Manuals+

Release Notes for the Dell Unity™ Family

These release notes contain supplemental information about this Unity release.

Current Release Version: 5.4.0.0.5.094

Release Type: Minor (MI)

Product description

Dell Unity is targeted for midsized deployments, remote or branch offices, and cost-sensitive mixed workloads. Unity systems are designed for all-Flash, deliver the best value in the market, and are available in purpose-built (all Flash or hybrid Flash), converged deployment options (through VxBlock), and a software-defined virtual edition.

The Dell Unity Family consists of:

All three Unity, UnityVSA, and Unity-based VxBlock deployment options enjoy one architecture, one interface with consistent features and rich data services.

Unity is Redefining Storage Simplicity and Value

Here are some of the features and supporting statements that allows Unity to redefine midrange storage:

Unity XT Platform (380/F, 480/F, 680/F, 880/F series)

The Unity Next Generation Platform refresh, also known as the Unity XT Series, consists of 8 hardware models, including 4 Hybrid Flash and 4 All Flash configurations—the Dell Unity 380, 380F, 480, 480F, 680, 680F, 880, and 880F. The XT series increases performance of I/O, maximizes storage efficiency features like Advanced Data Reduction with inline deduplication, and supports a 25Gb interface card.

The Unity 380(F) is based on the existing platform today for the 350F model, but with additional memory (64GBs per SP).

The Unity 480/F, 680/F, and 880/F are built on an Intel Skylake platform. For more information, see the Unity 380/F, 480/F, 680/F, and 880/F Hardware Information Guide.

The Unity XT series supports Advanced Data Reduction in both dynamic and traditional pools in All Flash (F) models, and All Flash pools in Hybrid models.

Unity software OE version 5.x and later supports the new x80 series models, in addition to all existing x00 and x50 series models.

Note: The Unity XT 480/F, 680/F, and 880/F are available for both high-line (200v-240v) and low-line (100v-120v) power environments, but you must select the appropriate option when ordering your system. Low-line is used in a select countries that supply 100-120V, typically through a wall outlet, while high-line is used in environments that supply 200-240V.

Country-specific cables are available for plugging a Unity system directly into a wall outlet that either supplies 100-120V or 200-240V. If supplying 100-120V to a Unity XT 880/F, a step-up transformer is required.

New features

Functional area Feature description Summary of benefits
Hardware 7.68TB SSDs and 15.36TB SSDs are allowed in HEA systems 7.68TB and 15.36TB 1WPD SSDs can be used in Hybrid Flash Array (HFA) systems and hybrid pools. Using these SSDs decreases the cost per GB, allows larger pool capacity, and provides more flash tier space for data.
Notifications and Alerts Hardware-related OK messages are sent home Allows all hardware-related informational OK messages to be sent home. If a hardware issue initially connects home with an error alert and then the fault clears, these systems generate a second connecthome message stating the hardware is OK. This feature supports the following hardware types:
  • Disk Processor Enclosure (DPE) including battery, cooling module (fan), memory, power supply, and drives.
  • Storage Processor (SP), including SLICs (I/O modules), Ethernet, FC and SAS ports, and System Status Card (SSC).
  • Disk Array Enclosure (DAE), including LCC (Link Control Cards), and power supplies.
