Huawei OceanStore storage boxes are cheap, I mean dirt cheap, especially, if you get a good deal. It has it’s quirks, problems and misunderstandings, but as much as you love or hate it, it always tends to surprise you with something new – good or bad, doesn’t matter. This time, viola, developer mode. 

Huawei OceanStore 6800V3

Huawei OceanStore storage systems for the advanced user, em, “Developer”

The 6800V3 box rates as the higher end of the mid-tier storage, although it is advertised as top-tier enterprise level. It can have a multitude of different hard drives inserted, knows smart tiering, has a usable CLI, a semi-usable GUI and comes with some sort of support, which is a good thing. 

Default mode

Although admin, or superAdmin, as Huawei calls it, you are limited to this set of commands:

 

$ ssh admin@testsys

Authorized users only. All activities may be monitored and reported.
password:

WARNING: You have accessed the system.
You are required to have a personal authorisation from the system administrator before you use this computer. Unauthorised access to or misuse of this system is prohibited.


 System Name : testsys
 Health Status : Normal
 Running Status : Normal
 Total Capacity : 11.05TB
 SN : XYZ
 Location : ABC
 Product Model : 6800 V3
 Product Version : V300R002C10
 Time : 2017-11-23/14:05:53 UTC+01:00

admin:/><^tab^tab>
add change create delete exit export help import poweroff poweron
reboot remove restore scan show swap

Developer Mode

And voila, now, we’re developers! Notice the extra commands here.

admin:/>change user_mode current_mode user_mode=developer
developer:/><^tab^tab>
add backup change clear create debug delete exit export help
import minisystem poweroff poweron reboot remove restore scan show swap
upgrade

One thing in particular, the minisystem portion. The minisystem is a small distribution of an unspecified Linux. That is the core of the administration (and operation probably as well) of the whole 6800V3 system. Now, keep in mind, these environments are dangerous and any changes can result in unrecoverable states of the whole storage system

So…

developer:/>minisystem
-----------------System Information-----------------
| Product Version | V300R002C10 |
| System Version | 3.20.01.301 |
| Release Time | 2015-06-22_00:06:46 |
----------------------------------------------------
Storage: minisystem>

I found out later, that this distribution is based on something, that Huawei calls EulerOS. As far as I know, it is not the full version of the OS, which Huawei uses in the most of their products in different flavors.

For more info on Euler: http://support.huawei.com/enterprise/en/doc/DOC1000111843