Dell EMC Metro node 7.0.1 Release Notes

For 7.0.1 and later, the systems can now rely on a component that is known as metro node Witness. The Witness is an optional component that is designed to be deployed in the customer environments where regular preference rule sets are insufficient to provide seamless zero or near-zero RTO storage availability in the presence of site disasters, metro node cluster and inter-cluster failures.

Support for Managed File Transfer (MFT) feature allows support staff to easily push files to the customer systems. It is useful to deliver patches or hot-fixes to a customer system without a need of multihop file transfer process (manual). For all the required support scripts or any patch-related files, the technical support team performs manual transfer to the FTP site of customer. These files are pushed to the remote node from the FTP site. There is no ability to audit this type of system activity on the system, so SMEs investigating customer issues must infer that certain hot-fixes have or have not been applied to a system through checking for the side-effects of those fixes. It wastes time of the SME and delays time-to-resolution for the customer.

The command is independent of system configuration or support-assisting configuration process. However, to use this feature, system configuration and support-assist configuration should be in place.

List of commands supported :

• Download Command : Files can be downloaded either from the support-assist gateway, or from another node in the system.
• Synchronize Command : Synchronize all nodes to the set of files present on the node where the command is issued.

Configure MFT: To download the files from support-assist gateway, or from another node in the system, run the command /opt/dell/vplex/bin/supportassist_mft.

Configure Direct Connectivity

To enable SupportAssist with direct connectivity, a user changes the UseGateways option in SupportAssist gateways to false. For this feature, the DNS configuration is mandatory on the cluster. The DNS configuration is optional configuration, therefore it is done in the last phase of the system configuration. After the system configuration, DNS can be configured independently.

Command to configure DNS

To configure DNS on the cluster, run the command vplex_system_config -interview --dns-config.

All the nodes of the first upgraders are upgraded to new software, and when it is stable and hosts recognize it, then the set of nodes in the second upgraders are upgraded.

The NDU consist of the following steps:

• service@director-1-1-B:~>: To upgrade the software on all the nodes, install the new version of NDU module and tools.
• VPlexcli:/> ndu pre-check: This command runs some pre-checks to verify whether the metro node configuration may have any errors that may prevent the NDU from running.
• From second upgrader: VPlexcli:/> ndu start -u /home/service/vplex-node-upgrade-VPlex-<version>.tar: ndu start triggers on second upgrader and upgrades the nodes of first upgraders.
• From first upgrader: VPlexcli:/> ndu complete: ndu complete upgrades the second upgraders and completes the upgrade procedure.
  • Once the NDU is complete, run the following commands:
    • systemctl start notifications
    • systemctl start kafka

For more details, see the NDU-related documents available on SolVe online at https://solve.dell.com/solve/home/30.

Metro node Local configuration is a two node cluster that provides data protection and nondisruptive data mobility across storage-arrays.

Highlighted features Include:

• Active-Active architecture
• Simple and intelligent Management and Serviceability
  • Embedded management
  • Modern HTML5 UI
• Enterprise Data Services and High Availability
• Block storage support
• Compact 1U form factor for each node

Each metro node consists of:

• Two interdirector 10 GbE ports for data services communication
• Two interdirector 10 GbE ports for storage management communication
• One 10 GbE port for customer network management and administration
• One 10 GbE port for direct service personnel accesses.
• Dual redundant power supplies
• Integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) for server management
  NOTE: The iDRAC is not accessible for customers.

On the notifications tab, there are two alert tabs :

Platform Alerts: You can monitor the status of metro node platform which includes alerts at director level and cluster level. In the Live alerts drop-down, you can view alerts that were created during the last 48 hours.

Hardware Alerts: You can monitor the status of metro node hardware which includes alerts that are generated at hardware level. In the Live alerts drop-down, you can view alerts that were created during the last 48 hours.

In the details of each alert, additional information can be found including the Severity, Message, Corrective Action, and other properties. This information is useful in troubleshooting scenarios and allows users to remediate issues seen on the system.

When alerts are no longer relevant or are resolved, the system automatically clears the alerts with no user intervention. This action ensures that cleared alerts are hidden from the default view so that only relevant issues are displayed. Acknowledging an alert does not indicate that the issue is resolved. Acknowledged alerts can be viewed as well through table filtering options.

Configure Alerts

Under settings, go to Notifications. The user can also configure alerts at various levels.

• Enable or disable alert at alert condition ID level
  • For example: 0x30004 is the condition ID for Storage Volume Unreachable alert and if the customer wants to disable this alert, select that particular alert and disable 0x30004. With it, whenever metro node issues 0x30004, it will not be listed in UI, and also a dial home event will not be generated.
• Configure alerts at component level
  • When the user clicks Configure notifications button, then side panel shows the options to disable the alerts at components level. For example: If System Volume is disabled, then whenever metro node presses any system volume-related alerts, it will not be listed in UI, and also a dial home event will not be generated.