS CHT       Cfg CSRM time  Pri

--------------         --------------------- ----------------------------------- ----- ----- ---

1 ( 0)    10   -                                            - S   foo1       .X.. ..X        - -IS-     30 33

2 ( 1)    10   -                                           - S   foo2       .X.. ..X         - -IS-     30 33

27 (1A)    10 82 (51) D test         XX.. ..X       F-S -IS-     15 33

C:\Program Files\EMC\SYMCLI\bin>symrdf query -rdfg 27

Missing device group or composite group.

C:\Program Files\EMC\SYMCLI\bin>symrdf query -rdfg 27 -g test

The device group does not exist

C:\Program Files\EMC\SYMCLI\bin>symdg list

No Symmetrix device groups were found

Best Regards,

Hi Sean,

The invalid group '2', has no RDF devices and it is a static rdf group (sorry for the formatting) - this should be the culprit. In fact, SMI-S provider specifically complained about this group.

Please see below commands for details.

>>>> If it's a static group, removing it will require a bin change.

Can you please elaborate the above statement to delete static RDF group? i quickly looked in cmd reference didnt find any thing related to bin change

C:\Program Files\EMC\SYMCLI\bin>symrdf removegrp -sid xxx-rdfg 2 -nop

Dynamic RDF group modifications are not allowed on static RDF groups

C:\Program Files\EMC\SYMCLI\bin>symrdf -sid xxx list -rdfg 2

Symmetrix ID: xxxx

There are no RDF devices that are configured in this Symmetrix.

Thank you for the help!

Regards.

Just to add to Sean's details and for your FYI.

If you want to check out information about SRDF groups (even if they don't have devices), you can use the following CLI command:

'symcfg list -rdfg ALL -sid '.  You can use the -detail if you like which will give you alot of information about the group.  You can also filter with the -dynamic or -static options.

Hope this helps,

Chris

thanks Chris. FYI - for time being we used 'symavoid' to avoid discovering dmx which is two hops away, and unblocked QA. As per Sean and your suggestion we are going to clean up these groups in coming weeks.

regards!