Known Issues

This section describes existing issues in the current release of the software that are related to the following areas:

• Installation

• Control Center

• Infrastructure Director

Installation

This section describes known issues of N1 Provisioning Server installations.

Different Usernames and Passwords Not Allowed for Multiple Shelves

At the initial installation of the shelves, you must use a common username and password for all shelves during the installation.

After completion of the installation, you can modify the username and password on any shelf and update the database to reflect the changes using the device command. All other discovery commands permit the use of multiple username and password combinations. (4849704)

System Controller and Switch Login

Presently, the installer utility accepts only one username and password for all chassis switches and system controllers. Therefore, you must assign the same username and password for all system controllers and chassis switches. (4856821)

Segment Manager Cannot Instantiate Farm Manager

After installing the N1 Provisioning Server software, the Segment Manager sometimes is unable to instantiate the Farm Manager. To resolve this issue, restart the Segment Manager by executing the commands sm -stop, then sm -start from the control plane server. (4856825)

Disk Copying Failure

After installing the N1 Provisioning Server software, you must add properties to the file /etc/opt/terraspring/tspr.properties before activating any farms.

Add the following lines to the file /etc/opt/terraspring/tspr.properties

com.terraspring.stm.client.ScriptCopyInterval.pingInterval=60
com.terraspring.stm.client.ScriptCopyInterval.pingTimeout=300

(4856862)

System Controller Responds to Old and New IP Address

When you change the Internet protocol (IP) address of a system controller using the command setupsc, the system controller begins to respond to the new IP address and also continues to respond to the previous IP address. If the previous IP address is in use by another device, connectivity issues to the other device can develop. To resolve this issue, issue the resetsc command on the offending system controller. After the system controller successfully boots, it only responds to the newly assigned IP address.

As a precaution, always issue the resetsc command after changing an IP address.

(4857745)

Removing the /images/__imageserver_profile__ File

When you upgrade the N1 Provisioning Server software from version from 3.0.4.7 to a higher version, the /images/__imageserver_profile__ file from the older version still exists on the image server and contains clear text passwords. Manually remove this file. In case of a new installation of the software, all passwords are encrypted. (4874099)

Image Subnet Mask Length for N1 Provisioning Server Installation

The image subnet mask length for the N1 Provisioning Server installation must be 24. (4891850)

N1 Provisioning Server Software Installation on Chassis

The N1 Provisioning Server software installation requires the presence of at least one chassis in the data center. (4919187)

Installing a Separate Image Server

Use the NFS option when installing a separate image server. The installer utility does not support installing a separate image server using the FTP option. (4924851)

Control Center

This section describes known issues of the N1 Provisioning Server Control Center.

Administration Screen Timeout Issue

In certain cases, when you navigate from the Administration screen to the Editor screen and the session times out, you might not be able to log into the Control Center. Close the browser, open another browser, and log in again.

If you are in the Administration screen and the session times out, when you log in again, the window might display incorrectly. If this happens, close the browser and log in again.

To vary the session timeout, modify the timeout setting in web.xml in the /opt/terraspring/gw/war/WEB-INF directory. Look for the session-timeout tag. The value is specified in minutes. (4849661)

Find Farm Window Displays in Full After Timeout

If you press the Find button in the Find Farm dialog after the Find Farm session has timed out, the Find Farm window displays in full. Increase the timeout value. To do so, modify the timeout setting in the web.xml file in the /opt/terraspring/gw/war/WEB-INF directory. Look for the session-timeout tag. The value is specified in minutes. (4849673)

No Rollback After Farm Update Failure

When a farm update fails, changes do not always roll back to the last good state of the farm. The workaround for the problem is as follows:

1. To clear the error state, ping the farm using farm -pf farm-ID.

2. View the farm in the farm editor.

3. From the farm editor, select the latest farm update request from the Request History panel on the left. The correct farm information will display.

