VESS A2000 Series Articles

How to configure RAID on Vess A-Series Appliance for Milestone XProtect VMS

2018-03-19T02:04:51.1500000

This document describes how to configure RAID on Vess A-Series Appliance

for Milestone XProtect VMS.

Topology

This topology can be used if UPS support is available, create one file system for the LiveDB and Archive.

[RAID10]

How to configure RAID10 disk array with (Stripe size:1MB,Allocation unit size:64K)

Double click WebPAM ProE icon on the desktop to launch Promise GUI

Enter default username and password: administrator/password

Click Disk Arrays > Create > Advanced Configuration > Next

Select ID1 ~ ID16 for create RAID10

Select RAID10 and click Update

Select Stripe to 1MB and click Update and Next

Click OK

Go to Windows Manage > Disk Management > Click GPT and OK

By right click the Unallocated volume > New Simple Volume

Next > Next > Next and then change Allocation unit size to 64K > Finish

D:\ is ready to use

[RAID5]

How to configure RAID5+spare disk array with (Stripe size:1MB,Allocation unit size:64K)

Click Disk Arrays > Create > Advanced Configuration > Next

Select ID1 ~ ID15 for creating RAID5, left ID16 for spare dirve use

Select RAID5 and Stripe size to 1MB and click Update

Click OK

Go to Spare Drives > Create > check Revertible > Select ID16 for spare drive and click Update

Go to Windows Manage > Disk Management > Click GPT and OK

By right click the Unallocated volume > New Simple Volume

Next > Next > Next and then change Allocation unit size to 64K > Finish

D:\ is ready to use

Vess A Series Security Advisory: Spectre and Meltdown

2018-01-19T18:05:02.2670000

Product Security Advisory: Meltdown and Spectre vulnerability in Promise Vess-A series

Jan 19 2018

Background:

In December 2017 information about two vulnerabilities in modern processors were published. These exploits are often referred to as Meltdown and Spectre. Promise Vess-A series products include Intel processors considered vulnerable:

The Meltdown and Spectre exploits are detailed in the URL below

https://meltdownattack.com/

Meltdown:

Meltdown breaks the most fundamental isolation between user applications and the operating system. This attack allows a program to access the memory, and thus also the secrets, of other programs and the operating system. This may include passwords and sensitive data stored on the system

Spectre:

Spectre breaks the isolation between different applications. It allows an attacker to trick error-free programs, which follow best practices on speculative execution into leaking their secrets.

It is advised that Vess-A users take steps to mitigate risk by updating their Operating Systems and browsers . Promise will take proactive measure to monitor the progress and recommendation from Intel and other CPU vendor for micro code update or OS patches as following to reduce the threats.

Windows Patches:

Download and install the appropriate patch from Microsoft:

Windows 7 or Window (Storage) Server 2008 R2
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4056897
Window (Storage) Server 2012 R2
https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4056898
Windows 10 (Patched through Windows Update).

https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=KB4056891

Intel CPU microcode update:

As Intel makes microcode updates become available Promise will test them and make them available through new software service releases. They are expected to be available in the April timeframe for the Vess-A product line.

https://www.promise.com/Support/downloadcenter

Contact Promise Technology Support
Need more help? Save time by starting your support request online and a technical support agent will be assigned to your case.

Promise Technology Technical Support >

How to Save a Service Report from the Vess A2000 Series

2016-10-12T23:45:55.7170000

How to Save a Service Report from the A2000 Series

A Service Report is a detailed report covering the configuration and status of all components of the A2000 series. A Tech Support Agent or a Field Applications Engineer will request a Service Report for the purposes of diagnosis and troubleshooting a reported issue.

