Storage Class Memory and Emerging Technologies
I mentioned in my earlier post, The Future of Storage Administration, that Flash will continue to dominate the industry and will be embraced by the enterprise, which I believe will drive newer...
View ArticleUsing Cron with EMC VNX and Celerra
I’ve shared numerous shell scripts over the years on this blog, many of which benefit from being scheduled to run automatically on the Control Station. I’ve received emails and comments asking “How do...
View ArticleBest Practices for FAST Cache
I recently received a comment asking for more information on EMC’s FAST Cache, specifically about why increased CPU Utilization was observed after a FAST Cache expansion. It’s likely due to the...
View ArticleUsing the InsightIQ iiq_data_export Utility
InsightIQ includes a very useful data export tool: iiq_data_export. It can be used with any version of OneFS beginning with 7.x. While the tool is compatible with older versions of the operating...
View ArticleDiving in to Isilon SyncIQ and SnapshotIQ Management
In this post I’m going to review the most useful commands for managing SyncIQ replication jobs and SnapshotIQ snapshots on the Isilon. While this will primarily be a CLI administration reference, I’ll...
View ArticleBlockchain and Enterprise Storage
The biggest value of blockchain in enterprise storage will be what it enables, not what it is. While it has yet to be fully embraced by the enterprise, blockchain is well poised to change enterprise...
View ArticleStorage Performance Benchmarking with FIO
Flexible IO tester (FIO) is an open-source synthetic benchmark tool first developed by Jens Axboe. FIO can generate various IO workloads: sequential reads or random writes, synchronous or...
View ArticleData Domain CLI Command Reference Guide
Other CLI Reference Guides: Isilon CLI | EMC ECS CLI | VNX NAS CLI | ViPR Controller CLI | NetApp Clustered ONTAP CLI | Brocade FOS CLI | EMC XTremIO CLI This is a Data Domain CLI Command...
View ArticleDell EMC Unity Unisphere CLI Command Reference Guide (UEMCLI)
This is a list of syntax examples for using uemcli on a Unity array. It covers system management, networking, host management, hardware, storage management, data protection and mobility, events and...
View ArticleEMC XTremIO CLI Reference Guide (XMSCLI)
Other CLI Reference Guides: Isilon CLI | EMC ECS CLI | VNX NAS CLI | ViPR Controller CLI NetApp Clustered ONTAP CLI | Data Domain CLI | Brocade FOS CLI This is a quick reference guide for...
View ArticleNetApp Clustered Data ONTAP Command Line Reference Guide (CDOT CLI)
Other CLI Reference Guides: Isilon CLI | EMC ECS CLI | VNX NAS CLI | ViPR Controller CLI Data Domain CLI | Brocade FOS CLI | EMC XTremIO CLI This is a comprehensive CLI command line reference...
View ArticleA Roundup of Storage Startups
The enterprise storage market has been a hotbed of innovation and entrepreneurship in the last several years. While the storage industry has consolidated with acquisitions (such as HP’s purchase of...
View ArticleEMC ViPR Controller CLI Command Reference
Other CLI Reference Guides: Isilon CLI | EMC ECS CLI | VNX NAS CLI | NetApp Clustered ONTAP CLI | Data Domain CLI | Brocade FOS CLI | EMC XTremIO CLI This is a comprehensive CLI command line...
View ArticleConfiguring a Brocade Switch for Access Gateway (AG) Mode
What is Access Gateway Mode? Access Gateway mode is useful when you need to add more ports to your fabric without the additional complexity of using additional zoning configurations or additional...
View ArticleHP 3PAR CLI Reference Guide
This is a CLI command line reference guide for HP’s 3PAR OS, and is based on version 3.3.1. It is a complete list of commands and a description of their function, I’d recommend reviewing HP’s official...
View ArticleVPLEX Health Check
This is a brief post to share the CLI commands and sample output for a quick VPLEX health check. Our VPLEX had a dial home event and below are the commands that EMC ran to verify that it was healthy....
