Common Operations

This section describes how to perform common operations on the F2200, including configuring and changing configuration settings using the F-Series UI.

There are two options to restore power to a powered-off controller, depending on the current state of the controller and chassis power:

  • If the controller was powered off from the QBSP shell:
    1. Walk over to the controller in your facility.
    2. Determine which controller is currently powered off.
    3. Un-seat the controller that is currently powered off:

      4. Note: For this procedure, you do not have to fully remove the controller from the chassis. Move it out of the chassis just enough to unseat it from the midplane of the chassis.

      1. Unlatch the controller by pulling both of the handles out from the chassis (Controller B shown):

      2. Remove the controller by grasping the edges of the controller and pulling it clear of the chassis:

    4. Re-seat the controller to re-establish power:

      1. Carefully slide the controller into the slot with both latch handles in the open position until the latch handles begin to engage (Controller B shown):

      2. Rotate the latch handles into the chassis until the are fully engaged:

      The controller should power up again.

  • If BOTH controllers were powered down using the QBSP shell power_off command, and/or the power cords are not connected to the PSUs in rear of the chassis, plug in the power cords to the back of the chassis. Both controllers should power up again.
  1. Access the QBSP shell:

    1. Open an SSH session using the management IP address or hostname of the controller using a Terminal/PuTTY client. Connect using a console session on a client that supports ssh (for example, PuTTY on Windows systems, the Windows command line on Windows 10 or later, or the Terminal on MacOS systems).

      2. Use the admin user name and the password for the admin account on the system.

      Example (macOS Terminal, Linux or Unix command line, or Windows 10 command prompt):

      #ssh admin@(IP or hostname)

    1. The first time you log into the CLI, you will need to enter "yes" to accept the ECDSA security key for this system connection when prompted:

      2. The authenticity of host '10.65.184.225.mycompany.com' can't be established.

      ECDSA key fingerprint is SHA256:HDCZP/C3ZrIFWONrbl/9s/KCR8g/WXrOXe0V9qbiLbM.

      Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes

      You should see a prompt adding the security key to the list of known hosts.

      Warning: Permanently added '10.65.184.225' (ECDSA) to the list of known hosts.

    2. Enter the password for the admin account:

      3. admin@(IP or hostname)'s password:

      The CLI prompt for the system you are connected to displays.

      Last login: Thu Mar 10 10:07:51 2022 from 10.65.188.109

      Last login: Thu Mar 10 10:07:51 2022 from 10.65.188.109

      One moment, loading command sets...

      Welcome to the QBSP shell! Software version: Quantum CSP 2.4.0-Build89

      For available commands and usage, type help.

      (IP or hostname)>

  2. Enter the power_off command:
    3. (IP or hostname) power_off

    If a confirmation prompt is displayed, enter the required confirmation text.

    Your SSH or PuTTY console will lose connection to the server. You can exit your console utility. The controller will gracefully power off.

Use this procedure to update the QBSP software.

Use this procedure to update your F2200 software if your system HAS an active internet connection.

Note: You will update Controller A from the user interface on Controller B, and update Controller B from the user interface on Controller A.

Quantum recommends you update the system to the latest version of F2200 software. Note the following:

Update the software

  1. Verify which version of software is running on the system.
    1. Log in to the F-Series UI.
    2. Click the 3-dot icon on the upper right-hand corner of the CLUSTER page:

    3. Click About:

    4. View the "About" page and look for the software version currently running on the controllers:

    To update to a newer version the software:

  2. Click CONFIGURATION in the top navigation (item 1 above).
  3. Click Update Platform Software in the left navigation (item 2 above).
  4. Make sure the radio button next to Remote Repository in the Source section is selected (item 3 above).
  5. Click CHECK FOR UPDATE (item 4 above).

    6. You will see a confirmation that the system is checking the online repository for an update:

    If the latest version of the software is not currently installed, and an update is available from the online repository, you will see a confirmation that it can be updated, and the update version that is available for download to the system.

