Clearing a SAN lockdown state

Hah, are you really bragging that you know how to clear a lockdown at one of California’s finesthotels?

No… Just No, I think that would involve blackmailing the governator or some mild kidnapping both are way beyond my ability to pull off.

Is this something to do with restoring operation of a faulty biological SAN/pacemaker?

As much as I enjoyed biology in A level that would also be beyond my knowledge and this is a computer orientated blog.

I am talking about restoring operation of a Storage Area Network controller that has reached a software enforced lockdown state specifically the LSI/Netapp built IBM branded DS3524 SAN incorporates lockdown counters which track the number of power cycles that one/both controllers on this unit experiences and if a threshold is reached then a lockdown is enabled which prevents the unit in question from booting.

Is that a nasty tactic to sell service contracts?

I don’t think so, this behaviour is likely to protect your precious data from a flaky controller which is advantageous unless your SAN controllers are operating correctly but experience a series of temporary power fluctuations in that case once reliable power has been restored this lockdown would need to be cleared to enable operations.

This lockout is indicated by LU appearing on the twin 7-segment LED displays on the controller mounted status indicators to the rear of the SAN.

A word of warning, please ensure that the SAN controller is only in this state due to external factors and not a fault and as normal I take no responsibility for your actions.. if you kill you data it was your choice to try and clear this lockdown.

To perform this lockout reset you will need an IBM serial-console/din connector and a computer/remote console host equipped with a RS232/Serial/DB9 connector.

The IBM serial to Console cable is pictured below and should have been included with the SAN if not IBM may send you one

This cable plugs into a female DIN port hidden under a black plastic cover at the rear of the SAN controllers.

Install Putty on the computer connected to the SAN to be used as a terminal emulator then once the connection has been made set the connection to serial and then set the parameters as follows.

Serial Line: This should be the COM port that your RS232 is port is listed as, this can be determined by the your system HW manager but in my case it should be COM 1.

Speed (Baud): any speed will do as the SAN controller uses adaptive baud rates but I use 19200.

Data bits: 8

Stop bits: 1

Parity: None

Flow Control: XON/XOFF

When you connect there may not be a message so press <CONTROL> and <BREAK> until correct speed detected, this will be indicated by intelligible onscreen text. 
When prompted to press <S> for Service Menu press <ESC> instead.  This will take opens a shell prompt.

At this shell prompt you *may* be able to use these credentials as they seem to be generic with FW images (verified by these working on a replacement controller) if these dont work then contactyour IBM/LSI representative

User ID:    shellUsr 
Password:    wy3oo&w4

The following commands need to be issued into this terminal in a specific order depending on which controller is in lockdown.

If controller A is in lockdown:

Run the following commands on both controllers – 
lemClearLockdown 
clearHardwareLockdown 
psvClearSodRebootLoopCounter

Then unplug ctrl-A and run the following commands on ctrl-B: 
loadDebug 
cmgrSetAltToFailed 
cmgrSetAltToOptimal

Then Hot-plug ctrl-A

This should sync setting across the controllers and clear the lockdown and you should be able to use your SAN again : )