System Release Notes Express5800/320LB System Release Notes

Transcription

1 System Release Notes Express5800/320LB System Release Notes PN:

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3 Proprietary Notice and Liability Disclaimer The information disclosed in this document, including all designs and related materials, is the valuable property of NEC Computers and/or its licensors. NEC Computers and/or its licensors, as appropriate, reserve all patent, copyright and other proprietary rights to this document, including all design, manufacturing, reproduction, use, and sales rights thereto, except to the extent said rights are expressly granted to others. The NEC Computers product(s) discussed in this document are warranted in accordance with the terms of the Warranty Statement accompanying each product. However, actual performance of each product is dependent upon factors such as system configuration, customer data, and operator control. Since implementation by customers of each product may vary, the suitability of specific product configurations and applications must be determined by the customer and is not warranted by NEC Computers. To allow for design and specification improvements, the information in this document is subject to change at any time, without notice. Reproduction of this document or portions thereof without prior written approval of NEC Computers is prohibited. Trademarks Microsoft, Windows 2000 and Windows Server 2003 are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. PROSet II is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation VERITAS is a registered trademark of VERITAS Software Corporation All other product, brand, or trade names used in this publication are the trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective trademark owners. PN: April 2004 Copyright 2004 NEC Computers All Rights Reserved 3

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5 Express5800/320Lb System Release Notes The Express5800/320Lb System Release Notes provide up-to-date information on your system. These notes also provide additional valuable information about your system that was not included in the user s guide at the time of its release. Please read these notes in their entirety. CONTENTS : Proprietary Notice and Liability Disclaimer...3 Operating System...7 ExpressBuilder...7 System Hardware...8 System Software...9 Event Log...10 ESMPRO...11 ESMPRO Patch

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7 Operating System Supported operating systems Your server supports Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server with Service Pack 3 and above and Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition. No other operating systems are supported at this time. Hot Fix and Service Pack application It is not recommended to apply Windows Hot Fixes obtained directly from Microsoft. These Hot Fixes might contain software that conflicts with modifications made to the system components by NEC Computers in order to operate on fault-tolerant systems. NEC Computers evaluates regularly the new Hot Fixes, and attempt to determine whether any of the files that are replaced by the Hot Fix could have an impact on the reliable operation of ft systems. Please call your technical support or check the support page on the NEC Computers web site ( in order to obtain information about the latest Hot Fixes that are currently qualified on your fault tolerant system. Do not install Microsoft Windows Service Packs directly on your fault tolerant server. Doing so, you may cause your system not to operate properly. NEC integrates support for installing new Windows Service Packs in update EXPRESSBUILDER releases. Call your technical support center to obtain update EXPRESSBUILDER releases and information about the support status for the latest Service Packs. ExpressBuilder Install Windows 2000 Advanced Server or Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition Operating System using the Ft Server Setup function on the corresponding EXPRESSBUILDER CD-ROM. Do not attempt to install the operating system manually. The EXPRESSBUILDER CD-ROM shipped with your server can only be used to install the operating system version that was provided with the system. If you need to install another operating system version, please contact your technical support center to obtain the corresponding EXPRESSBUILDER version. If you are using ExpressBuilder rev a-Ga or earlier, the OS installation must be performed with only PCI module #1 installed and with only one hard disk drive installed in slot #1 of PCI module #1. Otherwise, the keyboard, mouse and additional hard disk drives may not be recognized. If you are using ExpressBuilder rev b-G and above, both PCI modules may be installed, however, only the hard drive in slot #1 of PCI module #1 must be present. 7

8 System Hardware USB Devices SCSI Disks After a PCI module fails over, the drive letter of the USB floppy drive changes. If the floppy drive letter is A it changes to B: If the floppy drive letter is B, it changes to A. When removing the USB diskette drive from the system, use Add/Remove Hardware in the Control Panel. If the USB diskette drive is not cleanly removed, the keyboard and/or mouse may not respond. If the keyboard and/or mouse no longer respond, remove the USB keyboard from the system and reconnect it. Keyboard and mouse functionality will be restored. The keyboard and mouse may not respond during a BIOS online update. Once the BIOS is completely updated, keyboard/mouse functionality is restored. When booting the ExpressBuilder CD-ROM and running some ExpressBuilder tools (Offline Maintenance Utility, System Diagnostics, etc) keyboard input may be wrong if you are using a PS2 keyboard with a PS2/USB converter. If you encounter this problem, use a native USB keyboard when running these tools. SCSI disk LED's are green when the OS is rebooting. When a PCI module is removed, the disk LED's for the disks in the active PCI module may be off. When adding a new (i.e. no operating system signature) hard disk drive to the system, add the hard disk drive while the operating system is up and running. If the new hard disk drive is introduced into the system when the system is not at the operating system level, the PCI modules may not duplex. If such a condition occurs, remove the new disk and reinsert it. The disk will be recognized and the PCI modules will duplex. Avoid shutting down or rebooting the system while the disk mirrors are synchronizing (check that all the LEDs are green before starting the shutdown/reboot). Doing so can lead to a data corruption on your disks. Determining a defective disk (i.e.. ascertaining the physical location), requires the following information: Port Number: The port number can be determined from ESMPRO's DataViewer. SCSI Enclosure (ID:10/40/120) for PCI module #1 and SCSI Enclosure (ID:11/40/120) for PCI module #2. Target Number: The Target Number can be determined from VERITAS Enterprise Administrator Check each disks' Properties. Each disk will have a Port Number and a Target Number. The Port Number will correspond with the PCI module determined in above under Port Number. The Target Number corresponds as follows: 8

