XSAN 2.2 won't connect to Stornext Server

[mcdac]

we have real seriuos problems here connecting XSAN Client 2.2 (on 10.5.8 as well as 10.6.2) to our Stornext 3.5.1 Server (Windows Server 2008 64Bits). We tried an update from 2.1.1 as well as a new installation of 2.2.

Using XSAN Client 2.1.1 on 10.5.8 works fine (except the ProRES fuckup we experience but this would be another post).

We went through all steps provided by the Stornext manual. But if I launch cvadmin to show up the Volumes there comes the error. "The Xsan file system Services on 127.0.0.1 may be stopped". If I change the fsnameserver to the IP of the XSAN Client I don't get this error - but of course this is not an option.

The firewall on the Windows server is off.

Really strange - anyone who can help?

[lotte]

Hi mcdac, I wonder if the recommended files are named exactly as they should. So what you may have on your Xsan Client is in /etc/systemserialnumbers/ a file called "xsan" containing nothing but the serial number of your xsan license and in /Library/Filesystems/Xsan/config/ the files "fsnameservers", "automount.plist", "UUID", and "config.plist" which also must contain the xsan serialnumber. In your case I would assume there is something wrong with the fsnameservers file, can you post the relevant output of /var/log/messages and maybe of /Library/Filesystems/Xsan/debug/nssdebug.out

Regarding your other problem with files not correctly corresponding to the file names I would open a call at quantum. This could be serious...

Lotte

[jcbone]

Hi, I'm a colleague of mcdac.

Let's see… the serial number is installed correctly, in both places.
In /Library/Filesystems/Xsan/config/ we have the following files:

config.plist
fsnameservers
notifications.plist
uuid

(I'll append the contents of these files below)

I DON'T have a /var/log/messages file, and there is no relevant data in nsdebug.out - just up until the point, when I change the fsnameserver from the local IP (10.0.0.61) to the StorNext server (10.0.0.2), that's where the logfile ends. Does the local XSan installation write this log, by any chance?

Thanks,
Jörg

___Contents___

config.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>computers</key>
<array/>
<key>desiredSearchPolicy</key>
<array/>
<key>dsType</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>managePrivateNetwork</key>
<false/>
<key>metadataNetwork</key>
<string>10.0.0.0/24</string>
<key>ownerEmail</key>
<string></string>
<key>ownerName</key>
<string></string>
<key>primaryController</key>
<string></string>
<key>role</key>
<string>CONTROLLER</string>
<key>sanName</key>
<string>Mein Xsan</string>
<key>serialNumbers</key>
<array>
<dict>
<key>license</key>
<string>xsan-xxxxxxxxxxxx</string>
<key>organization</key>
<string></string>
<key>registeredTo</key>
<string></string>
</dict>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>


fsnameservers:

10.0.0.2 (which is the IP of the StorNext Server

notifications.plist:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Addresses</key>
<array/>
<key>Conditions</key>
<dict>
<key>ControllerFailover</key>
<true/>
<key>ExceededSoftQuota</key>
<true/>
<key>FibreFailure</key>
<true/>
<key>FreeSpaceThreshold</key>
<integer>5</integer>
<key>SerialNumberExpiration</key>
<true/>
</dict>
<key>ServerSettings</key>
<dict>
<key>EmailAddress</key>
<string></string>
<key>ServerAddress</key>
<string></string>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>

[lotte]

Hi jcbone, sure there is no /var/log/messages the file I meant is /var/log/system.log... The messages file is on Linux...

