File Name: dsa_installable_readme.txt ****************************************************************** | | | IBM(R) Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) Installable Edition, | | Version 2.00.41 | | | | (C) Copyright International Business Machines Corporation | | 2004, 2006. 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 13 September 2006 | ****************************************************************** CONTENTS -------- 1.0 Overview 1.1 Product overview 1.2 Prerequisites for systems running Windows 1.3 Compatibility with ServeRAID Manager 1.4 Compatibility with Network Virtual Teaming software 1.5 Compatibility with Service Processors 2.0 Installing Dynamic System Analysis 2.1 Performing an attended DSA installation 2.2 Performing an unattended DSA installation 3.0 Uninstalling Dynamic System Analysis 4.0 Running Dynamic System Analysis 4.1 Running DSA from the Start menu 4.2 Running DSA from a command prompt 5.0 Using DSA command-line options 5.1 Sending DSA output to IBM xSeries Service and Support 5.2 Using DSA with UpdateXpress 5.3 Running DSA Diagnostics 6.0 Accessing and viewing DSA output 6.1 Naming convention used for output files and directories 6.2 Viewing a compressed collection file 6.3 HTML files created by DSA 7.0 Known problems and workarounds 8.0 Support Web sites 9.0 Notices 10.0 Third-party license terms and conditions, notices and information 10.1 zlib software 10.2 boost software 1.0 OVERVIEW ------------- This readme file provides information about IBM Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) Installable Edition, version 2.00. 1.1 Product overview --------------------- IBM DSA Installable 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. This software can be used while the operating system is running. DSA collects information about the following aspects of a system: o System configuration o Installed applications, components and hotfixes o Device drivers and system services o Network interfaces and settings o Performance data and details for running processes o Hardware inventory, including PCI & USB information o Service Processor status and configuration o IBM LightPath(TM) status o Vital product data, firmware, and basic input/output system (BIOS) information o Drive Health data o ServeRAID configuration o LSI RAID & Controller configuration o Event logs for the operating system, applications, security, ServeRAID controllers, and service processors Additionally, DSA creates a merged log that includes events from all collected logs. DSA Installable Edition also can compare the device driver and firmware configurations on a server to those from UpdateXpress. 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 "7.0 ACCESSING AND VIEWING DSA OUTPUT." DSA Installable Edition can be run from the Start menu or from a command prompt. If you want to run DSA without installing it, use DSA Portable Edition, which is designed to fit on removable media such as a CD or USB key. 1.2 Prerequisites for systems running Windows ---------------------------------------------------- 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 Internet Explorer 6.0 SP 1 or later, Mozilla 1.4.0 or greater, or Firefox 1.04 or greater In order to display the DSA data, 30 to 100MB of available memory is required. The amount of memory required depends on the size of the logs being viewed. Use of the UpdateXpress comparison analysis feature requires that an UpdateXpress CD or an Internet connection be available for the system on which the analysis is performed. UpdateXpress CD versions 4.02 and later are supported. In order for DSA to collect ServeRAID Manager logs, the ServeRAID Manager agent must be started through the ServeRAID Manager user interface. 1.3 Compatibility with ServeRAID Manager ----------------------------------------- DSA Portable Edition 2.00 can collect ServeRAID log information from ServeRAID Manager 6.10 and later versions. DSA cannot collect information from the following ServeRAID controllers unless ServeRAID Manager is installed: o ServeRAID-7t SATA RAID o ServeRAID-8i o ServeRAID-8k 1.4 Compatibility with Network Virtual Teaming software ----------------------------------------- DSA Installable Edition 2.00 is supported for use with the following Network Virtual Teaming software: o Intel(R) PROSet for Wired Connections, version 9.1 or later o Broadcom Advanced Control Suite, version 7.6.7 or later 1.5 Compatibility with Service Processors ------------------------------------------ Environmental data is only available on xSeries servers which have either an Integrated System Management Processor (ISMP) or a Remote Supervisor Adapter (RSA) series service processor. 2.0 INSTALLING DYNAMIC SYSTEM ANALYSIS --------------------------------------- DSA Installable Edition is installed on one or more supported servers. It can be installed directly on a supporting server using the installable package. 2.1 Performing an attended DSA installation -------------------------------------------- Complete the following steps to perform an attended installation of DSA Installable Edition on a system running Windows. These steps are for a typical installation. Note: The operating-system account that is used to install DSA must have local Administrator authority. 1. Download the DSA Installable Edition executable file. 3. Run the DSA Installable Edition executable file. The "Welcome to the InstallShield Wizard for IBM Dynamic System Analysis" window opens. 4. Click Next. Review the license agreement. 5. Click "I accept the terms in the license agreement". 6. Select a Typical or Custom installation and click Next. 7. Click Next. 8. Click Install. 9. Click Finish. 2.2 Performing an unattended DSA installation ---------------------------------------------- Run this command to perform an unattended installation of DSA Installable Edition: DSA200I.exe /s /v/qn Run this command to perform an unattended installation of DSA that installs DSA to a non-default destination folder: DSA200I.exe /s /v"/qn INSTALLDIR=" where is the fully qualified path to which DSA will be installed, for example, D:\Utilities. The DSA installation program includes these command-line options: /s Run in silent mode. When this option is used with other installation options, an unattended installation or uninstallation is run. /v Pass command line switches and values of public properties to Windows installer engine. When you use a space after the /v option, enclose the information that follows in quotation marks. /qn Do not display any user windows or prompts. /x Uninstall DSA. 3.0 UNINSTALLING DYNAMIC SYSTEM ANALYSIS ----------------------------------------- Complete the following steps to perform an attended uninstallation of DSA. 1. Open the Windows Control Panel. 