The Pursuit of Knowledge

August 6, 2024bx2 No Comments

Updating SCOS on Dell CT-SCV2080

I am in the process of decommissioning an older Dell SCV2080 and I thought it might be a good opportunity to try to update the Storage Center Operating System (SCOS) as the unit is being decommissioned.

When I had this unit in production, its function was mainly to retain backups. As it has aged, support expired and getting replacement drives started to become a challenge. The drives are firmware locked by Dell and purchasing drives online was always a gamble for compatibility reasons. In 2023, I replaced this unit with a new Dell PowerVault ME5084 so I figured that now is a good opportunity to play around with this SCV2080.

When it was used in production and without any support, I couldn’t risk doing these software updates as I had no guidance from Dell or access to the files. The SCOS software used in this article was from the SCV2020 unit that I was able to obtain when troubleshooting with Dell on a previous active ticket. As both storage arrays are part of the SCV2000 series, I wanted to try to update the SCOS on this unit and see if it would take.

Files:

https://mega.nz/file/4NBhFSRD#ACr-GiZkPxfAmGNurTVDNrW3NpFuiNWl33BfI19Smh8

The SCV2080 in question has 171TB of raw space across 47 4TB disk (3.64TB recognized). The operating system is an older SCOS version of 7.1.12.2. To manage this storage center, I have had to use an older version of Dell Storage Manager (DSM) (2018 R1.10, build 18.1.10.171).

Since I’ve replaced this unit with a much newer and larger SAN and this one is being decommissioned, I wanted to try to update the SCV2080 using my guide found below:

https://tweakmyskills.com/dell-compellent-storage-center-scos-upgrade-guide

Before we begin, I’m far from a Dell Storage engineer and if something goes haywire, it is no loss to me as this unit will no longer be used for any of our workloads. Use this guide with caution as I take no responsibility for any problems or challenges that you make encounter along the way.

With that out of the way, I started off by unzipping the SCOS R07.03.20.019.10, which is closest to my current version, to a folder on my desktop that will be running the update from.

I launched DSM, I went into Settings –> SupportAssit option. I disabled SupportAssist and enabled the Configure Update Utility and pointed the IP to that of my desktop that will be running the Dell Storage Center Update Utility. This is where the SCOS updates will be pulled from.

Afterwards, I launched the Dell Storage Center Update Utility from my desktop, pointed the Distro Directory to the location of the unzipped SCOS files. I then pressed the START button to begin validation of the files.

Now going back into DSM, I will manually check for updates and this is what I see:

DSM detects the available SCOS update from my transmit client. I will select the Apply all updates option since I don’t have any services that would be impacted. I will begin the upgrade and see how it works out. I’ll be sure to update my post as I work through the following SCOS:

R07.03.20.019.10
R07.04.21.004.02
R07.05.10.012.01

Edit 1:

I couldn’t perform the update because the Dell Storage Manager client (2018 R1.10, build 18.1.10.171) was too old for the new SCSO version. I upgraded the DSM client from 2018 R1.10 to 2018 R1.20 and restarted the update.

That had worked as it is asking me for the Admin password now.

After about 10-15 minutes, the update completed successfully.

Logging back into DSM, I see this message.

Its possible this is a new feature that we didn’t know of due to the outdated SCOS, or it was disabled and this version informs us of this.

Next, I will try to update to SCOS: R07.04.21.004.02

Back on my desktop, I changed the Distro Directory in the Storage Center Update Utility to point to the SCOS version that I will work on deploying next (R07.04.21.004.02). Make sure to unzip all of the files.

I see the following message in the info log stating the version was validated.

Starting the update the same way as before, it looks like it will run. If it does error out, it may be due to the DSM software version.

Lets see how it goes…

Edit 2:

Just as I thought, I will need to update DSM.

I have version 20.1.2.14 so I will try that.

With DSM 2020 R1.2, the update is now starting to run.

While this upgrade is running, it did provide an error but the process was still running. This update took the longest because I mistakenly left the Selected Installation Type set as Non-Service Affecting.

After a bit of time, the update completed.

The last and final upgrade will be to version R07.05.10.012.01.

I unzipped the folder contents and mounted the files with the Storage Center Update Utility.