Let´s have a look in there

Lotte

[jcbone]

Hi,

so, here's the relevant part of the system.log:

Nov 16 15:35:10 JCBoneMac sudo[23282]: joerg : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/private/var/log ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.xsan.plist
Nov 16 15:35:10 JCBoneMac xsand[18]: Received term -- exiting.
Nov 16 15:35:10 JCBoneMac xsand[18]: fsm shutdown after 0 seconds
Nov 16 15:35:10 JCBoneMac com.apple.xsan[18]: kextunload: unload kext /System/Library/Extensions/acfsctl.kext succeeded
Nov 16 15:35:10 JCBoneMac com.apple.xsan[18]: kextunload: unload kext /System/Library/Extensions/acfs.kext succeeded
Nov 16 15:35:16 JCBoneMac sudo[23302]: joerg : TTY=ttys000 ; PWD=/private/var/log ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/bin/launchctl load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.xsan.plist
Nov 16 15:35:16 JCBoneMac com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.xsan): Unknown key for boolean: IgnoreProcessGroupAtShutdown
Nov 16 15:35:16 JCBoneMac xsand[23303]: kern.coredump: 1 -> 1
Nov 16 15:35:16 JCBoneMac xsand[23303]: kern.corefile: '/cores/core.%P' -> '/cores/core.%N.%P'
Nov 16 15:35:16 JCBoneMac xsand[23303]: kern.ipc.maxsockbuf: 8388608 -> 16777216
Nov 16 15:35:16 JCBoneMac com.apple.xsan[23303]: kextload: /System/Library/Extensions/acfs.kext loaded successfully
Nov 16 15:35:16 JCBoneMac com.apple.xsan[23303]: kextload: /System/Library/Extensions/acfsctl.kext loaded successfully
Nov 16 15:35:17 JCBoneMac kernel[0]: Xsan Client Revision 3.5.0 Build 7443 Branch branches_35X (411) Built for Darwin 9.0 i386 Created on Wed Sep 9 14:50:32 PDT 2009

…and that's it. Sadly, XSan doesn't really give any hints about what's going wrong here.

Does it tell you anything?

Jörg

[lotte]

Hmm, it seems all correct... if you wanna send me a personal message with your phone number and we´ll see f we can figure this out.

Lotte

[mcdac]

We talked to Quantum regarding this problem and they told us that there could but not should be a compatibility between XSAN 2.2 and Stornext FS 3.5.1.

The only combination they approved is 3.5.1 and 2.1.1.

Why Apple states that there is a compatibility between 3.5.1 and 2.2 I don't know.

[aaron]

Have you opened an AppleCare case? Although I sympathize that it may seem painful, it is the best route to make Apple aware of problems.
_________________
Aaron Freimark
http://www.tekserve.com/vcard/af.vcf

[lotte]

There´s a Production Bulletin from Quantum which says that 3.5.1 is fully compatible with Xsan 2.2 also StorNext FX 2.0 is fully compatibel to Xsan 2.2. That was written in the Production Bulletin #44...
And by the way I have a running StorNext 3.5.1 (Redhat Linux 5.3...) and today I connected an Xsan Client 10.6.0/10.6.2 XSAN 2.2 to the SAN without any problems...

What about the /Library/Filesystems/Xsan/automount.plist and what´s the output of:

sudo /Library/Filesystems/Xsan/bin/cvlabel -l

Lotte

[jcbone]

Hi!

Well, our Server is Windows, not Linux, maybe that's the point.
Using cvlabel does show the luns, that's not the problem, and we don't have a automount.plist - it doesn't seem to be neccessary since 2.0 - if you mounted your volumes once, they will be remounted on reboot without it. Apple seems to store the Information somewhere else… 2.1.1 does work without a automount.plist right here on my machine.

Thanks,
Jörg

[lotte]

The automount plist is definitely required, that´s where launchctl (the process which starts xsan) knows which Volumes to mount.
You may create one by yourself using this example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>PUT-YOUR-VOLUME-NAME-HERE</key>
<dict>
<key>AutoMount</key>
<string>rw</string>
<key>MountOptions</key>
<dict/>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>

And how then did you try to mount the Volume without an automount.plist?

I´m not sure if "mount -t acfs VolumeName /Volumes/VolumeName" will work, especially you must have the target directory in advance, which could also lead to problems since Xsan will not mount over an existing directory, it will create the directory itself.

Lotte

[wrstuden]

[lotte]

FCUK, I should have seen this! Starting from scratch is always a good idea...

Lotte

[jcbone]

Yay, you are the best!

We came around to test the upgrade with the CLIENT setting… what to say - it went smoothly.

Thanks a LOT!