Hello experts,

I've just inherited a NetApp F825, with 3 DiskShelfs connected to it.
It's been sitting there for a while, and I'm trying to make use of the
diskspace. Unfortunately, without the filer working, I have no access
to the diskshelfs. I have no previous experience with NetApp before,
and my work isn't willing to pay some $15k for support contract.

Here's the problem I'm having, anytime I turn on the filer, I get this
error:
"Probing devices at /pci2 4"

and that's all. I tried to connect to both the console port, and the
diagnostic port with hyperterminal, 9600 8 N 1 , and that doesn't get
me anywher. Honest I'm not sure what I'm supposed to expect at the
connection. I'm assuming a login prompt... but I'm not even getting
that.

The DiskShelfs seem to be running fine, however, the Filer has an amber
light on the status. Due to my inability to even connet to the
diagnostic port, I'm not sure how to proceed from here to troubleshoot
the problem further.

My question is: does anyone know how to get me started on bringing up
the filer?
and is there an easy way to reset the NetApp back to factory defaults?
Do you have any ideas/tips & tricks that may allow me to connect to the
appliance via serial connection?

Thanks in advance for any help you may be able to provide.

Georges,

gkhairallah@gmail.com writes:
>I've just inherited a NetApp F825, with 3 DiskShelfs connected to it.
>It's been sitting there for a while, and I'm trying to make use of the
>diskspace. Unfortunately, without the filer working, I have no access
>to the diskshelfs. I have no previous experience with NetApp before,
>and my work isn't willing to pay some $15k for support contract.

>Here's the problem I'm having, anytime I turn on the filer, I get this
>error:
>"Probing devices at /pci2 4"

>and that's all.


The thing isn't booting, or getting out of POST. 

Bad head-unit? 

Open it up, and reset the controller cards/NICs. 

You should get beyond this point, but right now, it seems to be a
hardware issue preventing it from starting up, which is probably why
you don't get anything on the console.

On Oct 18, 4:38 pm, Doug McIntyre <mer...@geeks.org> wrote:
> gkhairal...@gmail.com writes:
> >I've just inherited a NetApp F825, with 3 DiskShelfs connected to it.
> >It's been sitting there for a while, and I'm trying to make use of the
> >diskspace. Unfortunately, without the filer working, I have no access
> >to the diskshelfs. I have no previous experience with NetApp before,
> >and my work isn't willing to pay some $15k for support contract.
> >Here's the problem I'm having, anytime I turn on the filer, I get this
> >error:
> >"Probing devices at /pci2 4"
> >and that's all.The thing isn't booting, or getting out of POST.
>
> Bad head-unit?
>
> Open it up, and reset the controller cards/NICs.
>
> You should get beyond this point, but right now, it seems to be a
> hardware issue preventing it from starting up, which is probably why
> you don't get anything on the console.

Thanks Doug, I will do that tomorrow, and see what happens.
Regarding resetting the controller cards.. do they have a reset button
on them, or some sort of dip switch? or is there some specific
procedure to reset them?

gkhairallah@gmail.com writes:
>On Oct 18, 4:38 pm, Doug McIntyre <mer...@geeks.org> wrote:
>> gkhairal...@gmail.com writes:
>> >I've just inherited a NetApp F825, with 3 DiskShelfs connected to it.
>> >It's been sitting there for a while, and I'm trying to make use of the
>> >diskspace. Unfortunately, without the filer working, I have no access
>> >to the diskshelfs. I have no previous experience with NetApp before,
>> >and my work isn't willing to pay some $15k for support contract.
>> >Here's the problem I'm having, anytime I turn on the filer, I get this
>> >error:
>> >"Probing devices at /pci2 4"
>> >and that's all.The thing isn't booting, or getting out of POST.
>>
>> Bad head-unit?
>>
>> Open it up, and reset the controller cards/NICs.
>>
>> You should get beyond this point, but right now, it seems to be a
>> hardware issue preventing it from starting up, which is probably why
>> you don't get anything on the console.

>Thanks Doug, I will do that tomorrow, and see what happens.
>Regarding resetting the controller cards.. do they have a reset button
>on them, or some sort of dip switch? or is there some specific
>procedure to reset them?


Sorry, I should have typed reseat. Its hanging on scanning the PCI bus
during the POST. 

:) ok .. that makes a little more sense. THAT, I can do !
I'll post back when I have given that a shot.
Thanks again Doug.

