EMC: Serial number translation

Title:

EMC: Serial number translation

Author:

Douglas O’Leary <dkoleary@olearycomputers.com>

Description:

How to read EMC serial numbers

Date created:

06/2001

Date updated:

07/2005

Disclaimer:

Standard: Use the information that follows at your own risk. If you screw up a system, don’t blame it on me…

When running inq or syminq, you’ll see a column titled Ser Num. This column has quite a bit of information hiding in it.

An example syminq output is below. Your output will differ slightly as I’m creating a table from a book to show this; I don’t currently have access to a system where I can get the actual output just yet.

Device			Product		Device
Name	Type	Vendor	ID	Rev	Ser_Num	Cap(KB)
/dev/dsk/c1t0d0	EMC	SYMMETRIX	5265	73009150	459840
/dev/dsk/c1t4d0	BCV	EMC	SYMMETRIX	5265	73010150	459840
/dev/dsk/c1t5d0	GK	EMC	SYMMETRIX	5265	73019150	2880
/dev/dsk/c2t6d0	GK	EMC	SYMMETRIX	5265	7301A281	2880

Using the first and last serial numbers as examples, the serial number is broken out as follows:

73	Last two digits of the Symmetrix serial number
009	Symmetrix device number
15	Symmetrix director number. If <= 16, using the A processor
0	Port number on the director
73	Last two digits of the Symmetrix serial number
01A	Symmetrix device number
28	Symmetrix director number. If > 16, using the B proccessor on board: (${brd}-16).
0	Port number on the director

So, the first example, device 009 is mapped to director 15, processor A, port 0 while the second example has device 01A mapped to director 12, processor B, port 0.

Even if you don’t buy any of the EMC software, you can get the inq command from their web site. Understanding the serial numbers will help you get a better understanding of which ports are going to which hosts. Understanding this and documenting it will circumvent hours of rapturous cable tracings.