I went back into DSM and checked for updates. Below is the final update available and pending. This time I made sure to select Apply all updates – service affecting.

I let DSM do its thing and after a bit of time, the completed message was showing and the final SCOS update was installed.

That is pretty much it for the updates. I am not sure if the SCV2000 series has newer updates than 7.5.10.12.

This is a bit of an involved process if you don’t have an active support contract so I hope this can help somebody out there. It was a fun exercise and something I’ve wanted to do for a while.

Thank you reading this.

July 5, 2024bx2 2 Comments

Installing Proxmox on a Dell PowerEdge R240

Hi there!

2024 started out with the VMware-Broadcom acquisition being completed. Once the sale was completed, Broadcom did not hold back in reorganizing and restructuring a once stable and fantastic company.

If you are reading this, it’s likely because you are exploring alternative Hypervisors, be it for your home lab or for your organization.

This guide is a very basic one and it just covers how to setup Proxmox on a Dell PowerEdge R240 which has the PERC S140 RAID controller.

When deciding how to configure the server for installing Proxmox, you have the choice of using the PERC S140 RAID controller in RAID-1 or to leave the drives running without RAID and configure Proxmox with ZFS.

This guide will focus on not using the Dell S140 RAID controller. There are many discussions about how to prepare the server for the OS install and it seems to be not recommended to load ZFS on top of hardware RAID.

My R240 came with RAID-1 enabled on the PERC S140 with two 960GB SSD drives. I am doing all of this work remotely using Dell OpenManage Enterprise. My Dell R240 did not have an enterprise license so I am using a free 30-day trial license from Dells Trial Licenses iDRAC page here.

***Before you do anything with the following settings, backup any data that you require as modifying the server from RAID to AHCI mode will cause data loss on your disks.***

Booting up the server, press F2 to enter System Setup. Once the System Setup page loads, select the System BIOS option. On the next screen, select SATA Settings.

Once the SATA Settings page loads up, you will need to set the Embedded SATA setting to AHCI Mode. We want the serve to present the disks to Proxmox as a bunch of drives without any RAID control. We will allow Proxmox to protect our disks with a ZFS Mirror.

Acknowledge the Warning alert about the data loss and press OK.

You will be taken back to the System Settings page. Click the Finish button and confirm it with Yes.

To install Proxmox, we need to load up a Proxmox ISO and reboot the server. I am doing this all by using Dell OpenManage Enterprise.

We need to load up the Virtual Media section. If you see the option at the top of the page, click Virtual Media.

The Virtual Media section will now load up. You will see a few options on the left. We are going to make sure we are under the Connect Virtual Media setting. It should indicate that virtual media is disconnected. Click Connect Virtual Media.

Next, under the Map CD/DVD section, click on Choose File and select the Proxmox ISO you will be using. Then click the Map Device button. You will no see that the ISO file is mapped to the CD/DVD Drive.

We will reboot the server and tap F11 to enter the Boot Manager setting. With Boot Manager loaded, select the option One-Shot BIOS Boot Menu and on the next page, select the *Virtual Optical Drive setting.

The server will boot using the Virtual Media we loaded up previously. After a few moments, you should now see the Proxmox installation menu.

I am going to install Proxmox with the Graphical installation. Use the arrow keys to select your option. You will next have the opportunity to review the EULA.

After the EULA, you will be asked to select the Target Harddisk. In my case, I have both of my SSDs listed but I am going to proceed into the Options section.

Once the Harddisk Options menu loads, you can choose your filesystem. In my case, I will use ZFS (RAID-1). With the filesystem selected, click on the OK button.

You should see the Harddisk Options menu confirming your selection. If you have selected ZFS, you will a message within the window that indicates that ZFS is not compatible with hardware RAID controllers, and to reference the documentation for further information. Press the OK button to confirm your settings.

The next few screens will ask you to set your country, time zone and keyboard layout. Press Next when you are ready to continue.

You will now see the Administration Password and Email Address configuration page.

Set a secure password. This password is for the root account, so it will need to be complex and secure. When ready, click Next.

The last and final page will be the Management Network Configuration section.

Select your Management Interface, in my case it is Eno1, the only interface with a LAN connection.

Set your Proxmox hostname in FQDN format. You can use something like PVE01.Lab.com.

