Backtrack:  
 
showing posts tagged with 'dell'
 
edited by on April 30th 2021, at 09:26

If you ever need to perform connectivity troubleshooting and need to see whether a Dell server's iDRAC can reach a certain IP, you can use the iDRAC diagnostics command function to perform a "ping":

edited by on May 13th 2020, at 10:00
This article is a reference guide for updating the firmware on switches. As I handle a broad range of switch vendors and models, I got tired of looking up the commands, and decided to bundle it all here in one place for easy reference.

Note that this document is not a step-by-step guide to update a specific switch but rather a reference for which CLI-commands to use.

First, look up current version and active boot bank. Can be either A: or B:

show boot system stack-unit 1upgrade system tftp://10.0.0.1/FTOS-SK-9.9.0.0P9.bin B:conf tboot system stack-unit 1 primary system://Bendwr memreload

When upgrading from USB-stick, change tftp:// to usbflash://. USB-stick needs to be FAT32.

To do

  ...
edited by on May 8th 2020, at 09:30

The certificate for HiveManager NG has expired on October 23, 2019. As a result, Dell N Series switches running an older firmware or an older version of the HiveAgent, can no longer connect or be connected to HiveManager NG after this date.

The solution is to either update the switch firmware to at least 6.6.0.13, or manually update the HiveAgent to 1.1.29.

More information: https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln319098/dell-emc-networking-hivemanager-site-cloud-aerohive-com-certificate-expiration-how-to-manually-upgrade-hiveagent-on-dell-n-series-switches?lang=en&ref=topsolutions

edited by on March 27th 2020, at 14:13
It is possible to convert a QSFP or QSFP+ port to an single SFP or SFP+ port using the Quad to Small Form Factor Pluggable Adapter (QSA). However, in order for this to work, you'll need to configure the QSFP+ port into break-out mode to 4x10Gbps, similar like you would when using actual QSFP to 4xSFP break-out cables.

For OS10, the CLI for this action is:

interface breakout 1/1/7 map 10g-4x

This will break out the interface 1/1/7/ to 4 10Gbps links, which translates to these interfaces on the switch: 1/1/7:1, 1/1/7:2, 1/1/7:3 and 1/1/7:4:

show interface status ------------------------------------------------------------------Port Description Status Spe  ...
edited by on November 18th 2019, at 10:14
Updating the firmware on the Dell EMC PowerVault ME 4 series is pretty straight forward. If you are downloading the firmware on macOS, there's a small caveat though.

The download is delivered as a ZIP-file and contains a single binary file with the extension .bin. When unpacking this ZIP file through the Finder, the BIN file also gets unpacked. In order to successfully get the BIN file, you need to unpack the file through Terminal:

Download the latest firmware from support.dell.com

Start up Terminal and navigate to the folder where you downloaded the ZIP file containing the firmware.

Unzip the ZIP file using the "unzip" command:unzip GT280R004-01-dellemc.bin

This will unpack a  ...
edited by on August 24th 2018, at 15:14
In case of disaster, it is usually a very good idea to periodically back up the configuration of your network switches. This article lists syntax for backing up configuration to a TFTP server for different vendors.

In the syntax examples below, the IP for the TFTP is 1.2.3.4, and we're writing to the file switch.cfg.

Note that this article is definitely not complete. If you have additions to this article, please post them in the comments.

The syntax for Dell and Cisco switches is mostly the same. For N-series and PowerConnect, a summary is displayed which needs to be confirmed, which is not the case for Cisco and Dell S-series.

For Cisco Small Business (SF- and SG-series), the CLI ne  ...
edited by on August 21st 2018, at 11:20
To enable SSH on Dell Networking N-series (formerly known as Dell PowerConnect), you first have to generate the required private RSA and DSA keys. If you don't, you're met with a very secretive error message:

SSH could not be enabled.

To generate the keys, and configure and enable SSH, log on to the switch using the console cable or log on through Telnet:

Go into EXEC mode, then in CONFIG mode:

enableconfigure

Generate both the RSA and DSA keys:

crypto key generate rsacrypto key generate dsa

Now, you can enable the SSH server:

ip ssh server

Optionally: you can also change the default listen port:

ip ssh port 22

With more recent firmware versions, you are no longer able to   ...
edited by on April 3rd 2018, at 13:38

DellEMC offers a free-to-try virtual appliance of DataDomain, allowing you to do a Try & Buy. You can download the appliance here:

https://www.emc.com/products-solutions/trial-software-download/data-domain-virtual-edition.htm

edited by on April 26th 2017, at 10:35
After updating Rapid Recovery to 6.1, you will notice the reporting Powershell scripts (such as Reports.ps1) no longer work.

When running such a script, the following error is generated:

Exception calling "LoadFrom" with "1" argument(s): "Could not load file or assembly 'file:///C:\ProgramFiles\AppRecovery\Core\CoreService\coreadmin\bin\Reporting.Implementation.dll' or one of its dependencies. The systemcannot find the file specified."

This is caused by several auxilliary script files not being updated as part of the general 6.1 release of Rapid Recovery, causing the reporting scripts (such as Reports.ps1) not to work properly.

To resolve, you can either dow  ...
edited by on August 4th 2016, at 17:25
Backup of a SQL Server may fail with a VSS error.