View ArticleVPLEX initiator paths dropped
We recently ran into an SP bug check on one of our VNX arrays and after it came back up several of the initiator paths to the VPLEX did not come back up. We were also seeing IO timeouts. This is a...
View ArticleRescan Storage System command on Celerra results in conflict:storageID-devID...
I was attempting to extend our main production NAS file pool on our NS-960 and ran into an issue. I had recently freed up 8 SATA disks from a block pool and was attempting to re-use them and extend a...
View ArticleEMC World 2015
I’m at EMC World in Las Vegas this week and it’s been fantastic so far. I’m excited about the new 40TB XtremIO X-bricks and how we might leverage that for our largest and most important 80TB oracle...
View ArticleScripting an alert to verify the availability of individual VNX CIFS server...
It was recently asked to come up with a method to alert on the availability of specific CIFS file shares in our environment. This was due to a recent issue we had on our VNX with our data mover...
View ArticleDefault Passwords
Here is a collection of default passwords for EMC, HP, Cisco, Pure, VMware, TrendMicro and IBM hardware & software. EMC Secure Remote Support (ESRS) Axeda Policy Manager Server: Username: admin...
View ArticleVPLEX Unisphere Login hung at “Retrieving Meta-Volume Information”
I recently had an issue where I was unable to log in to the Unisphere GUI on the VPLEX, it would hang with the message “Retrieving Meta-Volume Information” after progressing about 30% on the progress...
View ArticleWeb interface disabled on brocade switch
I ran into an issue where one of our brocade switches was inaccessible via the web browser. The error below was displayed when connecting to the IP: Interface disabled This Interface (10.2.2.23) has...
View ArticleNetApp FAS Zero disk procedure
We recently had a need to zero out and reinstall a NetApp FAS 8080 in order to move it from test to production. Below are the steps to zero out the disks in the array. Steps: SSH to each nodes...
View ArticlePure Storage data reduction report
I had a request to publish a daily report that outlines our data reduction numbers for each LUN on our production Pure storage arrays. I wrote a script that will log in to the Pure CLI and issue the...
View ArticleVNX Block and File Password Change Procedure
Below is the procedure for changing the passwords on a Unified VNX on both the block and file sides. Please note that Changing the Global VNX administrator password can cause communication failures...
View ArticleIsilon CLI Command Reference
This is a command reference for almost all of the CLI commands available in the Isilon OneFS CLI. The basic commands are outlined and in many cases multiple samples of using the commands are provided....
View ArticleUsing isi_vol_copy_vnx for VNX to Isilon data migration
For most data migrations from VNX to Isilon EMC recommends that you use the OneFS migration tool isi_vol_copy_vnx. It can often be more efficient than host-based tools (such as EMCopy and Robocopy)...
View ArticleVNX NAS Files incorrectly report as Locked for Editing
When opening a shared Microsoft Office file, you may see the error message “File in Use, file_name is locked for editing by user_name“, when in fact no other user is currently using the file. We had...
View ArticleA Primer on Object Storage
I recently took a new job in the Enterprise storage group at a large company, and as part of my new responsibilities I will be implementing, configuring, and managing our object storage. We will be...
View ArticleEMC ECS CLI Command Reference
Below is a comprehensive list of the available ECS CLI Commands. The ‘-h’ flag will list the various options available with each command. A detailed description of each command is also available in...
View ArticleInstalling the EMC ECS CLI Package
Below is an outline on installing EMC’s ECS CLI package. Once it’s installed, I have another blog post that outlines all of the ECSCLI commands here. Getting Started Prerequisites: Install Python...
View ArticleGenerating and installing SSL requests, keys, and certificates on EMC ECS
In this post I’ve outlined the procedure for generating SSL requests, keys and certificates for ECS, as well as outlining the process for uploading them to ECS and verifying the installed certificates...
View ArticleWhat’s the difference between a Storage Engineer and a Storage Administrator?