Set the IP networking. I’m setting my installation to be static IP addressing and I know what addressing I will use. If you have DHCP enabled and your network port is untagged/access configured or you are using a basic switch, you may have this information already prefilled based on the DHCP settings. Click Next when ready.

The last screen of the install will be the formatting of the drives and the installation process. Proxmox will be installed and will load up shortly. The installation process should be fairly quick.

When the installation completes and the server reboots, you should see a welcome message, which provides you the management IP and port of this nodes Proxmox installation. You will also see a local logon prompt.
At this time, you can just open up the browser and go to the https://IP:8006 and access your Proxmox web gui, seen below.

There are many good guides out on the internet for Proxmox. Below I will link some official documentation along with a few other technical sources that you can use to learn Proxmox.

Proxmox Wiki Main Page

Proxmox Installation (Wiki)

Proxmox Forum

Proxmox Roadmap

Official Proxmox Training

r/Proxmox

Learn Linux TV has a fantastic Proxmox Course

Hope this helps some of you out there. I’ve migrated my homelab from VMware to Proxmox so I will be focusing heavily on Proxmox content. I still work with VMware environment(for now) so I will cover VMware related items that I see fit, but I imagine it won’t be much as we are exploring our options of alternative Hypervisors.

Thank you!

September 15, 2023bx2 No Comments

%DTLS-3-HANDSHAKE_FAILURE: openssl_dtls.c:860 Failed to complete DTLS handshake with peer

As a Systems Administrator, I support a few global locations for the organization that I work for. One of my locations has a Cisco 2500 Series Wireless Controller.

Last night while investigating some power related issues, I had reports from users indicating that wireless network wasn’t working.

The end users reported a red light on the Access Point. I connected to the Wireless Controller and started to look around for any abnormalities and see what the log will show.

I noticed that when I connected to the controller, that I didn’t have any access points being detected.

I decided to see what the logs were showing. I clicked on the Management option at the top, expanded Logs, and clicked on Message Logs.

I noticed that my logs showed a bunch of Handshake Failures. I have removed my IPs and replaced them with x.x.x.x. I had many of these entries.

*spamApTask4: Jan 01 12:47:56.843: %DTLS-3-HANDSHAKE_FAILURE: openssl_dtls.c:860 Failed to complete DTLS handshake with peer x.x.x.x
*spamApTask5: Jan 01 12:47:55.919: %DTLS-3-HANDSHAKE_FAILURE: openssl_dtls.c:860 Failed to complete DTLS handshake with peer x.x.x.x
*spamApTask7: Jan 01 12:47:55.915: %DTLS-3-HANDSHAKE_FAILURE: openssl_dtls.c:860 Failed to complete DTLS handshake with peer x.x.x.x
*spamApTask0: Jan 01 12:47:54.995: %DTLS-3-HANDSHAKE_FAILURE: openssl_dtls.c:860 Failed to complete DTLS handshake with peer x.x.x.x
*spamApTask3: Jan 01 12:47:54.750: %DTLS-3-HANDSHAKE_FAILURE: openssl_dtls.c:860 Failed to complete DTLS handshake with peer x.x.x.x
*spamApTask1: Jan 01 12:47:53.758: %DTLS-3-HANDSHAKE_FAILURE: openssl_dtls.c:860 Failed to complete DTLS handshake with peer x.x.x.x

The first thing that stood out is the date, Jan 01. It was Sept 15th 2023 when I received reports of this issue.

I then decided to go into the Commands option and look at what Set Time has entered.

The time was completely off and this was the cause for the APs to not be able to complete their handshake with the controller.

After setting the local time and timezone, I saved the settings and the configuration so that the next reset, it will boot with the latest changes.

Reviewing the logs again, I now see connectivity entries between the Cisco wireless controller and the Cisco Access Points.

Reviewing the list of Radios being detected, I now see all of my access points listed and functional.

As this wasn’t a complex issue and just required the time to be reconfigured, I wanted to share this solution incase anybody comes across the same problem I have.

April 6, 2023bx2 No Comments

Microsoft LAPS – The LDAP server is unavailable.

If you haven’t used Microsoft LAPS, it’s a neat feature that helps enhance domain security by setting a randomized password for each local administrator account on each domain computer/server. Gone are the days of using one password for local admin access across hundreds or thousands of endpoints.