These instructions can also be found on page 239 of the Vess A-Series NVR Storage Appliance Product Manual Version 1.2

To save a system configuration file:

1. Click on the Subsystem icon (IP address and device name) in Tree View to open the Subsystem Information display.
2. Click the Save button in the Save System Service Report row of the information display.
Information for the report is gathered and compiled. This action takes up to a few minutes, depending on the size of your RAID system.
3. Determine where you want to store the file on the Host PC, then click the Save button in the pop-up menu.
The report saves to your Host PC as a compressed HTML file.
4. Double-click the downloaded file to decompress it.
5. Double-click the report to open it in your default browser.

Once you have the service report file, you can email it or upload it to your support case to the technical support agent that has been assigned to your case.

The Service Report includes the following topics:

• About – Report Utility
• BBM Info – Bad Block Manager
• BGA Summary – Status and settings
• Buzzer Info
• Controller Info
• Disk Array Info
• Disk Array Dump info
• Disk Array Verbose Info
• Enclosure Info
• Error Table Info
• Event Info - NVRAM
• Event Info - Runtime
• LogDrive Info – Basic Logical Drive Information
• LogDrive Dump Info – Diagnostic Information
• Logical Drive Verbose Info – Full logical Drive Information
• Network Info – Virtual Port
• Phydriv Info – Basic Physical Drive Information
• Phydriv Verbose Info – Full physical drive
• SWMGT Info – Software Management
• Service Setting – Email
• Service Setting – Webserver
• Spare Info – Basic Spare Drive Information
• Spare Dump Info – Diagnostic information
• Spare Verbose Info – Full Spare Drive Information
• Statistic Info
• Subsystem Info
• User Info

If you have any questions or concerns, please open a support request via https://support.promise.com

After updating the firmware on a Vess R2000 series system, VMWare will not see the datastore.

2015-09-09T14:51:42.0000000

After updating the firmware on a Vess R2000 series system, VMWare will not see the datastore.

ESXi will report the error - Host does not support ATS or ATS initialization has failed

When ESXi creates a VMfs filesystem with storage that supports VAAI, ATS file locking will be used. If VAAI support is removed from the storage, ATS file locking no longer works. This means that ESXi will see the LUN, but not the datastore.

In this case, the pre-update Vess firmware supported VAAI. It is enabled by default and it cannot be disabled. The latest Vess firmware has a softswitch for VAAI support and VAAI can be enabled or disabled but VAAI support is disabled by default.

The solution is to re-enable VAAI support.

In the Vess R2000 series, VAAI can be enabled from WebPAM PROe.

Open WebPAM PROe and go to Device -> Controller -> Settings and click the check-box enable VAAI support

After enabling VAAI support the Vess R2000 series must be rebooted to take effect. The ESXi server will also need to be rebooted as it does not expect VAAI suppport status of a storage subsystem to change.

The reason why VAAIsupport can be disabled is because VAAI is a VMware specific hardware extension, it is not needed in any other environment. It is only needed with VMware and VMfs v5+. ESXi will also work without VAAI. If a datastore is created with VAAI disabled, ATS file locking will not be used and the datastore will be visible whether VAAI is enabled or disabled. But if a datastore is created with VAAI enabled, ESXi will only be able to see the datastore if VAAI is enabled.

VessRAID R2000 series NAS Access Rights and Access Control List (ACL) Management

2015-08-27T17:15:19.0000000

Access Rights:

There are two different methods to control NAS access rights on the VessRAID R2000 series products. One is controlled by Protocol layer and the other is by Access Control List (ACL) on file system layer. These methods are totally different in design. This document gives some Q&A regarding both Vess NAS protocol permissions and ACL permissions.

How to block all users but one or some users can read-write files in Share Disk?

ACL must be enabled to get this effect. There are two ways to configure ACL on NAS.

Method 1: Set ACL through WebPAMProE.

Set ACL to deny for the group (usually domain users for AD) which all users belongs to it.
Set ACL to read-write for the specific users.

See the following screen shots for step by step configuration:

Method 2: Set ACL through Windows client.

Set "Security" to deny for the group which all users belong to it.
Set "Security" to read-write for the specific users.

See the following screen shots for step by step configuration:

This result is that other users can access the folder and read nothing in the folder.

