Chapter 4. Operating The Storage Subsystem; Performing The Ds4000 Health Check Process - IBM TotalStorage DS4300 Installation, User's, And Maintenance Manual

Chapter 4. Operating the storage subsystem

Performing the DS4000 Health Check process

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© Copyright IBM Corp. 2005, 2006
To ensure optimal operation of your system, always follow these best practices
guidelines:
v Periodically, perform a full backup of the data on your storage drives.
v Before any planned system shutdown or after any system changes (additions,
removals, or modifications), save controller subsystem profiles as explained in
the Storage Manager guide for your operating system.
v Ensure that your system is in an optimal state before shutting down. Never turn
the power off if any fault light is lit; be sure to resolve any error conditions before
you shut down the system.
v During any maintenance or attended power-up procedure, carefully follow the
power-up sequence listed in "Turning on the storage subsystem" on page 92.
Each component of the subsystem should be checked that it is powered-on in
the proper order during this entire power-up procedure to ensure the controller
will be able to optimally access all of your storage subsystems.
v The storage subsystem supports simultaneous power-up to the system
components; however, you should always follow the power-up sequence listed in
"Turning on the storage subsystem" on page 92 during any attended power-up
procedure.
v A storage system in an optimal state should recover automatically from an
unexpected shutdown and unattended simultaneous restoration of power to
system components. After power is restored, call IBM support if any of the
following conditions occur:
– The storage subsystem logical drives and arrays are not displayed in the
Storage Manager client.
– The storage subsystem logical drives and arrays do not come online.
– The storage subsystem logical drives and arrays seem to be degraded.
v Using the DS4000 Storage Manager client, save the DS4000 subsystem
configuration profile to a disk that is not affected every time you make changes to
the DS4000 subsystem configuration (such as logical drive creation or
modification, or storage partitioning changes).
v DS4300 models 60U/60X only: To maintain power redundancy, plug the DS4300
storage subsystem's right and left power supplies into two independent external
power circuits through ac distribution units inside a rack cabinet or directly into
external receptacles. Similarly, the right and left power supplies of the DS4000
storage expansion enclosures attached to the DS4300 storage subsystem should
be plugged into the same two independent external power circuits as the DS4300
storage subsystem. This ensures that the DS4300 storage subsystem and all its
attached storage expansion enclosures will have power if only one power circuit
is available. In addition, having all the right or all the left power supplies plug into
the same power circuit will enable the components in the storage subsystem to
power on simultaneously during an unattended restoration of power. See
Figure 72 on page 86 for an example of redundant power connections.
The DS4000 Health Check process is a sequence of suggested actions developed
by IBM to help users verify and maintain the optimal performance of their DS4000
storage configurations. The information that you collect in these steps also helps
provide IBM Service with important information needed for problem troubleshooting
during IBM Service calls.
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