Notifications and Alerts Metadata space expands automatically and sends alerts regarding limits Automatically balances the metadata space and the storage space with every incoming write. This allows full capacity utilization and avoids performance issues.
Notifications and alerts An alert has been provided through Unisphere so that a user can identify an issue with blocked threads Allows you to identify an issue with blocked threads that would impact performance on the array. This gives you time to identify and correct the issue before the impact of blocked threads to system operation grows.
Security New password complexity requirement has been implemented Password length for Unisphere users has been increased to support a 64-character length alphanumeric in compliance with the latest US federal requirement OMB M-22-09. The password requirement is:
  • 8 to 64 characters in length
  • Contains at least one upper case letter
  • Contains at least one lower case letter
  • Contains at least one numeric
Special characters are not required in the password.
Security Unity APL expiration Unity APL expires in March 2024.
Security Disable SMB2 at the NAS server level This option enables you to disable SMB2 at the NAS level by using the svc_nas service command. This protects your system from known vulnerabilities associated with the SMB2 protocol.
Serviceability Write cache is automatically disabled Unity systems automatically disable write cache whenever an SP enters service mode to prevent potential cache loss.
Serviceability The RSC (Remote Secure Credentials) option in Unisphere does not appear when remote connectivity and RSC is already enabled Users cannot disable RSC option in Unisphere once remote connectivity and RSC has been enabled.
Serviceability Enable user-selected file transfer using the Managed File Transfer (MFT) transport channel A new option is provided to transfer user selected files back to Dell using the Managed File Transfer (MFT) transport channel, which is one of the SupportAssist (on physical Unity) or ESRS (on UnityVSA) functionalities. Users can directly send the specified file, either a service Information file or core dump, back to Dell if SupportAssist or ESRS, whichever is applicable, is enabled. This will improve support efficiency.
Serviceability Critical alert is provided that directs users to change the sender email address from a Unity system to match that of the user's company email domain Helps ensure that users update the sender email address to their company domain so that the user receives Dell support and Dell receives the user's data properly.
Storage - File Restrict SMB exports You can configure host access to SMB shares, setting access to either Read/Write to allow the host to access the share or No Access to prevent a host from accessing an SMB share.
System Management Set the NTP stratum higher The NTP orphan rank can be set to the highest support stratum, allowing you to set the stratum without service intervention.
System Management Quickly restart uDoctor and Apache New service command options enable you to restart uDoctor and Apache without root access.
Unisphere CLI Adds and remove hosts Using the command line interface, you can add hosts and remove hosts from LUNS, LUN groups, VMFS datastores, vVols, and file systems.
Unisphere UI Sort datastores by the SP owner Enables you to see a list of SP owners on the DataStores tab. You can also sort datastores and other VMware resources by clicking the SP Owner column.