4. Choose File->Commit to submit the farm update again. A newly updated request is issued.

5. Unblock the new request. The correct farm information will display in the farm editor after the request is completed.

(4849688)

Display of Newly Created Items in List

When you create a new item such as an account, contract type, or articles, the newly created item will not be autoselected after creation. To view the newly created item, select it from the appropriate list. (4849691)

Do Not Bookmark Login Page

Do not bookmark any page except the welcome page. (4849693)

Allow Dialog Pages to Finish Downloading Information

In some dialog pages, for example, Select: Disk Image, the application needs to download information from the server. If you click any buttons on the page before that download is complete, a script error occurs. Wait until the page has finished downloading all information from the server before taking any actions. (4849697)

JavaScript Error When Configuring a Provisionable Server

While configuring a provisionable server, if you wait more than two hours on the dialog page before attempting to select an image for that server, you are taken to a new page to log in. After logging in, you will see a JavaScript^TM error. Close the dialog page and reopen it. (4849700)

Configuring I-Fabric Properties

Sometimes while configuring Infrastructure Fabric (I-Fabric) properties, if the newly created property name or property value contains a long string with special characters such as $, %, or #, the Commit Changes task will not work properly. Do not use special characters in I-Fabric properties. The maximum string length for the property name is 12 characters, and for the property value the limit is 30 characters. (4849701)

Unable to Submit I-Fabric Change

If a farm name is more than 25 characters long, the OK button disappears in the Change I-Fabric dialog for that farm. Ensure that the farm name does not exceed 25 characters. (4849706)

Snapshot Button Not Disabled for New Disk Created

When you create a new disk by flexing a server group, the snapshot button is not disabled as it should be. When you click that button, an error message appears. (4849721)

Default Gateway Value on Farm Summary Page

When a default gateway for devices on an external subnet has been configured to point to an external router, the farm summary page lists the default gateway as NONE. This behavior is caused by devices on an external subnet with no specified default gateway being automatically configured to use the external router. Ignore the NONE value on the display. The devices will function as expected. (4856847)

Deleting Snapshots or Images From the Control Center

When you delete snapshots and images from the Control Center, they are only marked as deleted. They are not yet deleted from the I-Fabric. Until you delete them from the I-Fabric, you will not be able to create snapshots and images with the same names as the ones marked as deleted.

To purge snapshots and images from the I-Fabric, issue the image -lR command from the control plane server to view a list of the images marked as deleted. Then issue the image -d command to delete them from the I-Fabric. See the image command man pages for details. (4856854)

Renaming a Farm

When you rename a farm using a farm name that already exists, a naming collision occurs. The farm details widget will show incorrect information about the farm although the information is not lost.

To resolve this, rename the farm again. From the File menu, choose Save As (or Rename) to save the farm under a new name. If this attempt is successful, the farm details will show the correct information. (4856858)

Setting a New Password

If you enter a value into the New Password and Reenter New Password fields and click the Reset button, the value in these two fields does not reset. To resolve this, remove the entered information from the New Password and Reenter Password fields and click the Reset button to reset the value. (4856860)

Pressing the Find an Image Button Causes an Error Message to Display

Duplicate names within the same account can cause unexpected behavior inside the Control Center and error messages to display. In most cases, the Control Center prevents you from creating duplicate names within the same account. However, sometimes the Control Center will allow you to create duplicate names, for example, while updating the software or application names.

Do not create duplicate names within the same account. Call your technical support representative if you inadvertently create a duplicate name within the same account.

(4856864)

BOM Does Not Show Backhaul Devices

The bill of materials (BOM) dialog only shows information about devices managed by the N1 Provisioning Server. Backhaul devices are considered nonmanaged devices, so the BOM dialog does not include information about backhaul devices. (4856865)

Multiple Displays of Operating Systems on the Find an Image Page

On the Find an Image page, the Operating Systems and Applications selection lists might show the same operating system or application multiple times if the same name has been used for operating systems and applications in multiple accounts. To retrieve the expected results while running a search, select all instances of the particular operating system and application in the list that you want to search for. (4856866)

Graphics Not Displayed Correctly After Reload Operation

Sometimes when you reload a current farm, the graphics in the navigation bar do not display correctly. Refresh the page. (4857740)

Control Center Client Software Requirements

The Control Center requires the Internet Explorer, version 5.5 or 6.0, web browser with a 128-bit security encryption. (4857757)

Monitoring Information Display for Farms

Monitoring information is not available for locked farms. Unlock the farm and refresh the monitoring page to view and edit the monitoring information. (4919192)