9 Backup devices Target Disk Slot Do not perform Device Manager "Scan for Hardware Changes" while performing a backup otherwise the backup may fail. Fault Tolerant virtual video controller If you double-click the Unplug or Eject Hardware on the system toolbar, two Stratus Fault Tolerant Video components will be displayed. Do not remove them. If one or both of them are removed, the PCI modules will not be able to properly operate in duplex mode. Uninterruptible Power Supply When the system is connected to a UPS for planned shutdowns and reboots, it is possible that the active PCI module and the active Power Switch LED will switch between modules at every reboot. This is due to slight timing differences in the boot sequences and may cause a different PCI module to be considered primary each time the system is power cycled System Software VERITAS Volume Manager The VERITAS Volume Manager 3.1 (Server edition) is required for running Windows 2000 Advanced Server on your Express5800/320LB system. VERITAS Volume Manager 3.1 (Server edition) is already installed if your system comes preinstalled with Windows 2000 Advanced Server. It is also installed automatically when reinstalling your system using the 320LB ExpressBuilder CD-ROM for Windows 2000 Advanced Server. Do not attempt to install any other VERITAS Volume Manager version or edition (such as the Advanced Server edition) on your Express5800/320LB server VERITAS Volume Manager is not supported on Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition at this time. The disk mirror(s) are not automatically rebuilt upon system recovery. The rebuild process must be manually initiated using VERITAS Volume Manager. Close the VERITAS Volume Manager prior to replacing disks. Otherwise the VERITAS Volume Manager may hang. VERITAS Volume Manager requires at least 8 MB of capacity for volume management. The required capacity is automatically reserved when creating volumes under Windows. Reserve the required capacity for VERITAS Volume Manager if a non-windows utility is used to create the volume. It is not recommended to apply Veritas Volume Manager patches obtained directly from Veritas, as these patches might interfere with the fault-tolerant software. NEC Computers 9

10 evaluates regularly the new Volume Manager patches and attempt to determine whether any of the files that are replaced by the patch could have an impact on the reliable operation of ft systems. Please call your technical support or check the support page on the NEC Computers web site ( in order to obtain information about the latest Veritas Volume Manager patches that are currently qualified on your fault tolerant system. Backup Software The Windows System Event Log may show SCSI controller errors containing "f " in the last data word while backup software is running. These errors may be ignored. When backup software is installed and a PCI module needs to be serviced, terminate the backup software service before replacing PCI modules. Intel PROSet II Intel PROSet II must be removed then re-installed whenever all the LAN adapter teams have been removed. The LAN adapter teams must be recreated after Intel PROSet is reinstalled. Event Log When a PCI module is started, at the boot or manually while OS is running, the following event may be reported in the event log. Source: srabb Event ID: 32 Description: "Device 10/0 is now EMPTY" or "Device 11/0 is now EMPTY" The above event can be ignored if the following event is reported the Event Log within a few minutes after the precedent event was reported. Source: srabb Event ID: 62 Description: "Device 10/0 is now ONLINE" or "Device 11/0 is now ONLINE" The NMS Service service terminated unexpectedly. This log may be recorded in the system event log when starting the system, or after replacing a PCI module. It has no impact on the system operation. The NMS service manages Intel PROSet II configuration changes. This service will be automatically restarted when Intel PROSet II is started. Source: Service Control Manager Event ID: 7031 Description: The NMS Service service terminated unexpectedly. It has done this 1 time(s). The following corrective action will be taken in 0 milliseconds: No action. iansminiport-related logs; the following log may be recorded in the system event log when starting the system, but is has no impact on the system operation. Source: iansminiport Event ID: 35 Description: Initializing Team #X missing adapters. Check the configuration to 10

