Diagnostics
A suite of offline and online support tools are available to enable manufacturing, field support
personnel, and the customer to troubleshoot system problems. In general, if the operating system
(OS) is already running, it is not desirable to shut it down, and the online support tools should
be used.
If the OS cannot be booted, you must use the offline support tools resolve the problem. The
offline support tools are available either from the EFI partition, or from the IPF Offline Diagnostics
and Utilities CD (IPF systems only). Once the problem preventing booting has been resolved,
the OS should be booted, and the online support tools should be used for any further testing.
If it is not possible to reach EFI from either the main disk or from a CD, you must troubleshoot,
using the visual fault indicators, console messages, and system error logs that are available.
Online Diagnostics/Exercisers
Online support tools are available which permit centralized error archiving, and which provide
hardware inventory tools, as long as the agents/providers that support them are installed on the
managed server.
On HP-UX systems, the legacy tools within OnlineDiag will continue to be supported. The online
support tools, on the HP-UX 11.23 and greater operating systems, include the Support Tool
Manager (STM) tools, and the additional Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) features
added by SysFaultMgmt.
The STM suite of tools includes verifiers, diagnostics, exercisers, information modules, and expert
tools.
Verifiers quickly determine whether or not a specific device is operational by performing tasks
similar in nature to the way applications use the device. No license is required to run the verifiers.
Diagnostics are tools designed to identify faulty or failed FRUs.
Exercisers stress devices in order to facilitate the reproduction of intermittent problems.
Information modules create a log of information specific to one device, including:
•
The product identifier
•
A description of the device
•
The hardware path to the device
•
The vendor
•
Onboard log information (if applicable)
•
Miscellaneous information associated with the device
•
The firmware revision code, if firmware is present in the device, is also displayed
Expert tools are device-specific troubleshooting utilities for use by sophisticated users. Their
functionality varies from tool to tool, but they are intended to be interactive, and rely on users to
provide information necessary to perform a particular task. These tools require users to have the
appropriate license, if they wish to run them.
Online Support Tool Availability
Online diagnostics are included in the HP-UX OE media, and are installed by default.
Online Support Tools List
The following online support tools are available on HP-UX 11.23 hosted systems. In some cases,
a tool, such as a disk exerciser, is generic to many types of hardware; in other cases, a tool,
such as a tape diagnostic. is specific to a particular technology or type of tape drive.
lists the online support tools.
Troubleshooting Tools
145