DMX Questions (R.

S)

Can you explain about DMX Architecture?

The Symmetrix DMX features a high-performance, Direct Matrix Architecture
(DMX) supporting up to 128 point-to-point serial connections. Symmetrix
DMX technology is distributed across all channel directors, disk directors, and
global memory directors in symmetrix DMX systems.
Can you briefly explain about symmetrix series products?
Symmetrix 8000/4 was the first symmetrix to introduce a dual bus
arcitecture, providing redundancy in the path to memory.
Symmetrix DMX800 is an incrementally scalable, high-end storage array
which features modular disk array enclosures.
Symmetrix Direct Matrix Architecture is storage array technology that
employs a matrix of dedicated serial point-to-point connections instead of
traditional buses or switches.
Symmetrix DMX2 is a channel director specification for the DMX with faster
processors and newer components.
Symmetrix DMX-3 and DMX-4 are the latest technology using redundant
global memory and largest capacity.
Can you explain Enginuity release code 5773.79.58?
57
73
79
58
52

represents the DMX3/4 Hardware

represents the microcode family
represents the field release level to the microcode
represents the field release to the service processor code
=Symm4, 55 =Symm5, 56 =DMX/DMX2, 57 =DMX3/4, 58 =VMAX.

How many Cache directors, Front-end directors and Back-end

directors we can use in DMX-4?
Cache Directors = 4 Min to 8 Max.
Front-end Directors = up to 12 max
Back-end Directors = 6 Min to 8 Max
What are the different types of Front-end directors and the purpose
of each one?
ESCON (EA) : for mainframe attachment and SRDF family links
FICON (EF) : provides the industrys highest performance connectivity Option
for the mainframe.
bFibre (FA/DA) : Connectivity option for open systems direct and SAN
Attachment, and can be used for SRDF family remote Replication links.
iSCSI (SE) : Provides the industrys first high-end Iscsi Implementation.
GigE (RE) : for SRDF family replication with compression support.
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Explain Rule 17 in DMX?

Possible answers:
Rule of 17 ensured that FAs being used for host connectivity were in
different power zones.
The rule of 17 is simply a way to make sure that the paths you connect your
host to are not running on the same director, but one physically far away
from it.
The original Rule of 17 was put into place to ensure that there was a
path on each bus (odd and even).The bus architecture went away in DMX-1
( Symm6). But we had 2 power zones; one zone for directors 1-8, and
another zone for directors 9-16. So the Rule of 17 still had value.
But DIR 3 (odd) and DIR 4 (even) reside on different buses yet in the
same power zone, so even if you had your host connected to 3 and 4 ..if that
power zone went down ..Your hosts went down.
What are the Management Tools for DMX?
Symcli (Symmetrix Command Line Interface)
SMC (Symmetrix Management Console)
ECC (EMC Control Center)
What are the Enginuity Operational Layes?
Symmetrix Based Application
Host Based Symmetrix Application
Independent Software vendor application
EMC Solutions Enabler API
Symmetrix Enginuity Operating Environment Functions
Symmetrix Hardware
What are the major components of System Bay and Storage Bay in
DMX?
System Bay Components
Either six or e
ight disk directors and up to 12 channel directors (Combined total = 16).
From four to eight global memory directors.
Up to eight power supplies, each of having a dedicated Battery Back
Up(BBU)
1U service processor with KVM (keyboard, video screen and mouse) and
dedicated UPS.
Three cooling fan assemblies (each containing 3 fans).
Storage Bay Components
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120 or 240 disk drives per storage bay

