5Revision: A04 Release Date: September 2021 Dell EMC PowerStore Release Notes Release Version: 2.0.0.0 (Build: 1397847) Release Type: Major (MA) Contents Revision History................................................................................................................................................................ 1 Product Description ..........................................................................................................................................................
Product Description The ground-breaking Dell EMC PowerStore achieves new levels of operational simplicity and agility, utilizing a containerbased architecture, advanced storage technologies, and intelligent automation to unlock the power of your data. Based on a scale-out architecture and hardware-accelerated advanced data reduction, PowerStore is designed to deliver enhanced resource utilization and performance that keeps pace with application and system growth.
o New AppsOn hypervisor-based deployment, allowing to run Virtual Machines on the same appliance as storage without the need for an external server PowerStore deployment models and configurations Deployment Model Model numbers Support Configurations PowerStore T 500T Storage-centric deployments. 1000T Both block (storage area networks (SAN)) and file (network attached storage (NAS)) services are supported with PowerStore T deployments.
Functional Area Feature Description Summary of Benefits ConnectivityNetworks I/O modules can be added to deployed PowerStore model clusters to expand the amount of usable front-end ports. Adding I/O modules post deployment must be performed by your service provider. More bandwidth for better network performance. This feature provides the ability to relay audit logs to the remote server for monitoring PowerStore. PowerStore can send audit log messages to two remote servers.
Functional Area Feature Description Summary of Benefits Hardware The PowerStore 500T model is introduces with this release and serves block and file services, and the software stack is deployed directly on the system. The PowerStore 500T hardware consists of a 2U, two node storage solution. Between the front and rear of the enclosure, a mid-plane distributes power and signals to all the enclosure components. On the front of the base enclosure, drives connect to the midplane.
Functional Area Feature Description Summary of Benefits Monitoring Provides the ability to measure the performance of iSCSI protocols per IP interface. Enables the user to measure iSCSI performance per IP interface as part of the ongoing management or troubleshooting. Monitoring Provides the ability to identify CPU utilization per node, Provides the ability to identify Volume/VM/vVol affinity.
Functional Area Feature Description Summary of Benefits PowerStore Manager (GUI) PowerStore Manager displays a Cluster Time for the PowerStore cluster on the Cluster Properties page under Settings. The time that is displayed in PowerStore Manager is the system time of the primary node on the primary appliance. The times on the nodes of a cluster are synchronized using a Network Protocol Time (NTP) server by default.
Functional Area Feature Description Summary of Benefits Security The PowerStore hardware provides the following security features for firmware images and the operating system through the enclosure management software on the platform. Provides an additional level of security by implementing a complete security check from the bootloader to the OS.
Functional Area Feature Description Summary of Benefits SupportAssist The Remote Secure Credentials feature within SupportAssist allows authorized Dell EMC service personnel to authenticate to PowerStore without arranging a password with the system’s owner beforehand. This feature is enabled at the cluster level and provides Dell EMC service personnel with temporary access to a PowerStore cluster to respond faster to resolve issues.
Functional Area Feature Description Summary of Benefits Virtualization The internal nodes of a PowerStore X model cluster are visible as ESXi hosts on the Hosts & Host Groups page in PowerStore Manager, allowing mapping of block volumes to these internal ESXi hosts via REST/CLI if needed. By default, AppsON virtual machines leverage PowerStore’s efficient vVol implementation due to its simple nature, design optimizations, and integration within the PowerStore UI.
Functional Area Feature Description Summary of Benefits Virtualization The PowerStore software upgrade for PowerStore X model clusters includes a required ESXi update for the internal nodes of the clusters. The internal nodes of an existing PowerStore X model cluster must be upgraded to VMware ESXi 6.7 P05, Patch Release ESXi670202103001 (Build: 17700523) before the cluster can be upgraded to the latest version of the PowerStore OS.
Functional Area Feature Description Summary of Benefits Virtualization All PowerStore models now support automatic vCenter Server and VASA Provider registration. PowerStore Manager displays the vCenter Server connection status and VASA Provider status on the vCenter Server Connection page.
Changed Features The following functionality has changed. Functional Area Feature Description Summary of Benefits Product versioning Product releases will be identified as Major and Minor releases. Easily identify whether a new release is a major or minor software release. Major releases will be versioned by increasing the first digit of the software version followed by a zero for example the first release is 1.0. Subsequent releases will increase the first digit as follows: 2.0, 3.0.
Issue ID Functional Area Description MDT-305819 Connectivity-Networks The following error occured while trying to map or unmap to the Default Storage Network or remove the Global Storage IP address after upgrading from PowerStore 1.0.x. “Encountered an irrecoverable error during command execution, Reason not_supported (0xE04020040004)” MDT-253220 Connectivity-Networks iSCSI port remains down after retrying an unsuccessful VLAN change.