During my recent job search a recruiter asked me if there was a difference between a Storage Administrator and a Storage Engineer. He had no idea. I was initially a bit surprised at the question, as...
View ArticleDefining Software-Defined Storage: Benefits, Strategy, Use Cases, and Products
This blog entry was made out of personal interest. I was curious about the current state of software defined storage in the industry and decided to get myself up to speed. I’ve done some research and...
View ArticleMutiprotocol VNX File Systems: Listing and counting Shares & Exports by file...
I’m in the early process of planning a NAS data migration from VNX to Isilon, and one of the first steps I wanted to accomplish was to identify which of our VNX file systems are multiprotocol (with...
View ArticleCustom Reporting with Isilon OneFS API Calls
Have you ever wondered where the metrics you see in InsightIQ come from? InsightIQ uses OneFS API calls to gather information, and you can use the same API calls for custom reporting and scripting....
View ArticleOpen Source Storage Solutions
Storage solutions can generally be grouped into four categories: SoHo NAS systems, Cloud-based/object solutions, Enterprise NAS and SAN solutions, and Microsoft Storage Server solutions. Enterprise NAS...
View ArticleScripting a VNX/Celerra to Isilon Data Migration with EMCOPY and Perl
Below is a collection of perl scripts that make data migration from VNX/Celerra file systems to an Isilon system much easier. I’ve already outlined the process of using isi_vol_copy_vnx in a prior...
View ArticleMachine Learning, Cognitive Computing, and the Storage Industry
In context with my recent posts about object storage and software defined storage, this is another topic that simply interested me enough to want to do a bit of research about the topic in general, as...
View ArticleIsilon Mitrend Data Gathering Procedure
Mitrend is an extremely useful IT Infrastructure analysis service. They provide excellent health, growth and workload profiling assessments. The service can process input source data from EMC and many...
View ArticleConfiguring a Powershell to Isilon Connection with SSL
PowerShell allows an easy method to access the Isilon ReST API, but in my environment I need to use true SSL validation. If you are using the default self-signed certificate of the Isilon, your...
View ArticleXtremIO Manual Log File Collection Procedure
If you have a need to gather XtremIO logs for EMC to analyze and they are unable to connect via ESRS, there is a method to gather them manually. Below are the steps on how to do it. 1. Log in to the...
View ArticleThe Future of Storage Administration
What is the future of enterprise storage administration? Will the job of enterprise storage administrator still be necessary in 10 years? A friend in IT storage management recently asked me a question...
View ArticleIsilon Port Usage
Below is a table of Isilon port usage and the OneFS services that use them. Additional detail is available in the Isilon Security Configuration guide on Dell EMC’s support site. Affected Services...
View ArticleNetApp Solidfire CLI Command Line Reference
Note that this CLI guide is meant to be a short “cheat sheet” reference to the Solidfire CLI. For complete details on the options for each command you’ll want to log in to NetApp’s support site and...
View ArticleAdding, modifying and viewing an ACL in the Isilon OneFS CLI
This is an overview and reference for the commands and syntax needed for adding and modifying an ACL on Isilon OneFS files and directories from the CLI. Access Control Entries for the ACL Note that a...
View ArticleStorage Center OS 7.x CLI Reference Guide (SCOS)
Dell Storage Center OS 7 Command Line Reference Guide This guide is meant to be a quick reference for SCOS commands, if you need to dive into the details of the available options for each command I’d...
View ArticleMatching LUNs and UIDs when presenting VPLEX LUNs to Unix hosts
Our naming convention for LUNs includes the pool ID, LUN number, server name, filesystem/drive letter, last four digits of the array’s serial number, and size (in GB). Having all of this information in...
View ArticleDell’s midrange.next
Dell EMC hasn’t really publicly talked about the launch of its next mid-range storage system, MidRange.next, but the wheels are turning. It should be happening soon. Timing is everything for me, and...
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