Powervault MD3060e

4U tall. And space for 60 3.5inch (or 2.5inch) drives inside.

Attaching to the network

Each of the two rear mounted "enclousure management modules" ("EMMs") has a serial interface and an 8P8C modular jack for 100baseT Ethernet connectivity. The factory default IP addresses for these are 192.168.128.101 for EMM 0 (the top one) and 192.168.128.102 for EMM 1 (the bottom one). There is also a serial interface on each of the EMMs with a Mini-DIN 6 pin connector. Dell part numbers for the correct serial cables are CT109 and MN657. I have not used these and hope to not need them.

https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000141824/pulling-logs-on-md3060e-via-serial-for-sds-solutions has some documentation on this.

Gather network config

From a machine with an IP address in the 192.168.128.0/24 range, telnet to 192.168.128.101. There is no password needed. Send a newline (Return or Enter key) and you'll probably be greeted by a menu. If no menu appears, send a ? and a newline to the EMM.

At the menu prompt, send n<newline> to get a display of the EMM's network settings. For configuring a static DHCP assignment, the MAC address will useful. Example output:

 	 [c] Admin Interface
	 [d] Dump State Capture Buffer (large)
	 [e] Display Enclosure Status and Health
	 [i] Display Enclosure Inventory
	 [n] Display Network Configuration
	 [p] Dump Configuration Profile
	 [s] List Seven Segment Display Codes
	 [?] Help

<main>:n

===============================================================================
	Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-80-e5-27-32-36
	DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
	IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.10.116
	Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
	Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 172.16.10.1

===============================================================================

_________________________________________________________________

		   ESM Applications 2 User Menu

   (Wembley60 Tray 00, ESM-A, OEM 0, EBOD, FW 03.9F, Slots 60)

_________________________________________________________________
	 [c] Admin Interface
	 [d] Dump State Capture Buffer (large)
	 [e] Display Enclosure Status and Health
	 [i] Display Enclosure Inventory
	 [n] Display Network Configuration
	 [p] Dump Configuration Profile
	 [s] List Seven Segment Display Codes
	 [?] Help

<main>:

Repeat for the other EMM. Its IP address is going to be 192.168.128.102.

Set EMM up for DHCP

This one is pretty simple, too. Go to the Admin menu, select the network config option, set IP address value to "."

	 [p] Dump Configuration Profile
	 [s] List Seven Segment Display Codes
	 [?] Help

<main>:c

	Entering Admin mode


_________________________________________________________________

		   ESM Applications 2 Admin Menu

   (Wembley60 Tray 00, ESM-A, OEM 0, EBOD, FW 03.9F, Slots 60)

_________________________________________________________________
	 [c] Command Line Interface
	 [d] Dump State Capture Buffer (large)
	 [e] Display Enclosure Status and Health
	 [i] Display Enclosure Inventory
	 [l] Load Image
	 [n] Set Network Configuration
	 [p] Dump Configuration Profile
	 [q] Quit Admin Interface (Return to User-level menu)
	 [r] Reboot the ESM (Temporary drive path loss will occur!)
	 [s] List Seven Segment Display Codes
	 [t] Set Enclosure Tray ID
	 [?] Help

<main>:n

	Enter "." for the IP Address to set DHCP mode.
	DHCP Currently Enabled. . . . . . : Yes

	IP Address. . . . . [172.16.10.116] : .
 A Reboot is required for DHCP to take effect

_________________________________________________________________

		   ESM Applications 2 Admin Menu

   (Wembley60 Tray 00, ESM-A, OEM 0, EBOD, FW 03.9F, Slots 60)

_________________________________________________________________
	 [c] Command Line Interface
	 [d] Dump State Capture Buffer (large)
	 [e] Display Enclosure Status and Health
	 [i] Display Enclosure Inventory
	 [l] Load Image
	 [n] Set Network Configuration
	 [p] Dump Configuration Profile
	 [q] Quit Admin Interface (Return to User-level menu)
	 [r] Reboot the ESM (Temporary drive path loss will occur!)
	 [s] List Seven Segment Display Codes
	 [t] Set Enclosure Tray ID
	 [?] Help 

<main>:

Then reboot the EMM with the "r" menu option.