    Note: The UPDATE NOW button for the controller you are logged into will be grayed-out and not functional, while the controller you are not logged into will allow you to update it.

    If the latest software is installed, you will see an indication similar to one of the following messages, the UPDATE NOW button is gray (disabled). Skip the remainder of these update steps, since you cannot, and do not need to update the F2200 software.

  6. Click UPDATE NOW for the controller whose user interface you are NOT logged into.

    7. The software will download to the controller, and update the software.

    When the software is being updated, the metadata arrays on both boot drives are recovered. Because of this:

    1. Controller A UI will present degraded and rebuilding drive alert tickets similar to the following:

      2. These types of alerts are expected and can be ignored during the software update, and can be deleted after the update is complete.

    2. The Controller B UI will display degraded RAID device health similar to the following:

      3. The system should return to a healthy state after the software update is complete.

    3. Before the controllers have finished updating the F2200 software and rebuilding drives, you may not be able to log into the UI on either controller.

      4. Wait until the F2200 software update has finished, and log in again.

    Note: It may take up to 20 minutes to download the update file, so be patient while the software downloads.

    Caution: Do not click Check for Upgrade during an active upgrade, or navigate away from the current screen after initiating the upgrade. Doing so causes the upgrade to fail. Always wait for the current upgrade process to complete before performing any additional upgrade checks.

  1. Complete steps 6-10 from the other controller to update this controller.

    2. The platform software update is complete.

Use this procedure to update your F2200 if your system DOES NOT HAVE an active internet connection.

Quantum recommends you update the system to the latest version of F2200 software. Note the following:

Note: You will update Controller A from the user interface on Controller B, and update Controller B from the user interface on Controller A.

  1. Verify which version of software is running on the system:
    1. Log in to the F-Series UI.
    2. Click the 3-dot icon on the upper right-hand corner of the CLUSTER page:

    3. Click About:

    4. View the "About" page and look for the software version currently running on the controllers:

    Leave your browser open.

  2. Open a browser tab.
  3. Navigate to the online form:

    4. https://mysoftware.quantum.com/forms/f2200

  4. Fill out the form and click Submit to access the software update downloads for your F2200.

  5. After you submit the form, you will receive an email with a link to the update download page for the F2200.

  6. Download the F2200 update file:

    7. The file will be downloaded to the system your browser is running on. For updates from QBSP 2.x software, the file name will be similar to qcsp-2.xx-update.tar.

    Note: Download time depends on the speed of your internet connection, but the file size is about 2 GB.

  7. Transfer the file to both controllers:

    SCP the file to the system From the laptop you downloaded the file to, use SCP to copy the file to Controller A and Controller B. Use the management IP address of the controller, the admin user name, and the password for the admin account in the file transfer utility.

    Note: Use either a drag-and-drop SCP or FTP utility (like Transmit or Filezilla for MacOS, or WinSCP or Filezilla for Windows), or a command-line utility (like Terminal for MacOS, or the Windows 10 or later command prompt or PuTTYSCP.exe for Windows) to manually copy the files.

    1. Open a terminal window.
    2. scp the file from your local download location to the /mnt/data/scratch/ directory on Controller A.

      3. Example:

      scp qcsp-2.x-update.tar admin@10.20.223.218:/mnt/data/scratch/

    3. Enter the admin account password. You will see the file begin to transfer to the system, with an estimate of the percent of the file transferred (in green for clarification):

      4. qcsp-2.x-update.tar    80%    651MB    482.0KB/s    05:27 ETA
    1. Open a Windows command prompt.
    2. scp the file from your local download location to the /mnt/data/scratch/ directory on Controller A.