On Oct 19, 7:16 am, Doug McIntyre <mer...@geeks.org> wrote:
> gkhairal...@gmail.com writes:
> >On Oct 18, 4:38 pm, Doug McIntyre <mer...@geeks.org> wrote:
> >> gkhairal...@gmail.com writes:
> >> >I've just inherited a NetApp F825, with 3 DiskShelfs connected to it.
> >> >It's been sitting there for a while, and I'm trying to make use of the
> >> >diskspace. Unfortunately, without the filer working, I have no access
> >> >to the diskshelfs. I have no previous experience with NetApp before,
> >> >and my work isn't willing to pay some $15k for support contract.
> >> >Here's the problem I'm having, anytime I turn on the filer, I get this
> >> >error:
> >> >"Probing devices at /pci2 4"
> >> >and that's all.The thing isn't booting, or getting out of POST.
>
> >> Bad head-unit?
>
> >> Open it up, and reset the controller cards/NICs.
>
> >> You should get beyond this point, but right now, it seems to be a
> >> hardware issue preventing it from starting up, which is probably why
> >> you don't get anything on the console.
> >Thanks Doug, I will do that tomorrow, and see what happens.
> >Regarding resetting the controller cards.. do they have a reset button
> >on them, or some sort of dip switch? or is there some specific
> >procedure to reset them?Sorry, I should have typed reseat. Its hanging on scanning the PCI bus
> during the POST.- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -

Ok. so I tried to reseat the cards this morning, and that didn't change
anything. so then I decided to try to remove both the fiber card and
the NIC, but the filer wasn't happy without having any  diskshelves
connected to it, so I put back the fiber, and kept the NIC out, at
reboot, I seemed to have gotten a little further than last time, but
the filer is still halting at one point, I have captured the system log
as it was booting, hoping that it may give you some more insight as to
what may be happening.

By the way, I have checked all the diskshelves, and they all appear to
be working normally, I don't see any lights that indicate anything
wrong, and all the lights on the disks are lit green.

Here's the screen capture:




Intel Open Firmware by FirmWorks
Copyright 1995-2004 FirmWorks, Network Appliance.  All Rights Reserved.
Firmware release 4.2.3_i1
Press Del to abort boot, Esc to skip POST

Memory size is 1024 MB
Testing SIO
Testing LCD
Probing devices
Testing 1024MB
64MB chunks

1  to 1024MB

Complete
Finding image...
Loading isa floppy
Recalibrate failed.  The floppy drive is either missing,
improperly connected, or defective.
Recalibrate failed.  The floppy drive is either missing,
improperly connected, or defective.
No floppy disk found.

Booting from fcal
Loading /pci2/fcal@5,1/disk@10


0% - 100%


Starting Press CTRL-C for floppy boot menu
..=2E.......................................................................=
..=2E.......................................

NetApp Release 6.3.1: Wed Nov 20 13:03:17 PST 2002
Copyright (c) 1992-2002 Network Appliance, Inc.
Starting boot on Thu Oct 19 17:17:48 GMT 2006
Thu Oct 19 17:18:01 GMT [scsi.cmd.checkCondition:error]: Device 5a.40:
Check Condition: CDB 0x1b: Sense Data not ready -  (0x2 - 0x4 0x0 0x2).
Thu Oct 19 17:18:01 GMT [scsi.cmd.checkCondition:error]: Device 5a.40:
Check Condition: CDB 0x1b: Sense Data not ready -  (0x2 - 0x4 0x0 0x2).
Thu Oct 19 17:18:01 GMT [scsi.cmd.checkCondition:error]: Device 5a.40:
Check Condition: CDB 0x1b: Sense Data not ready -  (0x2 - 0x4 0x0 0x2).
Thu Oct 19 17:18:01 GMT [ispfc_main:error]: Disk 5a.40 has failed to
spin up and cannot be used.
Please replace it with a new drive.
Thu Oct 19 17:18:01 GMT [scsi.cmd.checkCondition:error]: Device 5a.40:
Check Condition: CDB 0x1b: Sense Data not ready -  (0x2 - 0x4 0x0 0x2).
Swarm Replay Stats Daemon Started
Disk 5a.40 is not capable of being dual attached.
Illegal configuration. Halting.
Program terminated
ok


Thanks again for any assistance you may be able to provide.
i really appreciate it!
Georges,