How many ACL (Access Control List) rules can be set on one file/folder?

The Maximum # of ACL per file/folder is 256. ACL can apply to local user, local group, domain user and domain group.
PS: FW (kernel) build after 2014/07/04 will support this. Ex. SR2.2 FW v1.03.0000.06 or SR2.3 FW
Original support # is (25-4) =21 ACLs.

Promise Tech Brief: VessRAID 2000 - NAS Big File Copy Issue

2015-03-24T12:24:58.0000000

Issue

Copying very large files to NAS by CIFS protocol often fails.

The Symptoms

File copy failure occurs for large files, typically sized greater than 10 Gigabytes. It is not known to happen for small files.
The problem happens mostly when the system is busy, i.e. the level of system loading is unusually high.
As the Share Disk usage increases, there is a higher likelihood the problem will occur.
The problem is unpredictable.
When the problem happens, it is preceded by a significant drop in transfer speed. Then the file copying fails.
Windows Explorer reports the error in the pop-up alert pictured here:

The Root Cause

This issue might be caused by a defect of the GFS2 file system. In a clustered file system, the file locking mechanism is used when managing multiple nodes simultaneously. However, the file lock has known issues, including the following:

listing entries in a folder while it is being written to
large file writing and deletion
large Share Disk (file system)capacity support

Note that each Share Disk on the Vess R2000 has its own file system.

memory resource allocation while writing large files (files larger than about 10 Gb)

Red Hat documentation recommends using a smaller file system. On the Vess R2000, Share Disk of about 1TB up to 10 TB are recommended. In addition, it describes a known issue when the amount of free capacity is low. The following statement is excerpted from Red Hat user documentation:

2.3 Block Allocation Issues

This section provides a summary of issues related to block allocation in GFS2 file systems. Even though applications that only write data typically do not care how or where a block is allocated, a little knowledge about how block allocation works can help you optimize performance.

2.3.1 Leave Free Space in the File System

When a GFS2 file system is nearly full, the block allocator starts to have a difficult time finding space for new blocks to be allocated. As a result, blocks given out by the allocator tend to be squeezed into the end of a resource group or in tiny slices where file fragmentation is much more likely. This file fragmentation can cause performance problems. In addition, when a GFS2 is nearly full, the GFS2 block allocator spends more time searching through multiple resource groups, and that adds lock contention that would not necessarily be there on a file system that has ample free space. This also can cause performance problems.For these reasons, it is recommended that you not run a file system that is more than 85 percent full, although this figure may vary depending on workload.

2.3.3. Preallocate, If Possible

If files are preallocated, block allocations can be avoided altogether and the file system can run more efficiently. Newer versions of GFS2 include the fallocate(1) system call, which you can use to preallocate blocks of data.

As the documentation states, when the files system capacity is nearly used up (greater than 85% usage), allocation of available blocks slows down because more time is spent in the search process. Large files be written under these circumstances are more likely to have problems with file locking. If the file system supports the fallocate system, writing large files is more efficient since data blocks are pre-allocated, it is not necessary to use system resources to allocate blocks.

Validation

In order to replicate the problem, create several large Share Disks and fill them to 80% or greater capacity. The rate of occurrence increases as capacity usage percentage increases.

The test reports below were produced using Share Disks at 80 to 95% usage capacity. In each testing round, a 30 Gb file is copied to the Share Disks. The results are listed in the tables below. Note that ‘1’ indicates file copy completion (success), and ‘X’ indicates the copy failed.

