The F-Series UI and BMC Overview

Storage Page Overview

On this page, you can see the current storage configuration on the system, and make necessary changes.

Note: When you use write-cache (write-back cache) on logical volumes in your H-Series product, initiator applications that care about data consistency should always flush the cache when necessary (via SYNCHRONIZE CACHE). The target-side write-back cache software auto-commits cache metadata at a regular time interval and when a blocks-written quantity threshold has been reached, however, in the event of a storage array power loss or firmware crash, the application must flush the cache for any critical writes (for example, data is not guaranteed to be on stable media until an fsync() occurs). If this behavior is not acceptable, you can remove write-cache for the logical volume(s) by running the remove_vol_cache QBSP shell command.

If you create a striped logical volume (a logical volume that uses more than one physical volume [PV]), the stripe size across each PV is equal; if the unit of measure, for a value of a given size, is percentage (%), then the process uses the smallest amount of free/available on one PV, and multiplies this by the number of selected PV’s.

The F2100 comes pre-configured from the factory as a RAID6 10+2 with 2 volume groups and 2 LUNs (1 LUN per each volume group):

• Uses multiple NVMe namespaces per drive​
• RAID sets distributed between controllers for multi-threading storage access​
• 1 volume per controller distributes workload​

Storage page areas and icons

Item	Description
1	Select Physical Volume button – when you click this button, all the physical volumes (8 are configured on the system by default) are displayed. Click one of the physical volumes to view which physical disks make up that volume in the RAID array graphic at the bottom of the above image (item 9 above).
2	Manage Physical Volumes button – use this to add or remove physical volumes, to detach all degraded drives, or attach all drives ready to be added to the RAID.
3	Time interval button – use this to change the refresh interval for the CONFIGURATION > Storage page
4	"Refresh now" button – refreshes the array display immediately when clicked.
5	All elements related to the storage array. If there were additional JBODs, they would be listed after the RAID array shown above (light blue box above). Includes items 6-9 below:
6	Volume Group managed by Controller A (green box above). See Volume Group visual overview.
7	Volume Group managed by Controller B (orange box above). See Volume Group visual overview.
8	Information about the RAID array (purple box above).
9	Chassis drives diagram – this is a visual representation of the physical chassis with drives numbered from 1 to 12 (for 12 drive chassis) or 24 (for 24-drive chassis; yellow box above). Drives in blue with a green indicator are 100% healthy, configured drives.

Caution: Quantum recommends leaving the storage configuration unchanged after initial configuration. ONLY change this if absolutely necessary (such as if settings change within your network ecosystem). The system was optimized during initial configuration for your network and storage environment. You could adversely affect efficiency of the system if these settings are changed incorrectly.

Volume Group visual overview

Each "Volume Group" is presented in the F-Series UI graphically as follows:

Item	Description
1	Volume Group name and letter (first group, as shown, is the "A" volume group; the controller that manages this group has the same name as the volume group, Controller "A")
2	Volume Group (provides total storage in use, and free, if applicable)
3	Logical Volume for this volume group (in this example, there is one; could be many)
4	Physical Volume/Raid Set (in this example: the first of four)
5	Physical Volume/Raid Set (in this example: the second of four)
6	Physical Volume/Raid Set (in this example: the third of four)
7	Physical Volume/Raid Set (in this example: the fourth of four)

Select Physical Volume selected drives

1. Click the Select Physical Volume button:

2. Choose a physical volume to highlight in the chassis drives diagram on the page.

Example:



The selected physical drives that make up the physical volume are highlighted in a light blue shade, as indicated in the green box below:



3. Deselect the physical drives by clicking the Deselect button:

The drives will return to their normal view state:

Since this example is a 24-drive system, the storage is organized into:

• Volume Groups ("RAID"). There are two volume groups in the system comprised of 2 x 12-drive, (1 Volume Group for each set of 12 NVME drives in the system, each of which is managed by its own controller, either Controller A, or Controller B). The following how the 12 physical storage drives per Controller are associated with the Volume Groups shown above them in the F-Series UI:



• Logical Volumes (LUNs) - from the factory, each RAID is configured as a single logical volume
• Physical Volumes (RAID sets)

Information and options presented for different volume types:

Click on one of the different volume types to see to view information about that volume type, and perform actions on that volume.

