This article describes some of the specific and complicated indications with respect to failure alarms.  This article is not written to replace the product documentation.  Refer to the 3ware® SATA+SAS RAID Controller Card Command Line Interface manual for specifics on how the commands shown in this article are used.

The Supermicro TQ series backplanes include LED alarm indicators and an audible indicator.  The indicators and the alarm status are observed at the physical unit.  The state of the alarm indicators is managed with the 3ware CLI or 3DM2 GUI.

The availability of alarm status in the CLI or 3DM2 depends on the proper installation of the cables and backplanes.  Refer to a separate knowledge base article on enclosure services configuration for the LSI 9750 and the SuperMicro TQ backplanes.

In a properly configured system running without an alarm indication, the 3ware CLI command “/c0/e0/alm0 show” will present the table shown in figure 1.  The same information is available in the 3DM2 gui.

Alarm                 Status                    State                  Audibility

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alm0                   OK                           off                     unmute

              Figure 1: the CLI show command.

Specific error conditions are automatically monitored by enclosure services.  When there is a problem, an error light on the backplane will illuminate and an audible alarm on the backplane will sound.  In this condition, the 3ware CLI command “/c0/e0/alm0 show” will present the table shown in figure 2.  The same information is available in the 3DM2 gui.

Alarm                 Status                    State                  Audibility

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alm0                   Activated              on                      unmute

              Figure 2: the CLI show command with an active error condition.

The CLI and 3DM2 cannot be used to override the automated error detection; they are designed only to manage the indications.  The visible error indication will be automatically cleared by the controller firmware only after the cause of the error condition is cleared by the user.  For example, if there is a drive failure, the error indication will remain on until the failed drive is removed.  It can take up to 10 seconds for the enclosure services to update the indications after the cause of the error is cleared. 

When there is an active alarm, the following actions can be taken:

·         To silence the audible alarm, use the CLI or 3DM2 to mute the audible alarm.  An example of the CLI command is “/c0/e0/alm0 set alarm=mute”.  Muting the alarm does not clear the error condition or visible indications.

·         The “/c0/e0/alm0 set alarm=off” can be used to clear the audible alarm only after the FW has detected that the error condition has been cleared. 

·         The 3DM2 GUI includes a select list to change the alarm state to “off” or “on”.  Selecting “off” after an error condition is cleared will reset the audible alarm.  Selecting “on” is meaningless on the LSI 9750 controller when it is connected to a Supermicro TQ backplane.