Product description. Dell EMC AX4-5

Product description

The AX4-5, AX4-5i, AX4-5SC, AX4-5SCi, AX4-5F8, AX4-5SCF4 Integrated

Management Software consists of the storage-system and server software below.

Storage-system software component

EMC

®

FLARE

®

Operating Environment, which includes

- Shared storage control

- EMC Navisphere

®

Express

- Snapshot management

Optional software components

Expansion tier enabler

Server software component

Navisphere

®

Storage System Initialization

Utility for Red Hat or SUSE Linux

Navisphere Storage System Initialization

Utility for Novell NetWare

Navisphere Storage System Initialization

Utility for Opteron

Navisphere Storage System Initialization

Utility for Microsoft Windows

Navisphere Storage System Initialization

Utility for Sun Solaris

Navisphere Server Utility for AIX

Navisphere Server Utility for HP-UX

Navisphere Server Utility for Red Hat or

SUSE Linux

Navisphere Server Utility for Opteron

Navisphere Server Utility for Microsoft

Windows

Navisphere Server Utility for Sun Solaris

Version

02.23.050.5.709

01.01.5.001

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EMC AX4-5 Series Integrated Management Software Release Notes 3

Storage-system software component

EMC SnapView

™

admsnap (AIX)

SnapView admsnap (HP/UX)

SnapView admsnap (Linux)

SnapView admsnap (NetWare)

SnapView admsnap (Solaris)

SnapView admsnap (Win 2003)

SnapView admsnap (Win 2008)

SnapView admsnap (Windows 2000)

Version

See the Admsnap Release Notes for further details

EMC PowerPath

®

for Microsoft Windows

PowerPath for Red Hat or SUSE Linux

PowerPath for Novell NetWare**

PowerPath for Sun Solaris

PowerPath for AIX

PowerPath for HP-UX

See the PowerPath release notes on the AX4-

5 support website*

* For information on accessing the AX4-5 support website, refer to the support information that

shipped with your storage system.

** AX4-5SCi and AX4-5i storage systems do not support Novell NetWare operating systems.

Go to the AX4-5 support website to download the latest version of the software, and to download a localized version of Navisphere Express.

Navisphere Express is available in English, French, German, Simplified

Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian.

4

FLARE Operating Environment software

FLARE Operating Environment (OE) software controls the operation of the AX4-5, AX4-5i, AX4-5F8, AX4-5SCF4, AX4-5SC, and AX4-5SCi diskarray storage systems.

AX4-5SC, AX4-5SCi and AX4-5SCF4 storage systems ship with a complete copy of FLARE OE software installed on the first and third disk modules (disk modules 0 and 2). These disk modules store mirrored copies of the software for the AX4-5SC, AX4-5SCi and AX4-5SCF4 storage processor (SP).

AX4-5, AX4-5i and AX4-5F8 storage systems ship with a complete copy of FLARE OE software installed on the first four disk modules (disk modules 0 through 3). Disk modules 0 and 2 store mirrored copies of the software for SP A, and disks 1 and 3 store mirrored copies of the software for SP B.

EMC AX4-5 Series Integrated Management Software Release Notes

When you power up the storage system, each SP boots and executes

FLARE OE software.

Shared storage control

Shared storage control software allows only the server(s) assigned to a virtual disk to access the virtual disk.

Navisphere Express

EMC Navisphere Express is a storage-system-based management utility for configuring and managing AX4-5 series storage systems. This software provides the following functionality:

Š Storage configuration and allocation

Š Event management

Each AX4-5SC, AX4-5SCi, AX4-5F8, AX4-5SCF4, AX4-5, and AX4-5i storage system ships from the factory with Navisphere Express installed.

Snapshot management software

The snapshot management software is a storage-system-based software application that lets you create a point-in-time copy — a snapshot — of a virtual disk; that is, you determine when the snapshot starts. A secondary server can then access and use the snapshot for backup purposes or as a base for temporary operations on the copy of the production data without changing the source data on the virtual disk.

Before you can start a snapshot, you must allocate the required snapshot disk resources. When the allocation completes, the state of the snapshot transitions to Ready, which means you can start the snapshot on the source server and then access the snapshot on the secondary server.

When you no longer require the snapshot's data, you can remove access to the snapshot. Only after you do this can you stop the snapshot. When you stop a snapshot, the point-in-time copy ends and the snapshot disk resources are freed for other snapshots to use. If you do not want to start another snapshot for this source virtual disk, you can destroy the snapshot. Destroying the snapshot frees and de-allocates the snapshot disk resources that were allocated when you prepared the snapshot.

Each AX4-5SC, AX4-5SCi, AX4-5F8, AX4-5SCF4, AX4-5, and AX4-5i storage system ships from the factory with snapshot management software installed.

EMC AX4-5 Series Integrated Management Software Release Notes 5

Navisphere Storage System Initialization Utility

The EMC Navisphere Storage System Initialization Utility runs on your management station or attached server. It discovers uninitialized AX4-5 series storage systems, lets you assign IP addresses to the SPs on the same subnet, assign IPs to iSCSI ports for AX4-5i and AX4-5SCI storage systems, and set up security for these storage systems.

The Navisphere Storage System Initialization Utility ships on the AX4

Series Server Support CD that is supplied with the storage system.

For NetWare hosts, initialization from a Windows Storage System

Initialization Utility is required and is documented on the CLARiiON

Server Support Products for Windows Servers Installation Guide

(P/N 300–002–038).

Navisphere Server Utility

See the Host Agent/CLI & Utilities Release Notes (300-007-053).

Admsnap

The Admsnap program runs on host systems and lets you start, activate, deactivate, and stop snapshots of virtual disks.

The Admsnap utility is an executable program that you can run interactively or with a script.

For all Microsoft Windows and UNIX platforms, flush cached data from the production host before you start a snapshot of a virtual disk. Failure to do this may result in an inconsistent or unusable point-in-time copy.

See the Admsnap Release Notes (P/N 300-007-061) for further details.

PowerPath software

PowerPath path management software manages the paths between

Windows, Linux, NetWare, AIX, HP-UX or Solaris server and virtual disks in the storage system. It transfers I/O to a working path if one path fails and provides load balancing to distribute I/O load equally among paths.

The PowerPath software ships on the PowerPath CDs that are supplied with the storage system. Always check the AX4-5 support website for the latest version of PowerPath.

6 EMC AX4-5 Series Integrated Management Software Release Notes