Clarion CX Basics Fundamentals

1) What are the main components of clarion CX? There are various Clarion Components associated with the full functionality of a Clarion CX Series machine. Some of the very important components are highlighted below along with QTYs per machine SPS: Standby Power Supply (Battery) x 2 SPE: Storage Processor Enclosure x 1 SP: Service Processor x 2 PS: Power Supply for DPE x 2 Fan: Fan for DPE (primarily on CX600 and CX700) x 2 DAE: Disk Array Enclosure (varies per version of CX) LCC: Link Control Card x 2 per DAE PS: Power Supply for DAE x 2 per DAE HSSDC: DAE Expansion Cables connect LCC together x 2 per DAE Disk Drives: 36GB FC, 73GB FC, 146GB FC, 300GB FC, 250GB ATA, 320GB ATA x 15 per encl 2) What is the different type of EMC hardware products? Symmetrix: Classified as Enterprise level storage, mostly used for business critical tier 1 Applications. Supports mainframe environments, open systems and many other legacy host environments. Major competitors to the Symmetrix are HDS and HP XPs. IBM ESS (Sharks) at one time was considered a close match, but with the new technology and latest EMC acquisitions, EMC has taken the Symmetrix products to a new level.

DMX: An extension of Symmetric. This platform is classified as Symmetric DMX (Direct Matrix Architecture). EMC is one of the pioneers to bring Solid State Disk to the DMX4 Environments. Clarion: Classified as Tier 2 Storage. Used mostly with mid size businesses as backend storage or as backup devices at larger enterprises. Disk Library (DL): Using a Falconstor front end and a Clarion Back End, EMC has designed a virtual tape library solution, that emulates tape devices and stores the data on disk drives (backups run at disk speed). Connectrix: Using Brocade, Mcdata and Cisco switches, EMC has taken the Connectrix platform one level ahead integrating it with its SAN, NAS and CAS Environments. Celerra: NAS (Network Attached Storage), mostly known as IP Storage. Used for backup applications, integrates NAS and ISCSI technologies. Centera: CAS (Content Address Storage), used mostly in financial, utilities and medical fields to follow the Sarbanes Oxley and HIPAA Compliance and Governance Requirements. Avamar Data Store: Avamar Platform is primarily used with backup, recovery, data reduplication. A product still in its infancy with a lot more integration required. 3) Explain about Clarion CX4 The Clarion CX4 Architecture is based on Intel Xeon Powerful and Efficient Processors. Major Differences (Hardware) CX4-120: Smallest Foot Print 1 Cab Up to 120 Drives 6GB Cache Std 4 FC / 4 ISCSI Max 16 Front end FC and/or ISCSI

CX4-240: Mid Size Foot Print 2 Cab Up to 240 Drives 8GB Cache Std 4 FC / 4 ISCSI Max 20 Front end FC and/or ISCSI CX4-480: Mid Size Foot Print 3 Cab Up to 480 Drives 16GB Cache Std 8 FC / 4 ISCSI Max 24 Frond end FC and/or ISCSI Support Flash Drives CX4-960: Largest Foot Print 6 Cab Up to 960 Drives 32GB Cache Std 8 FC / 4 ISCSI Max 32 Front End FC and/or ISCSI Support Flash Drives CX4 will still be classified as Mid Tier Storage (Next Generation Architecture) Flash Drives (Tier 0) storage with 30x more IOPS Virtual Provisioning (increased and easy utilization / provisioning) Drive Spin Down (Low Power SATA) Adaptive Cooling (Energy Efficiency Technology) Concurrent Local and Remote Replication (Integration Recovery Point splitter to simply deployments) 64 Bit Flare + Multi-Core 2X Performance and Scale

Persistent Cache Ultra Flex Technology (Dual Protocol, Hot Pluggable, Future ready) CX4 Flash Drives (Tier 0) Requirements First and Only Midrange Storage Array to Support Flash Drives Faster Performance (30X IOPS and less than 1 millisecond response time) More Energy Efficient (38% less per TB and 98% less per IOP) Better Reliability (No moving parts, faster RAID Rebuilds)

