VNXe: How to properly reboot the Storage Processor (User Correctable)

Summary: How to properly reboot a storage processor from Unisphere and CLI.

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Instructions

Rebooting a Storage Processor (SP) can safely resolve minor issues with the SP, its components, or the system software on the SP. You can also reboot a healthy SP that is in Service Mode to return it to Normal Mode. You can reboot an SP from the Service System page.
 
Caution:
When an SP reboots it stops servicing I/O to hosts. All NAS servers on the SP fail over to the other SP, if it is healthy. By default, when the SP has finished rebooting, the NAS servers fail back to it. If the Failback Policy is disabled, all NAS servers on it do not fail back automatically and remain on a single SP. Performance can be degraded significantly when all NAS servers reside on a single SP. To fail back the NAS servers manually, see Manually fail back NAS servers.
 
To reboot an SP:

Unisphere Procedure 
  1. Click Settings > Service System.
  2. Enter the service password to access the Service System page.
  3. Under System Components, expand Storage System.
  4. Select the SP you want to reboot.
  5. Under Service Actions, select Reboot.
  6. Click Execute service action to start the reboot process.
  7. In the confirmation dialog box, click OK.
  8. Wait 10 minutes while the SP reboots.
  9. With the SP selected, look at the Mode field, which displays Normal Mode to indicate that the SP is in Normal Mode.
By default, the Service System page refreshes every 60 seconds to display the current status and mode of the SP.
 
CLI Procedure
  1. Log in to CLI using SSH from PuTTY or another console using the management IP.
  2. Use the username service.
  3. Type the service password.
  4. You are logged into the primary storage processor. If you need to reboot the peer storage processor, you can type ssh peer.
  5. Once you have verified you are on the correct storage processor, issue the reboot command svc_shutdown -r
  6. If you are rebooting the primary storage processor, you lose CLI access until management restarts.
  7. If you are rebooting the peer storage processor, then you can issue the exit command before the storage processor reboots, and then use the ping peer command to monitor when the storage processor comes back online. Once you get a ping return, it takes a few minutes for all the services to start.

Manually fail back NAS servers
When a storage processor (SP) has an issue, or is rebooting, the NAS servers on it fail over to the other SP. After an SP is fixed, by default, all NAS servers that have failed over, failback to the SP. If the NAS servers do not fail back automatically, or the Failback Policy is disabled, you can do a manual failback.

To manually fail back all NAS servers:

Procedure
  1. Click Settings > Management Settings and select the General tab.
  2. Under Failback Policy, click Failback Now.

Results
All NAS servers that failed over, fail back to their original storage processor.

Additional Information


 

Affected Products

VNXe3200

Products

VNXe1 Series, VNXe2 Series, VNXe3200
Article Properties
Article Number: 000022499
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 16 Sept 2025
Version:  6
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