Changed features

Functional area Feature description Summary of benefits
Hardware New support for drive firmware Drive firmware version 21 is included in the 5.4 software OE bundle and can be installed at the end of the Software Upgrade wizard. For more information on the impacted drives and models for this firmware, see Knowledgebase article 000021322.

Resolved issues

This table lists the issues fixed in this release. For all issues fixed in previous releases, refer to the release notes for that specific Unity OE.

Issue ID Functional area Description
UNITYD-69519/UNITYD-69152 Common Event Enabler The Unity system cannot connect to a CEPA server using the Microsoft RPC protocol.
UNITYD-69517/UNITYD-65128 Connectivity - Hosts A rare internal timing condition results in an unexpected SP reboot.
UNITYD-66961/UNITYD-66270 Connectivity - Hosts In rare cases, a single SP might reboot when more than 2,000 LUNs or snapshots are attached to or detached from a large number of ESXi hosts in a short time span.
UNITYD-61047/60145 Connectivity - Networks An SP may unexpectedly reboot if you use the tool "hostconfcli" to display some configurations.
UNITYD-60971/UNITYD-60790 Connectivity - Networks If a NAS server is configured to reflect IP packets and you mount an NFSv3 share using the User Datagram Protocol (UDP), read requests larger than the MTU get no response.
UNITYD-68810/UNITYD-64088 Data mobility If a snapshot is created on the destination side during a NAS sync replication session, it is periodically refreshed to get the NAS configuration from the source side. When the snapshot is refreshed, the system creates a new snapshot and mounts it before removing the old one. The old snapshot is not deleted when mounting the new snapshot fails.
UNITYD-66236/UNITYD-64703 Data mobility If the management network communication is unstable, remote replication host "communication lost" alerts are reported intermittently.
UNITYD-62740/UNITYD-59364 Data mobility After an SP reboots unexpectedly, sync replication sessions might take a few hours to return to a consistent status.
UNITYD-62194/UNITYD-61679 Data mobility UEMCLI shows duplicated replication sessions when the configuration of the remote replication interface changes.
UNITYD-61433/UNITYD-60856 Data protection When the configured bandwidth increased, a small delay in replication between the time when a transfer should have started and when the transfer actually began was noticed in the Unisphere Performance Dashboard.
UNITYD-60997/UNITYD-60573 Data mobility A replication session remained syncing when an offline user snapshot was found and did not transfer data for that offline snapshot.
UNITYD-60695/UNITYD-58578 Data mobility An SP sometimes reboots when unmounting a read-only snapshot.
UNITYD-61572/UNITYD-62741 Import In rare situations during IMT cutover, the IMT session can hang
UNITYD-61977 Import Unity's capacity is calculated in TiB/GiB/MiB/KiB (Base-2) but displayed as TB/GB/MB/KB (Base-10) in Unisphere.
UNITYD-61944/UNITYD-61391 Import A filename containing emoji characters can result in an IMT import session failing to import data during incremental copy.
UNITYD-61600/UNITYD-60469 Import If the internal IP address of the SP is used to create a FileService interface or a NetworkService interface, the SP may reboot.
UNITYD-69652 Other The severity of the alert for receiving the uDoctor package is Info when it should Warning.
UNITYD-67797 Other Some call home alerts might not be sent if too many call home alerts are reported at the same time.
UNITYD-61171/UNITYD-60684 Other The customized banner does not display at the UEMCLI login after OE upgrades but does display in Unisphere.
UNITYD-60993/UNITYD-59265 Other A storage processor reboot can occur when there are a number of failed data uploads.
UNITYD-70502/UNITYD-69003 Security A problem with either the network or KDC server may cause an SP to reboot if Kerberos is used to change a NAS server password.
UNITYD-61483/UNITYD-61061 Security When STIG and user account settings are enabled, the NMI button reset of the admin password fails.
UNITYD-61682/UNITYD-58860 Serviceability A replication session cannot be resumed when session issues cause inconsistent size settings in the internal components of the destination system.
UNITYD-63537/UNITYD-62954 Software install and upgrade After a non-disruptive upgrade to Unity OE version 5.3, a single SP might reboot due to an internal data-persistence synchronization issue.
UNITYD-70988/UNITYD-70580 Storage - Block The Data Relocated value that is shown after you run the UEMCLI fastvp show command is not accurate if there is data imbalance within a RAID Group.
UNITYD-70256/UNITYD-68546 Storage - Block An internal operation is handled incorrectly, resulting in a single SP reboot.
UNITYD-63651/UNITYD-62768 Storage - Block After an SP unexpectedly shuts down or reboots, it might take a long time (more than 15 minutes) to fail the VDM over to the peer SP.
UNITYD-62608/UNITYD-59918 Storage - Block In rare instances, a storage processor may reboot unexpectedly when RecoverPoint is in use. In some cases, RecoverPoint services are not restarted on the SP.