Explain Flare Environment FLARE: Fiber Logic Array Runtime Environment Clarion name comes from Data General, where they designed the first 16bit minicomputer called NOVA. Later NOVA was called NOVAII. NOVAII became AVIION (letters rearranged). Clarion is a simple derivative of that naming convention. AVIION name still exist with AX100, AX150 and AX-4. EMC Engineering is the crown of EMC, inventing new technology and pushing the envelope in terms of defining future products, technologies and markets. That is exactly what has happened with acquisition of Data General by EMC. They have really taken the Clarion products, rebranded them with tons of features and user interfaces to make it the flagship product. If you asked anyone at EMC about 3 to 5 years ago about their flagship product, the answer would have been Symmetrix, ask them now? Clarions has dominated the SMB and the Mid Tier Enterprise market making it the cash cow at EMC. Unlike the Ingenuity Code, the FLARE Code is customer self upgradable. This Code sits on the first 5 drives of the Clarion SPE or DAE (depending on the model), the drives that are marked with numbers (0 to 4) and do not remove stickers. With a Code upgrade, the FLARE Operating Environment gets loaded onto the service processor and this can be performed while the machine is running. The funny part is, a

Clarion service processor is merely a PC running Microsoft Windows XP 32 Bit (which might have changed with CX4 to possibly a Windows XP 64Bit Version). In short when you reboot your Clarion service processors, Windows XP will start and load the FLARE Operating Environment from the first 5 drives and bring the system online. With these first 5 drives, do not to configure any user-host LUN Space on them. Best bet, get 5 x 73GB 15K drives and only use it for FLARE Code operation. The total space the FLARE Code occupies is 6GB per disk if its release 19 and lower and for releases 24 and above its 33GB per disk drive. Also along with the Flare Operating Environment on the first 5 drives is stored the PSM LUN (Persistent Storage Manager), Flare Database LUN and Vault Data (Save Area for write cache in case of a catastrophic failure of SP). Do not move your drives around on the Clarion. Also do not insert a different drive type when replacing the first 5 drives. From the Data General days with the Clarion, the FLARE Operating Environment is pretty open; in sense the customer can perform all sorts of changes without any restrictions (unlike the Symmetrix and DMX) where a lot of it is done through Hardware BIN file changes. Upgrades in terms of hardware, software, etc can all be performed by the customer themselves making it a neat product to work on. As new FLARE Code releases hit market, customers can download those FLARE Code upgrades from EMCs Customer Website (Power link) and self install it (I believe if you have purchased Clarions from Dell, you have to obtain FLARE Code through Dell). The service processors run the Flare Operating Environment along with the first 5 drives. During a Non Disruptive Upgrade (NDU), the FLARE Code is loaded on one SP at a time and then reboot is performed. In short if your failover and redundancy is setup correctly you will not have any outages. It is highly recommended you perform these changes during quite times or possibly take your SQL and Oracle databases down before performing this upgrade. Also a good practice would be to get EMC Grabs out of the host that are connected to this Clarion and verify that they are new FLARE Code compatible. If you are new to Clarion Environment, it is highly recommended you perform the preinstallation steps or read release notes before performing an upgrade or get professional assistance. It is very normal for customers to go through multiple code upgrades during the 3 to 5 year life cycle of these machines.

