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
Using maintenance mode
Enabling maintenance mode prevents SupportAssist from creating support tickets during planned system downtime.
An ME4 Series storage system automatically enters maintenance mode during a user-initiated restart of a controller or during a
firmware update. When the controller restart or firmware update is complete, the ME4 Series storage system automatically exits
maintenance mode.
NOTE: Maintenance mode can also be manually enabled or disabled on an ME4 Series storage system.
Enable maintenance mode
Perform the following steps manually enable maintenance mode on the ME4 Series storage system:
1. Perform one of the following actions to access the SupportAssist options:
● In the Home topic, select Action > System Settings, then click the SupportAssist tab.
● In the System topic, select Action > System Settings, then click the SupportAssist tab.
● In the Welcome panel, select System Settings, then click the SupportAssist tab.
2. Click Enable Maintenance and click Yes on the confirmation panel.
The ME4 Series storage system enters maintenance mode.
Disable maintenance mode
Perform the following steps to manually disable maintenance mode on the ME4 Series storage system:
1. Perform one of the following actions to access the SupportAssist options:
● In the Home topic, select Action > System Settings, then click the SupportAssist tab.
● In the System topic, select Action > System Settings, then click the SupportAssist tab.
● In the Welcome panel, select System Settings, then click the SupportAssist tab.
2. Click Disable Maintenance and click Yes on the confirmation panel.
The ME4 Series storage system exits maintenance mode.
Restarting or shutting down controllers
Each controller module contains a Management Controller processor and a Storage Controller processor. When necessary, you
can restart or shut down these processors for one controller or both controllers.
Restarting controllers
Perform a restart when the PowerVault Manager informs you that you have changed a configuration setting that requires a
restart or when the controller is not working properly.
When you restart a management controller, communication with it is lost until it successfully restarts. If the restart fails,
the management controller in the partner controller module in a dual-controller system remains active with full ownership of
operations and configuration information.
When you restart a storage controller, it attempts to shut down with a proper failover sequence. This sequence includes
stopping all I/O operations and flushing the write cache to disk. At the end, the controller restarts. Restarting a storage
controller restarts the corresponding management controller.
CAUTION:
If you restart both controller modules in a dual-controller system, all users will lose access to the
system and its data until the restart is complete.
NOTE: When a storage controller is restarted, current performance statistics that it recorded are reset to zero, but
historical performance statistics are not affected. In a dual-controller system, disk statistics may be reduced but are
not reset to zero, because disk statistics are shared between the two controllers. For more information, see Viewing
performance statistics.
74 Working in the System topic