For volume groups

Item	Description
1	Click on this area to open the "Logical Volume" dialog.
2	Information displayed for the "Logical Volume".
3	Close button for the "Logical Volume" dialog.

For logical volumes

Caution: Quantum recommends leaving the storage configuration unchanged after initial configuration. ONLY change this if absolutely necessary (such as if settings change within your network ecosystem). The system was optimized during initial configuration for your network and storage environment. You could adversely affect efficiency of the system if these settings are changed incorrectly.

Item	Description
1	Click on this area to open the "Logical Volume" dialog.
2	Information displayed for the "Logical Volume".
3	Delete button used to delete the "Logical Volume". Caution: Once you have configured your system storage, changes to the storage configuration WILL DESTROY DATA in an active storage environment. Make sure you intend to change storage configuration and have backups of ANY CRITICAL DATA prior to making changes, if you have data that you need to keep on the system.
4	Close button for the "Logical Volume" dialog.

For physical volumes

Caution: Quantum recommends leaving the storage configuration unchanged after initial configuration. ONLY change this if absolutely necessary (such as if settings change within your network ecosystem). The system was optimized during initial configuration for your network and storage environment. You could adversely affect efficiency of the system if these settings are changed incorrectly.

Item	Description
1	Click on this area to open the Physical Volume dialog.
2	Information displayed for the physical volume.
3	Eye button to highlight the portion of the system lower down on the page to display which drives are part of the physical volume.
4	The Delete button is used to delete the physical volume. Note: For storage running QBSP 2.0.1, see "FAILURE" error message when trying to delete a physical volume. Update to 2.0.2 or later to delete physical volumes. Caution: Once you have configured your system storage, changes to the storage configuration WILL DESTROY DATA in an active storage environment. Make sure you intend to change storage configuration and have backups of ANY CRITICAL DATA prior to making changes, if you have data that you need to keep on the system.
5	Close button for the Physical Volume dialog.

"FAILURE" error message when trying to delete a physical volume

For systems running QBSP 2.0.1 software, deleting a physical volume is shown in the F-Series UI, but is not currently functional. If you attempt to delete a physical volume, you will see the following error message for the "Storage - remove array" TASK if you attempt to delete a physical volume. The failure is benign, it doesn't indicate a system problem, but simply does not delete the physical volume:

Physical volume deletion error message

Workaround

This issue was fixed in 2.0.2, so you will no longer see this issue on a system running 2.0.2 or later software.

There is currently no workaround for this issue for systems running 2.0.1 software. See BLK-7955 in the Fixed issues in the 2.0.2 section of the QBSP 2.x Release Notes.

1. Dashboard

Click this to open the dashboard in the main content area of the F-Series UI:

Dashboard items



Item	Description
1	Block Storage Throughput
2	Average Service Time
3	Health
4	Raid Status

2. Network

Click this to make changes to the Management and Storage Network settings.

Network > Management Network Settings (Example: DHCP)



Network > Storage Network Settings (Example: Dual-Subnet Configuration)



3. Storage

Click this to change RAID Set Mapping. In most cases, you don't need to modify the settings on this page.

Storage (RAID Set Mapping) settings

Example (2 LUNs shown):



Example (16 LUNs shown):



4. Miscellaneous

This button opens a tabbed screen that allows you to access SNMP, Cloud-Based Analytics (CBA), and NTP configuration settings.

SNMP settings



See Enable/Disable SNMP.