From the log, the following message can be found:

One or more errors occurred. ---> Replay.Core.Contracts.Transfer.VssGeneralErrorException: There was a problem with the VSS subsystem on '(agent-machine)l'. ---> Replay.Agent.Contracts.ShadowCopy.ShadowCopyWriterFailedException: The VSS writer 'SqlServerWriter' failed during the 'DoSnapshotSet' phase with error WriterErrorNonRetryable. The VSS writer state is FailedAtPrepareSnapshot ---> Replay.Common.Contracts.ReplayException

In the Application event log on the machine, event 8229 is logged:

Event 8229
A VSS writer has rejected an event with error 0x800423f4, The writer experienc  ...
edited by on June 21st 2016, at 15:47
For some reason, if an upgrade of an AppAssure/Dell Rapid Recovery Agent is not succesfully completed or cancelled, a subsequent upgrade may fail with the following error message:

Error
Destination path is not empty. Please choose another one.

If an upgrade was cancelled or has failed for some reason, the following upgrade attempt will try to perform a complete installation. Because not all files and/or folders have been removed, the installer will not continue and will display the error message.

To resolve the problem, manually remove the files and folders, but leave any registry keys intact to ensure a proper upgrade without losing any settings.

If it is running, stop the Agent or Core  ...
edited by on June 20th 2016, at 15:13
Dell has changed the name of its acquired AppAssure to Dell Data Protection Rapid Recovery. AppAssure (latest version is 5.4.3) is no longer being maintained, so upgrading to Rapid Recovery (latest version 6.0.2 at the time of writing) is a requirement for continued support. Fortunately, performing the upgrading is not really difficult, and can be done without too much downtime for your backup.

Additional information, including a compatibility and upgrade matrix can be found here:

How to Upgrade AppAssure 5.4 to Rapid Recovery 6.X (181997)

Dell Support Policy (compatibility matrix for Core and Agent versions)

At the time of writing, the compatibility matrix shows that Agent version 5.4.3  ...
edited by on May 18th 2016, at 16:09
You can add a secondary IP address on any interface (e.g.) without using VLAN tagging. This is useful if you have more than one subnet on your LAN, have no VLANs but want both subnets to be routable, without using an additional physical interface.

Create a static ARP entry for the gateway address of the additional subnet on the interface. Select the interface on which the subnet will be on. Enable Publish ARP. This will also automatically fill in the MAC address of the selected interface.

Create an address object for the additional subnet.

Add a static route for the additional subnet:Source: ANY

Destination: the address object you created in the previous step.

Service: ANY

Gateway: 0.0  ...
edited by on April 22nd 2016, at 11:16

When upgrading Dell Force10 switches, keep in mind that starting from FTOS version 9.10, MTU per port can no longer be set to 12000. It is now limited to a maximum of 9216, making it the same maximum as the DNOS (Dell Networking) firmware. After the firmware update, the MTU of each port will automatically be adjusted.

For jumbo frames, this doesn't really change anything. An MTU 9216 on the switch still results in a datagram MTU of 9000, sufficient for e.g. Equallogic storage.

edited by on April 8th 2016, at 17:08
Version 8 of the Equallogic PS firmware introduces a default policy for automatic snapshot creation. This means that by default, a daily snapshot will be created for each volume present in the group. The policy also states to keep 2 snapshots, which can be very space consuming, quickly filling up your Equallogic.

When upgrading the firmware to version 8 from an earlier version, this policy will automatically be created and activated, without telling you, causing headaches among those unaware of this change.

From the CLI, you can check whether the default policy is active:

grpparams default-snapshot-sched show



To turn off this policy from the CLI, type this:

grpparams default-snapshot-  ...
edited by on March 17th 2016, at 09:34
Aside from pulling power cables from a Dell server or blade, there are some other ways to (soft-)reset a frozen iDRAC.

Each rack server has an i-Button on the front panel of the server. To soft-reset iDRAC, hold down this button for 20 seconds.

If you still can log on using SSH, you can also reset it that way, saving you a trip to the server room. See the last part of this article to see how to do this.

To reset the iDRAC on a blade, you can log in on the CMC to do so.

From Chassis Overview, click Troubleshooting, then click on Reset Components (the third item in the submenu, next to Diagnostics).

If you cannot log in using the web interface but still have access to the unit through SSH  ...
edited by on April 28th 2015, at 15:24
This article is a quick reminder (for myself) on how to properly configure port forwarding on a Dell Sonicwall firewall.

First, create the address and services objects you need for the port forwarding. In case of multiple addresses or services, create a group and add all objects in that group.

Address object for a local server



Service group with multiple services



Predefined objects, such as the WAN IP are already present and do not have to be created again. Also, the advantage of using these predefined objects is that they are dynamic: e.g. if the WAN IP changes, the policies and rules that use this object will not have to be changed.

Once the objects are in place, they can be refer  ...
edited by on April 20th 2015, at 15:41

You can disable the page prompt "--More or (q)uit--" by entering the following command at the console:

terminal length 0

This disables the prompt, and allows you to do config dumps, or run show tech-support.

If you get an error about unrecognized command, your firmware is too old.

edited by on April 17th 2015, at 15:07

Dell Networking switches introduce a new port mode called switchport general. This type is a multi-purpose mode, combining access and trunk in one.

Access mode

The following gets written as:

switchport mode access
switchport access vlan 99
=
switchport mode general
switchport general allowed vlan add 99 untagged
switchport general pvid 99

Trunk mode

The following gets written as:

switchport mode trunk
switchport trunk allowed vlan add 99,100
=
switchport mode general
switchport general allowed vlan add 99,110 tagged
switchport general pvid 4095         (this is is the drop vlan)
 
 
showing posts tagged with 'dell'