File Name: ibm_utl_dsa_131preadme_linux_anycpu.txt ****************************************************************** | | | IBM(R) Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) Portable Edition, | | Version 1.31.37 | | | | (C) Copyright International Business Machines Corporation | | 2004, 2005. All rights reserved. | | | | US Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication | | or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with | | IBM Corp. | | | | Note: Before using this information and the product it | | supports, read the general information under | | "NOTICES" in this document. | | | | This readme file is provided only in English. You can | | obtain the latest version of the readme file from the IBM | | Support Web site. | | | | Updated 29 March 2006 | ****************************************************************** CONTENTS -------- 1.0 Overview 1.1 Product overview 1.2 Prerequisites for systems running Linux 1.3 Compatibility with ServeRAID Manager 1.4 Compatibility with Network Virtual Teaming software 1.5 Compatibility with UpdateXpress 2.0 Running Dynamic System Analysis 3.0 Using DSA command-line options 4.0 Accessing and viewing DSA output 4.1 Naming convention used for output files and directories 4.2 Viewing a compressed collection file 4.3 HTML files created by DSA 5.0 Sending DSA output to IBM xSeries Service and Support 5.1 Using DSA with UpdateXpress 6.0 Known problems and workarounds 7.0 Support Web sites 8.0 Notices 9.0 Third-party license terms and conditions, notices and information 9.1 zlib software 9.2 boost software 1.0 OVERVIEW ------------- This readme file provides information about IBM Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) Portable Edition for Linux. 1.1 Product overview --------------------- IBM DSA Portable Edition is a system information collection and analysis tool that is used by IBM xSeries(R) Service and Support personnel to aid in the diagnosis of system problems. DSA collects information about the following aspects of a system: o System configuration o Installed packages o Kernel Modules o Network interfaces and settings o Performance data and details for running processes o Hardware inventory, including PCI information o Vital product data, firmware, and basic input/output system (BIOS) information o Drive Health Information o ServeRAID configuration o Event logs for the operating system, ServeRAID controllers, and service processors Additionally, DSA creates a merged log that includes events from all collected logs. DSA also can compare the firmware configurations on a server to those on an UpdateXpress CD or CD image. For more information, see "6.2 Using DSA with UpdateXpress." The system information is collected into a compressed XML file that can be sent to IBM Service. Additionally, you can view the system information through optionally generated HTML Web pages. For more information, see "5.0 ACCESSING AND VIEWING DSA OUTPUT." DSA Portable Edition is not installed on the target system. When run, DSA Portable Edition expands to a temporary directory, which is removed after DSA information collection is completed. If you want to install DSA, use DSA Installable Edition. DSA Portable Edition is designed to fit on removable media such as a CD or USB key. The removable media must be supported for use with the server on which you plan to run DSA Portable Edition. 1.4 Other prerequisites for systems running Linux ---------------------------------------------------- Installation of DSA requires 15MB of disk space. DSA requires 50 to 100MB of available memory during the data collection process. The amount of memory required for this process depends on the size of the logs being collected from the system. To view the information that is collected by DSA, you must use either Internet Explorer 6.0 (Service Pack 1 or later) or Mozilla 1.40 or later. Either browser requires 30 to 100MB of available memory to display DSA data. The amount of memory required depends on the size of the logs being viewed. In order to collect Broadcom(TM) Ethernet firmware levels, the Broadcom(TM) NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet Drivers must be installed. The tg3 driver provided by default in current Linux distributions does not export this information. These drivers are available for download from the IBM Support website at: http://www.ibm.com/support In order to collect LSI Logic(TM) 1020/1030 SCSI Controller & RAID information, the "mptctl" driver must be loaded. Run "lsmod" and verify that "mptctl" is loaded before running DSA. In order to collect Service Processor logs, configuration, and environmental data the appropriate Service Processor driver must be installed. These drivers are available from the IBM Support website. DSA requires libcurl to be installed in order transfer data collections to the IBM Support site via FTP. Use of the UpdateXpress comparison analysis feature requires that an UpdateXpress CD be available for the system on which the analysis is performed. UpdateXpress versions 4.02 and later are supported. Notes: o The UpdateXpress comparison analysis feature will only support System Firmware comparisons including BIOS, Diagnostics, and Service Processor. Device drivers will not be compared in this release, due to limitations with the UpdateXpress CD. 1.5 Compatibility with ServeRAID Manager ----------------------------------------- DSA Portable Edition 1.31 can collect ServeRAID log information from ServeRAID Manager 6.10 and later versions. DSA cannot collect information from the following ServeRAID controllers: o ServeRAID-7t SATA RAID DSA cannot collect information from the following ServeRAID controllers unless ServeRAID Manager is installed: o ServeRAID-8i 1.6 Compatibility with Network Virtual Teaming software ----------------------------------------- DSA Portable Edition 1.31 is supported for use with the following Network Virtual Teaming software: o Linux Bonding versions 2.4.1, 2.6.0, & 2.6.1 1.7 Compatibility with UpdateXpress ------------------------------------ DSA Portable Edition is supported for use with UpdateXpress 4.02 and later versions. 