Crashing an EMM over the network

$ sudo nmap -O -p 1- 172.16.10.116
Starting Nmap 7.93 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2025-05-22 13:12 UTC

and wait forever. Power cycling may be required to bring it back to life at this point.

Firmware updates

This can be done over the network using TFTP. Get an updated firmware ZIP file from Dell's support web site. Tell Dell you're looking for support for a PowerVault MD3060e or enter the Dell Service Tag from the chassis. Unpack the ZIP file, and place the .esm file located inside into the TFTP server's root directory. Then, on the EMM again, go to the Admin menu, and select the l (Load Image) option.

_________________________________________________________________

		   ESM Applications 2 User Menu

   (Wembley60 Tray 00, ESM-A, OEM 0, EBOD, FW 03.9F, Slots 60)

_________________________________________________________________
	 [c] Admin Interface
	 [d] Dump State Capture Buffer (large)
	 [e] Display Enclosure Status and Health
	 [i] Display Enclosure Inventory
	 [n] Display Network Configuration
	 [p] Dump Configuration Profile
	 [s] List Seven Segment Display Codes
	 [?] Help


<main>:c

	Entering Admin mode


_________________________________________________________________

		   ESM Applications 2 Admin Menu

   (Wembley60 Tray 00, ESM-A, OEM 0, EBOD, FW 03.9F, Slots 60)

_________________________________________________________________
	 [c] Command Line Interface
	 [d] Dump State Capture Buffer (large)
	 [e] Display Enclosure Status and Health
	 [i] Display Enclosure Inventory
	 [l] Load Image
	 [n] Set Network Configuration
	 [p] Dump Configuration Profile
	 [q] Quit Admin Interface (Return to User-level menu)
	 [r] Reboot the ESM (Temporary drive path loss will occur!)
	 [s] List Seven Segment Display Codes
	 [t] Set Enclosure Tray ID
	 [?] Help

<main>:l

_________________________________________________________________

		   ESM Applications 2 Load Image Menu

   (Wembley60 Tray 00, ESM-A, OEM 0, EBOD, FW 03.9F, Slots 60)

_________________________________________________________________
	 [d] Load factory defaults using Xmodem (auto reboot)
	 [e] Load factory defaults using tftp (auto reboot)
	 [f] Load firmware using Xmodem
	 [g] Load firmware using tftp
	 [q] Quit and return to admin menu
	 [?] Help

<main>:g

	Enter Source IP Address. . . . . : 172.17.0.18

	File Name. . . . . . : MD3060e_Firmware_039F.esm


 

 Received 1154260Bytes
 Firmware Download Complete 

_________________________________________________________________

		   ESM Applications 2 Load Image Menu

   (Wembley60 Tray 00, ESM-A, OEM 0, EBOD, FW 03.9F, Slots 60)

_________________________________________________________________
	 [d] Load factory defaults using Xmodem (auto reboot)
	 [e] Load factory defaults using tftp (auto reboot)
	 [f] Load firmware using Xmodem
	 [g] Load firmware using tftp
	 [q] Quit and return to admin menu
	 [?] Help

<main>:
FLASH Update in progress *** DO NOT POWER DOWN ESM ***

FLASH Updating Boot code
FLASH Boot code is up-to-date

FLASH Updating FPGA code
FLASH FPGA code is up-to-date

FLASH Updating Application code
FLASH Appl code is up-to-date

FLASH Programming complete - rebooting

Cabling

Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) devices have 2 connections for host IO. Serial AT Attachement (SATA) devices have just one. SATA devices can be connected to a SAS connector and the single host IO connection will be used. In the MD3060e enclosure, the lower EMM is attached to the connectors the SATA drives use. The enclosure itself is attached to both. So, if using only SATA drives, make sure the server in question is actually attached to EMM 1, the lower one. And a connection to EMM 0 will provide a second path for SAS drives.