Use the options for Enterprise licensed systems to manage several servers at once from the nested Enterprise selections.
Tag: System
Because of issues archiving over a WAN (see this article), it might be necessary to manually trigger a watchdog so that the server is able to start up successfully. To do this, complete the following steps:
- On the System configuration page, open the Watchdog Timers tab and make sure the motherboard watchdog is enabled.
- Open a Terminal window to the server.
- Execute ps -ef | grep core to find out the process ID of the core process. If multiple IDs are reported, use the lowest.
- Execute sudo kill -9 [pid], where [pid] is the process ID from the previous step.
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The server should then restart within the specified watchdog timer timeout.
A small percentage of exacqVision systems with Supermicro C7Q67 motherboards installed have been found to exhibit widely fluctuating network performance and then lock up. The problem is known to occur only on systems containing Supermicro C7Q67 motherboards with the BIOS firmware version 1.0b. These motherboards are found mostly in 2U exacqVision A Series and Z series servers.
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NOTE: To determine which motherboard model is installed in an exacqVision system by opening a Command Prompt and typing systeminfo. The System Manufacturer and System Model lines display the make and model of the motherboard.
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To resolve the network and system lockup issues, you must update the BIOS firmware using the following procedure:
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NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO INSTALL THE FIRMWARE UPDATE ON ANY MOTHERBOARD OTHER THAN SUPERMICRO C7Q67.
- Make a bootable USB flash drive. If you need assistance with this step, visit http://rufus.akeo.ie.
- Create a folder named c711 on the root of the flash drive.
- Download the latest BIOS firmware for the motherboard from https://exacq.com/reseller/C711.zip. (The username required to download the file is guest, and the password is exacqvisionip.) Extract the contents to the c711 folder on the flash drive.
- Plug the flash drive into the exacqVision system and start (or restart) the system.
- When the system restarts, immediately press Delete to enter the BIOS settings. (If you have a RAID controller, wait until it finishes initialization and then immediately press Delete.)
- Type admin256 as the password and press Enter.
- Navigate to the Boot tab and find the USB flash drive or USB Devices in the list. NOTE THE BOOT ORDER so that you can restore it after this process is complete.
- Highlight the USB drive and press the + button to move it higher in the boot list. Repeat until it is located at the top of the list.
- To restart the computer, press F4 (Save and Exit) and select Yes.
- When the system restarts, immediately press Delete to enter the BIOS settings. (If you have a RAID controller, wait until it finishes initialization and then immediately press Delete.)
- Navigate to the last line on the EXIT tab and select Reset System with ME Disable Mode.
- When the system boots to the flash drive C:> prompt, type cd c711 and press Enter.
- Type ami C7Q67_T9062.bin and press Enter.
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- If you see a message indicating that you need to update the ME firmware to 1.10, type the following in ALL CAPS (press Enter after each line) and wait for the process to complete:
REN AFUDOSU.SMC AFUDOSU.EXE
AFUDOSU.EXE C7Q672.417 /P /B /N /R /ME - Shut down the system and remove the power cable from the power supply on the back for at least ten seconds.
- Plug the power cable into the system and press the power button (if necessary) to start it.
- When the system restarts, immediately press Delete to enter the BIOS settings. (If you have a RAID controller, wait until it finishes initialization and then immediately press Delete.)
- On the Main tab, verify that the BIOS is now version 1.10 (09/06/12) and set the current time and date.
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On the Advanced tab, select or verify the following Boot Feature settings:
- Power Button Function [4 Seconds Override]
- Restore on AC Power Loss [Last State]
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On the Advanced tab, select or verify the following Processor & Clock Options setting:
- Power Technology [Custom]
- EIST [Disabled]
- CPU C1E [Disabled]
- CPU C3 Report [Disabled]
- CPU C6 report [Disabled]
- Package C State limit [No Limit]
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On the Advanced tab, select or verify the following IDE/SATA Configuration setting:
- SATA Mode [AHCI Mode]
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On the Advanced tab, select or verify the following Hardware Health Configuration setting:
- Fan Speed Control Mode [Full Speed]
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- On the Security tab, set the Administrator password as admin256.
- On the Boot tab, reset the boot order as it was before you promoted the USB drive.
- To restart the computer, press F4 (Save and Exit) and select Yes.
Before expanding your array, please consider the size of array that you are moving to. Changing the size of the array could cause issues if a new cluster size must be assigned:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/140365/default-cluster-size-for-ntfs,-fat,-and-exfat
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It is possible to expand an array with 3Ware using the 3DM2 web utility. Please follow the steps below to successfully expand the array using the Migration method:
- Install the new disks into the system. Keep in mind that is is an additive process, and not one where existing disks are removed. Also of note is that the disks need to be the same capacity as the original disks, else the total capacity of the new disk will only read as much of that of the existing disks. i.e new 6TB drives will only show up with 4TB available if an array with 4TB drives already exists.
- Once installed, open the 3DM2 page by opening a browser and navigating to https://localhost:888/
- Login with Administrator/admin256. For older units, or units that have just been re-imaged, the password may be 3ware.
- Once logged in, navigate to Management > Maintenance.
- Select the unit in the Unit Maintenance table (usually u0).
- Select Migrate Unit and the bottom of the table.
