Disk Replacement on NetApp 8200/Shelf DS460c

https://docs.netapp.com/platstor/topic/com.netapp.doc.hw-ds-sas3-service/GUID-EFFF38EC-C136-44E6-88D5-6539A55C5985.html?resultof=%22%44%53%34%36%30%43%22%20%22%64%73%34%36%30%63%22%20

Locating the correct drive isn't hard but make sure one is positive.  Calling NetApp for assistance might actually do more harm than good as that support person might not know either.

The hard drive numbering starts at 0, not 1, both in the software and physically.  Each shelf contains five drawers, the drawers are numbers 1 through 5, the top drawer is number 1 the bottom drawer is number 5.  Each shelf contains twelve drives, so drawer #1 contains drives 0 through 11, drawer #2 contains drives 12 through 23, and so on. The 60th drive is actually #59. 

The system and OnCommand will email and alert stating where the drive is.  IE: "FILESYSTEM DISK FAILED Shelf 0, Drawer 5, Slot 6, Bay 54"  The system is correct, kind of, the failed drive in this case is in the 5th drawer, in the 6th position, and is number 54.  

Unlike other NetApp shelves the "blink drive" command is only mildly useful.  With this shelf it will only blink the drawer, not the drive bay indicator; so the blink command only tells us what drawer it is in.  Despite the CDOT operating system needs the drive bay parameters.  Likewise there is no way to know where the failed drive on the system is just by looking at it.

storage disk set-led -disk 4.0.54 -action off  <--turns off the LED's

storage disk set-led -disk 4.0.54 -action blink -duration 5  <--turns on the shelf light indicator on for 5 minutes

(note amber light on the bottom shelf)

Log into OnCommand go to  Storage->Aggregates & Disks->Disks->Inventory; Filter the Container type by "broken", make note of the serial number of the failed drive.  Now physically go to the drive shelf, open the drawer (email alerts will be sent out), located the failed drive.  Make note of the drive layout drive layout picture on the front of the shelf.  Front left, is drive #0, drive #11 is back right.  In our example it is the 6th position, so front row, three over.  Confirm the proper drive is chosen by looking at the serial number.  If it matches remove it from the shelf, let the system sit for a minute; long enough for OnCommand to recognize the failed drive is gone.  Once it is gone from the Inventory screen, install the new drive, and assign it to a shelf. 

 

Cisco M3 C220 VMware ESX v6.5 upgrade to 7.0 and notes

 Upgraded a Cisco M3 C220 from ESXi v6.5 to v7.0 and had some bumps along the way.

Here are two sites that I got some information from that I wish I had found earlier.

https://jc-lan.org/2021/03/07/upgrade-from-esxi-6-7-to-7-0-via-command-line-ssh/

https://tinkertry.com/easy-update-to-latest-esxi

This particular machine had the Cisco customized version of v6.5 installed.  During the install of v7.0 several drivers had to be removed. Something that I wished I had known about earlier was to use the "--ok-to-remove" to have VMWare automatically VIB's it doesn't like; this would have saved a bunch of time!

Error message: 'Could not find a trusted signer.'

Workaround: esxcli software acceptance set --level=CommunitySupported

and tack on "--no-sig-check" at the tail end of the esxcli software line

Error Message: '[Errno 28] No space left on device'

Workaround: Make sure a datastore has been selected for swapfile space

Typing in: "/sbin/reboot" will reboot a host if no VM's are currently running.

If that doesn't work, try downloading the patch do a datastore and run the patch from there.  IE: 

esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.7.0-20210301001s-standard -d /vmfs/volumes/300gbRAID1/ESXi670-202103001.zip

HP G6 VMware ESX 6.5 upgrades to v6.7 an 7.0 and notes

 Decided to finally upgrade my home lab HP G6 ML350 ESXi servers to something newer than v6.5.  Usually an SD card is chosen to as the location for ESXi OS installations.  This allows certain flexibility that would otherwise be harder on hard drive based installs. Namely for backing up, testing, and running multiple versions to name a few. The SD card was removed and an image of it was made, then that image was written out to a different SD card using software by the name of OSFClone.  Now a second copy of the ESXi OS exists so experiments and testing can be done; and if it implodes, oh well!  Just swap back to the original SD card.

One method to patch VMware ESXi  servers is to do it from the Command line, and download the source from VMware's software repository.  In some cases it is quicker than using Update Manager.  These steps are to SSH into a server, enable HTTP & HTTPS on the firewall, download and install the update, reboot (assuming the server has no running VM's).  I use this site for reference:

https://esxi-patches.v-front.de/ESXi-6.5.0.html

esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient
esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-6.7.0-20201004001-standard \
-d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml

Turns out this method also works really well for doing version upgrades!  I ran the above lines to do the v6.5 to v6.7 upgrade.
The first attempt greeted me with dependency warnings.  The generic version of ESX is installed, then the HP Offline bundle and HP Smart Storage Adapter VIBs were installed, so those needed to be removed.  
esxcli software vib list (this will get the list the names of all VIBs installed) 
esxcli software vib remove --vibname name of VIB
After that the upgrade went smooth and everything works.  Excellent!  Can we go newer?  
I swapped SD card back to the original, so essentially physically reverting back at v6.5u3.  Speaking of which.  VCenter v7.0 does not seem to care that one server was running v6.5, then v6.7, then back to v6.5.  There seems to be no issues concerning random version changes on the ESXi hosts.
Putty back into the host and ran:
esxcli network firewall ruleset set -e true -r httpClient
esxcli software profile update -p ESXi-7.0U1c-17325551-standard \
-d https://hostupdate.vmware.com/software/VUM/PRODUCTION/main/vmw-depot-index.xml
Success!!  ESXi 7.0 running on a HP Proliant ML350 G6