11 verify that all the adapters are present and functioning. vmperf log; one or more of the following events may be logged in the system application log. This has no effect on the functionality of VERITAS Volume Manager. Source: ID: 11 vmperf Description: The description for Event ID (11) in Source (vmperf) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. The following information is part of the event: Source: ID: 12 vmperf Description: The description for Event ID (12) in Source (vmperf) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. The following information is part of the event: ESMPRO General issues ESMPRO Manager version; some items cannot be monitored with NEC ESMPRO Manager of version 4.0 or earlier. Use the NEC ESMPRO Manager Ver.4.1 (provided in the ExpressBuilder CD-ROM with your system) or later If you dynamically change the configuration of a CPU or PCI module on the system while ESMPRO Manager Data Viewer is open, a message prompting you to reconstruct the tree of the data viewer will appear. Click [Yes] to reconstruct the tree; otherwise the information displayed in the data viewer will be different from the current system configuration. After a PCI module failover, the drive letter of the USB floppy drive changes from A to B. However, ESMPRO Manager does not reflect this change in Data Viewer. Also, if you add or remove an USB floppy disk drive while the system is running, the drive information in the Data Viewer will only be updated after the system is restarted. CPU Load rise caused by the SNMP Service (snmp.exe); when monitoring the server with ESMPRO Manager, the CPU load on the managed system may increase because of the activity of the SNMP Service on the ESMPRO Agent, every time the ESMPRO Manager gets the current status (by default, once a minute). If this increase in CPU load is not acceptable, turn off the server status monitoring by NEC ESMPRO Manager or extend the monitoring interval. Depending on your server model, some of the temperature/voltage/fan sensors may not be present. In this case, ESMPRO Manager displays an Unknown (grayed) value for these sensor s values. This is not an error condition. 11

12 Event Logs generated by ESMPRO Perflib message in application log; when system is starting, Perflib logs may be registered in the application event log. These logs do not have any impact on the system operations. Dual registration of event logs; for some types of errors (such as temperature and voltage errors), two event logs may be registered for a single occurrence. On NEC ESMPRO Manager however, only one log is reported for the occurrence. CPU Monitoring Data Viewer application on ESMPRO Manager may display unknown or incorrect information in the [CPU Module] [CPU] tree. In this case, the correct CPU information can be viewed under [System] [CPU] in the ESMPRO MIB tree. If a CPU module is suspended, the status color of the [CPU Module] icon in the FTServer tree of the ESMPRO Manager Data Viewer may not change from green. If you receive an alert indicating a system configuration change, check the current status by selecting [CPU Module][General]. BIOS additional data may not be displayed properly in [BIOS Information] of a CPU Module of the ft server utility or in [Ft Server] [CPU Module] [Individual CPU Module] [General] [BIOS Information] of Data Viewer. In this case, see the data in [ESMMIB] [BIOS] of Data Viewer. In [CPU Information] of Data Viewer s system tree, the external clock is listed as Unknown. This is the normal behavior of this system. PCI Module Monitoring PCI modules, SCSI adapters, SCSI buses, devices in the SCSI enclosures have impact on each other. For example, when the status of a module changes to fault, this may be caused by an error in another module. Therefore, you need to check the status of all the modules when you receive an alert. Network Monitoring The removal of an Ethernet cable of an onboard interface does not change the PCI module state (in [PCI Module][General] in the FTServer tree of the data viewer). Check the current state in [PCI Module][Ethernet board][general] instead. Unused Ethernet Adapters; if an Ethernet adapter is not used (a cable is not connected), set it to Disable in [Network Connections] from Control Panel. Remove the dual LAN configuration before disabling it. Otherwise, ESMPRO Agent put a fault status on the component and Data Viewer displays it red (in error status). In some cases, the LAN monitoring function may report a line fault or high line load alert. If the line status comes back to normal state immediately, the alert can be ignored. SCSI Bus and Disk Monitoring SCSI Adapter Information; when you select [SCSI Adapter] [General Information] in ESMPRO Manager Data Viewer, incorrect information may appear in the Serial number column. 12

13 When creating a new disk mirror, the status of the hard disks and their associated SCSI enclosure will continue to change until the mirror is completed. New settings in thresholds such as the file system free space monitoring may not be reflected immediately after they are changed. They are only reflected at the next monitoring interval of the monitoring service. The Disk Failure Prediction (S.M.A.R.T.) is not supported on the Express5800/320Lb server. In [FT Server][Disk Failure Prediction] tree of the FT Server Utility do not check the Enable disk failure prediction (SMART) option. ESMPRO Patch After reinstalling your system using the ExpressBuilder CDROM, you must manually aply the ESMPRO patch that is situated under <CDROM>\ESMPRO\EN\WINNT\AGENTW2K\UPDATE\. For applying this patch, just launch setup.exe that is situated in this directory and follow the instructions on the screen. This patch fixes a issue in ESMPRO that can cause the system clock to gain time. 13