Cloud-Based Analytics (CBA) settings



See Enable/Disable Cloud-Based Analytics (CBA).

NTP settings



See Configure Time.

5. Health

This is a table view of health portions of the hardware (examples: fans, power supplies, storage drives, swraid devices). This provides additional detail not provided on the health status monitor or hovering-over the health dial on the dashboard.

Health (Example: Good)



Health (Example: Degraded)



6. Cloud-Based Analytics

Click this to open the CBA portal log in page. By default, this link is gray and is not functional until you configure CBA. See Enable/Disable Cloud-Based Analytics (CBA).

Note: By default, the CBA link in the left menu of the F-Series Manager launches the generic CBA portal page at: https://insight.quantum.com.However, if you have more than one F2000, or other Quantum CBA-supported hardware, you can custom-configure this button to launch the CBA dashboard for this specific F2000 in the CBA portal.

Options on pages opened from left navigation menu

• When Tool Tips are enabled (default) in the F-Series UI, hover-over or click the Tool Tip icon: to display additional information about the element in question. Tool Tips provide not only important additional information, but for some text entry fields, also include rules/syntax for filling in the field and what those entries are used for.
• Some left navigation menu options open pages with tabbed sections. Click the tab name to open.
• For checkboxes or on/off toggles, click items to enable/disable them
• To change values or configure a set of fields, enter values in the required fields
• Click Apply to change options
• Move your cursor over items in graphs to view additional detail about the area
• On the Health page, move your mouse over a row to highlight that row

Click on the icon to view options:

• For graphical items items (charts, diagrams, dials), move your cursor over items in graphs to view additional detail about that data point on the graph. Most of these will be found on the Dashboard.
Example 1: Health

Mouse cursor moved over the health graph.
Here's an example with good system health (health of "Components" indicated in blue):



Here's an example with degraded system health (degraded health of "Components" indicated in green):



Example 2: Average Service Time
Mouse cursor moved over the Average Service Time graph ("Components" health indicated in blue box):

Example 3: Raid Status

Mouse cursor moved over the Degraded RAID graph:



• On the Dashboard, click the "more options" icon for the section for additional options next to a section title (blue box below from the Block Throughput section):

1. Click an open area of the Mac desktop, and select Apple menu> System Preferences> Network or click the System Preferences icon from the Dock:



2. Click the Network icon in System Preferences:



3. Select the Ethernet connection being used.
4. In the Configure IPv4 drop-down list, select Manually.

   We recommend writing down the settings in this dialog box before you change them. You can refer to this information later when you set the settings back to their original values — after you are finished using this network connection.

5. Enter the IP address and subnet mask values (leave router blank):
• IP Address - 192.168.17.10
• Subnet Mask - 255.255.255.0
• Router - blank

Example (Mojave)



6. Click Apply.
7. Close the Network dialog.

It may take a couple minutes to enable the network connection.

1. Access the Network Connections dialog:
   • For Windows 10 (method 1), right-click the Start menu icon, click Network Connections and click Change Adapter Options in the right pane of the dialog.
   • For Windows 10 (method 2), open the Cortana search, and enter View network status and tasks, and click Change adapter settings in the left pane of the dialog.
   • From older Windows versions, click the Start menu, search for and open the View Network Connections dialog.
2. Right-click the network connection that corresponds to the Ethernet port on the compute being used, something like Ethernet or Local Area Connection, and select Properties:



3. From the list of connections, select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and then click Properties to display the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) Properties dialog box.

   Note: We recommend writing down the settings in this dialog box before you change them. You can refer to this information later when you set the settings back to their original values — after you are finished using this network connection.

   

4. Click the Use the following IP address radio button, and enter the appropriate IP address and Subnet mask values (leave gateway blank) and click OK:
   • IP Address - 192.168.17.10
   • Subnet Mask - 255.255.255.0
   • Gateway - blank
   
   
5. Click Close.

It may take a couple minutes to enable the network connection.