These Service processors also sent you service alerts through an email or sms system for proactive replacement and failing components example: failing drive, failing SP, backend issues, data sector invalidates, etc. The replacement of these parts should be carried out by an EMC trained and qualified engineer. It is common knowledge, you can enter Engineering mode on FLARE Code using keys Ctrl + Shift + F12 and using the engineering password. The Engineering mode will allow you to perform certain functions not allowed in a normal Admin or User mode. Initially with the FC series of Clarion, there was no web interface into the Service Processors, which has been added with the CX series of machines. With release 26 new features enhancing customers to perform a lot of maintenance work themselves has been added including performing SP Collects, etc. FLARE Code version information is as follows. For the sake of this blog we will limit our explanation only to CX, CX3 and CX4 platforms. Generation 1: CX200, CX400, CX600 Generation 2: CX300, CX500, CX700 including the iSCSI flavors Generation 3: CX3-10, CX3-20, CX3-40, CX3-80 Generation 4: CX4-120, CX4-240, CX4-480, CX4-960 (last three digits are the number of drives it can support) The FLARE Code is broken down as follows (Please see the color coded scheme below). 1.14.600.5.022 (32 Bit) 2.16.700.5.031 (32 Bit) 2.24.700.5.031 (32 Bit) 3.26.020.5.011 (32 Bit) 4.28.480.5.010 (64 Bit)

The first digit: 1, 2, 3 and 4 indicate the Generation of the machine this code level can be installed on. For the 1st and the 2nd generation of machines (CX600 and CX700), you should be able to use standard 2nd Generation code levels. CX3 code levels would have a 3 in front of it and so forth. These numbers will always increase as new Generations of Clarion machines are added. The next two digits are the release numbers; these release numbers are very important and really give you additional features related to the Clarion FLARE Operating Environment. When someone comes up to you and says, my Clarion CX3 is running Flare 26, this is what they mean. These numbers will always increase, 28 being the latest FLARE Code Version. The next 3 digits are the model number of the Clarion, like the CX600, CX700, CX3-20 and CX4-480. These numbers can be all over the map, depending what the model number of your Clarion is. The 5 here is unknown, its coming across from previous FLARE releases. Going back to the pre CX days (FC), this 5 was still used in there. I believe this was some sort of code internally used at Data General indicating its a FLARE release. The last 3 digits are the Patch level of the FLARE Environment. This would be the last known compilation of the code for that FLARE version. Again if you are looking at the CX and the FLARE Code Operating Environment it is pretty strong, powerful, lots of features a customer can use and does blow away a lot of other manufacturers in the same market space.

4) Clarion Read Caching The Diagram on the left explains Read Caching (Only One SP involved in this process) Step A: The host is requesting data from the active path to the Clarion. Step B: If the data is in Cache, the data is sent over to the host. Step AA: This step comes into picture if the requested data is not in cache and is now requested from the Disk.

Step Ab: The Disk reads the data in the cache and Step B is performed completing the request. Clarion Write Caching The Diagram on the right explains Write Caching (Both the SPs are involved in this process) Step A: The host writes data to the disk (lun) through the active path between Host and Clarion. The data is written in cache. Step B: The Data from above is in Cache (example SPA) is now copied over to the Cache of SPB using the Clarion Messaging Interface (CMI) Step C: At this point an acknowledgement is sent to the host that the Write is now complete. Step D: Using the Cache flushing techniques the data is written to the Clarion Disk (lun)

How to change navisphere password? You can change the storage system password in Navisphere Manager as follows: <!--[if !supportLists]-->1. <!--[endif]-->Open Navisphere Manager <!--[if !supportLists]-->2. <!--[endif]-->Click Tools > Security > Change Password. <!--[if !supportLists]-->3. <!--[endif]-->In the Change Password window, enter the old ( current) password in the Old Password text box.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->4. <!--[endif]-->Enter the new password in the New Password text box and then enter it again in the Confirm New Password text box. <!--[if !supportLists]-->5. <!--[endif]--> Click OK to apply the new password or Cancel to keep the current password. <!--[if !supportLists]-->6. <!--[endif]-->In the confirmation popup, click either Yes to change the password or No to cancel the change and retain your current (old) password. Note: If you click yes, you will briefly see The operation successfully completed and then you will be disconnected. You will need to log back in using the new password Some of the famous Clarion FC and IP models are FC4700, FC5700, FC5300, IP4700 There are various Components in an EMC Clarion FC series of machines that are FRUs. Disk Drives DAEs (Disk Array Enclosure) SPEs (Service Processor Enclosure) LCC (Link Control Cards) LCC Cables DAE Power Supplies SP (Service Processor) Battery SPE PS (SPE Power Supplies)