UNITYD-62310/UNITYD-61537 Storage - Block When an SP reboots before a RAID 5 RAID Group rebuild finishes and another disk fails during the SP reboot that results in the RAID Group being in failure due to a double fault, the related LUN results in ktrace log flooding, which may lead to an SP boot-up failure.
UNITYD-72454/UNITYD-68037 Storage - File If you are running Unity OE versions 5.2.x or 5.3.x and many user quotas are configured, an unexpected SP reboot might occur after the system has been running for a long time.
UNITYD-71876/UNITYD-61070 Storage - File If you migrate data between two file systems using the host tool, or if the file systems are experiencing high I/O, the file systems might go offline.
UNITYD-70592/UNITYD-69893 Storage - File Incorrect memory handling can result in an SP reboot when setting up LDAP services.
UNITYD-70557 Storage - File You cannot enable a quota on a filesystem if the root directory currently has alternate data streams (ADS). If you find files with filenames that are prefixed with ":" in the root directory by running command "dir /r", the root directory has ADS.
UNITYD-69076/UNITYD-68948 Storage - File The storage system might reboot during a filesystem remap operation.
UNITYD-68729/UNITYD-68330 Storage - File A virus checker resource leak causes a file system to go offline.
UNITYD-66160/UNITYD-63136 Storage - File Although setting up multichannel with a fail-safe networking (FSN) device succeeds, multichannel does not work.
UNITYD-64832/UNITYD-64457 Storage - File If CIFS Kerberos is configured, an SP might reboot unexpectedly when a client sends an invalid request.
UNITYD-63767/UNITYD-61973 Storage - File When a VDM has both LDAP and Kerberos configured, an SP reboot might occur if the LDAP reports too many errors persistently.
UNITYD-62905/UNITYD-62382 Storage - File An NFSv4.1 client might hang and have trouble accessing the NFS server.
UNITYD-62581/UNITYD-62046 Storage - File An SP might reboot unexpectedly if a client sends a large number of SMB2 connecting requests to the Unity system. The connecting request limit for an SMB session is 64,770.
UNITYD-62449/UNITYD-61876 Storage - File When enabling NFS extended UNIX credential and NFSv4 delegation, you might sometimes encounter a permission issue while accessing files.
UNITYD-62321/UNITYD-61127 Storage - File The SMB client cannot set file information with its named stream file.
UNITYD-62168/UNITYD-62017 Storage - File An SP reboot occurs during an internal SMB processing operation.
UNITYD-61949/UNITYD-61521 Storage - File If you are running OE version 5.x and use third-party middleware to create a file or directory whose name length exceeds 256 bytes, the SP might unexpectedly reboot due to lack of memory.
UNITYD-61748/UNITYD-61592 Storage - File A file system recovery cannot be completed sometimes.
UNITYD-61660/UNITYD-61559 Storage - File For the command "svc_nas -param -f nfs -I transChecksum -v", the output shows "user_action = restart NAS Server". However, the SP must be rebooted to make the change work.
UNITYD-61613/UNITYD-61400 Storage - File Unity sometimes reboots unexpectedly when the connection to the LDAP server is not stable.
UNITYD-61560/UNITYD-61139 Storage - File The SP might reboot when there are errors with the LDAP servers configured in the NAS server.
UNITYD-61503/UNITYD-60936 Storage - File File systems sometimes go offline when they are almost full, and users are creating new files.
UNITYD-61482/UNITYD-61156 Storage - File You cannot mount an NFS export on the client.
UNITYD-65247/UNITYD-64882 Unisphere CLI (UEMCLI) Some UEMCLI commands fail if the password contains a colon (:) character.
UNITYD-67036 Unisphere UI After you change a password using the Unisphere preference menu, you are logged out and must log in again to continue.
UNITYD-62166/UNITYD-61820 Unisphere UI Sometimes you cannot add an NTP server when the server has a limit on the client request rate.
UNITYD-61984/UNITYD-61671 Unisphere UI If you sort a few columns, for example [used (%), Allocation (%)], and then hide those columns and export them, the export screen does not show an error, but the data is not exported.
UNITYD-61978 Unisphere UI The Online Help shows TB instead of TiB.
UNITYD-61330/UNITYD-60158 Unisphere UI Sometimes when creating a traditional pool fails, the returned error message is misleading.
UNITYD-59977/UNITYD-59328 Unisphere UI To make the csv export functionality more secure, if these strings [,@], [,=], [,+], [,-], [,"@], [,"=], [,"+], [,"-] (not including []) are found in the csv cell value, (single apostrophe) will be prepended to characters @ = + - . They are changed to [,'@], [,'=], [,'+], [,'-], [,''@], [,"=], [,"'+], [,"'-].
UNITYD-60783/UNITYD-61514 Virtualization Sometimes the VVOL page (STORAGE ->VMware ->Virtual Volumes) in Unisphere cannot be loaded normally.
UNITYD-61638/UNITYD-62580 Need functional area An SP might reboot when parsing a deleted local user in the mapping service.