Microsoft LAPS is not new and has been around for a few years but is a must for a properly secured domain environment. The lack of randomized local admin passwords is often an item detected on internal penetration tests.

Today, I encountered an error that I haven’t seen before with a Microsoft LAPS deployment. I spent the better half of the afternoon trying to figure out why extending the domain schema wasn’t working.

I’ve been following this great Microsoft technet article on deploying LAPS and while trying to extend the schema, I was getting the following error:

I have confirmed that my management machine didn’t have windows firewall enabled, domain replication was functional and LDP.exe would connect to the schema master at the required IP:389.

Everything checked out. One thing I didn’t review yet was Event Viewer.

I remember in College, some of our professors would tell us that Event Viewer will be one of the most powerful tools that we will use, if we choose to use it.

I’ve spent a considerable amount of time in my career searching through logs, exporting and reviewing problems. Event viewer has been an extremely valuable tool and I’ve worked with other team members to educate and help them learn to use Event Viewer to assist their troubleshooting methods.

Anyways, I launched event viewer on my management station that has LAPS installed and where the Schema is attempting to be extended from. Looking under Windows Logs –> Applications, I noticed a bunch of Information events that reference PowerShell, TCP port 389 and my host IP going to a DC.

This environment is utilizing Carbon Black for its endpoint protection and it slipped my mind when I was initially installing this.

I was able to work with our security team to allow traffic from this endpoint and to the other DCs so that the schema extension can occur.

After a bit of waiting, I was given the green light and tried once more.

Voila, it worked.

I wanted to share this because after searching around, I saw references to firewalls and blocking but I can’t recall reading anything about endpoint protection/AV causing this.

Thanks for reading and hopefully this helps somebody in the future.

April 6, 2023bx2 6 Comments

Dell Compellent Storage Center SCOS Upgrade Guide

The purpose of this guide is to provide clarity on the process of updating the Storage Center Operating System (SCOS) on Dell Compellent Storage Center SANs.

This guide focuses on updating the Dell SCOS by using the Dell Storage Center Update Utility (SCUU). None of the work should be performed without an active Dell service contract. Performing this work without Dell support/contract may put your SAN at risk if you are unable to recover or restore functionality.

If this is a production device, make sure to schedule a 2-8 hour maintenance window. Allocate more time than needed incase you require troubleshooting and support from Dell.

My instructions have been based on my experience of performing three large updates to bring an outdated SAN up to the most recent SCOS version. I am not responsible/liable for any work that viewers of this article perform or follow. Everything is done at your own risk. If you choose to follow this guide, you are taking your own risk and I do not provide any support on this matter.

Files:

https://mega.nz/file/4NBhFSRD#ACr-GiZkPxfAmGNurTVDNrW3NpFuiNWl33BfI19Smh8

With that out of the way, today we will be working with a Dell Compellent Storage Center SCV2020 which contains two controllers and 24 disks. My unit has an active support contract with Dell and I’ve performed a few of these upgrades in the past with the guidance of a Dell Storage Engineer.

Usually performing updates on Dell Compellent SANs can be done via the Actions Menu within the Dell Storage Manager (DSM) client and the Check for Updates option. Seen Below.

From my experience, a Dell SAN that is far out of date will not offer you these updates. Usually Dell Support needs to ‘allow’ them to be pushed out to your SAN via SupportAssist but I believe that really outdated units need to be manually updated with the Dell SCUU tool in order to bring them up to a specific version. This may be due to the size of updates or the risk of going from unsupported and outdated version to the latest. I’m not sure and I don’t have an answer so take this with a grain of salt.

SANs like many other infrastructure devices do require system updates for device compatibility, bug fixes and security patches. Often these updates will include potential firmware updates for the SAN controllers and drives and are critical for smooth functionality and computability within a SAN.

With the Dell Storage Centers, if they haven’t been updated for a while, they cannot be managed by more recent versions of Dell Storage Managers (DSM). You will receive a message indicating that the OS of the SAN is outdated. As of this writing (April 2023), the latest DSM is at 2020 R1.10 Release, dated Aug 19, 2022.

