PowerFlex 3.x: Device Attributes Are Not Available in UI

When looking for Device Attributes in the Advanced tab under the Device details, all fields are shown as "N/A": 

smartd(8) is running, as expected, and SMART sampling is working as expected as well (a random disk was tested in the outputs below):

[root@test01 ~]# systemctl status smartd
● smartd.service - Self Monitoring and Reporting Technology (SMART) Daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/smartd.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu 2024-02-29 12:00:24 CST; 2 months 0 days ago
     Docs: man:smartd(8)
           man:smartd.conf(5)
 Main PID: 26261 (smartd)
    Tasks: 1
   Memory: 1020.0K
   CGroup: /system.slice/smartd.service
           └─26261 /usr/sbin/smartd -n -q never
Feb 29 12:00:25 test01 smartd[26261]: Device: /dev/bus/0 [megaraid_disk_15], opened
Feb 29 12:00:25 test01 smartd[26261]: Device: /dev/bus/0 [megaraid_disk_15], [SEAGATE  ST1200MM0099     ST3...20 TB
Feb 29 12:00:25 test01 smartd[26261]: Device: /dev/bus/0 [megaraid_disk_15], is SMART capable. Adding to "m...list.
Feb 29 12:00:26 test01 smartd[26261]: Device: /dev/bus/0 [megaraid_disk_16], opened
Feb 29 12:00:26 test01 smartd[26261]: Device: /dev/bus/0 [megaraid_disk_16], [SEAGATE  ST1200MM0099     ST3...20 TB
Feb 29 12:00:26 test01 smartd[26261]: Device: /dev/bus/0 [megaraid_disk_16], is SMART capable. Adding to "m...list.
Feb 29 12:00:26 test01 smartd[26261]: Device: /dev/bus/0 [megaraid_disk_17], opened
Feb 29 12:00:26 test01 smartd[26261]: Device: /dev/bus/0 [megaraid_disk_17], [SEAGATE  ST1200MM0099     ST3...20 TB
Feb 29 12:00:26 test01 smartd[26261]: Device: /dev/bus/0 [megaraid_disk_17], is SMART capable. Adding to "m...list.
Feb 29 12:00:26 test01 smartd[26261]: Monitoring 0 ATA/SATA, 16 SCSI/SAS and 0 NVMe devices
Hint: Some lines were ellipsized, use -l to show in full.
 
 
[root@test01 ~]# smartctl -H /dev/sdp -d megaraid,14
smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [x86_64-linux-3.10.0-862.14.4.el7.x86_64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.smartmontools.org__;!!LpKI!l_EQHSZQfuw8LzmCchDHpLq7RiZjHuui5lLT4WbBcCBAWWAN2kKy5e6Oo1b6Pf8JXR5s_7u0uQ6uEHpS$ [smartmontools[.]org]=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART Health Status: OK
 
 
[root@test01 ~]# smartctl -i /dev/sdp -d megaraid,14
smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [x86_64-linux-3.10.0-862.14.4.el7.x86_64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://www.smartmontools.org__;!!LpKI!l_EQHSZQfuw8LzmCchDHpLq7RiZjHuui5lLT4WbBcCBAWWAN2kKy5e6Oo1b6Pf8JXR5s_7u0uQ6uEHpS$ [smartmontools[.]org]=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Vendor:               SEAGATE
Product:              ST1200MM0099
Revision:             ST33
Compliance:           SPC-4
User Capacity:        1,200,243,695,616 bytes [1.20 TB]
Logical block size:   512 bytes
Formatted with type 2 protection
LU is fully provisioned
Rotation Rate:        10000 rpm
Form Factor:          2.5 inches
Logical Unit id:      0x5000c500ce30249f
Serial number:        WFK62AEQ
Device type:          disk
Transport protocol:   SAS (SPL-3)
Local Time is:        Tue Jun 11 13:17:06 2024 CST
SMART support is:     Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is:     Enabled
Temperature Warning:  Disabled or Not Supported

The Light Installation Agent (LIA) configuration file is supposed to have the Metadata Polling mechanism enabled, that is set to '1':

[root@test01 ~]# grep "metadata_polling" /opt/emc/scaleio/lia/cfg/conf.txt
tgt_dev__enable_metadata_polling=1

The Storage Data Server (SDS) configuration file is supposed to have the Metadata Polling mechanism enabled, that is set to '1':

[root@test01 ~]# grep "metadata_polling" /opt/emc/scaleio/sds/cfg/conf.txt
tgt_dev__enable_metadata_polling=1

The Meta Data Manager (MDM) configuration file is supposed to have the Metadata Polling mechanism enabled, that is set to '1' or nonexistent, by default:

The parameter is existent and enabled.

[root@test01 ~]# grep "metadata_polling" /opt/emc/scaleio/mdm/cfg/conf.txt
mdm_enable_dev_metadata_polling=1

The parameter is nonexistent and enabled.

[root@test01 ~]# grep "metadata_polling" /opt/emc/scaleio/mdm/cfg/conf.txt

NOTE: The MDM parameter name differs from the LIA and SDS for Metadata Polling.

Impact: Lack of visual information. Scli commands show all the expected information. 

The existing communication capabilities between components were used to enable the feature of sampling disks and exporting their metadata to the UI.

The LIA component operates on each system node and uses smartd to extract metadata from the devices. It forwards this data to the SDS, which stores and processes the disk information.

The MDM requests metadata from the SDS nodes at set intervals to enable the Presentation Server (PS) to populate it in the Device Attributes section under the Advanced tab within the Device details.

If any of the components are not functioning properly or are disabled, the entire feature fails to work, and the PS will fill the fields with the default value of "N/A."

For each of the scenarios mentioned above, run the appropriate workaround steps:

smartd is not running

Run the following command to restart the service and validate that it is sampling the disks, using the commands mentioned above:

[root@test01 ~] systemctl restart smartd

LIA - Metadata Polling mechanism disabled

Add the line "tgt_dev__enable_metadata_polling=1" to the file or change the value to '1'.

Restart the LIA process, by running a "pkill lia" command.

Next, restart the Presentation Server (PS) and verify that the Device Attributes are repopulated with real data:

[root@test_ps ~]# systemctl restart mgmt-server.service

SDS - Metadata Polling mechanism disabled

Add the line "tgt_dev__enable_metadata_polling=1" to the file or change the value to '1'.

Put the SDS into Instant Maintenance Mode (IMM), restart the SDS process by running a "pkill sds" command, and take the SDS out of IMM.

Next, restart the PS and verify that the Device Attributes are repopulated with real data:

[root@test_ps ~]# systemctl restart mgmt-server.service

MDM - Metadata Polling mechanism disabled

If the parameter is existent and not enabled, change the value to '1' or better remove the parameter completely, as it should be, by default:

1. If there are standby MDMs, then start with them, remove the line from the conf file, and run "pkill mdm."
2. Next, on the TB MDMs, one by one (wait 4-5 seconds before moving to the next), remove the line from the conf file and run "pkill mdm."
3. Next, on the SMDMs, one by one (wait 4-5 seconds before moving to the next), remove the line from the conf file and run "pkill mdm."
4. Next, switch over between the PMDM and one of the SMDMs.
5. Remove the line for the conf file and run "pkill mdm" on the old PMDM which is now an SMDM. 

Next, restart the PS and verify that the Device Attributes are repopulated with real data:

[root@test_ps ~]# systemctl restart mgmt-server.service

Impacted Version

PowerFlex 3.5 and higher