      3. Example:

      C:\Users\<user name>\Downloads>scp qcsp-2.x-update.tar admin@10.20.223.218:/mnt/data/scratch/

    3. Enter the admin account password. You will see the file begin to transfer to the system, with an estimate of the percent of the file transferred (in green for clarification):
      4. qcsp-2.x-update.tar    80%    651MB    482.0KB/s    05:27 ETA

  8. Log in to the F-Series UI:

    1. Enter admin for the user, and the password for the admin user.

      2. Note: The admin user is currently the only user account in the F-Series UI.

    2. Click LOGIN.

  9. From the browser for the F-Series UI on Controller Node A, click CONFIGURATION in the top navigation (item 1 above).
  10. Click Update Platform Software in the left navigation (item 2 above).
  11. Click the radio button next to Local File in the Source section (item 3 above).

  12. Enter the path and the complete file name in the Path field (item 1 above).

    13. Example:

    /mnt/data/scratch/qbsp-2.1.0-Build123-update.tar
  13. Click CHECK FOR UPDATE (item 2 above).
  14. Once the local update file is confirmed, click UPDATE NOW:

    15. The F2200 software will begin the update process. While you will see the following confirmation indicating that the update was successful, it's just confirming that the update is valid and can begin. At this point, the update process is not 100% finished, see note below:

    Note: The update will reboot the controller, and will also require an additional 15-30 more minutes before the update of this controller can be initiated from the other controller's user interface. If you initiate an update before the first controller update is complete, that update will fail and you will see a failure notification.

    Once the update of the other controller is complete, it will take about 10 min for both controllers to sync.

  15. If you have not yet updated the controller you are logged into, launch the user interface of the other controller.
  16. Log in to the user interface of the other controller:

  17. Enter admin for the user, and the password for the admin user.

    18. Note: The admin user is currently the only user account in the F-Series UI.

  18. Click LOGIN.
  1. Manually copy the file to controller you just updated one more time.
  2. Complete the steps to update the other controller.

    3. Wait for the software update to complete.

    When finished updating Controller Node A and Controller Node B, determine if you need to repeat this procedure to update to a more recent version of F2200 software. If your system is now running the latest software available, the F2200 software update is complete.

  1. Click CONFIGURATION in the top navigation menu.

    Click Management Networks in the left navigation menu:

    2. Fill out the remaining details shown here:

  2. Select Static for the Boot Protocol (item 1 above).
  3. Enter a Hostname for Controller A (item 2 above).
  4. Enter the DNS Domain Name (item 3 above; optional).
  5. Select a Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) to use for the network (default is 1500; item 4 above).
  6. Enter the IPv4 Address for the Controller A management network (item 5 above).
  7. Enter the IP Netmask for the Controller A management network (item 6 above).
  8. Enter the Default IP Gateway for the Controller A management network (item 7 above).
  9. Select Static for the Boot Protocol (item 8 above).
  10. Enter a Hostname for Controller B (item 9 above).
  11. Enter the DNS Domain Name (item 10 above; optional).
  12. Select a Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) to use for the network (default is 1500; item 11 above).
  13. Enter the IPv4 Address for the Controller A management network (item 12 above).
  14. Enter the IP Netmask for the Controller A management network (item 13 above).
  15. Enter the Default IP Gateway for the Controller A management network (item 14 above).
  16. Enter Primary DNS Server, if used (item 15 above; optional).
  17. Click Apply (item 16 above).
  1. Click CONFIGURATION in the top navigation menu.
  2. Click Management Networks in the left navigation menu:

    3. Fill out the remaining details shown here:

  3. Select DHCP for the Boot Protocol (item 1 above).
  4. Enter a Hostname for Controller A (item 2 above).
  5. Enter the DNS Domain Name (item 3 above; optional).
  6. Select a Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) to use for the network (default is 1500; item 4 above).
  7. Select DHCP for the Boot Protocol (item 5 above).
  8. Enter a Hostname for Controller B (item 6 above).
  9. Enter the DNS Domain Name (item 7 above; optional).
  10. Select a Maximum Transfer Unit (MTU) to use for the network (default is 1500; item 8 above).

    11. Note: The MAC Address for the controllers is pre-populated in the MAC Address fields, so there is nothing to enter there. These are also listed in the F2200 Customer Site Configuration Data document.