Here is an example of that. I have Dell Storage Manager (DSM) 2018 R1.20 installed but the SCOS version is 6.6.11.9. The application is newer than the SCOS version and it does not allow me to manage the SAN. This is due to the DSM application being far too new and not compatible with the 6.6.11.9 SCOS version.

The solution? Try to find a 2016 version of DSM, such this 2016 R3.20 Release.

Within my environment, I use DSM to manage the a few Compellent SANs within one DSM interface. Having all of the SANs on the same SCOS compatibility version as the DSM allows for this to happen.

The SCV2020 that I’m working on initially was at SCOS version 6.6.11.9.6. The most current SCOS version is 7.5.10.12.1. To upgrade the SAN, I’ve had to fumble my way through different Dell DSM versions and SCOS updates.

For example, while going through a few updates, I ran into this message.

Basically I was trying to apply SCOS update 7.4.21.4.2 by using DSM 2018 R1.20. DSM allows upgrades to certain levels of SCOS. Newer versions of SCOS that supersede the DSM version is not allowed. You need to always be ahead with DSM but not too far ahead. This is the problem with not being on top of updates with Dell Compellent SANs.

Now you may ask, If I have a Dell Support Contract, why won’t I just reach out to them? Great question! This unit is overseas and requires me to contact Dell International Support. The international support line has had me redirected to Desktop support a few times despite me selecting enterprise storage, so I decided to tackle this unit on my own.
If something would have come up that requires immediate support, I would have gone through the phone channels and escalation to get support.

With all of that out of the way, lets perform the final update for my Dell SCV2020 from SCOS version 7.3.20.19 to 7.5.10.12.1 by using DSM 2018 R1.20.

Although I’ve mentioned it earlier about the incorrect DSM version, I will try to update to the latest Dell SCOS version with the DSM 2018 R1.20. This will not work but I wanted to show you everything I’ve encountered with these manual updates.

First, you need to obtain the following files:

Dell Storage Center Operating System (SCOS) version you want to upgrade to
- Usually you need to get this from Dells FTP, which is provided with a username and password from Dell support
Dell Storage Center Update Utility (SCUU), found here.
- SCUU guide if you need it, here.
Dell Storage Manager (DSM) client
- 2018 R1.20 – Here
- 2020 R1.10 – Here

In my case after installing DSM (2018), SCUU and I have my SCOS images, we are going to launch the SCUU tool.

A few things to keep in mind. The workstation that you are working on will be the endpoint IP. This is the IP and the port (9005) that the Compellent will use to connect to your device to perform updates. This is required as we will be turning off SupportAssist to allow the updates to be handled locally and not from Dell.

Click on the Distro Directory button and select the extracted Dell SCOS update you are running. In my case, I’ve extracted the R07.05.10.012.01 zip and pointed the directory to the folder. You can review other options in the Tools menu but the defaults have worked fine for me.

Click on the green Start button. This will begin to validate and prepare the SCOS update to be provided to the SAN. We have yet to configure the Compellent to search for the available update.

At this time, nothing should update at all from my experience. We are only preparing the update on a plate for the SAN to eat it once we bring it out to its table.

Now, launch your DSM version. For me, I am launching the DSM 2018 R1.20 version.

With DSM logged into the SAN, click on the Edit Settings menu and select SupportAssist on the bottom left side.

Click on the Turn off Support Assist option. This will enable the DSM application to point to a different Update Utility Host.

Put a checkmark into the Enabled box for the Configure Update Utility option.
The Update Utility Host or IP address should be the IP that the Dell SCUU tool with the SCOS is waiting on. Make sure the port is 9005 (default).

Once done, click Apply and OK.

Now we will have the DSM application search for the available update. Click on the Actions option then select System and then Check for Update.

Once DSM detects the available update presented by SCUU, you will see something along these lines.

Confirm that the current and new Storage Center versions are what you expect.

You can select the option to download now and install or download now and install later. I will use the first option.

For installation type, as my SAN is not technically in production, I will apply all updates which is service affecting. Yours may differ and you may only need non-service impacting updates. Review the columns of the Update Package Components section. You can see which updates are required and which ones are service affecting. Make your decision based on your business requirements.

As I have redundant controllers in my SAN, this allows me to reboot when necessary without impacting the SAN connectivity, if required.

