Dell SC Series MCP Server

A read-only Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets AI assistants (opencode, Claude Desktop, any MCP client) diagnose Dell SC Series / Compellent storage arrays (SC5020/F, SC7020/F, SC8000, SC9000, SCv20xx/30xx, SC4020…) through the array's own REST API.

Ask your AI: "How is the SAN doing?", "Any hardware alerts?", "When will the SSD pool run out of space?" — and get answers straight from the controller.

Why this server

• No Dell Storage Manager (DSM) required. It talks directly to the Storage Center controller REST API (https://<array>:3033/api/rest, SCOS 7.x). If a DSM Data Collector is present, it works against that too.
• Read-only by design. After login it issues only GET requests. It cannot create/modify/delete anything on your array.
• Battle-tested diagnostics. The tool set was built while investigating a real production SC5020F incident (emergency write-outage caused by pool exhaustion, dead cache batteries, broken phone-home) — the tools surface exactly the signals that matter.

Features

• API-version negotiation (works against SCOS 7.x, API 2.0–6.x)
• Session management with transparent re-login on expiry
• TLS verification configurable (self-signed default, CA bundle supported)
• Thread-safe client; sync tools safe for concurrent MCP calls
• Fully mocked test suite — contributors don't need an array

Tools

Tool	Description
sc_health_report	Aggregated markdown health report — the "how is the array?" one-shot
sc_alerts	Alerts with filters (unacknowledged_only, category)
sc_capacity	Disk folders/pools, thresholds, projected full dates, provisioned vs written totals
sc_volumes	Volumes: size, pool, folder, last UNMAP/space-reduction time
sc_servers	Hosts: connectivity, path counts, mapped volumes, OS
sc_hardware	Controllers & enclosures: status, last boot, LEDs, conditions
sc_ports	Front/back-end ports + iSCSI fault domains (IPs, MTU, CHAP)
sc_storage_center	Array identity, SCOS version, operation mode, background-task flags

Requirements

• Python 3.10+

• Network access to the array on TCP 3033

• An SCOS user account. Important visibility note (learned the hard way):

  Role	Sees
  Admin	Everything (volumes, pools/capacity, all servers, alerts)
  Reporter	Filtered subset on direct connections: alerts, controllers, enclosures — but no volumes, capacity pools, or servers

  For full diagnostics use an Admin account; a Reporter is fine for alert/hardware-only monitoring.

Installation

From source (until published to PyPI):

git clone https://github.com/DigitainIT/dell-sc-series-mcp.git
cd dell-sc-series-mcp
python -m venv .venv
.venv/Scripts/activate        # Windows; use source .venv/bin/activate on Linux/macOS
pip install -e .

Configuration

Environment variables (see .env.example):

Variable	Required	Default	Purpose
SC_HOST	✅	—	Storage Center management IP/hostname
SC_USER	✅	—	SCOS username
SC_PASS	✅	—	SCOS password
SC_PORT		3033	REST API port
SC_TLS_VERIFY		false	Verify TLS (arrays ship self-signed certs)
SC_CA_BUNDLE		—	Path to CA bundle (overrides SC_TLS_VERIFY)

Run

Standalone (stdio transport — this is what MCP clients spawn for you):

export SC_HOST=192.0.2.10 SC_USER=reader SC_PASS=secret
dell-sc-mcp            # or: python -m dell_sc_mcp

opencode (opencode.json)

{
  "mcp": {
    "dell-sc": {
      "type": "local",
      "command": ["dell-sc-mcp"],
      "environment": {
        "SC_HOST": "192.0.2.10",
        "SC_USER": "reader",
        "SC_PASS": "secret"
      },
      "enabled": true
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop (claude_desktop_config.json)

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "dell-sc": {
      "command": "dell-sc-mcp",
      "args": [],
      "env": {
        "SC_HOST": "192.0.2.10",
        "SC_USER": "reader",
        "SC_PASS": "secret"
      }
    }
  }
}

On Windows, point command at the console script in your venv, e.g. C:\\path\\to\\.venv\\Scripts\\dell-sc-mcp.exe.

Example conversation

You: Give me a health overview of the storage array. AI (via sc_health_report): Status Up, mode Normal, 23 unacknowledged alerts — including active cache battery alerts on both controllers and SSD-Pool projected full 2026-12-25…

You: Which hosts have degraded connectivity? AI (via sc_servers): degradedConnectivity: ["esxi-02"] — 2/4 paths.

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause / fix
login failed … HTTP 401	Wrong credentials. SCOS usernames are case-sensitive (Admin ≠ admin).
Login loops through all API versions	Array unreachable or port wrong — verify Test-NetConnection <ip> -Port 3033.
sc_volumes/sc_capacity return empty	You're using a Reporter account — see visibility table above.
Method not available on some object	Direct controller connections expose fewer objects than a DSM Data Collector (e.g. no physical disk list, no perf counters). Deploy DSM for those.
TLS errors with verify on	Use SC_CA_BUNDLE with the array's CA, or keep SC_TLS_VERIFY=false on a trusted management LAN.

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest                 # fully mocked - no array needed

Layout:

src/dell_sc_mcp/
  client.py     # SCOS REST API client (auth, version negotiation, relogin)
  server.py     # FastMCP server + tools
tests/          # pytest + responses (HTTP fully mocked)
examples/       # standalone diagnostic scripts (diagnose, probe, summarize,
                # MCP smoke test against a live array)

Live smoke test against a real array (optional):

export SC_HOST=... SC_USER=... SC_PASS=...
python examples/mcp_smoke_test.py

Roadmap

• [ ] Publish to PyPI
• [ ] Optional write tools with explicit guardrails (acknowledge alerts)
• [ ] DSM Data Collector target support (historical performance stats)
• [ ] Response caching for high-frequency polling
• [ ] Streamable HTTP transport

Contributing

Issues and PRs welcome. Please keep the server read-only by default and never commit real array data (serials, IPs, hostnames) — tests use fictional fixtures only.

Disclaimer

This is an independent community project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed, or supported by Dell Technologies. "Dell" and "Compellent" are trademarks of Dell Inc.

License

MIT © 2026 Gegham Simonyan