Issue ID Functional Area Description MDT-242362 Connectivity - Networks When the Intra-Cluster Management (ICM) and Intra-Cluster Discovery (ICD) networks are not available, and IPv6 ICM addresses not pingable, the svc_diag list --info' command will not run on the peer node. The workaround is to run the command on the master node. MDT-266289 Data Protection On the destination cluster pre-NDU (non-disruptive upgrade) steps pause all the replication sessions.
Issue ID Functional Area Description MDT-231279 Hardware Upon issuing managed shutdown to one of the storage controllers, in rare cases the unmanaged shutdown (reboot) might occur instead. MDT-247447 Hardware In some cases of node reboot due to kernel panic we are unable to root cause the issue because the kernel dump does not complete in time allowed. This is because we prioritized fast reboot over diagnosable materials. Timing of this process is under review.
Issue ID Functional Area Description MDT-205619 Hardware During a node replacement procedure if the node is inserted into the chassis and powers on without the embedded module inserted or properly seated, the node will enter service mode and requires service engagement for recovery. This change does not eliminate the error condition or the need to take special recovery steps, however, the firmware was updated to simplify the process.
Issue ID Functional Area Description MDT-238657 Install or Upgrade The system shows an alert in case of the issues with the connection to the vCenter. The alert presence won't prevent the NDU from happening in PowerStore 1.x versions. Starting with 2.0 versions, the raised alert of this type will block the NDU.
Issue ID Functional Area Description MDT-259223 Install or Upgrade Upgrade from PowerStore 1.0.3 to 1.0.4 failed because of hung commands. This can happen after an unsuccessful attempt to add or remove an appliance and some commands did not complete and remained on the system. When an upgrade is initiated on the system, it will wait for all running commands to complete to start the upgrade. Since these commands are hung, upgrade will fail after waiting for 30 minutes.
Issue ID Functional Area Description MDT-90271 Data Collection Changing the members of a Volume Group may cause that Volume Group’s performance and capacity metrics to be reported incorrectly at a specific timescale for a specific time period.
Issue ID Functional Area Description MDT-249135 Notifications and Alerts On a full system (90% expanded) an alert is raised indicating a possible data corruption. Alert info: Description :A storage object resource is offline and requires repair in order to bring back online (mapper recovery later) Details: "Major","0x00200f02","A storage object resource is offline and requires repair in order to bring back online.","Appliance","power01-appliance-2".... [AlertNotifier] [INFO] [com.emc.cyclone.contexts.
Issue ID Functional Area Description MDT-159008 PowerStore Manager(GUI) In PowerStore Manager, on the Monitoring > Events tab, the Apply button may remain grayed out after you tried filtering based on a specific start and end date/time. MDT-126148 PowerStore Manager(GUI) Signposts or large tooltips that display detailed information while hovering over values in the Policies tables can be truncated.
Issue ID Functional Area Description MDT-211234 SupportAssist A failed ADD_APPLIANCE job may be seen in the list of jobs. This is an erroneous message. MDT-269756 SupportAssist A regression caused a key to not be properly stored on Node B of the appliance, preventing SupportAssist enablement from working when Node B is the active node. MDT-233572 SupportAssist Node reboot can occur due to the processing of telemetry data being sent to SupportAssist.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-245165 Cluster Creation Each PowerStore appliance is preconfigured with an Administrator user (admin), which has a default factory password. The PowerStore Initial Configuration Wizard will require you to change this password. Once you have changed the admin user password, you must complete the cluster creation process using this appliance as the primary one.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-272385 ConnectivityNetworks Large amounts of external IPv6 traffic exposed to ethernet ports can cause iSCSI performance degradation. To avoid the problem, use separate VLANs for Storage networks and networks that contain a lot of non-storage related IPv6 traffic. Also, route management VLANs and other VLANs with large amounts of IPv6 traffic to dedicated storage ports.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-220994 Data Protection The replication session may not be deleted once a Protection Policy is unassigned from the storage resource. To delete the replication session, do the following: 1. If Protection Policy is not assigned to the storage resource, reassign the same Protection Policy that was previously assigned to the storage resource. 2. Unassign the Protection Policy from the storage resource.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-285058 Hardware In some cases, after the appliance stops servicing IOs and then goes back online, the "stopped servicing IOs" alert is not cleared automatically even though the system is working correctly. If the hosts are connected and the IOs are being serviced, the alert can be ignored. MDT-117061 Hardware When beginning cluster creation, the hardware status is incorrectly indicated as not configured for clustering.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-258429 Import If multiple storage networks are configured on PowerStore and each of these networks has a dedicated Global Storage Discovery IP Address (GSDIP), non-disruptive import fails with Error Code 0xE0301002002C. See Dell knowledge base article 000184766: PowerStore: Non-disruptive Import failure when more than one Global Storage Discovery IP Address is configured.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-239624 Internal Migration When a VM is being deployed from a VM template, vSphere uses the clone operation to provision vVols of the newly created VM. PowerStore internally translates it into space-efficient clones (the same technique used for vVol snapshots). As soon as a Data Path (DP) family size limit exists, a base vVol cannot have more than a certain number (1000) of derivatives (snapshots, space-efficient clones).