Control Center – IDB Image Synchronization

When you create an image from the Infrastructure Database (IDB), make sure that the image name is no longer than 32 characters. Otherwise, the synchronization of the image with the Control Center database will fail. (4919193)

Farm Naming Conventions

When you create or rename a farm using a name that already exists, a naming collision occurs. The farm will be temporarily named “New Farm” in the farm details widget to indicate that the farm is not properly saved. If you then decide to change the I-Fabric of this farm and no further error occurred, the farm will be saved as “new farm” with a space in the name. Spaces in farm names are not acceptable. Save the farm with a different name whenever a name collision occurs. (4919210)

Changing Server Group Names

When changing the name of a server group, the number of servers in the group must be 25 or less. If you have more than 25 servers in a group, remove servers from the group to reduce the number of servers to 25 or less, then add them back to the group after the name change process completes. (4924841)

Infrastructure Director

This section describes known issues of the N1 Provisioning Server Infrastructure Director.

Failures During Disk Copy Operations When Farm Goes Into Standby

When a farm goes into standby mode, disk copy operations for all servers belonging to that farm start simultaneously. However, when a failure occurs during the first disk copy operation, for example, not enough disk space, the other disk copy operations continue until all are completed, and then the failure is reported. To resolve this, ping the farm using the command farm -pf farm-ID. Then put the farm in standby using the command farm -s farm-ID. (4849694)

No More Resource Exception When No Servers Available in IDB

When no more provisionable servers are available in the IDB, you will not be able to move a server from one server group to another in a single farm operation. Remove the server from the first server group and update the farm. Then add the server to the second server group and update the farm.

The server might be provisioned by another farm between removing it from the first server group and adding it to the second. Consequently a “no more resources” exception will occur.

(4849699)

shelfsync Categorizes by Type Not Size

Even though the discovery mechanism detects differences in the blades, such as memory size and number of CPUs, these differences are no currently a part of the selection criteria for CPU resources for a farm.

If you need this information, use the device and devtype commands to create pools of like-resources from the discovered items that have the common elements that the original resources use. (4849705)

Rebooting Provisionable Servers Overwrites DNS Setup

The N1 Provisioning Server software overwrites the DNS setup information in the /etc/resolv.conf configuration file when the provisionable server is rebooted. Any changes to that file, will be lost when rebooting the server. Create a boot time startup script that will restore the DNS setup information that you specified previously. (4849715)

mls Command Does not Show Accurate Status

An mls -a command might inaccurately report the agent on a server as being marked DOWN. Wait 60 seconds and try again to confirm the status of the node. The normal monitoring of the node by the control plane server is not affected by this condition, and monitoring will accurately report a failed node. (4849719)

Command Usage References to Firewalls and Load Balancers

Some commands might have references to firewalls and load balancers in their usages as displayed in the man pages. Any command options and usage references to firewalls and load balancers do not apply to the Blades Edition of the N1 Provisioning Server software. Ignore these references. (4856855)

Adding a Backhaul Device to a Farm

When adding a backhaul device to a farm, make sure that the port on the switch of the shelf that is reserved for the backhaul device is not in trunking mode. Typically, after bench configuration, the ports on the shelf are in trunk mode. Change this when adding a backhaul device to these ports. (4856867)

Deleting Active Requests Before Stopping the IDB

Make sure that there are no active requests in the system before stopping the IDB server. If the IDB server fails, existing Farm Manager processes sometimes do not exit gracefully. Before restarting the IDB server, stop all remaining Farm Manager processes by performing the following steps:

1. Check the existence of any Farm Manager processes by executing the following command:

   /usr/ucb/ps -auxwww | grep -i “com.terraspring.cs.fm”

2. Use the UNIX kill command to stop any remaining Farm Manager processes.

(4856872)

System Controller Hangs During Power State Change

During operation on a farm with a large number of servers, the system controller sometimes hangs indefinitely. If this happens, perform the following steps:

1. Stop the Farm Manager process for the affected farm. To determine the process identification (PID) of the corresponding Farm Manager process, type /usr/ucb/ps -auxwww | grep "com.terraspring.cs.fm". In the list that displays, look for the process with the farm ID in the command-line arguments.

