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  • 1.  FS 5200 Initial Setup Questions

    Posted Mon February 26, 2024 11:54 AM
    Hi, our FlashSystem 5200 has a left and a right canister.
    When I plug my laptop into the technician port on the left canister, browse to http://service or 192.168.0.1 and give the appliance an IP, subnet mask, default gateway and DNS, does it just apply these settings to Onboard Ethernet Port 1 on the left canister?
     
    Do I need to configure the technician port on the right canister as well?
     
    How does the failover port (Ethernet port 2) on each canister work? Is any special configuration required for them?


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    John Ejaife
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  • 2.  RE: FS 5200 Initial Setup Questions

    Posted Mon February 26, 2024 01:40 PM
    Edited by T Masteen Mon February 26, 2024 01:40 PM

    Hello John,

    Short answer: no you dont need to configure IP settings on the right canister.

    Have a look at Redbook: https://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg248467.pdf   Chapter 3.2 has a chapter (with screenshots) about the initial setup.

    Each system has a cluster management IP address. The management IP address cannot be the same as any of the defined service IPs.
    The management IP can automatically failover from one to another if maintenance actions or node failures occur.



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    TMasteen
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: FS 5200 Initial Setup Questions

    Posted Tue February 27, 2024 03:09 AM

    Best practice is to assign a "service ip" to each node and on top of it use a 3rd ip address which is the cluster ip

    The ip you enter via initial setup is in fact a "cluster ip" that is accessed via the "config node" so can be moved between the 2 nodes.

    In case there would be a network issue with the "config node", then you cannot access the cluster ip and the service address of the config node.

    But in emergency you still will be able to connect to the partner node via service assistant and reboot the "config node".

    After this action, the "partner node" will become config node and you are back in business allowing you to fix the network issue at your convenience.



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    Hans Populaire
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: FS 5200 Initial Setup Questions

    Posted Tue February 27, 2024 05:49 AM

    Hello!  you do not configure technician ports.  TMasteen has given you the best resource in the redbook, but for some additional context:

    Every Control Enclosure contains 2 node canisters.

    Each node canister in your 5200 will have:
    Port 1 - this 10Gb E Port that can be used for:

    • Primary System or Cluster IP Address
    • Node Canister Service IP Address (includes running the service GUI, keyserver and TCT services)
    • iSCSI Ethernet or IP Replication

    Port 2

    • Secondary Failover System or Cluster IP Address
    • iSCSI Ethernet or IP Replication

    Technician Port - This is a 1GbE port that

    • Runs DHCP server for easy initial installation
    • Has a static/unchangeable Local subnet IP address
    • should never be plugged into a switch 
    • Is used for initial configuration/rare service operations

    Service IP Addresses (set using the service GUI or with satask chserviceip command line) belong to the physical node in which they are plugged in, are only ever Port 1 for a specific node canister and are for use in servicing the node.  They will default to 192.168.0.1/2 (where .1 is canister 1 and .2 is canister 2), but should be set to a network address for things like remote support access.  You should not regularly use the service IP address, as it is not for management of the system, it is for initial config, error and service cases.  It is a remote accessible version of the technician port.

    The System, management or Cluster IP is set once and is the IP address for the entire system.  The System/Management IP address does not belong to a specific node canister in the Virtualize cluster.  This IP address will float between nodes depending on which is the current configuration node.  The configuration node runs all the services (the Main System GUI among them) and  this is the IP address that should be used for day to day configuration and management of the system.  It is set when you create the the cluster/initialize the system using mkcluster and changed using the chsystemip command/using the GUI.

    There is some extra  ethernet configuration if you are running with Ethernet scale out clustering, but I will omit that as I doubt you are doing so here with this product.

    I hope that helps.



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    Evelyn Perez
    IBM Senior Technical Staff Member
    IBM Storage Virtualize Software Architect for SVC and FlashSystem
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    Original Message