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-164726 Install or Upgrade If the Pre-Upgrade Health Check fails during an upgrade from PowerStore OS 1.0 to PowerStore OS 1.0.1 or later, clicking the failed operation link under Recent activities might result in an error because of a localization issue with the event message. None MDT-219735 Install or Upgrade If a PowerStore 1.0.3.0.5.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-249810 Monitoring If the total system capacity is below 10TB, free page tables are not replenished as this would consume space that might not be required and waste free pages. The lack of free pages in the table causes a performance impact for writes. For better performance, more capacity should be added. Make sure that the system capacity is higher than 10TB.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-261523 PowerStore Manager(GUI) If Mozilla Firefox is used to upgrade a PowerStore cluster to PowerStore 2.0, a browser cache issue might occur that causes the names of some buttons and labels to be displayed as object names instead of the correct button or label names. Use a different browser such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge. Or, clear the browser cache in Firefox.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-282118 Security Timeout error occurs when trying to log into PowerStore using the LDAP directory service. Be sure that the Advanced Settings in the PowerStore Manager, Directory Services is configured as follows: PowerStore Manager login is set to timeout after 3 minutes. The LDAP timeout period can be set to a value longer than 3 minutes in PowerStore Manager.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-139095 Storage - File While trying to create or delete a snapshot the following error message was returned: "Addition [or deletion] of NFS Export failed due to [The path [path_name] was not found on the system and cannot be exported.]" Wait for some time and try the action again. MDT-147688 Storage - File SMB clients cannot connect to a NAS server when the NAS server name is more than 15 characters.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-137232 Storage - File Under rare circumstances, NAS services could be disrupted, if the appliance is close to reaching the maximum used data capacity. Take one of the following actions on the appliance on which the NAS service is installed: add capacity to the appliance (for example, add drives or expansion enclosures), increase free capacity on the system (for example, deleting unused snapshots, volumes) , or migrate data off the system.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-280394 SupportAssist If your environment is set up to use the Gateway Connect configuration but is blocking outbound traffic from the Direct Connect host (PowerStore array) connection to Dell support through your gateway server firewall rules, the Remote Secure Credentials feature cannot be enabled properly.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-156507 Virtualization In high scale VMware vSphere environments, where the ESXi hosts and vCenter server are highly loaded (for example, simultaneous powering on a large number of VMs), heartbeat messages sent by the ESXi hosts to the vCenter server may not be delivered in time. When the heartbeat is not received in the 60-second timeout interval, the host is considered as not responding, and the host is marked as disconnected.
Issue ID Functional Area Description Workaround/Resolution MDT-119414 Virtualization Deploying a VM fails, and checking the vvold.log vCenter log file reveals the following messages: Try to deploy the VM again. For more information, see the Dell knowledge base article 000132277: PowerStore: VM deployment can fail with “A general system error occurred.” 2019-11-15T05:24:35.
PowerStore T and PowerStore X model limitations The following limitations exist in PowerStore T and PowerStore X deployment models. Functional Area Description Importing external storage to PowerStore A maximum of 16 import sessions is supported in the Ready-For-Cutover state during an import. In some cases, when several dozen import operations are run back-to-back, intermittent failures of alternate import sessions may occur.
Environment and System Requirements All PowerStore deployment models must meet the following environment and system requirements. Support Matrix For compatibility and interoperability information, see the PowerStore Support Matrix which can be downloaded from the PowerStore Documentation page at: https://www.dell.com/powerstoredocs. Host Configuration requirements For host connectivity to PowerStore appliances, please refer to the Dell EMC PowerStore Host Configuration Guide.
PowerStore X model cluster To view a list of compatible PowerStore OS and ESXi/vCenter versions for PowerStore X model appliances, see the VMware Licensing and Support for PowerStore X table in the PowerStore Simple Support Matrix which can be downloaded from the PowerStore Documentation page at: https://www.dell.com/powerstoredocs. To upgrade your PowerStore X model cluster to PowerStore version 2.0.0.0 (Build: 1397847): 1. Download the latest PowerStore X model software upgrade .
Note: If the ESXi update package ESXi670-202103001.zip has been previously applied to the ESXi hosts on the PowerStore X model cluster, the ESXi update does not need to be performed again during the upgrade to PowerStore version 2.0.0.0. However, the ESXi hosts on the nodes of the cluster must be rebooted to complete the installation of the preupgrade package and node firmware updates before the PowerStore OS is upgraded.