To recap. I’m installing updates right away and applying all updates.

I pressed OK to initiate the update and voila, this message comes up.

I need to update my DSM from 2018 R1.20 to 2020 R1.10 to be able to install this latest SCOS update.

BRB…

Latest DSM is installed

Now onto the final update. The process is the same. The settings should already be prefilled but its best to validate by going back into SupportAssist and making sure SupportAssist = off and Configure Update Utility = Enabled with the SCUU host IP and port entered.

I’m going back in to check for the available update. Everything remains the same as before.

I am going to OK and the update will start. You may be prompted to enter in your Compellent user credentials.

The Update Available screen seen above will change to Update in Progress and DSM will refresh the window every 30 seconds with the status.

Although the update said it would take 1+ hour to complete, for me it was done in about 30 minutes.

We can confirm that the DSM client sees the latest version installed.

We need to go back in and enable SupportAssist, which is recommended if you have an active Support Contract.

Take a look at the Alerts and Logs tabs and make sure you don’t see anything looks to be critical or service impacting. The Summary tab will also have a brief overview of the SAN health status.

Usually I will reach out to the Dell Support Team and have them review the latest SupportAssist logs and SAN status to make sure everything is functional and there are no alerts or errors that stand out to them.

Go back to the SCUU tool and stop it from sharing the SCOS image. You can now close the application completely. The process isn’t fairly complicated but the challenge is getting the Dell SCOS versions from the Dell FTP. Once you have those, you should be able to make your way through updating the SAN.

Now, all of this has been performed on the Dell Compellent Storage Center units. I am not sure if the PowerVault line will use the same SCOS software. I’d imagine so but that is not a definte answer.

I should have a Dell MD3200 in a few months to play around with that is outdated so I will perform a few tests and create a new post.

That pretty much concludes the process of updating the Dell Compellent SCOS by using the SCUU tool.

Thanks for reading.

December 26, 2022bx2 No Comments

QNAP Release Notes

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I ran into this while logging into my QNAP. The GUI notified me of a new available firmware update.

Often, it’s just a firmware update and there are no selections. This is what I have available.

Right, this is new to me. This is my first time seeing an option for Security Update or Feature Update. Both seem to show the same version and build ID.

Lets see what the security update contains so that I can understand what changes it will perform.

The Realease Notes link points to the following URL:

https://www.qnap.com/en-us/release-notes/qts/5.0.1.2248/20221215?ref=nas_product

This is what we have under security updates:

Jackie Chan Meme by FireFox2014 on DeviantArt

Is that not just too vague? I found it strange and odd. Why even add anything in there if you aren’t going to shed light on what is being changed.

For anybody wondering about the Feature Update, it is listed as:

Not terrible, at least some details.

Anyways, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

June 8, 2021bx2 No Comments

Convert Disk from RAID to Non-RAID – Dell PERC H730 Mini

Last week I was working on setting up two new servers at a new office about 6,000 km away. Initially, everything was going smoothly on Server #1 until I tried to configure the second server in a similar manner.

Let me explain…

We are using the following:
-Dell R730xd servers
–Bios 2.12.1
–iDRAC firmware: 2.75.100.76
-Dell PERC H730 Mini
-Seagate ST8000NM0065 SAS (6 of them)
–Revision K004
-Two volumes
–OS (RAID-1, SSDs)
–Storage (RAID-6, Seagate)

What we did on each server for the OS boot drive is combine two enterprise SSD disk into a RAID-1 configuration. This worked well for us as expected.

While investigating some options for local storage that could possibly be shared, we wanted to do some testing with Microsoft’s Storage Spaces Direct, which required us to remove the Storage Volume and convert the disks from a RAID to Non-RAID configuration.

Server #1 was completed successfully. Entering the iDRAC configuration, we expanded Overview –> Storage and then selected Virtual Disks.

We clicked on Manage and deleted the chosen volume via the drop down option under Virtual Disk Actions.

Once the volume was deleted, we needed to convert each disk from a RAID drive to Non-RAID drive.

This is done by going into the Physical Disks section under storage (within the iDRAC menu) and going to the setup section.

From there, you would just click the Setup section at the top, select each or all disks that you want to reconfigured for Non-RAID and select apply.

