Reliability and availability features
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Data Integrity, Availability, and Protection
◆ Service processor:
• Keyboard
• Video Display and Mouse (KVM)
The Symmetrix DMX systems provide full component-level
redundancy to protect against a component failure and ensure
continuous and uninterrupted access to information. To improve
serviceability, the Symmetrix DMX global memory directors, channel
directors, disk directors, disk adapters, and XCMs are mechanically
keyed to prevent insertion to invalid slots. A disable interface feature
ensures that at powerup the link interfaces between any new channel
or disk director and its corresponding global memory directors are
disabled.
Only after safeguards have been satisfied to ensure that a director has
been properly replaced will a new board be activated and brought
online. This nondisruptive replacement capability allows the EMC
Customer Engineer to install a new component, initialize it if
necessary, and bring it online without:
◆ Disrupting access to unaffected volumes
◆ Powering down the Symmetrix unit
◆ Stopping the operating system
◆ Taking unaffected channel paths offline
◆ Taking devices offline (other than the affected device)
Nondisruptive
Enginuity upgrades
Interim updates of the Enginuity Operating Environment can be
performed at the customer site by the EMC Customer Engineer (CE).
The nondisruptive upgrade will complete in 15 seconds or less. These
updates provide enhancements to performance algorithms, error
recovery and reporting techniques, diagnostics, and Enginuity fixes.
They also provide new features and functionality for Enginuity.
During an online Enginuity code load, the EMC Customer Engineer
downloads the new Enginuity code to the service processor. The new
Enginuity code loads into the EEPROM areas within the channel and
disk directors, and remains idle until requested for a hot load in
control store.
The Symmetrix system does not require customer action during the
performance of this function. All channel and disk directors remain
in an online state to the host processor, thus maintaining application
access. The Symmetrix system will load executable Enginuity code
within each director hardware resource until all directors have been
loaded. Once the executable Enginuity code is loaded, internal
processing is synchronized and the new code becomes operational.
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