PowerStore: Pre-upgrade health check (PUHC) to detect 4.0.X metro system with SYM metro volumes stuck in sync DB status

Summary: During a non-disruptive upgrade (NDU) from PowerStoreOS 3.X to 4.0.X, cluster components responsible for managing Metro volumes may become stuck in a synchronization (sync DB) state. Exposure to this issue does not immediately cause impact on the storage environment however it is likely to eventually manifest I/O errors, latency spikes, or unexpected HA events potentially resulting in temporary data access issues. This pre-Upgrade Health Check (PUHC) is designed to identify this condition and provide guidance as needed before an NDU to PowerStoreOS 4.1. ...

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Symptoms

If the PUHC detects one or more metro volumes stuck in a "sync DB", the PowerStore Manager GUI displays:

Job Details screen

 

Impact

While this condition does not immediately affect host-level connectivity, it can eventually lead to performance and availability issues if left unresolved.

Potential impacts include:

  • I/O errors
  • Latency spikes
  • Unexpected high availability (HA) events
  • Temporary host-side data unavailability (DU)


If the issue is carried forward into a subsequent upgrade, resolution may require manual intervention, increasing operational complexity and potentially impacting system availability.

Cause

PowerStore 4.0 introduced an internal synchronization mechanism to support SCSI-3 persistent reservations for Metro volumes.  However, a potential deadlock or race condition during the synchronization process may cause a metro volume to remain stuck in a sync_db mode.

Resolution

A permanent fix to this issue is targeted to be released in PowerStoreOS version 4.1.0.3

Workaround:

In the presence or absence of impacting symptoms, but before an NDU is started, this issue can be remediated with the following steps

  • Use the PowerStore Manager GUI to pause and resume all Metro sessions in small bulks from one side of the metro configuration.  This action prompts the PowerStore to re-align the metro volume state.  Please note that there is no need to pause/resume from both sides of the metro configuration. 
  • From PowerStore Manager (GUI) run PUHC again to confirm that issue is resolved

Please contact technical support if symptoms persist. 

Additional Considerations:

If an NDU has already been started, it is possible that systems may be impacted due to this issue.  Please refer to KB 000328976 - PowerStore: upgrade to PowerStoreOS v4.1 may result in DU for metro volume configurations for additional information.

Additional Information

KB 000214752 - PowerStore: Landing Page for In Market off-release System Health Checks

Affected Products

PowerStore 1000T, PowerStore 1200T, PowerStore 3000T, PowerStore 3200T, PowerStore 5000T, PowerStore 5200T, PowerStore 7000T, PowerStore 9000T, PowerStore 9200T
Article Properties
Article Number: 000346226
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 03 Sep 2025
Version:  1
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