Disk Administration

March 2003

Disk Admin 1

Objectives
When you have completed this
module you will be able to do the
following:
Describe RAID support on NetCache
Describe disk numbering conventions
Describe disk and shelf configurations

March 2003

Disk Admin 2

RAID 4 Support
One Parity Disk and one or more data disks
Data striped across disks
Hot spare disk - not part of RAID array and
does not contain cached objects
Hot swapping - external disks only
RAID 0 (striping) for C1200

RAID support on the NetCache Appliance

The NetCache Appliance uses RAID Level 4 to ensure data integrity, even when one of the disks
fails. The file system design, with the support for RAID, optimizes NetCache Appliance
performance and allows you to expand the NetCache Appliance's disk storage capacity one disk
at a time (except for the C720s and C110X series).
In the RAID file system, different disks play different roles. Most of the disks are data disks,
and one disk in the array is the parity disk. The parity disk must be the same size as or larger
than the largest data disk. After a data disk failure, the NetCache Appliance uses the parity disk
in conjunction with the remaining data disks to reconstruct data previously located on the failed
disk. Although the NetCache Appliance can continue to function, it automatically shuts down
after 24 hours to encourage you to replace the failed disk.
In addition to data and parity disks, you can install one or more hot spare disks in the NetCache
Appliance (except for the C720s and C110X). A hot-spare disk is not part of the RAID disk array
and does not contain cached objects. After a disk failure, the NetCache Appliance automatically
rebuilds data on the hot spare and adds the hot spare to the RAID array, thus avoiding a system
shutdown.

March 2003

Disk Admin 3

Fibre Channel Shelves

Power Power Loop Loop Loop Loop Loop Loop Loop
Supply Supply id 14 id 13 id 12 id 11 id 10 id 9 id 8

Power Power Loop Loop Loop Loop

Supply Supply id 6 id 5 id 4 id 3

March 2003

Loop Loop Loop

id 2 id 1 id 0

Disk Admin 4

Disk Numbering
View and manage disks in NetCache Manager
and on the CLI
Disks listed by shelf and bay number or by
HA.ID
NetCache Manager lists by Shelf and Bay
number
Sysconfig r lists disks by HA.ID
Vol status r lists disks by HA.ID

Disk addresses
You identify a disk by its address, which is listed in the HA.Disk_ID column of the output of the
sysconfig -r command. In this output listing, HA refers to the host adapter and Disk_ID refers
to the disk identification number.
Use the disk address to do the following:
Interpret screen messages
Identify a disk addresses.
Fibre channel disk addresses
With fibre channel disks, the disk address is a combination of the disk's adapter number, port
numbers, and the disk's fibre channel loop ID. To create the fibre channel loop ID, multiply the
shelf ID switch value by eight, and add it to the bay number. For example, ha 8, shelf 1, disk 2
has disk ID 8.10.

March 2003

Disk Admin 5

Maintenance > Disk > Management

Disk - Management
The options on the Maintenance > Disk > Management page enable you to perform the
following tasks on this NetCache Appliance:

View the type, size, and status of disks installed

Perform disk management tasks, such as adding, removing, and replacing disks

Refer to Online Help for specific configuration information.

March 2003

Disk Admin 6

Viewing Disks on CLI

netcache> sysconfig -r
Volume vol0 (online, normal, unmirrored) (zoned checksums)
Plex /vol0/plex0 (online, normal, active)
RAID group /vol0/plex0/rg0
RAID Disk Device
HA
SHELF BAY CHAN
--------- --------- --------------- ----

Used (MB/blks) Phys (MB/blks)

-------------- -------------

parity
data

16979/34774016
16979/34774016

6.10
6.11

6
6

1
1

2
3

FC:A
FC:A

March 2003

17560/35964296
17560/35964296

Disk Admin 7

How to Formulate HA.ID

HA.ID is composed of:
Slot number of the adapter card
Shelf ID
Bay Number in the shelf
The formula for FC7, 8, 9 7 disk shelves:
adapter slot number 8 x shelf id + bay number

The formula for DS14 disk shelves:

adapter slot number 16 x shelf id + bay number

March 2003

Disk Admin 8

Other sysconfig r Output

Zone refers to disks format
512 BPS format
Block format, 520 BPS, not supported
Checksums written to disk every 63 strip
Chan refers to Channel A or B
NetCache uses Chan A only
Channel B exists on Netapp filers in cluster
or multipath IO