Each Drive Enclosure (DE) includes:
Two link control cards (LCC).
Redundant power supplies with BBUs to provide standby power.
The DMX-4 storage bay has 2N power zones with independent power
cables, each zone capable of powering the fully configured storage bay.
The storage bay can be populated with various combinations of currently
available DMX one-inch low-profile 4 Gb/s Fibre Channel disk drives available
in:
73 GB, 146 GB, 300 GB, and 400 GB Fibre Channel drives
73 GB and 146 GB Flash drives
500 GB and 1 TB SATA II disk drives
Can you explain about Read Hit, Read Miss and Fast Write and
Delayed Write?
Read Hit: In a read hit operation, the requested data resides in global
memory. The channel director transfers the requested data through the
channel interface to the host and updates the global memory directory. Since
the data is in global memory, there are no mechanical delays due to seek
and latency.
Read Miss: In a read miss operation, the requested data is not in global
memory and must be retrieved from a disk device. While the channel
director creates space in the global memory, the disk director reads the data
from the disk device. The disk director stores the data in global memory and
updates the directory table. The channel director then reconnects with the
host and transfers the data. because the data is not in global memory, the
symmetrix system must search for data on the disk and then transfer it to
the channel adding seek and latency times to the operation.
Fast Write: A fast write occurs when the percentage of modified data in
global memory is less than the fast write threshold. On a host write
command, the channel director places the incoming blocks directly into
global memory. For fast write operations, the channel director stores the data
in global memory and sends a channel end and device end to the host
computer. The disk director then asynchronously destages the data from
global memory to the disk device.
Delayed Fast Write: A delayed fast write occurs only when the fast write
threshold has been exceeded. That is the percentage of global memory
containing modified data is higher than the fast write threshold. If this
situation occurs, the symmetrix system disconnects the channel directors
from the channels. The disk director then de-stages the data to disk. When
sufficient global memory space is available. The channel directors reconnect
to their channels and process the fast I/O requires as a fast write. The
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symmectrix system continues to process read operations during delayed fast

writes with sufficient global memory present, this type of global memory
operation rarely occurs.

Storage Provisioning questions:

How do you calculate number of cylinders for 120 GB LUN?
Maximum device sizes by Enginuity version
Enginuity version MBs CYLs GBs
Enginuity 5874 245760 262668 240
Enginuity 5773 and earlier 61425 65520 59
Since DMX-4 supports maximum of 60GB hyper size, we have to create two
hypers and form a Meta devices as 120GB LUN.
To calculate cylinders for 60GB LUN use the below formula
Cylinders = 60GB/15 tracks* 8 sectors* 16 blocks * 512 bytes
Cylinders = 60000000000/15*8*16*512
Cylinders = 60000000000/983040
Cylinders = 61035 cyl
To calculate the number of cylinders (for pre-Symmetrix DMX), use either of
the following: blocks 960 or (size in megabytes) x 2.1333
To calculate the number of cylinders (for Symmetrix DMX and Symmetrix VMax arrays), use the following: 1 cylinder = 15 tracks; each track is 64 KB,
15 x 64 tracks = .937 MB for each cylinder
What is the maximum hyper size in DMX-4?
Maximum Cylinders = 65520
Maximum Capacity = 59GB or 61425 MB
How many hypers can create in a Single disk in DMX4?
255 hypers per disk.
How many members can contain in one Meta?
1 Meta head + 255 members
How many LUN IDs available per FA port?
256 LUN IDs are available per FA port, 255 LUN IDs are usable out of 256.
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What is Dynamic LUN addressing?

This feature will automatically selects and assigns the LUN IDs to the devices
while device mapping to the port Instead of manually assigning address to
the device while mapping
How do you add a new member to the existing Meta?
add dev XXXX to meta XXXX, protect_data=TRUE, bcv_meta_head=XXXX;
or for multiple ranges:
add dev XXX1:XXX6 to meta XXXX, protect_data=TRUE,
bcv_meta_head=XXXX;
What is stripping and what is Concatenating?
Stripped Meta Devices
Meta device addressing by striping divides each Meta member device into a
series of stripes, addressing a stripe from each device before advancing to
the next stripe on the first device. When writing to a striped volume, equal
size stripes of data from each participating drive are written alternately to
each member of the set.
Concatenated Meta Devices
Concatenated devices are volume sets that are organized with the first byte
of data at the beginning of the first device. Addressing continues to the end
of the first device before any data on the next device is referenced. When
writing to a concatenated device, the first meta device member receives all
the data until it is full, and then data is directed to the next member and so
on
What are the DMX-4 supported disk types, no. of disks and
maximum capacity?
FC drives, iSCSI drives and Flash drives
15 drives per DAE
120 drivers per Cage
240 drives per Storage Bay
2400 drives per array If total of 10 storage bays connected
Maximum storage capacity is 1 PB.
Briefly explain the DMX-4 supported Device types?
Standard Devices: A Symmetrix device configured for normal Symmetrix
operation under a desired protection method (such as RAID-1,RAID-S, and
SRDF).
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Gatekeeper Devices: SCSI commands executed by SYMAPI are transferred