Known issues

Issue ID Functional area Description Workaround/Solution
869166 Common Event Enabler When a host is configured to use CAVA for the CEPA server, there is a host IO error on SMB protocol with the following message in the logs: "Too many access from CAVA server xx.xx.xx.xx without the EMC VirusChecking privilege:>>> User credential (xx.xx.xx.xx address of the host)." Do not use CAVA/CEPA NAS servers for regular host IO.
UNITYD-50686 Connectivity - Hosts LED light may not be On when inserting either a 32G or 16G SFP into a 4-port 32Gb Fibre Channel I/O module slot. Remove and reinsert the SFP card.
UNITYD-60790 Connectivity - Networks After you mount an NFSv3 share using the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) to the NAS server, which is enabled to reflect IP packets, large IO read requests (larger than the MTU) get no response. There are two workarounds that you can use: 1. Mount an NFSv3 file system (FS) share using TCP. 2. Mount an NFSv3 FS share using UDP, but disable the IP reflect packet feature.
UNITYD-42194 Connectivity - Networks In rare cases, if a link aggregation or fail-safe network (FSN) link is composed of two or more ports on a 4-port 1-GbE BaseT I/O module, changing the MTU speed for the link aggregation or FSN may cause an SP reboot. First, modify the MTU speeds of the ports on the 4-port 1-GbE BaseT I/O module to the expected values. Then, modify the MTU speed of the link aggregation or FSN.
932347/UNITYD-5837 Connectivity - Networks Immediately upon creation, the Fail-Safe Network (FSN) appears in a "Link Down" state. An alert similar to the following is displayed. "System XXX has experienced one or more problems that have had a minor impact" With a detailed description of "The system has experienced one or more minor failures. Check related alerts and fix the underlying problems." If all Ethernet ports participating in this FSN port, either directly or using Link Aggregation, are connected properly, the FSN port will automatically recover from "Link Down" state within 30 seconds or less. It is also possible that FSN port recovery goes through "Degraded" state, for approximately 60 seconds after the FSN creation. This alert can be ignored, unless the FSN port fails to enter the "Link Up" and "Health OK" state approximately 60 seconds after creation.
UNITYD-62009/UNITYD-61636 Data mobility A local consistency group replication session LUN member pairing is mismatched when the session is created from the GUI. Use the "-elementPairs" option in the Unisphere UEMCLI to create a local async CG replication session after provisioning the destination consistency group.
UNITYD-54629 Data mobility Only the SMB1 protocol is supported for a Unified VNX (VNX1 or VNX2) storage system as the source storage system in a VDM file migration. If either the SMB2 or SMB3 protocol is used on the VNX source system, the protocol must be changed to SMB1 before performing the migration.
UNITYD-54862 Data mobility If you use an atypical advanced replication configuration, such as using asynchronous replication inbound and synchronous replication outbound, the synchronous replication destination NAS server sometimes becomes faulted during a planned failover of asynchronous replication. Before performing the planned failover asynchronous replication session, pause the synchronous replication session first. After the planned failover asynchronous replication session completes, resume the synchronous replication session.
UNITYD-51634 Data mobility In MetroSync when the MetroSync Manager is configured, if the MetroSync Manager detects that the source pool is offline, it initiates an unplanned failover. Even if the unplanned failover succeeds, the source site may not be cleaned up correctly, and the subsequent failback may fail. Delete the synchronous session and recreate it but note that a full synchronization will occur.
UNITYD-51288 Data mobility When deleting a synchronous replication of a NAS server, if the peer SP is rebooting gracefully, the delete operation may fail. Retry to delete the synchronous replication operation.
943734/UNITYD-4469 Data mobility The "Last sync time" of a replication session is updated, but "transfer remaining size" is not zero. Wait about 2 minutes, then view the replication session details again.
906249/UNITYD-2788 Data mobility A request to create a replication session for VMware NFS datastore which resides in a multiprotocol NAS server will fail until the first synchronization of the associated NAS server replication session. Asynchronous replication, the NAS server replication session at least once prior to creating a replication session for a VMware NFS datastore residing on the multiprotocol NAS server.
UNITYD-45110 Data protection When the system is configured with a large number of replications (over 1000) and both SPs are rebooted simultaneously, one storage processor may experience an additional reboot after system comes back up. No manual operation needed. The system will automatically recover after the reboot.
UNITYD-36280 Data protection The snapshot schedule function failed to create a scheduled snapshot of a synchronous replication-protected file system during the session failback operation. None.
UNITYD-31870 Data protection The snapshot schedule timer reset (restarted from 0) after the Unity management service was rebooted, or a new resource was assigned to it. This leads to this schedule being applied to existing resources. None.
