Error trying to upgrade the NVSRAM on the RAID control modules used on an MD3220

Hi Arvo,

Were these modules in this unit already and working fine until you tried to do the update? Does it show any other errors in MDSM? Let us know if you have any additional questions.

No, these drives came out of the Dell R620 servers I'm using with the MD3220 unit.  I have not been able to do ANYTHING on the unit yet except for getting it to show up in the storage manager.

I want to upgrade the NVSRAM on the raid controller module but you can't do that without drives.  The drives are not supported by the unit yet and there is a firmware upgrade package from dell for the drives that allow them to be supported from what I can tell.  But I can't flash the firmware on those drives because the unit will not recognize the drives as valid drives.

It's a huge "chicken before the egg" situation.

So no one out there knows any type of solution to this issue?  I have bought a bunch of different hardware (Dell branded drives, new RAID controller modules, etc.   All in an effort to get the errors I was running into resolve.  At this point, this issue I posted is the only remaining problem standing between me and the ability to start using this equipment in an environment.  I was hoping by now someone would have some type of input to maybe nudge me in the right direction.

I have started remoting into the control module and using the shellUsr login to gain access to the control modules.  I have looked all around in there and I can't find any area that deals with the HOST PORT TYPE REPRESENTATION.  Does anyone know how I can change the host port type representation on a RAID module from CLI or any other method?

Hello @Arvo Bowen III,

Please, be aware the R620 hard drives are not validated to work in the MD3220. You mentioned in your last post that you have bought some branded drives? Do you mean MD supported drives?

Did you try clearing the Major Event Log?

Regards.

Actually in my "last" post I mentioned none of that was no longer an issue.  I also stated I now have Dell branded drives....

This issue has nothing to do with the type of drives I have in the system as those are no longer an issue.  The issue once again is the host port type on one of the RAID control modules.  I need to change it and if it's possible to use commands in the remote management (telnet) console can you please tell me what commands can I use to both SEE the current "host port type" and to CHANGE the "host port type".

Thanks!

You can set the host type at the system level. Page 50 https://dell.to/3gIBAZr

Thanks, in the end, I just ended up physically swapping the two raid controllers and the error just went away.  Ridiculous that it would work one way and not the other.  I might still go back and change it in the CLI though, thanks for that info.

Just tried to check on it.  I was under the impression the host port type would be set on each raid controller.  Before I got everything working the storage manager insisted it could not upgrade any firmware because both controller's host port type did not match...

So I run the following two commands...

C:\Program Files\Dell\MD Storage Software\MD Storage Manager\client\smcli.exe 192.168.1.100 -c "show storageArray defaultHostType;"
Performing syntax check...
Syntax check complete.
Executing script...
Default host type: Windows (Host type index 0)
Script execution complete.
SMcli completed successfully.

C:\Program Files\Dell\MD Storage Software\MD Storage Manager\client\smcli.exe 192.168.1.101 -c "show storageArray defaultHostType;"
Performing syntax check...
Syntax check complete.
Executing script...
Default host type: Windows (Host type index 0)
Script execution complete.
SMcli completed successfully.

They look exactly the same to me.  So why was the management software complaining about them not matching before?

Yeah, that seems odd that it was giving there error even with them being the same.