Administrator Guide
Table Of Contents
- Dell EMC PowerVault ME4 Series Storage System Administrator’s Guide
- Contents
- Getting started
- New user setup
- Configure and provision a new storage system
- Using the PowerVault Manager interface
- System concepts
- About virtual and linear storage
- About disk groups
- About RAID levels
- About ADAPT
- About SSDs
- About SSD read cache
- About spares
- About pools
- About volumes and volume groups
- About volume cache options
- About thin provisioning
- About automated tiered storage
- About initiators, hosts, and host groups
- About volume mapping
- About operating with a single controller
- About snapshots
- About copying volumes
- About reconstruction
- About quick rebuild
- About performance statistics
- About firmware updates
- About managed logs
- About SupportAssist
- About CloudIQ
- About configuring DNS settings
- About replicating virtual volumes
- About the Full Disk Encryption feature
- About data protection with a single controller
- Working in the Home topic
- Guided setup
- Provisioning disk groups and pools
- Attaching hosts and volumes in the Host Setup wizard
- Overall system status
- Configuring system settings
- Managing scheduled tasks
- Working in the System topic
- Viewing system components
- Systems Settings panel
- Resetting host ports
- Rescanning disk channels
- Clearing disk metadata
- Updating firmware
- Changing FDE settings
- Configuring advanced settings
- Changing disk settings
- Changing system cache settings
- Configuring partner firmware update
- Configuring system utilities
- Using maintenance mode
- Restarting or shutting down controllers
- Working in the Hosts topic
- Working in the Pools topic
- Working in the Volumes topic
- Viewing volumes
- Creating a virtual volume
- Creating a linear volume
- Modifying a volume
- Copying a volume or snapshot
- Abort a volume copy
- Adding volumes to a volume group
- Removing volumes from a volume group
- Renaming a volume group
- Remove volume groups
- Rolling back a virtual volume
- Deleting volumes and snapshots
- Creating snapshots
- Resetting a snapshot
- Creating a replication set from the Volumes topic
- Initiating or scheduling a replication from the Volumes topic
- Manage replication schedules from the Volumes topic
- Working in the Mappings topic
- Working in the Replications topic
- About replicating virtual volumes in the Replications topic
- Replication prerequisites
- Replication process
- Creating a virtual pool for replication
- Setting up snapshot space management in the context of replication
- Replication and empty allocated pages
- Disaster recovery
- Accessing the data while keeping the replication set intact
- Accessing the data from the backup system as if it were the primary system
- Disaster recovery procedures
- Viewing replications
- Querying a peer connection
- Creating a peer connection
- Modifying a peer connection
- Deleting a peer connection
- Creating a replication set from the Replications topic
- Modifying a replication set
- Deleting a replication set
- Initiating or scheduling a replication from the Replications topic
- Stopping a replication
- Suspending a replication
- Resuming a replication
- Manage replication schedules from the Replications topic
- About replicating virtual volumes in the Replications topic
- Working in the Performance topic
- Working in the banner and footer
- Banner and footer overview
- Viewing system information
- Viewing certificate information
- Viewing connection information
- Viewing system date and time information
- Viewing user information
- Viewing health information
- Viewing event information
- Viewing capacity information
- Viewing host information
- Viewing tier information
- Viewing recent system activity
- Other management interfaces
- SNMP reference
- Using FTP and SFTP
- Using SMI-S
- Using SLP
- Administering a log-collection system
- Best practices
- System configuration limits
- Glossary of terms
● Management Controller (MC) log
Each log-file type also contains system-configuration information. The capacity status of each log file is maintained, as well as
the status of what data has already been transferred. Three capacity-status levels are defined for each log file:
● Need to transfer—The log file has filled to the threshold at which content needs to be transferred. This threshold varies for
different log files. When this level is reached:
○ In push mode, informational event 400 and all untransferred data is sent to the log-collection system.
○ In pull mode, informational event 400 is sent to the log-collection system, which can then request the untransferred log
data. The log-collection system can pull log files individually, by controller.
● Warning—The log file is nearly full of untransferred data. When this level is reached, warning event 401 is sent to the
log-collection system.
●
Wrapped—The log file has filled with untransferred data and has started to overwrite its oldest data. When this level is
reached, informational event 402 is sent to the log-collection system.
Following the transfer of a log's data in push or pull mode, the log's capacity status is reset to zero to indicate that there is no
untransferred data.
NOTE: In push mode, if one controller is offline its partner will send the logs from both controllers.
Alternative methods for obtaining log data are to use the Save Logs action in the PowerVault Manager or the get logs
command in the FTP or SFTP interface. These methods will transfer the entire contents of a log file without changing its
capacity-status level. Use of Save Logs or get logs is expected as part of providing information for a technical support
request. For information about using the Save Logs action, see Saving log data to a file. For information about using the FTP or
SFTP interface, see Using FTP and SFTP.
About SupportAssist
SupportAssist provides an enhanced support experience for ME4 Series storage systems by sending configuration and
diagnostic information to technical support at regular intervals.
Technical support analyzes this data and automatically performs health checks. If issues are detected that require attention,
support cases are opened automatically, immediately starting the process to troubleshoot and resolve the issue. This process
often occurs before storage administrators even notice that a problem exists.
If you need help with an issue and need to call technical support, they can access information about your storage system
that was sent by SupportAssist. This feature enables technical support to help you right way, without having to wait for
configuration and diagnostic data to be collected and sent to technical support.
SupportAssist data
The data that SupportAssist sends does not provide technical support with the information that is needed to connect to an ME4
Series array, because passwords are not transmitted.
The configuration and diagnostic information that is sent by SupportAssist includes the following:
● ME4 Series features
● ME4 Series logs
● Hardware inventory including model numbers and firmware versions
● Connectivity status of server, controller, and enclosure ports
● ME4 Series volume attributes like name, size, volume folder, storage profile, snapshot profile, and server mappings
● Controller network configuration
● I/O, storage, and replication usage information
Secure data transmission and storage
SupportAssist transmits data using a secure link. Data is sent using a 2048-bit RSA key over a Hypertext Transfer Protocol with
Secure Socket Layer (HTTPS) session.
The data is stored securely in the SupportAssist database in accordance with the Dell EMC privacy policy. The Dell EMC privacy
policy is available at http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/policies-privacy?c=us&l=en&s=corp .
Enabling SupportAssist does not give technical support the ability to access the array to retrieve information. Data is always
pushed to technical support, never pulled. SupportAssist can be disabled at any time, giving customers complete control over
the transmission of SupportAssist data.
Getting started
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