EMC PowerVault ME Controller Expander Ports Test

An Expander Port refers to the connection slot(s) used to connect the storage system or unit to multiple storage systems or units. Since the expander ports play a crucial role in expanding the storage capacity of a storage solution, error-prone ports, disconnected ports, or faulty/degraded ports, can deny remote hosts access to the additional storage capacity that has been made available via these ports. To prevent this, administrators will have to rapidly detect port-related abnormalities and swiftly initiate measures to correct them, so that the expanded ports, and through them the attached storage systems, are always accessible. To capture these abnormalities and instantly bring them to the attention of administrators, use the EMC PowerVault ME Controller Expander Ports test. For every expanded port in the storage system, this test reports the current status and overall health of the port, and thus leads administrators to defective ports.

Target of the test : An EMC PowerVault ME Storage System

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every expander port of the EMC PowerVault ME Storage System being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameter Description

Test period

How often should the test be executed .

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured. Since the storage system is managed using the IP address of its storage controller, the same will be displayed as host. In case of a dual-controller configuration, the IP address of the primary controller will be displayed here.

Port

The port number at which the specified host listens. By default, this is NULL.

Additional Controller IP

By default, this test always connects to the Host to collect metrics. If the Host is unavailable, then the test will not be able to execute. This is because, the Additional Controller IP is set to none by default.

If the monitored storage device has two controllers, then you can configure the test to connect to an alternate controller, if the host is unreachable. For this purpose, specify the IP address of the alternate controller in the Additional Controller IP text box.

User and Password

In order to monitor a EMC PowerVault ME, the eG agent has to be configured with the credentials of a user who has been assigned the Monitor role. Specify the login credentials of such a user in the User and Password text boxes. To know how to create such a user, refer to Pre-requisites for monitoring the EMC PowerVault ME storage system

Confirm Password

Confirm the password by retyping it here.

ServicePort

The Management Controller of the EMC PowerVault ME provides access for monitoring and management via the HTTP and HTTPS protocols for XML API request/response semantics. To enable the eG agent to access the management controller, invoke the XML API commands, and collect the required metrics, you need to specify the service port on the controller that listens for HTTP/HTTPS requests for XML API semantics. By default, this is port 80.

Timeout

Specify the time duration for which this test should wait for a response from the storage system in the Timeout text box. By default, this is 60 seconds.

SSL

By default, EMC PowerVault ME is not SSL-enabled. This is why, this flag is set to False by default. If it is SSL-enabled, then change this flag to True.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability
  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.
Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Status

Indicates the current status of this expander port.

Percent

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are tabulated below:

State Numeric Value
Error 0
Disconnected 1
Warning 2
Unknown 3
Up 4
Not Present 5

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating the operational status of an expander port. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only.

Health

Indicates the overall health of this expander port.

 

The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are tabulated below:

Measure Value Numeric Value
Fault 0
Degraded 1
Unknown 2
OK 3
Not applicable 4

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating the overall health of this expander port. However, in the graph of this measure, the same will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only.