    Save the MAC addresses for both controllers for the management ports, as shown below in green. Note the controller they are assigned to, and set aside for future use.

    1. Copy the MAC addresses for both controllers for the management ports (Port 1) for use in configuring your switch, as shown below in green.

    2. On the DHCP server, register the MAC address for both controllers.

    Note: The last item in these columns is the Interface Name (not configurable), which is the slot/port name of the management connection on the system. m1p1 ("m1" = motherboard Eth connection; "p1" = logical port 1 on the motherboard) is the management connection shown.

  11. Click Apply (item 9 above).

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.

For iSER configurations, if you will set up your system using a "global pause"-style configuration (and no VLANs) use this method to configure your storage network.

The F2200 100 GbE model comes with two 100GbE ports on each of the two 100 GbE PCIe interface cards on both controllers. Because there are two cards in each controller, this provides four ports per controller, or a total of eight ports per system.

Note: Quantum recommends (and only supports) configurations with at least two interfaces on each controller, as long as each uses a different subnet. This configuration creates a dual-subnet storage network. If you will using only two ports per controller, connect and configure one port from each card in both controllers. If a single subnet is used, only one interface should be connected and configured, but realize that performance is compromised in this configuration.

The two ports on each controller's 100 GbE card use a PCIe gen 3 x16 connection to the host server. This connection limits the aggregate throughput of the two ports to a maximum of 16 GB/sec. A single port (i.e., on a single-subnet configuration) is limited (in a 100 Gbps Ethernet) to a maximum of 12.5 GB/sec.

  1. Click CONFIGURATION in the top navigation menu.
  2. Click Storage Networks in the left navigation menu:

    3. The Storage Network configuration page is displayed:

    Note: This page provides access to configure all available 100 GbE ports available on the system. :

  3. Locate one of the available storage network interfaces (item 1 above), and click the Boot Protocol drop-down (item 2 above).

  4. Click Static to configure an IP address for one of the interfaces (the interface to be configured on both controllers; item 3 above).

  5. Configure the appropriate interface:

    1. Select iSCSI TCP for the Network Protocol (item 4 above).
    2. Enter the IPv4 Address for the interface on Controller A (item 5 above).
    3. Enter the Netmask for the interface on Controller A (item 6 above).
    4. Enter the IPv4 Address for the interface on Controller B (item 7 above).
    5. Enter the Netmask for the interface on Controller B (item 8 above).

    6. Leave the checkbox in the Jumbo Frame column selected (default) ONLY if your network supports an MTU (Maximum Transfer Unit) of 9000 (item 9 above). If not, click the radio button to disable jumbo frames.

    1. Select iSER RDMA for the Network Protocol (item 4 above).
    2. Enter the IPv4 Address for the interface on Controller A (item 5 above).
    3. Enter the Netmask for the interface on Controller A (item 6 above).
    4. Enter the IPv4 Address for the interface on Controller B (item 7 above).
    5. Enter the Netmask for the interface on Controller B (item 8 above).

    6. Leave the checkbox in the Jumbo Frame column selected (default) ONLY if your network supports an MTU (Maximum Transfer Unit) of 9000 (item 9 above). If not, click the radio button to disable jumbo frames.

    1. Ensure the Network Protocol is set to iSCSI TCP (item 4 above).
    2. Enter the IPv4 Address for the interface on Controller A (item 5 above).
    3. Enter the Netmask for the interface on Controller A (item 6 above).
    4. Enter the IPv4 Address for the interface on Controller B (item 7 above).
    5. Enter the Netmask for the interface on Controller B (item 8 above).

    6. Leave the checkbox in the Jumbo Frame column selected (default) ONLY if your network supports an MTU (Maximum Transfer Unit) of 9000 (item 9 above). If not, click the radio button to disable jumbo frames.