2. Use the kill command (or kill -9 if necessary) to stop the identified process and any child processes.

3. Power cycle the hung chassis. The system controller should be accessible after the power cycle. If not, contact your technical support representative.

4. All server blades on the power-cycled chassis will lose power and replaceFailedDevice requests might be filed before the blades are done rebooting.

5. Restart the aborted farm operation.

6. Delete any replaceFailedDevice requests on the rebooted chassis by executing request -d request-ID.

(4856873)

Power Command Issues

The power command with the -off option is similar to the UNIX command poweroff, which powers off the device on which it is issued. When using the power command with the -off option, be sure to have a blank space between power and -off, otherwise you will power off the control plane server. (4857749)

Securing DNS Zones for Farms

To make DNS zones for every farm secure from each other, set the com.terraspring.dns.useacl property to true in the /etc/opt/terraspring/tspr.properties file. This property is set to false by default. After changing this property, issue the /opt/terraspring/sbin/dnsmod sync command to restart the DNS server. (4857751)

Configuring Port Connectivity When Using a Separate Image Server

For an I-Fabric that has fewer than three chassis switches and a separate image server, connect the image subnet interface on the image server to the NETP1 port on the first chassis switch. Then, configure the NETP1 port of that chassis to the image VLAN (vlan 8).

Issue the following set of commands to configure the NETP1 interface of the Sun Fire^TM B1600 chassis switch:

Vty-0#configure
Vty-0(config)#interface ethernet NETP1
Vty-0(config-if)#description External RJ-45 connector NETP1 
Vty-0(config-if)#switchport allowed vlan add 8 untagged
Vty-0(config-if)#switchport native vlan 8              
Vty-0(config-if)#switchport forbidden vlan add 2
Vty-0(config-if)#end

If there are two chassis switches, connect NETP0 of the second chassis switch to NETP2 of the first chassis switch. Both of these ports will be configured automatically during the installation process.

For an I-Fabric that has more than three chassis switches and a separate image server, connect the image subnet interface on the image server to a port on the external data layer switch. Then, configure that port of the external data layer switch to the image VLAN (vlan 8) and add the image VLAN to the VLAN database.

The image VLAN configured on this switch should be vlan 8. Type the following to create vlan 8:

enable
vlan database
 vlan 8 name ImageVlan
 exit

For example, on the Cisco 3550 and 4503 switches, you would issue the following set of commands to achieve this connection for port GigabitEthernet 2/19:

qe1-4500>enable
Password: 
qe1-4500#
qe1-4500#conf terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line.  End with CNTL/Z.
qe1-4500 config)#interface GigabitEthernet 2/19
qe1-4500(config-if)#switchport access vlan 8
qe1-4500(config-if)#^Z
qe1-4500(config-if)#write mem

(4857752)

Updating Images Requires New Image Name

When you update an existing image, a copy of the original image is placed onto a new disk to allow you to upgrade the newly copied image. Before releasing the new image using the image -r command, you must give the new image a unique name. (4877335)

Replacing Failed Blades

Before replacing a failed blade with another blade, ensure that you have free blades available by executing the device -l command. (4919188)

Adding a New Blade to an Existing Chassis

When adding a new blade to an existing chassis, the new blade is not configured by the shelfsync command. Follow the steps described in Chapter 3 of the N1 Provisioning Server 3.0, Blades Edition, System Administration Guide to configure the newly added blade. (4919189)

Changing Power State of Provisionable Servers Used in an Existing Farm

Do not independently power on or off provisionable servers in an existing farm. (4919199)

Listing Provisionable Servers in Use

Sometimes the command device -L -U does not list all used servers in the system. A better way to determine all used servers in a system is to issue the command device -l | grep -i used. (4919200)

Specifying a JumpStart File in the image Command

Ensure that the JumpStart^TM file exists before you specify it as a parameter of the -j option in the image command. Otherwise, a java.lang.NullPointerException is printed out with a stack trace. (4919203)

tsprmonitor Usage

Although the usage information of the tsprmonitor command indicates that the time parameter is optional, this parameter is mandatory. Therefore the usage should read as follows:

tsprmonitor -stop minutes-to-be-rebooted [-c]

(4919204)

Gigabit Ethernet Card Instance Assignment

The gigabit Ethernet card must be assigned an instance of 0. (4924060)