Dell PowerVault MD3260i Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting the

Dell PowerVault MD-Series
Storage Array

Configuring the Ethernet Management Port

THIS WHITE PAPER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY, AND MAY CONTAIN TYPOGRAPHICAL ERRORS AND TECHNICAL
INACCURACIES. THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED AS IS, WITHOUT EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND.

© 2012 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this material in any manner whatsoever without the express written
permission of Dell Inc. is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact Dell.

l, the DELL logo, and the DELL badge, PowerVault are trademarks of Dell Inc. Other trademarks and trade names may be used

Del

in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell Inc. disclaims any proprietary
interest in trademarks and trade names other than its own.

June 2012

Contents

About this Document ..................................................................................................... 4

Managing the MD-Series Storage Array ................................................................................ 5

Out-of-Band Management vs. In-Band Management.............................................................. 5

Setting Up Management Using MD Storage Manager ............................................................. 5

Troubleshooting the Ethernet Management Port .................................................................... 8

Locating the Managem ent Po rt ...................................................................................... 8

Default Port IP Addresses ............................................................................................. 8

Recognizing Issues Involving the Ethernet Management Port ................................................... 9

Basics: Cabling, Power and Network Switches .................................................................... 9

Troubleshooting Physical Connectivity Problems ............................................................... 11

Troubleshooting Management Port IP Addressing and Configuration ....................................... 12

Using a Serial Cable to Configure Your Management Port .................................................... 15

Troubleshooting Management Port Device Discovery Issues .................................................. 16

About this Document

To understand the scope and organization of this document, refer to the following table.

Topic Description

What does this document
contain?

What is the intended
audience?

How is information
categorized?

For more information See the following:

An overview of the management features of the 

PowerVault MD-series storage arrays

Recommended recommended out-of-band management 

configuration and setup

Potential errors that that may occur if the Ethernet 

management port is incorrectly configured, including
steps on how to resolve

Other troubleshooting information relating to the MD-

series iSCSI storage arrays

 Users experiencing problems setting up out-of-band

management of the MD storage array or experiencing
problems with the Ethernet management port of the
storage array

This document is divided into three broad sections:

 Understanding physical connectivity between the

Ethernet management port and management station

 Recognizing and correcting management port IP address

problems

 Recognizing and correcting device discovery erro rs

 MD-series user documentation at

support.dell.com/manuals

 MD-series video series at

del.ly/PowerVaultMD

Managing the MD-Series Storage Array

One of the most critical issues in establishing an efficient storage management architecture is placing
data traffic and management traffic on the proper networks. When setting up management on any Dell
PowerVault MD-Series storage array, Dell recommends that you always separate management traffic
from the server-to-storage array data path using different subnetworks, or subnets.

This management method is commonly called out-of-band management.

Out-of-Band Management vs. In-Band Management

Out-of-band management prevents traffic on the Ethernet management ports of your storage array
from interfering with critical data I/O between the storage array and server. While in-band
management − routing management traffic and data I/O on the same data path − is supported on the
MD storage array, it will likely result in an across-the-board reduction in performance and/or
throughout.

Setting Up Management Using MD Storage Manager

Dell PowerVault MD Storage Manager is a graphically based tool that allows you to fully manage,
configure and provision your MD-series storage arrays.

To set up your Ethernet management port in MD Storage Manager:

 Launch MD Storage Manager
 From the Setup tab, choose Configure Ethernet Management Ports

Using the Change Network Configuration wizard, enter the port and IP address information for the
management port on both RAID controller modules.

Figure 1. MD Storage Manager Summary View

Figure 2. MD Storage Manager Setup View