On Oct 19, 7:50 am, gkhairal...@gmail.com wrote:
> :) ok .. that makes a little more sense. THAT, I can do !
> I'll post back when I have given that a shot.
> Thanks again Doug.
>
> On Oct 19, 7:16 am, Doug McIntyre <mer...@geeks.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> > gkhairal...@gmail.com writes:
> > >On Oct 18, 4:38 pm, Doug McIntyre <mer...@geeks.org> wrote:
> > >> gkhairal...@gmail.com writes:
> > >> >I've just inherited a NetApp F825, with 3 DiskShelfs connected to i=
t=2E
> > >> >It's been sitting there for a while, and I'm trying to make use of =
the
> > >> >diskspace. Unfortunately, without the filer working, I have no acce=
ss
> > >> >to the diskshelfs. I have no previous experience with NetApp before,
> > >> >and my work isn't willing to pay some $15k for support contract.
> > >> >Here's the problem I'm having, anytime I turn on the filer, I get t=
his
> > >> >error:
> > >> >"Probing devices at /pci2 4"
> > >> >and that's all.The thing isn't booting, or getting out of POST.
>
> > >> Bad head-unit?
>
> > >> Open it up, and reset the controller cards/NICs.
>
> > >> You should get beyond this point, but right now, it seems to be a
> > >> hardware issue preventing it from starting up, which is probably why
> > >> you don't get anything on the console.
> > >Thanks Doug, I will do that tomorrow, and see what happens.
> > >Regarding resetting the controller cards.. do they have a reset button
> > >on them, or some sort of dip switch? or is there some specific
> > >procedure to reset them?Sorry, I should have typed reseat. Its hanging=
 on scanning the PCI bus
> > during the POST.- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted t=
ext -- Show quoted text -

On 19 Oct 2006 13:50:11 -0700
gkhairallah@gmail.com wrote:

> Thu Oct 19 17:18:01 GMT [ispfc_main:error]: Disk 5a.40 has failed to
> spin up and cannot be used.
> Please replace it with a new drive.
> Thu Oct 19 17:18:01 GMT [scsi.cmd.checkCondition:error]: Device 5a.40:
> Check Condition: CDB 0x1b: Sense Data not ready - (0x2 - 0x4 0x0 0x2).
> Swarm Replay Stats Daemon Started
> Disk 5a.40 is not capable of being dual attached.
> Illegal configuration. Halting.

I would say it's fairly obvious that disk 5a.40 is dead and needs
replacing. Sometimes disks that fail to spin up can be coaxed into
spinning by tapping them - but even if that would work, the disk needs
to be replaced pronto.

-- 
Stefaan A Eeckels
-- 
"One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide
stupidity there ain't nothing can beat teamwork."     -- Mark Twain

Stefaan, Thanks for your reply.
What you said makes sense, and I actually thought about that as well.
however, since I've never even seen the interface of the appliance, I
have no clue what the 5a.40 drive means, is this a drive on the
diskshelves? also, could a drive be bad, or fail to spin, and not even
show an amber light by the drive? all the drives have a green light by
them, with  no indication of failure on the diskshelves...

I dug around in some hard copies of screen captures from the interface,
and I found the output of : sysconfig -a 0
and that lists the RAID Disk Devices. All of the devices references are
8a.## , and non are 5a.##  so I'm not sure what the number is referring
to.
And I know that these drives are the drives in the diskshelves, as one
of them says that it's parity, and the rest are data.

I'm wondering if somehow the controller lost its configuration from the
primary configuration drive, and therefore unable to complete bootup?



On Oct 20, 12:07 am, Stefaan A Eeckels <hoend...@ecc.lu> wrote:
> On 19 Oct 2006 13:50:11 -0700
>
> gkhairal...@gmail.com wrote:
> > Thu Oct 19 17:18:01 GMT [ispfc_main:error]: Disk 5a.40 has failed to
> > spin up and cannot be used.
> > Please replace it with a new drive.
> > Thu Oct 19 17:18:01 GMT [scsi.cmd.checkCondition:error]: Device 5a.40:
> > Check Condition: CDB 0x1b: Sense Data not ready - (0x2 - 0x4 0x0 0x2).
> > Swarm Replay Stats Daemon Started
> > Disk 5a.40 is not capable of being dual attached.
> > Illegal configuration. Halting.I would say it's fairly obvious that disk 5a.40 is dead and needs
> replacing. Sometimes disks that fail to spin up can be coaxed into
> spinning by tapping them - but even if that would work, the disk needs
> to be replaced pronto.
>
> --
> Stefaan A Eeckels
> --
> "One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide
> stupidity there ain't nothing can beat teamwork."     -- Mark Twain

gkhairallah@gmail.com writes:
>Stefaan, Thanks for your reply.
>What you said makes sense, and I actually thought about that as well.
>however, since I've never even seen the interface of the appliance, I
>have no clue what the 5a.40 drive means, is this a drive on the
>diskshelves? also, could a drive be bad, or fail to spin, and not even
>show an amber light by the drive? all the drives have a green light by
>them, with  no indication of failure on the diskshelves...

>I dug around in some hard copies of screen captures from the interface,
>and I found the output of : sysconfig -a 0
>and that lists the RAID Disk Devices. All of the devices references are
>8a.## , and non are 5a.##  so I'm not sure what the number is referring
>to.
>And I know that these drives are the drives in the diskshelves, as one
>of them says that it's parity, and the rest are data.