1. ≒ 80%
size
usage
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
8.0T
80%
1
1
1
8.0T
79%
1
1
1
1
1
7.0T
80%
1
1
1
1
1
1
23T
79%
1
1
1
1
1
1
23T
74%
X
X
X
2. ≒ 85%
size
usage
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
8.0T
84%
1
1
1
8.0T
84%
1
1
1
1
1
7.0T
85%
1
1
1
1
1
1
23T
83%
1
1
1
1
1
23T
84%
X
X
X
X
3. ≒ 90%
size
usage
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
8.0T
89%
X
X
X
8.0T
89%
1
1
1
1
1
7.0T
91%
1
1
1
1
1
1
23T
88%
1
1
1
1
1
23T
89%
X
X
X
X
4. ≒ 95%
size
usage
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
8.0T
95%
X
1
X
8.0T
95%
X
X
1
X
X
X
7.0T
95%
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
23T
94%
X
X
1
X
X
23T
95%
X
X
X

From the above results, the following conclusions can be made:

The rate of occurrence increases with the size of the file (over 10Gb)
The rate of occurrence increases as available capacity decreases

Comparison Test on XFS

To help determine if the problem is caused by a defect in the GFS2 file system, the same test is run using the XFS file system. The results of the comparison test are listed in the tables below.

1. ≒ 80%
size
usage
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
8.0T
79%
1
1
1
8.0T
79%
1
1
1
1
1
7.0T
79%
1
1
1
1
1
1
23T
78%
1
1
1
1
1
23T
78%
1
1
1
2. ≒ 85%
size
usage
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
8.0T
84%
1
1
1
8.0T
85%
1
1
1
1
1
7.0T
86%
1
1
1
1
1
1
23T
84%
1
1
1
1
1
23T
84%
1
1
1
3. ≒ 90%
size
usage
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
8.0T
90%
1
1
1
8.0T
90%
1
1
1
1
1
7.0T
90%
1
1
1
1
1
1
23T
90%
1
1
1
1
1
23T
89%
1
1
1
4. ≒ 95%
size
usage
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
CP 30GB
8.0T
96%
1
1
1
8.0T
97%
1
1
1
1
1
7.0T
98%
1
1
1
1
1
1
23T
95%
1
1
1
1
1
23T
95%
1
1
1

The comparison test appears to confirm that the problem is an issue with the GFS2 file system.

Short Term Workaround

Keep free space of at least 15% or more.
Avoid copying more than 3 big (> 10Gb) files at the same time.

Preferred Solution

Use XFS file system to replace GFS2 in next FW version (SR2.4).
Migrate data from GFS2 to XFS file system if it is needed. Steps:

Upgrade FW to SR2.4
Create new Share Disk
Configure Share Disk Clone from old Share Disk to new one
Delete old Share Disk and get free capacity
Repeat steps 2~4

Vess A2000 Series with Milestone XProtect - Best Practice Guide

2014-04-01T08:57:46.0000000

Under Construction

Please see attached PDF for information.

Adaptive Write Back Cache policy of Vess R2600 Family

2013-11-25T15:18:44.0000000

Scope

This document describes the Adaptive Write Back Cache policy of Vess R2600 BBU. It also covers the Advanced Battery Flash backup.

The Adaptive Writeback Cache

The Adaptive Writeback Cache feature protects your data by changing the write cache settings while the cache backup battery is offline. When all of the following conditions occur:

The logical drive write policy is set to Write Back.
The Adaptive Writeback Cache feature is enabled.
The cache backup battery goes offline.

The write policy automatically changes to Write Thru. When the battery comes back online, the write policy automatically changes back to Write Back. Battery goes offline definition:

Battery not installed.
Battery remaining capacity is not enough to keep data:

Advanced Battery Flash Backup disabled:
- less than 72hrs(48hrs for 16GB of memory).
- [Check battery info: EstimateHoldTime field.]
Advanced Battery Flash Backup enabled:

less than 3 times backup cycle.
[Check battery info: EstimateBackupCycle field.]