- Select the drives desired to expand the unit with by checking the Port ID next to them.
- It is suggested to leave the RAID level the same as the original configuration. As a rule, systems shipped with 8 drives and fewer would be RAID 5 while systems shipped with 9 drives and more would be RAID 6.
- It is also suggested to leave the stripe size as the original as well. As a rule, systems with RAID configuration all shipped with a 256k stripe size.
- Select OK.
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Once the unit has finished migrating (you can check the progress in the exacqVision client), the OS needs to be informed that the drive has expanded:
- Reboot the system once migration has completed.
- Log back into the system as the admin.
- Stop the exacqVision server service by (Windows) selecting Windows Key+R > type net stop exacqVisionServer > OK or (Linux) select Ctrl+Alt+T > type sudo /etc/init.d/edvrserver stop > press Enter > use admin256 for password.
- In Windows, select Start > right-click Computer > Manage > Disk Management > right-click existing array’s partition (i.e. D:) > Extend > cycle through the menu by selecting Next and then OK at the end.
- In Linux, new partitions must be under 16TB. In this case, please call Support for assistance in expanding the array in the OS.
- Start the exacqVision server service by (Windows) selecting Windows Key+R > type net start exacqVisionServer > OK or (Linux) select Ctrl+Alt+T > type sudo /etc/init.d/edvrserver start > press Enter > use admin256 for password.
- Open the exacqVision Client and navigate to Config (gears) > Storage under the system being edited. Make sure the new capacity is the same as what was reported by the OS.
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Expand-an-array-with-3Ware.pdfThe exacqVision Help file cannot be viewed directly throught exacqVision Client on Mac-based systems. To view the Help file, complete the following steps:
- In exacqVision Client, click the Help button (the circle with the blue question mark).
- Follow the onscreen instructions to download and install Chamonix CHM viewer.
- On the Desktop, right-click the exacqVision Client shortcut and select Show Package Contents.
- Expand the Contents folder to display either MacOS or MacOSX.
- Expand the MacOS or MacOSX folder to display exacqVision.chm.
- Copy exacqVision.chm to the desktop.
- Open exacqVision.chm using Chamonix. The table of contents should be displayed at the right side; if not, click the Show/Hide Drawer button.
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Viewing-the-exacqVision-Help-File-on-a-Mac-System.pdfExternal USB DVD drives can be connected to an exacqVision system if they are compatible with the operating system (Windows 7 or Ubuntu 10.04 Linux). Although third-party USB DVD drives are not specifically supported or certified for use with exacqVision systems, Samsung SE-S084D/TSBS and LG GP08NU6B DVD drives have been successfully used for this purpose.
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Run fsck
On Linux systems, if a disk encounters a filesystem error, the physical drive may still be good but require a file system consistency check. Perform the following steps to attempt to correct this.
If the affected volume is a video storage volume:
- Stop the ExacqVision server service. Open a Terminal window and enter:
sudo service edvrserver stop<br><br> - Unmount the volume:
sudo umount /mnt/edvr/X
Replace the ‘X’ with your volume number.
Example: If you have a write error on /mnt/edvr/2, you would enter:
sudo umount /mnt/edvr/2
NOTE: If this command fails, see Appendix below.<br><br> - Run fsck on this volume, again replacing ‘X’ with the volume number:
sudo fsck -yv /mnt/edvr/X
This command will tell the system to automatically attempt to fix any issues it encounters. This may take minutes or several hours depending on the number of filesystem errors and the size of the volume. When completed, the Terminal will return to a prompt awaiting a new command. <br><br> - When you have run fsck on all the affected storage volumes, reboot the system by entering:
reboot
OR
Return to the Desktop and use the power icon to restart the machine. The drives will remount upon boot up.<br>br>
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Appendix
If drive fails to unmount, you will need to open the fstab file and comment out the mount point of the drive in question.sudo gedit /etc/fstab
- You will need to place a ‘#‘ character to the left of ‘Label=/mnt/edvr/X’
- Save
- Reboot the machine.
- The drive that was commented out should not be mounted at this point.
Continue with step 3 above.
Reminder: Do not forget to re-edit the fstab after the fsck is finished and remove the # you added.
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What does fsck do?
The fsck command performs a consistency check and attempts to repair the filesystem from errors.
What causes filesystem errors?
When system processes or user activity require saving data or making changes to the filesystem, that data is first written to a buffer in memory (RAM). The system periodically moves the data waiting in the buffer to the hard disk. Therefore, at any moment, there is a difference between file changes waiting to be written to disk and what exists on the disks.
Filesystem errors and inconsistencies can develop due to hardware degradation, system halts, or unclean shutdowns. Sudden power loss and forced shutdowns occurring before the changes in the buffer are moved to permanent disk storage.
Components checked by fsck
Inodes
Inodes contain metadata about a file, which includes information like: whether the file is read/write or read-only, the type of file, the user ID of the file owner, file creation and modification date and time, and the number of bytes in the file.
Data Blocks
These contain the data that actually makes up the file.
Superblocks
The superblock contains details about the filesystem, such as the state of the filesystem, the filesystem size, the filesystem name and volume name(s), path name of the mount point, and number of inodes. Every change to the inodes also requires changes to the superblock.
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