2.0 RUNNING DYNAMIC SYSTEM ANALYSIS ------------------------------------ Complete the following steps to run DSA Portable Edition. Note: The operating-system account that runs DSA Portable Edition must have local Administrator authority. 1. At a linux shell prompt: 2. Type the name of the DSA Portable Edition shell script. 3. (Optional) Specify the -n option to direct the extraction of the DSA program files to a specific directory. 4. (Optional) Type DSA command-line options after the -a option following the executable file name. For more information, see "4.0 USING DSA COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS." The shell script extracts the DSA program files into temporary disk space on the server as defined by the TMP system variable in the Linux environment. DSA will then execute and start the collection process. When DSA is completed, the DSA program files are deleted from temporary disk space. If you ran DSA without any options, DSA collects information into one compressed XML file that can be sent to IBM Service. For information about where this file is created, see "5.0 ACCESSING AND VIEWING DSA OUTPUT." For information about sending the file to IBM Service, see "6.0 SENDING DSA OUTPUT TO IBM XSERIES SERVICE AND SUPPORT." 3.0 USING DSA COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS ----------------------------------- The command-line syntax in this document uses the following conventions: o Options are shown with a hyphen (-). o Options are shown as lowercase, but are not case-sensitive. o Variables are shown in angle brackets. Note: Several options are available when using the Portable Edition shell script. The -a option indicates that DSA command-line options are being specified. This option allows all of the following command-line parameters to be sent to the DSA application. If DSA command-line options are specified without being preceded by the -a option the options are passed to the self-extracting script, which prevents them from working as expected. The -n option can be used to override the default temporary extraction directory, /tmp. The -l option can be used to view the DSA license agreement. Note: When this option is used the DSA collection is not executed, only the license text will be displayed. DSA has the following command-line options: Options: -?, -h Display help for DSA command-line options. -b Run in batch mode. -c Create directory specified by /d option. -d Place DSA output files in the specified directory rather than in the default location, which is C:\IBM_Support. -f Collect the full ISMP log. -i Read input from rather than collecting data from the local server. -t Transfer collected data to IBM Service & Support. -u Path to UpdateXpress CD or CD image. -v Create HTML output files. -text Create TEXT output files. -x Do not create a compressed XML file. -r Run the CIM difference engine comparing the collected or specified (via -i) data to this file. -text Create a text output file. -dumpxml Write the DSA .xml.gz file after each plugin runs. Note: All options must be separated with one or more spaces. All options must be separated with one or more spaces. You must use a fully qualified path name with the -d and -i options. For example, to run DSA and generate HTML output files that can be viewed with a browser: Run this command for RHEL3: .sh -a -v To run DSA and create HTML output files in the directory /usr/foo/DSA_Output, run this command: .sh -a -v -c -d /usr/foo/DSA_Output DSA has the following environment variable options: DSA_INCLUDE where is a space, comma, or semi-colon separated list of plugins to include when collectall is run. The basename of the plugin is used. DSA_EXCLUDE where is a space, comma, or semi-colon separated list of plugins to exclude when collectall is run. The basename of the plugin is used. Note: DSA_INCLUDE and DSA_EXCLUDE are mutually exclusive. 3.1 Using DSA with UpdateXpress -------------------------------- Use the -u option to designate a fully qualified path to an UpdateXpress CD or CD image. When you do so, DSA compares the firmware configurations on the server to those that were extracted from the specified UpdateXpress CD or CD image. When the -v option is used to create HTML files, you can view the results of the comparison from the DSA home page. To do so, click "UpdateXpress Comparison" in the Analysis category in the left pane of the DSA home page. For more information about the DSA home page, see "7.3 HTML files created by DSA." 4.0 ACCESSING AND VIEWING DSA OUTPUT ------------------------------------- By default, DSA output is created in the /var/log/IBM_Support directory. When DSA is run with no command-line options, it creates only a compressed XML file in the IBM_Support directory. When DSA is run with the -v option, it creates a subdirectory that contains HTML files that you can view with a Web browser. 4.1 Naming convention used for output files and directories ----------------------------------------------------------- DSA uses the following naming convention for compressed XML files and for subdirectories that it creates: __-