2. Double-click Add/Remove Programs. The "Add/Remove" window opens. 3. Click IBM Dynamic System Analysis. 4. Click Remove. The confirmation window opens. 5. Click Yes. Alternatively, run this command to perform an unattended uninstallation of DSA that does not display any user windows or prompts: DSA200I.exe /s /v/qn /x 4.0 RUNNING DYNAMIC SYSTEM ANALYSIS ------------------------------------ DSA Installable Edition can be run any of the following ways: o From the Start menu o From a command prompt 4.1 Running DSA from the Start menu ------------------------------------ To run DSA from the Windows Start menu, click Start --> Programs --> IBM Dynamic System Analysis --> IBM DSA. The window that opens shows the progress of DSA information collection. When DSA is completed, the user is prompted to kit enter to continue and the window closes. DSA collects information into one compressed XML file that can be sent to IBM Service. For information about where this file is created, see "7.0 ACCESSING AND VIEWING DSA OUTPUT." For information about sending the file to IBM Service, see "6.1 Sending DSA output to IBM Service and Support." When DSA is run from the Start menu, it also creates HTML files of the data that is collected from the server. For more information, see "7.3 HTML files created by DSA." 4.2 Running DSA from a command prompt -------------------------------------- The DSA executable file is collectall.exe. If you installed DSA in the default location, the executable file is in the following directory: %SystemDrive%\Program Files\IBM\DSA Note: For Microsoft Windows 64-bit Operating systems, the default location is: %SystemDrive%\Program Files(x86)\IBM\DSA Complete the following steps to run DSA from a command prompt: 1. Click Start; then, click Run. The "Run" window opens. 2. In the Open field, type the path to collectall.exe, or click Browse to locate it. 3. (Optional) Type DSA command-line options after the executable file name. For more information, see "6.0 USING DSA COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS." 4. Click OK. The window that opens shows the progress of DSA information collection. When DSA is completed, the window closes. For information about the DSA results, see "7.0 ACCESSING AND VIEWING DSA OUTPUT." 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 sending the file to IBM Service, see "6.1 Sending DSA output to IBM Service and Support." 5.0 USING DSA COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS ----------------------------------- The command-line syntax in this document uses the following conventions: o Options are shown delimited with a hyphen (-). o Options are shown as lowercase, but are not case-sensitive. o Variables are shown in angle brackets. DSA has the following command-line options: collectall.exe [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. -diags Execute all non-destructive diagnostic tests. -f Collect the full ISMP log. -i Read input from rather than collecting data from the local server. -l Display license and exit. -t Transfer collected data to IBM Service & Support. -u Path to UpdateXpress CD or CD image. -ul Use online UpdateXpress index. -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. -dumpxml Write the DSA .xml.gz file after each plugin runs. Note: All options must be separated with one or more spaces. For example, to run DSA and generate HTML output files that can be viewed with a browser, run this command: collectall.exe -v To run DSA and create HTML output files in the directory C:\temp\DSA_Output, run this command: collectall.exe -v -c -d C:\temp\DSA_Output 5.1 Sending DSA output to IBM xSeries Service and Support ---------------------------------------------------------- Use the -t option to send the collected data to IBM xSeries Service and Support. DSA uses File Transfer Protocol (FTP) to transfer the compressed XML output file to IBM Service. For example, the following command collects data and sends it to IBM Service: collectall.exe -t If you already have a compressed XML output file from DSA that you want to send to IBM Service, run DSA from a command prompt and use the -i option with the -t option. The -i option requires that you specify a fully qualified path name to the compressed XML output file from DSA. For example, the following command sends the specified output file to IBM Service: collectall.exe -t -i C:\IBM_Support\.xml.gz where is the name of a compressed XML file that was previously created by DSA. For example, an output file could be named 86865RZ_23D0600_20041004-190308.xml.gz. 5.2 Using DSA with UpdateXpress -------------------------------- Use the -u option to designate a fully qualified path to an UpdateXpress CD or CD image. Or, use the -ul option to indicate DSA should use the online UpdateXpress index. When you do so, DSA compares the device driver and firmware configurations on the server to those that were extracted from the specified UpdateXpress index. 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." 5.3 Running DSA Diagnostics --------------------------- Use the -diags option to execute diagnostics during the DSA collection process. This option will execute all of the non-destructive diagnostic tests that are included with DSA. An additional command-line utility, rtdcli.exe, is included with DSA Installable Edition that provides more control over the execution of the diagnostic tests. rtdcli.exe has the following command-line options: rtdcli.exe [-options] commands: run - Runs all tests tests - Lists installed tests devices - Lists devices and associated tests help - Displays this message options: -d - Specifies a device for the "run" commmand -t - Specifies a test for the "run" commmand -x - Enables the execution of destructive tests Note: Device and test names that contain spaces must be enclosed in parenthesis. Example: rtdcli devices -d "DVD-ROM 0" 6.0 ACCESSING AND VIEWING DSA OUTPUT ------------------------------------- By default, DSA output is created in the \IBM_Support directory of the hard disk defined by the %SystemDrive% environment variable. (This is the hard disk on which Windows is installed. It is usually C:\.) Use the -d option to specify a different output 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. 6.1 Naming convention used for output files and directories ------------------------------------------------------------ DSA uses the following naming convention for compressed XML files and for subdirectories that it creates: __-