>I'm wondering if somehow the controller lost its configuration from the
>primary configuration drive, and therefore unable to complete bootup?

How about disk_list? Do they show you any 5a? 

The OS is stored on the disks, not anywhere in the head-unit for that
series IIRC. 

Most likely, you are missing a shelf, probably the one that held the
OS, and you'll have to do an initial load and reformat of the
remaining drives. 

Doug, as i mentioned before. I cannot see anything other than the
printouts of what was output from the sysconfig -a 0 in the past. and
all that's showing is the 8a.## no 5a.## that I was seeing. the 8a.##
is actually on all 3 diskshelves.

I know that there are no diskshelves missing, however I do know that 2
disks were dead at the same time at one point, and we had replace
those, and I think it we were running degraded mode for a while, and my
guess is that something happened to the bootup OS on one of the drives.


At this point, I don't really care about the data that is on the disks.
and I'm willing to try to install a new bootup OS and configuration on
the disks.
would you happen to have an instruction document and or OS ISOs or
whatever is required to to restore this machine back to the default?
from what I saw in the documentation that came with the unit, I don't
see any detailed instructions on this procedure...

Thanks!

On Oct 20, 1:46 pm, Doug McIntyre <mer...@geeks.org> wrote:
> gkhairal...@gmail.com writes:
> >Stefaan, Thanks for your reply.
> >What you said makes sense, and I actually thought about that as well.
> >however, since I've never even seen the interface of the appliance, I
> >have no clue what the 5a.40 drive means, is this a drive on the
> >diskshelves? also, could a drive be bad, or fail to spin, and not even
> >show an amber light by the drive? all the drives have a green light by
> >them, with  no indication of failure on the diskshelves...
> >I dug around in some hard copies of screen captures from the interface,
> >and I found the output of : sysconfig -a 0
> >and that lists the RAID Disk Devices. All of the devices references are
> >8a.## , and non are 5a.##  so I'm not sure what the number is referring
> >to.
> >And I know that these drives are the drives in the diskshelves, as one
> >of them says that it's parity, and the rest are data.
> >I'm wondering if somehow the controller lost its configuration from the
> >primary configuration drive, and therefore unable to complete bootup?How about disk_list? Do they show you any 5a?
>
> The OS is stored on the disks, not anywhere in the head-unit for that
> series IIRC.
>
> Most likely, you are missing a shelf, probably the one that held the
> OS, and you'll have to do an initial load and reformat of the
> remaining drives.- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -

Anyone?

On Oct 20, 4:21 pm, gkhairal...@gmail.com wrote:
> Doug, as i mentioned before. I cannot see anything other than the
> printouts of what was output from the sysconfig -a 0 in the past. and
> all that's showing is the 8a.## no 5a.## that I was seeing. the 8a.##
> is actually on all 3 diskshelves.
>
> I know that there are no diskshelves missing, however I do know that 2
> disks were dead at the same time at one point, and we had replace
> those, and I think it we were running degraded mode for a while, and my
> guess is that something happened to the bootup OS on one of the drives.
>
> At this point, I don't really care about the data that is on the disks.
> and I'm willing to try to install a new bootup OS and configuration on
> the disks.
> would you happen to have an instruction document and or OS ISOs or
> whatever is required to to restore this machine back to the default?
> from what I saw in the documentation that came with the unit, I don't
> see any detailed instructions on this procedure...
>
> Thanks!
>
> On Oct 20, 1:46 pm, Doug McIntyre <mer...@geeks.org> wrote:
>
>
>
> > gkhairal...@gmail.com writes:
> > >Stefaan, Thanks for your reply.
> > >What you said makes sense, and I actually thought about that as well.
> > >however, since I've never even seen the interface of the appliance, I
> > >have no clue what the 5a.40 drive means, is this a drive on the
> > >diskshelves? also, could a drive be bad, or fail to spin, and not even
> > >show an amber light by the drive? all the drives have a green light by
> > >them, with  no indication of failure on the diskshelves...
> > >I dug around in some hard copies of screen captures from the interface,
> > >and I found the output of : sysconfig -a 0
> > >and that lists the RAID Disk Devices. All of the devices references are
> > >8a.## , and non are 5a.##  so I'm not sure what the number is referring
> > >to.
> > >And I know that these drives are the drives in the diskshelves, as one
> > >of them says that it's parity, and the rest are data.
> > >I'm wondering if somehow the controller lost its configuration from the
> > >primary configuration drive, and therefore unable to complete bootup?How about disk_list? Do they show you any 5a?
>
> > The OS is stored on the disks, not anywhere in the head-unit for that
> > series IIRC.
>
> > Most likely, you are missing a shelf, probably the one that held the
> > OS, and you'll have to do an initial load and reformat of the
> > remaining drives.- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -- Show quoted text -