to the Symmetrix array via a Symmetrix device that is designated as a
Gatekeeper device. The gatekeeper allows you to retrieve configuration and
status information from the Symmetrix array without interfering with normal
device I/O operations.
Meta Devices: Allow individual devices to be concatenated to create larger
devices.
BCV Devices: Specialized devices used to create a local copy of data
contained in a standard Symmetrix device, which can be used for backup,
restore, decision support, and application testing.
SRDF Devices (R1, R2 and R21) Devices configured as RDF1 or RDF2 to
support SRDF operations.
R1 is source device for SRDF operations
R2 is target device for SRDF operations
R21 is used for multi hop SRDF operations
Virtual Devices: A host-accessible device containing track-level location
information (pointers), which indicates where the copy session data is
located in the physical storage. Device copies use virtual devices to support
TimeFinder/Snap operations. Virtual devices consume minimal physical disk
storage, as they store only the address pointers to the data stored on the
source device or a pool of save devices.,
Save Devices: Special devices (not mapped to the host) that provide
physical storage space for pre-update images or changed tracks during a
virtual copy session of TimeFinder/Snap operations.
Device Masking (VCM)Devices: Symmetrix devices that have been masked
for visibility to certain hosts. The device masking database (VCMDB) holds
device masking records and typically resides on a 24 or 48 cylinder disk
device..
DRV Devices: A non-user-addressable Symmetrix device used by the
Symmetrix Optimizer to temporarily hold user data while reorganization of
the devices is being executed. Typically, it is used by the Optimizer in logical
volume swapping operations.
What is Vault drives and Hot Spare?
Vault Drivers: At the time of emergency shutdown of an Array, what ever the
data in cache memory will be destaged/saved on temporary drives called
vault drives
Hot Spare: At the time of physical drive failure hot spare drives will take
place
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What is Preview, Prepare and Commit while using Symconfigure

command?
The preview argument verifies the syntax and correctness of each
individual change defined, and then terminates the session without change
execution.
The prepare argument performs the preview checks and also verifies the
appropriateness of the resulting configuration definition against the current
state of the Symmetrix array; the argument then terminates the session
without change execution
The commit argument completes all stages and executes the changes in
the specified Symmetrix array
What are the possible device service states and device status
states?
Device Service States : Normal, Failed and Degraded
Device Status States : Ready, Not Ready and Write Disable.
How do you reserve the devices?
Symconfigure -sid XXXX -f createdev.cmd expire expiration date-owner
myself -comment "this devices are reserved for SRDF activity" reserve
How do you create the Disk Groups?
We can not create Disk Groups, It should be done by changing BIN file by CE.
We can rename the existing disk groups.
symconfigure -sid 207 cmd set disk_group 4 disk_group_name =
flash_dsks;
-v -nop commit
How do you check the free space by Disk group and Array as whole?
By Disk Group : Symdisk sid XXXX list by_diskgroup
Array as whole : Symconfigure sid XXXX list -freespace
How do you check the total assigned devices to a particular Host?
Symmaskdb sid XXXX list devs wwn host hba wwn
How do you check the total allocated storage of a particular Host?
Symmaskdb sid XXXX list capacity Host hostname
What is pre check list to assign storage to the host?
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Verify the available free space in the symmetrix array

Symconfigure -sid SymmID [-v | -freespace [-units cylinders | MB]] list
or
symdisk sid 4282 list disk_group GroupNumber
Verify the Symmetrix status
Symconfigure sid 4282 verify
If any hung activities found abort
Symconfigure sid 4282 abort

Explain step by step procedure to provide storage to the

Host?
Creating STD device
Meta Device Creation
Mapping
Masking
Example:

1. Create a commandfile with the following entry to create hypers.

Create dev count=8, size=12394, emulation=FBA, config=2-way-mir,
disk_group=2;
2. Execute the command file using symconfigure command with preview, prepare
and commit options.
Symconfigure sid 4282 f Commandfile.txt v noprompt commit
3. Verify the newly created devices
Symdev sid 4282 list noport
4. Create a commandfile with following entry to form metas and devices to the meta
head.
Form meta from dev 26CA, config=striped, stripe_size=1920; add dev
26CB:26E4 to meta 26ca;
5. Execute the command file using symconfigure command with preview, prepare
and commit options.
Symconfigure sid 4282 f Commandfile.txt v noprompt commit
6. Verify the newly created meta devices
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Symdev sid 4282 list -noport
7. Find the host connected Director and Port details
symcfg sid 4282 list -connections
8. Find the available addresses on that port
Symcfg sid 4282 list address available dir 7d p 0
9. Create a commandfile with the following entry to map the device to the FA port
map dev 26ca to dir 7d:0, lun=036;
10. Execute the commandfile using symconfigure with the preview, prepare and
commit options.
Symconfigure sid 4282 f Commandfile.txt v noprompt commit
11. Mask the devices to the host HBA and refresh the sym configuration
symmaskdb sid 4282 wwn 10000000c93f62cf dir 7d p 0 add devs 26ca
nop
Symmask sid 4282 refresh
12. Rescan the disks and refresh the powerpath or reboot the server to get the
assigned devices at host-end

How do you check particular device geometry?