  6. Repeat Step 3 through Step 5 above for additional interfaces. For fastest iSCSI TCP throughput, configure multiple interfaces using different subnets for each pair of interfaces.
  7. Click APPLY (item 10 above).

If you connected 2 cables to the 100 GbE card on each controller when cabling the F2200, then you will need to configure the system with dual subnets.

  1. Select the Dual-subnet option for Controller A (item 1 above).
  2. Enter the IPv4 and Netmask network settings for the first subnet to be used for the storage network for Controller A (items 2-5 above).
  3. Enter the IPv4 and Netmask network settings for the second subnet used for the storage network for Controller A (items 5-7 above).
  4. Select the Dual-subnet option for Controller B (item 8 above).
  5. Enter the IPv4 and Netmask network settings for the first subnet used for the storage network for Controller B (items 9-11 above).
  6. Enter the IPv4 and Netmask network settings for the second subnet used for the storage network for Controller B (items 12-14 above).

    7. When complete, the red bar indicating the required fields for Controller B goes away.

If you connected 1 cable to the 100 GbE card on each controller when cabling the F2200, then you will need to configure the system with a single subnet.

  1. Select the Single-subnet option for Controller A (step1 above).
  2. Enter the IPv4, Netmask, and MTU (if different from the default; steps 2-4 above) for the storage network .
  3. Select the Single-subnet option for Controller B (step 5 above).
  4. Enter the IPv4, Netmask, and MTU (if different from the default; steps 6-8 above) for the storage network for Controller B.
  1. Continue to Common Operations.

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.

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.

  1. Click CONFIGURATION in the top navigation menu.
  2. Click Storage in the left navigation menu:

  3. See the Storage Page Overview.
  1. Click CONFIGURATIONin the top navigation menu:
  2. Click SNMP in the left navigation menu:

  3. Click the gray (disabled) Enable SNMP toggle. It will turn blue (enabled).
  4. Enter the SNMP Community String. Default value is public.
  5. Enter the SNMP Trap Receiver if needed (optional). Default value is localhost.
  6. Enter the Port for the SNMP Trap Receiver. There is no default port value.
  7. Click Apply to confirm the change.
  1. Select Miscellaneous in the left navigation menu.
  2. Select the SNMP tab.
  3. Click the blue (enabled) SNMP toggle. It will turn gray (disabled).
  4. Click Apply to confirm the change.

Before you begin

If you don't currently have a CBA (Cloud-Based Analytics) account, you must create one before configuring CBA on your system for this feature to be functional. This is also a pre-requisite for the left navigation menu items under the Cloud-Based Analytics section of the PERFORMANCE page to be functional.

If you do not already have a CBA account, request an account and verify your F2200 is listed in the CBA portal using these steps:

  1. Go to the CBA portal at https://insight.quantum.com.
  2. Click the "Request an Account" link:

    3. (click image to enlarge)

  3. Enter an Email address, Company name and Serial number for your F2200, then click the checkbox next to the text that states "I'm not a robot":

    4. (click image to enlarge)

  4. Quantum will send an email with a user name and password to log in to the CBA portal.
  5. Verify you can view the information for this F2200 within your solution view on the CBA portal at https://insight.quantum.com.

    6. Note: If your solution includes more than one device (such as additional F2200s or Xcellis Workflow Director systems) and you have already received credentials for one of the systems, you can add another device to your account. Send an email to DL-Insight-Admin@quantum.com with information about your additional systems, and the CBA team will add additional devices to the CBA portal view for your account.

  1. Click CONFIGURATION in the top navigation menu.
  2. Click CBA in the left navigation menu:

    3.  

  3. If disabled, click the gray (disabled) Enable Cloud-Based Analytics toggle:

    4. It will turn blue (enabled).

  4. If you will not configure a TLS/SSL Proxy, or enable remote access support, click APPLY here (as shown above), otherwise continue to the next step.