Example:

[Battery Info]

-------------------------------------------------------------------
EnclosureId: 1
BatteryId: 1                           BatteryStatus: FullyCharged
BatteryChemistry: Li-Ion
BatteryCellType: 4-Cell                EstimatedHoldTime: 137 hours
TempThresholdDischarge: 60C/140F       TempThresholdCharge: 45C/113F
Temperature: 24C/75F                   CycleCount: 8
Voltage: 8314mV                        Current: 0mA
RemainingCapacity: 98%
EstimatedBackupCycle: 44

-------------------------------------------------------------------
EnclosureId: 1
BatteryId: 2                           BatteryStatus: FullyCharged
BatteryChemistry: Li-Ion
BatteryCellType: 4-Cell                EstimatedHoldTime: 138 hours
TempThresholdDischarge: 60C/140F       TempThresholdCharge: 45C/113F
Temperature: 25C/77F                   CycleCount: 8
Voltage: 8303mV                        Current: 0mA
RemainingCapacity: 98%
EstimatedBackupCycle: 44

The Advanced Battery Flash Backup

To support 16GB Dram(8GB x2).
The controller info: BackupFlashSize need to be over 8GB.

Example:

[Controller Info]

-------------------------------------------------------------------
CtrlId: 1
Alias: 
OperationalStatus: OK                  PowerOnTime: 96 hours 39 minutes
ControllerRole: Primary                ReadinessStatus: Active
LUNAffinity: Disabled                  LunmappingMethod: Name Based
CacheUsagePercentage: 0%               DirtyCachePercentage: 0%

PartNo: F29V2FD00000000                SerialNo:
HWRev: A3                              WWN: 
CmdProtocol: SCSI-3
MemType: DDR3 SDRAM  (Slot 1)          MemSize: 0 Byte  (Slot 1)
       :        N/A  (Slot 2)                 :    N/A  (Slot 2)
FlashType: Flash Memory                FlashSize: 512 MB
NVRAMType: SRAM                        NVRAMSize: 256 KB
BootLoaderVersion: 0.00.0000.28        BootLoaderBuildDate: Jul 24, 2012
FirmwareVersion: 1.01.2220.29          FirmwareBuildDate: Apr 25, 2013
SoftwareVersion: 1.01.2220.29          SoftwareBuildDate: Apr 25, 2013

DiskArrayPresent: 1                    OverallRAIDStatus: OK
LogDrvPresent: 1                       LogDrvOnline: 1
LogDrvOffline: 0                       LogDrvCritical: 0
PhyDrvPresent: 5                       PhyDrvOnline: 5
PhyDrvOffline: 0                       PhyDrvPFA: 0
GlobalSparePresent: 1                  DedicatedSparePresent: 0
RevertibleGlobalSparePresent: 1        RevertibleDedicatedSparePresent: 0
RevertibleGlobalSpareUsed: 0           RevertibleDedicatedSpareUsed: 0

WriteThroughMode: No                   MaxSectorSize: 4 KB
PreferredCacheLineSize: 64 KB          CacheLineSize: 64 KB
Coercion: Enabled                      CoercionMethod: GBTruncate
SMART: Disabled                        SMARTPollingInterval: 10 minutes
MigrationStorage: DDF                  CacheFlushInterval: 3 second(s)
PollInterval: 15 second(s)             AdaptiveWBCache: Enabled
HostCacheFlushing: Disabled            ForcedReadAhead: Disabled
Battery: Enabled
CommonWorld: Disabled
Liquid: Disabled                       DriveCmd: Enabled
ALUA: Disabled                         PowerSavingIdleTime: Never
PowerSavingStandbyTime: Never          PowerSavingStoppedTime: Never
PseudoDeviceType: CTRL
RestoreACMode: Last state
AdvancedBatteryFlashBackup: Disabled
BackupFlashStatus: Backup flash ready
BackupFlashSize: 7.46 GB
PerfectRebuildAvailable: 16
ApplianceMode: Generic

size	usage	CP 30GB	CP 30GB	CP 30GB	CP 30GB	CP 30GB	CP 30GB	CP 30GB
8.0T	80%	1		1			1
8.0T	79%	1	1	1		1	1
7.0T	80%	1	1	1	1	1	1
23T	79%	1	1	1	1	1		1
23T	74%	X	X		X