Symdev sid XXX show dev SymmDev
How do you check the particular device is connected to which Host?
Symmaskdb sid XXXX list assignment dev SymmDev

What are the steps for storage reclamation?

Unmasking
Write Disable
Un-mapping
Dissolve meta
Deleting hypers
1. Unmasking devices from the host
symmaskdb sid 4282 wwn 10000000c93f62cf dir 7d p 0 remove devs
26ca
2. Refresh the Symmetrix Array
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Symmask sid 4282 refresh
3. Write Disable the devices before unmapping from the Director port
symdev -sid 4282 write_disable 26ca -sa 7d -p 0 -noprompt
4. Create a cmd/txt file
Unmap dev 26ca from dir all:all;
5. Perform preview operation using symconfigure command
Symconfigure sid 4282 f unmap.txt v nop preview
6. Perform prepare operation using symconfigure command
Symconfigure sid 4282 f unmap.txt v nop prepare
7. Perform Commit operation using symconfigure command
Symconfigure sid 4282 f unmap.txt v nop commit
8. Verify that the device has been unmapped
Symdev sid 4282 list -noport

9. To Dissolve meta, create a cmd/txt file

Dissolve meta dev 26ca;
10. Perform preview operation using symconfigure command
Symconfigure sid 4282 f dissolve.txt v nop preview
11. Perform prepare operation using symconfigure command
Symconfigure sid 4282 f dissolve.txt v nop prepare
12. Perform Commit operation using symconfigure command
Symconfigure sid 4282 f dissolve.txt v nop commit
13. Verify that the meta has been Dissoved.
Symdev sid 4282 list noport
14. To delete the hypers create a cmd/txt file.
Delete dev 26ca;
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15. Perform preview operation using symconfigure command
Symconfigure sid 4282 f dissolve.txt v nop preview
16. Perform prepare operation using symconfigure command
Symconfigure sid 4282 f dissolve.txt v nop prepare
17. Perform Commit operation using symconfigure command
Symconfigure sid 4282 f dissolve.txt v nop commit
18. Verify that Hypers have been deleted.
Symdev sid 4282 list -noport

How many mirror positions RAID-1 and RAID-5 will occupy?

RAID-1 occupies 2 mirror positions
RAID-5 occupies 2 mirror positions

How do you convert the concatenating meta device to stripped

meta?
convert meta XXXX, config=striped, stripe_size=1920,
protect_data=TRUE,
bcv_meta_head=XXXX;
Host is unable to see the storage, how do you troubleshoot?
Check that the host is logged in to the Array
Symmask sid XXXX list logins+
Check that the cable connectivity status by logging in to the host
Check that the HBA drivers are properly configured
Check the Zoning table by logging in to the switch
Check that the devices status in Array
Check the VCMDB for masking information, etc..
What is Thin Provisioning?
Thin provisioning is a method of optimizing the efficiency with which the
available space is utilized in storage area networks. Thin provisioning
operates by allocating disk space in a flexible manner among multiple users,
based on the minimum space required by each user at any given time.
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How do you create thin pools and thin devices?

Creating Thin Pools
Creating Data devs and added these Data devs to Thin Pools
Creating TDEVs and bind these TDEVs to Thin Pool
Assign TDEVs to host.
Explain step by step procedure to setup new host?
Let us assume cable connectivity is done properly
Install HBA drivers in host.
Install Power path if required.
Check that the HBA ports are showing online
Create zoning at switch end.
Check that this host is logged in to the Storage array
Create LUN/hypers in storage array
Form meta devices if required
Map the devices to the FA port.
Mask the devices to the host hba (wwn).
Refresh the Array to affect the changes.

