EMC PowerVault ME Disk Status Test

If one/more disks in a storage system experience errors or are faulty or have failed, then users will be unable to access the data stored in the disks. Administrators should then be able to rapidly identify which disks are in an abnormal state and determine the reason for the abnormality, so that the problems can be solved quickly. For this purpose, administrators can use the EMC PowerVault ME Disk Status test. This test reports the current status and health of each disk of the EMC PowerVault ME storage system. In addition, this test also reports the LED status of each disk.

Target of the test : A EMC PowerVault ME storage system

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each physical disk 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 device 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 storage system, 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 storage system 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 system 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 state of this disk.

 

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

Measure Value Numeric Value Description

Error

 0

The disk is present but is not detected by the expander.

Warning

 1

The disk is present but the system is having communication problems with the disk LED processor. For disk and midplane types where this processor also controls power to the disk, power-on failure will result in the Error status.

Spun Down

 2

The disk is present and has been spun down by the drive spin down feature.

Up

 3

The disk is present and is properly communicating with the expander.

Not Present

 4

The disk slot indicates that no disk is present.

Unknown

 5

Initial status when the disk is first detected or powered on.

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating the status of this disk. However, in the graph of this measure disk status will be represented using the numeric equivalents only.

LED Status

Indicates the current state of the LED of this disk.

 

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

 

Measure Value Numeric Value Description
Fault 0 The disk has a fault.
Predictive Failure 1 The disk has a predictive failure.
Rebuild 2 The disk's vdisk is being reconstructed.
Online 3 The disk is operating normally.
Identify the disk 4 The locator LED is illuminated to identify the disk.

Note:

By default, this measure reports the above-mentioned Measure Values while indicating the state of the LED of this disk. However, in the graph of this measure LED status will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only.

Health

Indicates the overall health of this disk.

 

The values that this measure can report and the 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 health of this disk. However, in the graph of this measure, disk health will be represented using the corresponding numeric equivalents only.

The detailed diagnosis of this measure if enabled, lists the name of the disk and the reason for the health of the disk.