March 2003

Disk Admin 9

Other sysconfig r output

Unmirrored volume
State of vol0 is Unmirrored
Not sync or snap mirrored

Plex 0 refers to sync mirroring

Volume is synchronously written twice

Supported on Netapp filers only

Sync mirroring not supported on
NetCache

March 2003

Disk Admin 10

C2100

2 to 7 SCSI Drives
36GB or 72GB
Hot swappable

March 2003

Disk Admin 11

C1200

1 to 3 SCSI Drives
36GB or 72GB
Warm swappable

March 2003

Disk Admin 12

Disk Commands

The disk scrub command checks for media errors such as bad blocks. NetApp recommends
that customers run this command onec a month to avoid a double disk failure.
Use the disk fail 4.1 command to manually fail a disk when the disk scrub command
finds errors.
The disk swap and disk unswap command pertain to SCSI disks and it has no effect on
FC-AL disks.

March 2003

Disk Admin 13

C1200

1 to 3 SCSI Drives
36GB or 72GB
Warm swappable

March 2003

Disk Admin 14

High Availability via RAID

Palliation
for C1200 Appliance
(HARP)

March 2003

Disk Admin 15

Why HARP?
Improve the exposure of the C1200 platform to disk
unreliability by enabling RAID-4
While RAID-0 was a necessity on one disk systems,
it introduced reliability concerns. On a RAID-0
volume, any hard or soft (unrecoverable media
errors) disk failures resulted in:
System crash
Loss of filesytem and cache contents
Field replacement of system

March 2003

Disk Admin 16

What HARP will do

Enabling RAID-4 in NetCache appliance
without NVRAM:
System memory is used in place of NVRAM
Power failures will result in a panic and the RAM
information is lost
Disk failures cause the NetCache to run in
degraded mode for five days

March 2003

Disk Admin 17

User Interfaces for Disk

Firmware and qual_devices
files

March 2003

Disk Admin 18

Maintenance Disk Firmware

List of firmware files present. Name is
Important
Can delete the file selected using this page
Firmware files can be uploaded either from
local machine or from ftp/http server
Commit Firmware button will apply any new
firmware for the drives present in the cache

March 2003

Disk Admin 19

Maint > Disk > Firmware

March 2003

Disk Admin 20

CLI Interface
disk_fw:
usage:
disk_fw c Commit new firmwares
disk_fw -dl <url of the firmware file> Download firmware
disk_fw -dc <url of the firmware file> Download and commit
firmware
disk_fw -d <firmware file>
Delete firmware files
disk_fw l List downloaded firmware
disk_fw x Cancel firmware download in progress

New Firmware can be downloaded from

http://now.netapp.com/NOW/download/tools/diskfw/

March 2003

Disk Admin 21

qual_devices File Upload

NetCache allows customers to 'add' disk support for
new disks by updating the /etc/qual_devices
Maintenance > Disk > Qual Devices

View
Copy
Upload from local machine or ftp/http server
http://now.netapp.com/NOW/download/tools/diskqual/

Information is filer specific but applicable to NetCache as well. Only difference is the way files
are updated in Filer and NetCache

March 2003

Disk Admin 22

Maintenance > Disk > Qual Devices

March 2003

Disk Admin 23

http://now.netapp.com/NOW/download/tools/diskqual/

Sample
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D

NETAPP NTAP2770
SEAGATE ST12400N
SEAGATE ST12550N
SEAGATE ST32430N
SEAGATE ST43400N
SEAGATE ST43400ND
SEAGATE ST43401N
SEAGATE ST43401ND
SEAGATE ST43402ND
SEAGATE ST15150N
SEAGATE ST15150W
SEAGATE ST15230N
SEAGATE ST34572WC
SEAGATE ST19171W
SEAGATE ST19171FC
SEAGATE ST39102FC

064c
9072 512
0013 512
0000 512
0000 512
0000 512
0000 512
0000 512
0111 512
0023 512
0023 512
0000 512
0784 512
0024 512
FB59 512
NA27 512

March 2003

Disk Admin 24

March 2003

Disk Admin 25