981344/UNITYD-6289 Data protection There are three Arrays: A, B, C. The following scenario occurs: 1. Site A-B set up synchronous replication sessions. 2. Site A-C set up asynchronous replication sessions. 3. Shut down site A and do a cabinet failover on B. 4. Preserve all asynchronous replication sessions immediately on B. Some asynchronous replication sessions are not preserved. (No Error message in Site B. The asynchronous replication sessions which are not preserved will be "Lost Communication" in Site C.) 1. To prevent this issue, wait two minutes after the failover, then run the preserve operation. 2. If this issue occurs, rerun the preserve operation.
949119/UNITYD-4769/UNITYD-5112 Data protection If an NDMP restore restores a file which exceeds a quota hard limit, the file will be restored as owned by the root user. The administrator should manually increase the quota limitation for the user and correct the file ownership.
821501 Data protection When a user runs a token-based incremental backup using Networker, a full backup is performed instead. Add ATTEMPT_TBB=Y to Application Information while configuring the NDMP client, or change the value in the NDMP client properties.
875485 Data protection The following error could be returned when multiple snap diff REST API requests were sent in parallel. "{ "error": { "created": "2016-12-05T17:34:36.533Z", "errorCode": 131149826, "httpStatusCode": 503, "messages": [ { "en-US": "The system is busy. Try again later. If the problem persists, search for the error code on the support website or product forums, or contact your service provider, if available. (Error Code: 0x7d13002)" } ] }} Reduce the number of parallel operations and try again.
917298 Data protection NAS_A or NAS_B and related user VDMs failed to recover due to error occurs in the system VDM NAS_A or NAS_B, as seen in the Unisphere CLI or UI. After following the recommended resolution steps in the health details, the NAS servers are recovered and go into a ready state. However, the replication sessions on these system VDMs and related user VDMs will no longer be visible. After recovery, reboot the primary SP. After the SP reboot, system NAS servers will be recovered successfully, allowing replication sessions to be recovered.
17379 Hardware In some Unity XT 480/F, 680/F, and 880/F model DPEs, the Non-maskable Interrupt (NMI) (hard reset) button is misaligned. Press the NMI button at an angle.
UNITYD-31523 Import When using a "UNIX" access policy, if a domain user belongs to "domain admin" or the "administrators" group, files created by the user will use "administrators" as owner, which is expected behavior for Windows. If using an NFS client to list these files, the file owner is the user. Change the owner to the correct user.
938977/UNITYD-4327 Import After migration, the owner of the files from the CIFS client will be the "administrator", and the owner of files from NFS client will be "2151678452". This may cause some files created by the CIFS client before migration cut over to be inaccessible by the NFS client after migration cutting over. Delete and recreate the remote system. After re-creating the remote system, the SANCopy host can be created successfully.
969495 Import When creating a remote system for file import, when the SANCopy connection is created and the remote system is verified prior to starting a block import, the SANCopy host is not created, so the user cannot create a block import session. 1. Always plan to have enough space on the destination pool before starting a migration. Extra buffer space may be needed if there might be continuous large I/O during the migration. 2. If a pool out-of-space event does occur after cutover, cancel the migration session, and start again by creating a new session.
UNITYD-65663 Notifications and alerts If a pool out-of-space event occurs on a destination Unity array after a file migration session cutover from VNX to Unity, it is possible that some folders and files are lost on the Unity array. Although the migration session can resume and complete after expanding the destination pool, no warning or error message will occur mentioning that data may be missing. Ignore the 301:30000 alert.
952772/UNITYD-5971 Notifications and alerts If you upgrade from Unity OE version 4.3 or earlier to version 4.4, the reboot alert 301:30000 uses a lower-case parameter (spa/spb), and the reboot finish alert 301:30001 uses an upper-case parameter (SPA/SPB). This leads to parameter mismatch, and the 301:30000 alert is not deactivated automatically. Ignore the erroneous alert.
999112 Notifications and alerts A misleading alert "Unable to detect Ethernet port or link aggregation for the network interface N/A configured on NAS server %1." displays during NAS server deletion, even though it completes successfully. Bring up the ethernet port and then the health status and description will be updated.
UNITYD-71322 Other The health description for Ethernet port is incorrect; it shows that this port was not in used, but in fact it was used for some file interfaces. Manually delete all files under /opt/UDoctor/udoctor_packa ge/unhandled and restart the management server.
UNITYD-71940/UNITYD-66425 Security After a primary storage process re-image operation, the UDoctor package fails to install at the selected time. Run the service command svc_restart_service restart MGMT.
UNITYD-71262/UNITYD-71259 Serviceability After enabling KMIP, if you upgrade to a later release, disable KMIP, and then try to load the certificates, you see a "failure to upload the client certificate" error. Ignore the data and errors in the restMetrics table of the Config Capture result and initiate another Config Capture.