This worked great for the first server but not so much for the second server.

When doing so, the job would be accepted and checking the Job Queue which is under the Overview –> Server section, we noticed the following basic error message: PR21: Failed

Since the message didn’t provide enough information, we went to the Logs section under Overview –> Server and selected the Lifecycle Log section.

Here you can possibly get slightly more details but in our case, it wasn’t enough to figure out what was going wrong.

We started off by searching that error message on Dells website and found the following:

We couldn’t find out why we were not able to reformat the disks into a Non-RAID configuration. Server #1 completed this without issues. We compared both servers (exact same spec) and there was nothing out of the ordinary.

We stumbled upon an interesting Reddit post that speaks about a very similar situation. The user in this case had 520 bytes sector drives and was trying to reformat them to 512 bytes.

We compared the drives between both servers and everything was the same. We couldn’t perform the exact steps as identified on Reddit since we couldn’t get the drives detected and we didn’t have any way to hookup each SAS drive to a 3rd party adapter and check the drive details.

We decided to do a test and shut down both servers and move the drives from one unit to the other, thanks to our remote office IT employee. Doing so would identify if the issue is in fact with the drives or with the server/raid controller/configuration.

With the drives from server #2 into server #1, we were able to format them into a Non-RAID configuration with ease. We knew our issues were with the server itself.

Diving more into Dells documentation, we found one area that was not really discussed but required to reboot the server and tap F2 to enter the Controller Management window.

Here, we looked around and found what we believed to be the root cause of our issues, located in Main Menu –> Controller Management –> Advanced Controller Properties.

Look at the last selection, Non RAID Disk Mode, we had this as Disabled!

This wasn’t a setting we setup and the initial testing was done by our vendor a great distance away.

We choose the Enabled option for Non-RAID Disk Mode and applied and restarted the server

With that modified, we loaded back into iDRAC and we were finally able to select all of our disks and configure them as non-raid.

Once done, all the disks were passed through to windows and we were able to use them for our storage and to test Microsofts Storage Spaces Direct.

I wanted to take a few minutes and write this up as this was something we couldn’t pinpoint right away and took a bit of time to investigate, test and resolve.

Some resources that I came across that might help others:

http://angelawandrews.com/tag/perc-h730/

https://johannstander.com/2016/08/01/vsan-changing-dell-controller-from-raid-to-hba-mode/amp/

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000133007/how-to-convert-the-physical-disks-mode-to-non-raid-or-raid-capable

https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-ca/idrac7-8-lifecycle-controller-v2.40.40.40/idrac%20racadm%202.40.40.40/storage?guid=guid-9e3676cb-b71d-420b-8c48-c80add258e03

Thanks for reading!

June 5, 2021bx2 No Comments

Firmware Upgrades on Jabra Headsets (Evolve 20)

Good afternoon all,

Headsets used to be a simple ‘plug it and forget it’ kind of device but there are certain makes and models that can have firmware upgrades applicable to them.

Some headsets that I deal with on a daily basis are Plantronics HW520 with the Plantronics DA70 USB adapter and the Jabra Evolve 20 headsets.

I won’t get into specific details regarding the Plantronic headsets paired with the DA70 USB adapter but avoid that combination if you can. Compared to the Jabra headsets, I’ve had a ton of failures and issues with the Plantronics configuration listed above than I’ve had with Jabra.

Anyways, this isn’t a post to compare both but I just wanted to mention it. I might write a post about this in the future outlining my experience and the issues/failures I’ve seen.

This sunny and hot saturday afternoon, I decided to pop by work to get some quiet time and push through with some outstanding tasks on my plate.

One of the tasks is to prepare a large amount of Jabra Evolve 20 headsets to be deployed to our staff over the comming weeks.

Companies deploy most if not all staff to Work From Home (WFH) due to COVID in 2020/2021+ and while we prepare and send employees to work at home, we want to make sure we patch and reduce the amount of unnecessary calls to helpdesk.

Our staff primarily use Jabra Evolve 20 headsets and they are great, well priced and comfortable but we have had some compatability issues in the past with them.

Some of the issues we experienced was performance and stability of the headset and compatibility with platforms such as Genesys cloud dialers.