Symmetrix Environment familiarity questions

How do you check the failed components in Symmetrix Array?
Symcfg -sid 150 list -env_data -service_state failed
How do you check the failed disks in the Symmetrix Array?
Symdisk sid XXXX list -failed
What is the purpose of Gate Keeper device?
Low-level I/O commands executed using SYMCLI are routed to the Symmetrix
array by a Symmetrix storage device that is specified as a gatekeeper.
The gatekeeper device allows SYMCLI commands to retrieve configuration
and status information from the Symmetrix array without interfering with
normal Symmetrix operations.
The gatekeeper must be accessible from the host where the commands are
being executed.
How many gate keeper devices are required per Array?
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It depends on the Symmetrix management applications using in

management servers,
As per EMC recommendations 6 gatekeepers are required per management
host using symcli
How to list hosts and their EMC registered software, using Solutions
Enabler?
Symcfg sid XXXX list -applications
What is VCMDB and how do you take the backup?
The device masking database (VCMDB) holds device masking records and
typically resides on a 24 or 48 cylinder disk device..
Symmaskdb sid XXXX backup f filename
How do you list the Hosts which are connected to particular director
port?
Symmaskdb sid XXXX list database dir XX p X
How do you check the number of storage bays connected to the
system bay and number of disks in each storage bay?
Symcfg sid XXXX list env_data
How do check the devices which are not mapped and masked?
Symdev sid 4282 list dev -noport
How do you check the devices which are mapped to FA but not
masked to any host?
Symmaskdb -sid 123 list no_assignment -dir ALL -p ALL
How do you check the login hosts in the Symmetrix Array?
Symmask sid 4282 list logins
How to display and set the Symmetrix metrics?
Symcfg sd XXXX SA all list v
Set Symmetrix MatricName=MatricValue
How do you check the configured environmental variables?
Symcli def
Can windows, Linux, Solaris share the same FA in DMX?
Yes, if they share the same port flags
What are the Symmetrix External locks and how to check and
release?
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Symmetrix external locks are used by SYMAPI (locks 0 to 15) and also for
applications assigned by EMC (>15) to lock access to the entire Symmetrix
array during critical operations
We can check the external locks by giving the below command
symcfg sid XXXX list -lockn
We can check the external locks by giving the below command
symcfg release -sid <xxx> -lockn 15 force
Symmetrix Performance Monitoring questions
How to monitor performance of EMC Symmetrix?
Using Performance Monitoring feature in EMC Control Center
Using SYMSTAT symcli command
How do you check the cache activity of front-end directory?
Symstat sid 4282 -type cache -i 5 -c 4 -sa all
How do you check the I/O requests and throughput of selected disk?
Symstat sid 4282 -type disk -i 5 -c 3 -disk 2a,C,5
What are the available performance types in SYMSTAT command?
REQUESTS: Reports I/O requests and throughput for selected devices,
directors, or SRDF/A sessions. (This is the default type; if no type is specified
REQUESTS is used.)
BACKEND: Reports back-end I/O requests and throughput for selected
devices.
PORT: Reports performance statistics for a director port. ISCSI Report Gig-E
network statistics.
CACHE: Reports cache activity for selected front-end or remote link
directors, or SRDF/A sessions.
MEMO: Reports cache memory to disk activity for selected devices. PATH
Report R-Copy path information for non-incremental sessions. Symmetrix
arrays that have all or some incremental sessions will report an error.
CYCLE: Report cycle summary information for SRDF-A sessions.
DISK: Reports back-end I/O requests and throughput for selected disks.
PREFETCH: Reports track prefetch disk activity for selected back-end
directors only.DMSP Reports dynamic mirroring service policy (DMSP)
statistics for the selected device(s).
RDF: Reports SRDF statistics from the perspective of RA groups, devices, or
directors.
What is symmetrix optimizer and how it works?
Symmetrix Optimizer improves array performance by continuously
monitoring access patterns and migrating devices (Symmetrix logical
volumes) to achieve balance across the disks in the array
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Step 1: Symmetrix Optimizer builds a database of device activity statistics

on the Symmetrix back-end.
Step 2: Using the statistical data collected, configuration information, and
the user-defined parameters, the Optimizer algorithm identifies busy and idle
devices and their locations on the physical drives. The algorithm tries to
minimize average disk service time by balancing I/O activity across physical
disks. Optimizer determines which disks require balancing by locating busy
devices close to each other on the same disk, and/or by locating busy
devices on faster disks or faster areas of the disks. Optimizer takes into
account the speed of the disk, the disk geometry, and the actuator speed to
determine faster disks.
Step 3: Once a solution for load balancing has been developed, the next
phase is to carry out the Symmetrix device swaps. This is done using
established TimeFinder technology, which maintains data protection and
availability. we can specify whether swaps should occur in a completely
automated fashion, or if the device swaps require user approval before the
action is taken.
Step 4: Once a swap function completes, Symmetrix Optimizer continues
data analysis for the next swap.
What is Symmetrix QoS and how it works?
Quality of Service (QoS) allows more flexibility in managing Symmetrix
systems performance. By increasing the response time for specific copy
operations on selected devices, we can increase the overall performance of
the other Symmetrix devices.
The QoS (Quality of Service) feature allows us to adjust the data transfer
pace on specified devices, or devices in a device group, for certain
operations.
The contention for cache access can be quality of service managed by the
least recently used (LRU) ring partitions in the Symmetrix cache.
We can control the priority service time of devices and control cache
partitions for different device groupings.
What is the purpose of Symmetrix Change Tracker?
To measure changes to data on a Symmetrix volume or group of volumes.
Change Tracker data is often used to analyze and design TimeFinder and
Symmetrix Remote Data Facility (SRDF) configurations.
Change Tracker (DeltaMark) session must be created using the symchg
create command. The symchg mark command is then used to perform a
timestamp and mark the selected area of disk storage occupied by a data
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object using a DeltaMark bitmap

What is Dynamic Cache Partitioning?
A QoS feature, dynamic cache partitioning allows the Administrator the
means to dynamically control the cache area size, servicing a given device
group I/O, by defining flexible partitions through cache memory.
Dynamic Cache Partitioning divides the cache memory into multiple
partitions with unique names and their device path assignments.
Partition areas can be made static or dynamic in size. The dynamic
partitioning provides flexibility to the amount of floating memory that can be
allocated with a high and low watermark. This allows memory resources to
be temporarily donated to other partitions when needed.
The symqos command allows you to create partitions for different
device groupings in addition to the default partition that all devices belong to
initially. Each partition will have a target cache percentage as well as a
minimum and maximum percentage. In addition, you can donate unused
cache to other partitions after a specified donation time.
What are the logs available at host-end and on symmetrix array?
Host end logs are available in Symapi\log folder
Event logs and Audit logs in symmetrix array
How do you monitor the real time events on symmetrix array with
example?
To monitor real time 100 event records with 600 seconds interval in the
symmetrix array
Symevent -sid 4282 monitor -i 600 -c 100 warn/-error/fatal

How do you track the history of events on symmetrix array with

example?
To list all events in symmetrix array
Symevent -sid 4282 list
To list specific period of time events in event logs
Symevent -sid 4282 list -v -start 9:00 -end 17:00
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How do you check the audit logs on symmetrix array?

To show the details about audit log it self.
Symaudit -sid 4282 show
To list the audit log records of specific period of time.
Symaudit -sid 4282 list -v -start_time 7/11:9:00
-end_time 7/11:10:00
To monitor the real time audit logs 100 records with 30sec interval.
symaudit -sid 4282 monitor I 30 c 100

Symmetrix DMX Security related questions:

What is Symmetrix ACL?
To create access control list on symmetrix array to implement host level or
user level security.
Explain step by step to setup the access controls on symmetrix
array?
Create Access Group
Create a command file with the following entries.
Create accgroup AccessGroupName;
Execute the command file
Symacl sid 4282 commit file commandfile
Add host access ID or user access ID to access group.
Create a command file with the following entries
Add host accid Id name Idname to accgroup GroupName;
Add user accid Id name Idname to accgroup GroupName;
Execute the command file
Symacl sid 4282 file CommandFileName commit
Create Access Pools
Create a command file with the following entries.
Create accpool AccessPoolName;
Execute the command file
Symacl sid 4282 commit file commandfile
Add devices to the access pool
Create a command file with the following entries.
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Add dev StartDevName:EndDevName to accpool AccessPoolName;

Execute the command file
Symacl sid 4282 commit file commandfile
Grant Rights to Access Groups
Create a command file with the following entries.
Grant access=Base/BCV/RDF to accgroup AccessGroupName to accpool
AccessPoolName;
Execute the command file
Symacl sid 4282 commit file commandfile
How do you take the backup/restore of ACLs?
Symacl sid 4282 backup file commandfile
Symacl sid 4282 commit restore f commandfile
What is Symmetrix User Authorization?
Set up or update the Symmetrix array user authorization information
Explain step by step procedure to setup user authorization on
symmetrix array?
User-to-role mappings have to be created.
Create a text file with the following entry (rolemap.txt)
Assign user H:Host\username to role Monitor;
Assign user D:Eng\username to role Admin;
Execute the above file
Symauth sid 4282 f rolemap.txt commit.
(Roles: None, Monitor, Storage admin, admin, Auditor, SecurityAdmin)
Enable the user authorization.
Symauth sid 4282 enable
How do you perform backup and restore user authorization
information?
Symauth sid 4282 backup f backupfile.txt commit
Symauth sid 4282 restore f backupfile.txt commit

Solutions Enabler Questions

What is the purpose of bin file in SYMAPI database?
It is a database file in the host which stores the symmetrix arrays
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configuration data. Can be used to get the configuration data offline.

What are the services of symcli?
Storapid : Base daemon
Storevntd : Asynchronous event daemon
Storgnsd : Group Name Services support
Storifmxd : Informix Database support
storora64d : Oracle Database 64-bit support
stororad : Oracle Database support
storrdfd : RDF consistency support
storsqld : SQL Server Database support
storsrmd : SRM daemon
storsrmd64 : SRM daemon 64-bit support
storsrvd : SYMAPI server
storstpd : Performance collector
storsybs11d : Sybase 11 database support
storsybs12.5_64d : Sybase 12.5 (64-bit) database support
storsybs12.5d : Sybase 12.5 database support
storsybs12d : Sybase 12 database support
storudbd : DB/UDB support
storwatchd : Watchdog daemon
Briefly explain about Symcli Base Management Commands?
Symacl : Sets up or updates Symmetrix Access Control information.
Symaudit : Allows records to be extracted from a Symmetrix audit log file to
determine which application on which host initiated actions that directed
Symmetrix array behavior. In addition, it provides the ability to determine the
date, time, and size of the current log file.
Symauth : Allows set up or updates to the Symmetrix array User
Authorization information
Symbcv : Performs support operations on one or more Symmetrix BCV
(Business Continuance Volume) devices.
Symcfg : Discovers or displays Symmetrix configuration information.
Refreshes the host's Symmetrix database file or removes Symmetrix
information from the database file. Rebuilds the set of devices known to the
local host. It can also be used to view or release a hanging Symmetrix
exclusive lock, online or offline RDF (RA), or front-end (SA or FA) director
ports.
Symcg : Performs operations on a Symmetrix RDF composite group (cg).
Symcli : Provides a brief description of all the commands included in the
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Symmetrix Command Line Interface (SYMCLI) and the environment variables.

Symdev : Displays information for the selected, or all, Symmetrix devices.
Symdg : Performs operations on a Symmetrix device group.
Symdisk : Reports on the configuration and status of disks and their hypers
within Symmetrix arrays.`
Symdrv : Displays information for selected DRV devices.
Symevent : Enables the monitoring and tracking of events on Symmetrix
arrays.
Symgate : Performs support operations on a gatekeeper device.
Syminq : Issues a SCSI INQUIRY command, and optionally a SCSI READ
CAPACITY command, on one or all devices. In addition, it can be used to
obtain a list of the local host's HBAs.
Symlabel : Performs device label (signature) support operations on devices
in a device group.
Symld : Performs operations on one or more standard devices (STD) or
virtual devices (VDEV) in a device group (dg).
Sympd : Displays information about one or all Symmetrix devices that are
visible to your host.
Symqos : Provides Quality of Service (QOS) controls on specified devices.
Symreturn : Indicates a return value within pre-action and post-action
scripts.
Symsg : Performs operations on storage groups located in a specified
Symmetrix array.
Symstat : Displays statistics information about a Symmetrix array, any or all
directors, a device group, a disk, or a device.
How do you prepare the Storage Capacity planning reports by host
wise?
By using EMC Control Center
By using symcli commands symcfg and symdisk
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Symcfg sid 4282 list connections capacity

Copy and past the output of the above command in excel file and format
according to the requirement.
Or
Symdisk sid 4282 list -by_diskgroup
Copy and past the output of the above command in excel file and do the
format according to the requirement.
By using what symcli command we can check the HBA details?
Syminq hba fibre
What are the business continuity tools for symmetrix array?
Power path - host end
TimeFinder local replication
SRDF - Remote Replication

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