Limitations

Learn about limitations in Unity.

Limitation First affected release Limitation lifted
In a replication cascading topology from an asynchronous replication session to a synchronous replication session, the synchronous replication destination data integration is not integrated. 5.2.0.0.5.173 Still in effect.
Moving drives between Unity x80/F models and non-x80/F models is not supported. This ensures that the drives are qualified and configured for the correct platform and will provide optimal performance and longevity. 5.1.0.0.5.394 Still in effect.
After a failover, the UNIX and Windows names may not display immediately and could take up to 24 hours to display. You can manually refresh the username for a UID or wait until the next system refresh to see the correct names. 5.1.0.0.5.394 Still in effect.
A large thick file system (TB level) takes time to provision, even after the operation returns a success message in Unisphere. While the provisioning operation is in progress, many operations, such as asynchronous replication creation, cannot be run and will fail due to timing out. Operating on a newly-created thick file system after a certain amount of time is recommended. Run a query to check the status of the operation. All versions Still in effect.
When replicating VMware VMFS datastores, they are treated like Consistency Groups in that they are subject to the same replication limits as CGs (for example, the maximum number of replication sessions for CGs is 64, which also applies to VMFS datastores). All versions Still in effect.
Using VSI 7.4 or VSI 8.0 to create a VMFS Datastore on a Unity all Flash array or UnityVSA will fail. It is recommended to always provision VMFS datastores and vVols through the Unity Unisphere UI or CLI. All versions Still in effect.
VMware vSphere 6.5 is not supported on the UnityVSA 4.1.x. 4.1.0.8940590 4.2.0.9392909
When setting I/O limit policies, observe the following restrictions:
  • For a shared KBPS I/O limit policy, set the limit to be at least 2048 KBPS.
  • For a non-shared KBPS I/O limit policy, set the limit to be at least 1024 KBPS.
  • The IOPS I/O limit policy's minimum is 100 IOPS.
 4.0.0.7329527 Still in effect.
The current Unity vVol implementation has not yet been fully certified for use with VMware Horizon View. Although it may work, it is recommended that you do not deploy VDI desktops using Unity vVol datastores. Support and issue resolution will not be available for this integration. 4.0.0.7329527 Still in effect.

Environment and system requirements

In order for your Unity Family system to function properly, ensure that your environment meets these minimal requirements.

Support matrix

Refer to the Unity Support Matrix on the support website for compatibility and interoperability information.

Screen size

The minimum resolution for using the Unisphere GUI is 1024 x 768 pixels. Smaller screens may be able to display the GUI in full screen mode.

SupportAssist and DHCP

Do not use dynamic IP addresses (DHCP) for any components of the Secure Connect Gateway servers or managed devices unless they are configured with the FQDN of the Secure Connect Gateway server.

An IP address is not needed for a SupportAssist configuration with a connection type of direct connect. If you use DHCP to assign IP addresses to any SupportAssist components (Secure Connect Gateway servers or managed devices), they must have static IP addresses. Leases for the IP addresses that those devices use cannot be set to expire. It is recommended that you assign static IP addresses to those devices you plan to have managed by SupportAssist. For a SupportAssist configuration with a connection type of connect through a gateway, FQDNs can be configured instead of IP addresses.

Software media, organization, and files

Learn about software media, organization, and files required for the Unity Family.

Required update

It is recommended that you keep your Unity Family system up to date by upgrading to the latest software version at your earliest opportunity.

Problems downloading this release

If you have difficulty downloading this release using Microsoft Internet Explorer version 7, try using a newer version of Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, or Mozilla Firefox version 4 or greater.

Obtain and install product licenses

Before you begin:

Before you can create storage, you must install product and feature licenses on your system.

Initial Configuration

  1. On the Unisphere Licenses page of the Initial Configuration wizard, select Get License Online.
  2. Follow the instructions on the licensing website and download the license file locally. Note: Do not change the name of the license file.
  3. Select Install License and use Chose File to browse to the license file you downloaded locally.
  4. Select Open. The Results page will confirm the license was successfully installed.

Obtaining and installing additional licenses after initial configuration

  1. In Unisphere, select the Settings icon, and then select Software and Licenses > License Information.
  2. Select a product license from the list to display a description of that license.
  3. To obtain a product license, select Get License Online.
    • Use the link provided in the LAC email or access the product page on the support website, and download the license file locally. Note: Do not change the name of the license file.
    • Transfer the license file to a computer that has access to the storage system, or connect the computer you used to obtain the license file to the same subnet of the storage system.
  4. To upload a product license, select Install License.
    • Review the Software License and Maintenance Agreement and select Accept license agreement.
    • Locate the license file, select it, and select Open to install the license file on the storage system.