When we initially started to troubleshoot, we realized that Jabra Evolve and Plantronics headsets can have firmware upgrades applied to them via Jabra Direct or Plantronics Hub.

When comparing current software versions detected on the headset and new updates and their release notes, we found that often Performance and Stability Improvements are listed in each firmware upgrade along with software compatibility improvements.

When we updated the Jabra Evolve 20 headsets to the latest firmware version as of 2021 (version 4.3.1), we found that our issues were no longer valid. Voila!

95% of these headsets update without issues within the Jabra Direct application but this afternoon I ran into a few headsets that upon starting the firmware upgrade, would error out and no longer cooperate with the application, shown below.

The error above shows after I tried to apply the firmware upgrade, the same way I did it for the many previous headsets.

Pressing Recover Now / Recover just provides me that bland Firmware was not updated message, with the recommendation to contact the local IT Administrator (myself) or Jabra Support.

Since the Jabra Direct application refused to cooperate, I decided to check the Jabra Website to see if a manual firmware upgrade file exists. Low and behold, it does. Release date 2021/04/15, version 4.3.1. I download the file (Jabra_EVOLVE_20_30_4.3.1.zip) and look at the contents of the zip.

Inside is just a basic info.xml and a .hex file.

How do I execute this zip file or the contents of the zip file?

I do some searching online and find mention of an application called Jabra Firmware Upgrade wizard, but I wasn’t able to successfully locate it, nor unsure if it would actually work in my case.

I kept searching and eventually found an article on Jabras website that explains how to manually upgrade the firmware when a failed firmware installation occurs.

The important part of this is when you enter the Updates section of Jabra Direct, press the following keys to unlock the Update From File option.

CTRL + SHIFT + U

As you can see above, the same headset that failed the firmware and failed to recover the previous version, was successfully updated using the .zip file via the Update From File hidden option.

Thinking that the few headsets might have to be RMA’d, I was able to get them updated and ready for deployment.

As this was not an easy find, despite the instructions on Jabras site, I found many discussions and attempts to manually apply the firmware via alternative methods.

Coming across this Jabra article and the hidden menu, I knew I wanted to share it here in the event that somebody runs into the same issue as I have.

Thanks for reading.

May 13, 2021bx2 No Comments

VMware VMUG Advantage 15% off discount – 03/13/2021

Hello all,

Those of you that want to the full benefits and features of VMware for a homelab, you can register for the VMware VMUG Advantage Program get a decent discount with the following code:

ADV15OFF

The VMware Advantage is a single user, 1 year subscription for $200.00 USD but if you enter in the 15% code (ADV15OFF), you can get it for $170.00 USD.

This has its benefits as it provides you with various VMware products and the ability to have full access to ESXi and the advanced functions (ie: vSAN + more).

I have no affiliation with this code and I was able to use it today successfully, on May 13th 2021.

This code from what I tested only worked with the 1-year subscription and not the 2 or 3 year.

For those of you that want to know more about this offering from VMware, please see the following link:

https://www.vmug.com/home
https://www.vmug.com/membership/vmug-advantage-membership

It is pricey but if you are working at advancing your skills in this platform, I think it’s a small price to pay.

Sure you can just download ESXi and have the 30 day free version but this is less hassle and has a large community backing this group.

Just last week I was listening onto a session from VMware VMUG presenters about homelab configurations, costs and best practices.

I figured I’d offer this out if anybody wants to try. The code may not work by the time you check so I apologize. I only came across this code from other references on various blogs.

Good luck and stay safe!

May 13, 2021bx2 No Comments

Fantastic Article regarding Domain Controller Security

I’ve been recently doing a bit of reading regarding corporate domain security and I came across this short but detailed Microsoft Article that references some best practices.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-ds/plan/security-best-practices/securing-domain-controllers-against-attack

One interesting thing that I came across and it might already be common knowledge is the recommendation to enable BitLocker on Domain Controllers.

I figure if anybody is looking at working on their homelab and building skills, you might as well start off with good/best practices which would follow you from the homelab to the corporate world.

The article also has links that open up further security documents such as Administering security policy settings, Avenues to Compromise and configuration of firewall for AD Domains and Trusts.

As I continue to review and read more into these, I wanted to share this link in case anybody else has an interest in this topic.