Diagnosis Guide

Information to collect before contacting the IBM Support Center

Before calling the IBM Support Center, it is your responsibility to verify that the environment is correctly configured for File Collections. This includes verifying that any changes made to files specified by a collection were made on the master copy. The master is located on the control workstation for the SP File collections. Any changes made to files specified by a collection on a node will be overwritten on the next supper update.

If you have boot/install servers configured in your SP system, be aware that file distribution happens in two steps. First, the files on the boot/install server are updated from the control workstation. Then, the nodes are updated from their boot/install server. If you have changed a master copy of a file on the control workstation, and then issue supper on the node, the node will receive the old copy of the file from the boot/install server. Either wait for the normal update to occur, or be sure to issue the supper command on the boot/install server first, and then on the node, to obtain the updated copy of the master file on the control workstation.

Updates occur every hour through file collections based on an entry in cron. If you need updated copies of changed master files distributed before that time, you can issue a dsh command from the control workstation to the nodes to run the supper command. See the previous paragraph if you have defined boot/install servers on your SP system.

If you have changed the AIX hostnames of any host in your SP system, changed an IP address of a hostname, or changed the primary adapter of a host, consult PSSP: Administration Guide for instructions on updating the PSSP software to recognize the new AIX hostname, IP address, or adapter.

Run through the following diagnostic steps to further check the configuration of the environment for File Collections. If you are still having problems after this verification, collect the following information for the server (control workstation and boot/install servers if configured) and the client (usually a node) for use by the IBM Support Center:

1. The PSSP level installed.
2. The current PSSP PTF level.
3. A description of the error.
4. Diagnostic actions taken and the affect of those actions.
5. Whether any of the data files that describe a collection were modified to add customer files for distribution.
6. Whether you are using SP User Management.
7. Whether you have configured a boot/install server for the node where the error occurred.
8. The circumstances under which the error occurred. Were you installing a new level, updating from a PTF, migrating the control workstation or a node? Was File Collections running normally and then an error occurred? This will help to recreate and debug a problem.