Explain EMC Snap View

EMC Snap View lets you create local point-in-time snapshots and complete data clones for testing, backup, and recovery operations. With Snap View, you can create multiple copies of production data on your EMC Clarion networked storage system quickly and easily. Enable simple, non-disruptive backup operations with space-saving Snap View snapshots. Restore your data quickly and easily with Snap View clones. And accelerate application development by quickly providing the most current data for testing. Snap View brings you easy-to-use local replication capabilities and new ways to increase efficiency. Explain EMC Mirror view EMC Mirror View ensures your information is protected from both system and site failures. It leverages the power of EMC Clarion networked storage systemsto offer both synchronous and asynchronous remote mirroring. Whether you mirror data around the corner or across the globe, Mirror View provides disaster recovery that protects your most critical data in the event of an outage

SAN Interview questions (EMC Storage Clarion, DMX and VMAX)

1. What is Power path? 2. Power path CLI to manage disks 3. List Power path policy 4. What is Vault drive? 5. What is the PSM Lun? 6. Basic of Storage 7. Define RAID? Which one you feel is good choice? 8. Storage Array used in DAS 9. Explain iSCSI login, fabric login

10. Advantage of migration from DAS to SAN 11. What is Meta Lun? 12. Explain Clariion architecture 13. Explain DMX architecture 14. Explain Enginuity operation layers 15. What is hard and soft zoning? 16. Explain WWN 17. What is zoning and how to create? 18. What is VSAN and how to create? 19. Hardware Models of clarion 20. What is FCID? 21. Explain Navishere/Symmtric Management console /ECC 22. Initialization of clarion array 23. Explain rule 17 in DMX 24. Why and how symmask, symld and symdg are used in DMX? 25. Symdev 26. Explain about symcfg 27. What is SYMAPI? 28. Configuration change in DMX

29. What is VCMDB? 30. Can windows, Linux, Solaris share the same FA in DMX? 31. What is Snap view? 32. What is Mirror view? 33. What is SAN Copy ?34. Explain Time finder and SRDF 35. Difference in iSCSI and NAS 36. What is IQN? 37. Explain SAN, NAS and CAS using devices used in these model 38. Difference in iFCP and FCIP 39. What is fabric? 40. What is RAID? Explain RAID3, RAID5 and RAID1/0 41. What is Hot Spare Disk? 42. What is the bay in DMX-3 43. Version and Model 44. Brief the Symmetrix CLI command 45. Create Storage group and add device into storage group in DMX. 46. Create Time Finder Clone using CLI 47. Composite Device group

48. Create SRDF 49. What is iSCSI? 50. What is Disk Controller? 51. How does data got saved in case of striping and incase of concatenation? 52. What is the minimum no. of disks required for RAID 5 and RAID 6? 53. Difference between time finder and clone? 54. What is SRDF R1 & R2? 55. What is the version of Symmetrix DMX4? 56. In 4-24 what do 24 mean? 57. What is fabric? 58. Importance of RAID6? 59. How many disk failures RAID 5 supports? 60. Importance of masking? 61. Different RAID levels? 62. What is quorum disk and it is importance? 63. How to manually restore failed paths in Clariion? 64. Flash drives in DMX4? 65. What is LCC? Link Control Card

66. Storage provisioning in DMX? 67. Steps for zoning using CLI? 68. Describe SMCLI commands you have used 69. LUN, Base LUN and Metalun? 70. Difference between HP EVA 5000 and 8000? 71. What is CMI? Clariion Message Interface 72. What are the I/O operations in Clariion? 73. Use of SPs? 74. What is VMCDB? 75. What is Hyper? 76. What is a device in DMX? 77. What is SAN Kit? 78. Channel directors and disk directors? 79. What is global memory? 80. Difference between Emulex and Qlogic? 81. What is storage array in Clariion? 82. What FCID? 83. What is F-LOGI and P-LOGI? How authentication happens?