    5. If you will configure a TLS/SSL Proxy do the following:

  5. If disabled, click the gray (disabled) Enable TLS/SSL Proxy toggle (item 1 above).
  6. Enter an address for the Proxy Server, if using a TLS or SSL proxy (item 2 above).
  7. Enter the Port number for that proxy server (item 3 above).
  8. Enter the Proxy Username for the proxy server (item 4 above).
  9. Enter the Proxy Password for the proxy server (item 5 above).
  10. If you do not wish to provide remote access (remote desktop/SSH) access to the system for remote technical support, click Apply to confirm the change (item 6 above). Otherwise, continue to the next step.

    11. If you will configure remote access support do the following:

  11. If disabled, click the gray (disabled) Enable Remote Access Support toggle (item 1 above).
  12. Select one of the remote access choices provided (item 2 above):

  13. Change the number of hours to allow remote access to this system (0, or "Always" is the default; item 3 above).
  14. Click APPLY when all items on the Cloud-Based Analytics configuration page are complete.

    15. Note: The "TEST CBA CONNECTION" is only available once CBA has been enabled and the settings have been applied. The network connection to CBA will take a couple minutes to apply. Once the configuration has been applied, the "TEST CBA CONNECTION" button will be enabled and you can test the connection to the CBA web page (internet connection and firewall permissions required).

  1. Click CONFIGURATION in the top navigation menu.
  2. Click CBA in the left navigation menu:

  3. Click the blue (enabled) Enable Cloud-Based Analytics toggle to disable CBA:

  4. It will turn gray (disabled). Click Apply to confirm the change (item 4 above).

    Note: Quantum recommends using an NTP time server for time synchronization across your StorNext environment and hardware components.

  1. Click CONFIGURATION in the top navigation menu.
  2. Click Time in the left navigation menu:

    3. Configure the following settings:

  3. If disabled, click the Enable Network Time Protocol (NTP) slider (item 1 above; the slider will turn blue).
  4. Click Hostname (item 2a above) or IP Address (item 2b above) to enter the network information for your NTP server.
  5. Enter the hostname or IP address for the NTP Server (item 3 above).
  6. Enter the Timezone for the system (item 4 above).

    7. Note: Begin to type the information desired, and you will see similar available options for this setting.

  7. Click APPLY (item 5 above).

Note: Quantum recommends using an NTP time server for time synchronization across your StorNext environment and hardware components.

For systems that cannot use an NTP time server, you can configure time and date manually:

  1. Click CONFIGURATION in the top navigation menu.
  2. Click Time in the left navigation menu:

    3. Configure the following settings:

  3. If enabled (blue), click enable Network Time Protocol (NTP) slider (item 1 above; the slider will turn gray).
  4. Enter a Date for the system in the field using the syntax indicated (item 2 above).
  5. Enter a Time for the system in the field using the syntax indicated (item 3 above).
  6. Enter the Timezone for system in the field (item 4 above).

    7. Note: Begin to type the information desired, and you will see similar available options for this setting.

Note: Quantum recommends using an NTP time server for time synchronization across your StorNext environment and hardware components.

  1. Click CONFIGURATION in the top navigation menu.
  2. Click Time in the left navigation menu:

  3. Click the blue Enable Network Time Protocol toggle:

    4. It will turn gray (disabled) It will also auto-populate the time currently in use from when NTP was enabled:

  4. Make any necessary changes to the manual date and time settings and click APPLY:

You will need your F2200 system serial number when you contact Quantum Technical Support. Use one of the following methods to locate the system serial number:

The system serial number is located on a pull-out tag on the front of the F2200 system on right side. You must remove the front bezel to access the pull-out tab:

Item

Component

1

Pull-out tag location on the front of the F2200

The pull-out tag contains a label that includes the system serial number. The system serial number format will be similar to the following example: USWSJ00619OA0044.:

To locate the system serial number in the F-Series UI:

  1. Click the UI Settings/Help icon (icon with 3 dots) in the upper right-hand corner of the interface:

  2. Click About:

    3. You will see the system Serial Number on the About page: