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Jason LassFlag for United States of America

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Does anyone know how to recover a dead Brocade 3900? Linux is there but that's about it.

I purchased an EMC DS-32B2 (Brocade 3900) second hand and have been having errors regarding 'no space left on device.'  So, I began putting things back to defaults and did a reset and now I have a system that will only boot into Linux.  Anyone know how to rebuild this thing?

Thanks,

JoeO
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Duncan Meyers
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Log in as root. Run a df on the files system. If you get something similar to the below, the file system is full and you must make some space:

1k-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on

/dev/root 120112 55408 64704 46% /

/dev/hda2 120128 54768 65360 46% /mnt

If the file system free space is > 55-60%, the file system is filling fast.

To make some space, run the following:

Run savecore command and choose the option to delete core files.

Verify that the file system is no longer full by running the df command (see above)

If free space is less than 95 percent, you'll need to clean up log files to make more space (You can also delete the Apache web access logs: rm -f /var/log/webtools/access_log*). The flash file system should have a minimum of 80% free space. EMC have a log clean-up script that automates the process for you. See EMC Knowledgebase article emc75410 ay http://powerlink.emc.com for more information.

Finally, update the Brocade OS to a minimum of 4.2.0b or later to permanently fix the problem (the issue was fixed in 4.1.1b, but this version wasn't 'officially' available to the field).


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Hi and thanks for responding.  I've already deleted the core dump files.  I believe the actual Brocade OS is gone but I'll I will try the other things you mentioned and let you know.  Do you know how to get the Brocade tarball to reload the OS if it's gone?

Thanks,
That will be tricky as (as you may be aware) support for the switches is provided by teh SAN manufacturers - and if you don't have a maintenance contract then they're unlikely to provide the software.

Having said that, it's unlikely that the OS is gone...
Hi, just getting back to this.  I do not have the 'df' command when I boot Linux.  If I do an 'ls' command in root I have no files.  Am I toast?  
Are you logged in as root? Do you any directories at all?
Hi meyersd,

So I am attaching a file, I was hoping you can take a minute to see what you think.  I was wrong regarding no root files.  If I cd to / there are many files, none in the /root directory.  Not sure if any should be there.  So if I mount /dev/hda2 /mnt I get a directory /mnt and it seems all my Brocade files are there.  I have no space left on /dev/root.  When I try to boot I get messages stating no space and bad or nonexistent /etc/.host file and other issues.  It tell me to run repairfs.sh which i do but the problem remains.  If I make room will this thing come back?  What files can I remove?

Thx,

JoeO
EMC-DS32-B2-console-capture.txt
/root is the root home directory. I'd not expect to see files in there - so that's normal behaviour.

Do this: rm -f /var/log/webtools/access_log*
You can also have a look at /var/log and remove old event log files such as messages

Then run savecore (you'll have to find it if ithe system won't let you run it from the shell prompt. /bin is a good place to start) and chose the option to delete core files.

I've done some more research. Issues with /etc/.hosts and /etc/static-routes.options are a result of a full file system - they may have been overwritten - but the first thing you *must* do is make some space on the file system. Other places to have a look for files you can delete are /tmp and /var/tmp

Once you've got at least 70% free space, you can start a firmware download.
BTW - the reason that later revisions of firmware don't have this issue is that they install a cron job that cleans up log and temporary files...
Hi and thanks for responding.  Gotcha about the /root being root's home directory, should have known that.  I've gone and deleted the /var/webtools log files already, they weren't very big so I'm still at 97%.  I won't be by the switch for a couple of days but will look for other var/log files.  Can I delete anything in the var/logs and feel safe?  Will the other issues such as the 'both boot devices are inconsistent' and 'Cannot find the default password file!' when trying to change the default passwords resolve themselves when there's space?  

One more thing......do you have experience with McDATA switches?  I've inherited an EMC DS32-M2 and I need a way to set its passwords to default.  Oh the pitfalls of ebay!!  

Thanks again, appreciate all your help!!

JoeO
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Duncan Meyers
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>Can I delete anything in the var/logs and feel safe?
Pretty much. Don't touch ./dmesg or ./messages, but messagesxx can go. Check the dates on the files - if it's old, then it can go.
Hi, the McDATA is back online.  The password 'redips' did the trick.  Turns out this is an older 3032 and it's only a 1G switch.  I found the default login was Administrator / password.  I will follow up with the DS32-B2 / Brocade 3900 tomorrow and report back.  Thanks again, I can see why you're the #2 Expert!!
:-)


No worries!
Thanks! Glad I could help.