DE Series HIMG 11.70.2 - Prepare to replace DE2000H or DE4000H battery

Follow this procedure to prepare for a battery replacement in the DE2000H or DE4000H storage array.

About this task

Each controller canister includes a battery that preserves cached data if the AC power fails. If the Recovery Guru in ThinkSystem System Manager reports either a Battery Failed status or a Battery Replacement Required status, you must replace the affected battery.

Before you begin

Verify that no volumes are in use or that you have a multipath driver installed on all hosts using these volumes.
Review the Requirements for DE2000H or DE4000H battery replacement.

Place controller offline (duplex)

If you have a duplex configuration, you must place the affected controller offline so you can safely remove the failed battery. The controller that you are not placing offline must be online (in the optimal state).

Perform this task only if your storage array has two controllers (duplex configuration).

Steps

From ThinkSystem System Manager, review the details in the Recovery Guru to confirm that there is an issue with a battery and to ensure no other items must be addressed first.
From the Details area of the Recovery Guru, determine which battery to replace.
Back up the storage array’s configuration database using ThinkSystem System Manager.

If a problem occurs when you remove a controller, you can use the saved file to restore your configuration. The system will save the current state of the RAID configuration database, which includes all data for volume groups and disk pools on the controller.
- From ThinkSystem System Manager:
  1. Select Support Support Center Diagnostics.
  2. Select Collect Configuration Data.
  3. Click Collect.
    The file is saved in the Downloads folder for your browser with the name, configurationData-<arrayName>-<dateTime>.7z.
- Alternatively, you can back up the configuration database by using the following CLI command:
  1. Download SMcli from ThinkSystem System Manager and set up SMcli command execution environment.
  2. Execute the following SMcli command：save storageArray dbmDatabase sourceLocation=onboard contentType=all file="filename";
    In this command, filename is the file path to which you want to save the database. Enclose the file name in backslash following double quotation marks (\"). For example: file="C:\Program Files\CLI\logs\dbmdata.zip"
    This command does not automatically append a file extension to the saved file. You must specify a file extension when entering the file name.
    Notes:
    
    Under PowerShell, enclose the file name following two quotation marks(""), for example, file=\""data.zip\"".
    
    Execution environment requires setting JAVA_HOME environment variable, and JRE8 or later.
    
    See Command Line Interface (CLI) Reference and follow the complete command syntax for this operation
Collect support data for your storage array using ThinkSystem System Manager.
1. Select Support Support Center Diagnostics.
2. Select Collect Support Data.
3. Click Collect. The file is saved in the Downloads folder for your browser with the name, support-data.7z.

If the controller is not already offline, take it offline now using either ThinkSystem System Manager or the SMcli tool.

From ThinkSystem System Manager:

Select Hardware.
If the graphic shows the drives, select Show back of shelf to show the controllers.
Select the controller that you want to place offline

From the context menu, select Place offline, and confirm that you want to perform the operation.

If you are accessing ThinkSystem System Manager using the controller you are attempting to take offline, a ThinkSystem System Manager Unavailable message is displayed. Select Connect to an alternate network connection to automatically access ThinkSystem System Manager using the other controller.

To use SMcli under system terminal:
1. Download SMcli from ThinkSystem System Manager and set up SMcli command execution environment.
2. Execute one of the following SMCli commands:
  - For controller A: set controller [a] availability=offline;
  - For controller B: set controller [b] availability=offline;
    
    The system attempts to take the controller offline.
    
    Notes:
  - Execution environment requires setting JAVA_HOME environment variable, and JRE8 or later.
  - See Command Line Interface (CLI) Reference and follow the complete command syntax for this operation.

Wait for ThinkSystem System Manager to update the controller’s status to offline.

Do not begin any other operations until after the status has been updated.
Go to Remove DE2000H and DE4000H controller canister.