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Knowledge Base Article: 000303966

Isilon: How to identify if a boot flash drive has failed on 108NL, NL400, S200, X200, or X400 nodes
(000303966)
Primary Product :
Product : Isilon, Isilon OneFS, Isilon NL400, Isilon X400, Isilon S200, Isilon 108NL, Isilon X200,
Isilon X-Series, Isilon S-Series, Isilon NL-Series

Version: 2 Article Type: How To Audience: Level 30 = Customers Last Published: Sun Feb 21 03:34:09 GMT 2016

Summary:

Instructions: Introduction
This article provides a procedure to determine if a boot flash drive has failed on 108NL, NL400, S200, X200, or X400
nodes.

Procedure
Identify which boot flash drives have failed and then replace them.

1. Open an SSH connection to the node and log on using the "root" account.
2. Run the following command to view boot flash drive information:

atacontrol list

The following output appears:

ATA channel 0:
Master: no device present
Slave: no device present
ATA channel 1:
Master: no device present
Slave: no device present
ATA channel 2:
Master: ad4 <SanDisk SSD P4 8GB/SSD 8.10> Serial ATA v1.0 II
Slave: no device present
ATA channel 3:
Master: no device present
Slave: ad7 <SanDisk SSD P4 8GB/SSD 8.10> Serial ATA v1.0 II
ATA channel 4:
Master: no device present
Slave: no device present
ATA channel 5:
Master: no device present
Slave: no device present

The boot flash drives are listed under ATA channel 2 (Master) and ATA channel 3 (Slave). In the previous example, both
boot drives are healthy. If a boot flash drive has failed, the display reads no device present for that drive.

NOTE
In 108NL nodes, the ATA channel 2 (Master) entry is prefixed by ad2 and the ATA channel 3 (Slave) entry is prefixed by
ad3.
In newer nodes, such as x410, the slot assigment has changed, please always check the guide for correct assignment.

3. Make note of whether the failed boot drive is the ATA channel 2 (Master) or ATA channel 3 (Slave) device, and then use
the following table to determine the location of the boot drive inside the node.

Boot order OneFS drive ID Board drive slot inside node

3.

Master ad4 (or ad2 for 108NL) J3

Slave ad7 (or ad3 for 108NL) J4

For new nodes (S210, X210, X410, NL410, HD400)

Boot order OneFS drive ID Board drive slot inside node
Master ad3 J3
Slave ad4 J4
4. Make note of the board drive slot that contains the failed boot drive.

CAUTION!
If both drives appear to have failed, do not continue. Contact Isilon Technical Support immediately.

5. If both drives appear to be healthy, one of the drives may have partially failed. To identify a partially failed drive, check
the status of the individual partition mirrors by running the following command:

gmirror status

From left to right, the output displays the name of each mirror, the status of the mirror relationship, and the
component IDs for each boot drive.

The following example shows the boot drive partition layout in a healthy node. The mirrors for each partition
show:
A value of COMPLETE in the Status column.
The component IDs for both boot drives in the Components column. The component IDs are a combination of the OneFS
Drive ID, and the partition number (the number following the letter p). Both boot drives are listed
for each mirror with the exception of the var-crash mirror, which only lists the slave drive.

NOTE
- The partition numbers in the display may differ from the following example.
- The /var/crash partition may show COMPLETE with either 1 or 2 components, depending on the boot drive type used in
the node. This is normal.

Components
NameStatus
ad7p4
mirror/root0COMPLETE
ad4p4
ad7p10
mirror/var-crashCOMPLETE
ad7p9
mirror/mfgCOMPLETE
ad4p10
ad7p8
mirror/journal-backupCOMPLETE
ad4p8
ad7p7
mirror/var1COMPLETE
ad4p7
ad7p6
mirror/var0COMPLETE
ad4p6
ad7p5
mirror/root1COMPLETE
ad4p5

The following example shows the boot drive partition layout as it appears in the event of a failed boot drive. A
failed boot drive forces the mirrors for a partition to show:
A value of DEGRADED in the Status column.
Only the component ID of the healthy boot drive in the Components column. The failed boot drive does not
appear.

IMPORTANT!
DEGRADED does not refer to a specific drive, but to the mirror relationship between the drives. If a
drive appears in the Components column next to the DEGRADED status, it is healthy and should not be removed.

Components
NameStatus
ad4p4
mirror/root0DEGRADED
ad7p10
mirror/var-crashCOMPLETE
ad7p9
mirror/mfgCOMPLETE
ad4p10
ad7p8
mirror/journal-backupCOMPLETE
ad4p8
ad7p7
mirror/var1COMPLETE
ad4p7
ad4p6
mirror/var0DEGRADED
ad7p5
mirror/root1COMPLETE
ad4p5

In the previous example, ad7p4 is missing from the degraded partition mirror/root0, and ad7p6 is missing
from the degraded partition mirror/var0. The missing drive, ad7, is the partially failed drive.

6. Determine which drive has failed. Use the table from step 3 to determine which board drive slot contains the failed boot
drive and make a note of the number (J3 or J4).

7.
 7. Contact Isilon Technical Support for assistance in obtaining and installing a replacement boot drive.

Verification
To verify that the replaced boot flash drive was mirrored from the other boot flash drive:

1. Open an SSH connection to the node and log on using the "root" account.
2. Run the following command to verify the mirroring process:

isi_bootdisk_status

Output will look similar to the following:

root0 ad4p4 ad7p4

root1 ad4p5 ad7p5
var0 ad4p6 ad7p6
var1 ad4p7 ad7p7
journal-backup ad4p8 ad7p8
kernelsdump ad4p9
mfg ad4p10 ad7p9
var-crash ad7p10
kerneldump ad4p11

NOTE: The /var/crash partition may show COMPLETE with either 1 or 2 components, depending on the boot drive type
used in the node. This is normal.

For more information about mirroring and mirror verification steps, see the FRU guide for your specific node. FRU guide
information is available on the EMC Online Support website.

Notes: Requisite tools or skills

To complete this task, you should be comfortable running commands from the command line.

Product: Isilon, Isilon OneFS, Isilon NL400, Isilon X400, Isilon S200, Isilon 108NL, Isilon X200, Isilon X-Series, Isilon S-Series,
Isilon NL-Series