EqualLogics woes once more
After some dancing with developers, I managed ot get some time to upgrade our EqualLogics. The main reason for teh delay was teh small number of servers that had direct attached iSCSI drives that needed to be updated to the latest HIT Kit and would therefore probably need a reboot.
As it turns out, upgrading from 3.3.1 or higher to 3.5.1 didn't require a reboot.
The Firmware updates went quite smoothly, this was a case of getting various polls on different updates on to the latest 5.0.7 version, including some stuck on the last version 4 release.
After all the updates and server reboots I found that two servers would no longer replicate using the ASM. One was fine replicating at the EqualLogics level and just contained a bunch of flat files so I have left it as is. the other is our 2003 Exchange system. This was rather weird as the ASM was showing the iSCSI drive as "Unknown Type" and shows Exchange as being on unsupported drives.
When I tried replicating the Database and Logs as collection it would look OK but then show partner down which was weird. The fix was delete everything to do with replicas, both on the server, on the production EQ and the replica EQ, in fact anything that remotely resembled anything to do with replication had to be gone. It still won't replicate as a collection but will as individual drives all very odd indeed.
Needless to say I logged a call with Dell via the website and after about 5 hours (we pay for a 4 hour fix) I am still waiting for something other than an automated e-mail. I would ring them but experience suggests I would probably end up in an Indian call centre and as good as they maybe I struggle to understand their dialect.
My best guess for a fix is uninstall the Hit kit then install a fresh copy, but this would be down time on the server which is difficult to schedule midweek, guess it will be a case of more weekend overtime.
It would be nice if Dell in Europe actually was in tune with the the EqualLogics website, I have about 6 calls logged on there all of which are still open on the website but have had enough phone calls to know they are closed.
If Dell really went to be a world wide force rather than some American company that sells stuff to gullible foreigners they really need to get their act together because support outside the US is really rubbish bordering on criminally bad. What really lets them down is the details, the time it takes, the ridiculous number of ways that you can contact them which all seem to have their own SLA and the general lack of it being one company rather than different regions trying to work aroundstuff that works in the US but not in the rest of the world.
As it turns out, upgrading from 3.3.1 or higher to 3.5.1 didn't require a reboot.
The Firmware updates went quite smoothly, this was a case of getting various polls on different updates on to the latest 5.0.7 version, including some stuck on the last version 4 release.
After all the updates and server reboots I found that two servers would no longer replicate using the ASM. One was fine replicating at the EqualLogics level and just contained a bunch of flat files so I have left it as is. the other is our 2003 Exchange system. This was rather weird as the ASM was showing the iSCSI drive as "Unknown Type" and shows Exchange as being on unsupported drives.
When I tried replicating the Database and Logs as collection it would look OK but then show partner down which was weird. The fix was delete everything to do with replicas, both on the server, on the production EQ and the replica EQ, in fact anything that remotely resembled anything to do with replication had to be gone. It still won't replicate as a collection but will as individual drives all very odd indeed.
Needless to say I logged a call with Dell via the website and after about 5 hours (we pay for a 4 hour fix) I am still waiting for something other than an automated e-mail. I would ring them but experience suggests I would probably end up in an Indian call centre and as good as they maybe I struggle to understand their dialect.
My best guess for a fix is uninstall the Hit kit then install a fresh copy, but this would be down time on the server which is difficult to schedule midweek, guess it will be a case of more weekend overtime.
It would be nice if Dell in Europe actually was in tune with the the EqualLogics website, I have about 6 calls logged on there all of which are still open on the website but have had enough phone calls to know they are closed.
If Dell really went to be a world wide force rather than some American company that sells stuff to gullible foreigners they really need to get their act together because support outside the US is really rubbish bordering on criminally bad. What really lets them down is the details, the time it takes, the ridiculous number of ways that you can contact them which all seem to have their own SLA and the general lack of it being one company rather than different regions trying to work aroundstuff that works in the US but not in the rest of the world.
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