Field upgrades or reconfigurations involving DKR2F-K72FC or DKR2F-K146FC drives on ST9990V or ST9985V may result in reconfigured HDDs being blocked.

Asset ID:	1-73-1020364.1
Update Date:	2010-09-23
Keywords:

Solution Type FAB (standard) Sure

Solution 1020364.1 : Field upgrades or reconfigurations involving DKR2F-K72FC or DKR2F-K146FC drives on ST9990V or ST9985V may result in reconfigured HDDs being blocked.

Impact

Field upgrades on ST9990V and ST9985V involving parity group installations or reconfigurations involving de-installation followed by reinstallation of DKR2F HDDs have resulted in multiple reconfigured HDDs being blocked by the microcode. Subsequent Dummy (self) replacements performed on these HDDs will fail.

This leads to either link-up issues, bad HDD physical address or an HDD self-bypass that results in the failure of the inserted HDD and potentially other drives in the same back end loop.

Contributing Factors

This issue can occur only when the drives being reconfigured or added are models DKR2F-K72FC or DKR2F-K146FC which are multi-vendor 15Krpm HDD models. The other HDD models that are compatible to these do not have this issue.

See the Drive Identification Information at below link;

http://se9990.eng/tech_docs/fab/dkr_issue/DKR_drive_identification.pdf

Also note that the HiTrack Configuration database displays all HDDs that are installed in a subsystem, allowing you to remotely determine where the DKR2F, DKR2G and DKS2E models are installed.

All parity groups containing these drives that were successfully installed are considered 100% safe.

All installations or reconfigurations performed using the New Installation (Initial bring-up) procedures detailed in the Maintenance Manual work perfectly unless the Field Engineer needs to perform additional reconfigurations on the parity groups and does not use supported procedures.

Note: Reconfigurations involving de-installation and re-installation is required for changes such as RAID type (RAID-1 < = > RAID-5), device emulations (OPEN to Mainframe) or to add parity group concatenation, and other changes.

Symptoms

Online parity group installations or reconfigurations (which include installations) can fail, including attempts to re-install or dummy replace the failed drives. It is possible for other HDDs not involved in the reconfiguration, but in the same back end path loop as the DKR2F HDD being inserted to have their ports blocked as well. Properly following new maintenance procedures will eliminate all potential for any of the issues listed in this FAB to occur.

Root Cause

This issue occurs when the margin of the power sequencing controls in these drive models is exceeded during hot plugging in an installation scenario leading to a malfunctioning of the HDDs signal LSI. This leads to either link-up issues, bad HDD physical address or an HDD self-bypass that results in the failure of the inserted HDD and potentially other drives in the same back end loop.

Corrective Action

Workaround:

No workaround available - see Resolution section below.

Resolution:

Please follow the re-configuration procedure mentioned in Field Change Bulletin DKC610I-H004 available at below link;

http://se9990.eng/HECN/610V03/f6h004r1.pdf

In Summary there are two situations when:

1. Reconfiguration will not involve relocating DKR2F-K drives to a different physical location.

   Please use mode 721 to eliminate the need to physically de-install the parity group. Please
   read the full description of this function that is contained in Appendix-P in the ECN document
   of Microcode 60-03-05-00/00-A and above. The first half of Appendix-P is for the ST9990V and
   the second half is for the ST9985V. All the ST9990V/ST9985V ECNs are posted at;

     http://se9990.eng/ecn.html#V02

2. If performing a reconfiguration can not be avoided with the DKR2F-K drives for the
   following reasons, then non-DKR2F-K compatible drives must be ordered:

   a. Reconfiguration will relocate DKR2F-K drives to a different physical location.
   b. Reconfiguration will not involve relocating DKR2F-K drives to a different physical
      location but microcode does not support SOM721 and a microcode upgrade is impossible.

HDS is no longer shipping the DKR2F-K model type for new orders. If for some reason you have DKR2F-K drives onsite waiting installation from a previous shipment, please contact Backline Support for the next step.

Note to Authorized Service Partners:

Sun Authorized Service Partners may contact Sun Services or their Sun Services Representative to receive FAB related information.

Comments

To subscribe to up-to-date ST9900 Alerts go to;

http://sejsc.ebay/alerts_via_alias.html

For Maintenance Manuals go to;

http://pts-storage.west/products/T99x0/documentation.html

References:

Related URL(s):

Related HDS Alert: http://se9990.eng/tech_docs/fab/dkr_issue/USPV_056374.pdf
Related ECN: http://se9990.eng/HECN/610V03/6h028r1.pdf
Related FCB: http://se9990.eng/HECN/610V03/f6h004r1.pdf

For information about FAB documents, its release processes, implementation strategies and billing information, go to the following URL:

http://tns.central/fab

For Sun Authorized Service Providers go to:

http://tns.central/SPE/fab/

In addition to the above you may email:

FAB-Manager@sun.com

Internal Contributor/submitter
Suresh.Gummanur@Sun.COM, Brian.Sutcliffe@Sun.COM

Internal Eng Responsible Engineer
Suresh.Gummanur@Sun.COM Responsible Manager: Tejinder.Singh@Sun.COM

Internal Services Knowledge Engineer
Joe.Davis@Sun.COM

Internal Eng Business Unit Group
NWS (Storage)

Internal Sun Alert & FAB Admin Info
10-Apr-2009: Completed draft and sent to Extended Review.
14-Apr-2009: No feedback from Ext Rvw - sending to Publish.

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