The license file is installed on the storage system.

For sites with restricted internet access, or for more information on obtaining your license, go to the Unity Info Hub at dell.com/unitydocs.

Unique identifier for UnityVSA

For UnityVSA, use the License Activation Key instead of the serial number or UUID as the unique identifier for setting up EMC Secure Remote Services (ESRS) and for obtaining customer support (professional editions).

Installing and enabling language packs

To install a language pack:

  1. Review the considerations included in the Software Media, Organization, and Files section.
  2. In Unisphere, select the Settings icon, and then select Software and Licenses > Language Packs.
  3. Select Obtain Language Pack Online and enter your Support credentials when prompted.
  4. Download the appropriate language pack file to your local system.
  5. Return to Unisphere and select Install Language Pack to launch the Install Language Pack wizard.
  6. Select Choose File and then select the language pack you want to upload.
  7. Select Next to begin the installation of the language pack onto your system.
  8. Select Finish.
  9. Once language package installation completes, view the results and close.

To enable a language pack on your system:

  1. In Unisphere, select the My Account icon and select Preferences.
  2. Select the preferred language from the Language list.
  3. Select OK.

Firmware

Drive firmware bundle version 21 is included in this software OE bundle. Once the software OE installation has completed, a prompt appears if updates are available. However, it is recommended to upgrade to the latest drive firmware prior to a software upgrade to help mitigate any non-disruptive upgrade issues. For a list of all drive firmware and their respective drives, refer to Knowledge Base article 000021322 (previously article 000490700).

Online disk firmware updates (ODFU) occur automatically to update the drive firmware after you update to OE version 5.4. The system runs a preupgrade health check before upgrading the drive firmware. In addition, the system automatically dials home if a firmware upgrade failure occurs.

You can manually enable or disable ODFU using the “svc_change_hw_config” service command or use that command to see the current status of the feature.

The following firmware variants are included with this release:

Note: The common data environment (CDE) for Unity OE 5.4 is 2.38.11, the same as the CDE for Unity OE 5.3.

Enclosure Type Firmware
3U, 15-drive DAE 2.38.11
2U, 25-drive DAE 2.38.11
3U, 80-drive DAE 2.38.11
DPE expander 2.38.11
Platform Type BIOS BMC Firmware Post
2U, 25-drive DPE 60.04 25.00 34.60
2U, 12-drive DPE 60.04 25.00 34.60
2U, 25-drive DPE Unity XT 480/F, 680/F, and 880/F 66.82 25.23 52.74

Documentation

Unity Family Info Hubs

Additional relevant documentation can be obtained from the Unity Family Info Hub. Visit the Info Hub for your Unity Family product to access helpful utilities, videos, and other guides and https://www.dell.com/unitydocs.

Where to get help

The Dell Technologies Support site (https://www.dell.com/support) contains important information about products and services including drivers, installation packages, product documentation, knowledge base articles, and advisories.

A valid support contract and account might be required to access all the available information about a specific Dell Technologies product or service.

Advisories

For information on an individual technical or security advisory, go to the Online Support website and search by using the DSA number or "Dell Security Advisories” as the keyword.

You can also select an option to receive alerts for Dell Technical Advisories (DTAs) and Dell Security Advisories (DSAs) to stay informed of critical issues and prevent potential impact to your environment. Go to your account settings and preferences in Online Support, type the name of an individual product, click to select it from the list, and then click Add Alert. For the individual product or All Dell Products, enable the DTA's and/or DSA's toggle.

Notes, cautions, and warnings

NOTE: A NOTE indicates important information that helps you make better use of your product.

CAUTION: A CAUTION indicates either potential damage to hardware or loss of data and tells you how to avoid the problem.

WARNING: A WARNING indicates potential for property damage, personal injury, or death.

Models: Unity XT Unified Hybrid Storage Arrays, Unity XT, Unified Hybrid Storage Arrays, Hybrid Storage Arrays, Storage Arrays

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References

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