Commands Reference, Volume 3

invscout Command

Purpose

Surveys the host system for currently installed microcode or Vital Product Data (VPD).

Syntax

invscout  [   -v  ]  [   -c  ]  [   -r  ]  [   -q  ]  [   -k  ]  [   -h  ]

Description

The invscout command executes one instance of the stand-alone version of the Inventory Scout process. The invscoutd command starts the server daemon side of a client-server version.

The Inventory Scout process supports two survey types:

• Microcode Survey
• Vital Product Data (VPD) Survey ( -v)

and two main actions that you can perform on either of the survey types:

• Perform a survey of the host system
• Concatenate two or more existing survey upload files ( -c)

Microcode Survey

A Microcode Survey gathers data from the host system on currently installed microcode for invscout-supported systems, devices and adapters. This command stores these data in a Microcode Survey Upload File that can be uploaded using the Internet to a Web server. Once on a Web server, a CGI compares them against a database and produces a Web page, reporting information on downlevel microcode and on how and where to obtain the latest versions of supported microcode.

A Microcode Survey also produces a Microcode Survey Formatted Text Report File. This file can be printed or displayed on a monitor and contains a subset of the information recorded in the upload file. This subset includes information about the invscout execution itself and the names and levels of currently installed microcode. The -r flag causes this report also to be sent to the screen from where the command was invoked.

All of the previous reports can contain information on the following:

• system microcode
• service microcode
• group microcode
• device and adapter microcode

VPD Survey

A VPD Survey stores the system VPD in a VPD Survey Upload File that can be uploaded using the Internet to a Web server. Once on the server, a CGI forwards the file to a repository and produces a Web page indicating the status of the operation.

No formatted text report is available for VPD Surveys.

Survey Results Concatenation

This option concatenates the upload files from two or more executions of the Microcode Survey or the VPD Survey into a single Concatenated Upload File. This file can be uploaded using the Internet to a Web server and processed by the server CGI to give the same results as would have been obtained by uploading and processing all the component files individually. The input files can be any valid upload files, but typically, this operation is done to simplify the task of uploading the results from several host systems.

To concatenate a set of existing Microcode Survey upload files, do the following:

1. Copy the files into the Microcode Survey Concatenation Input Directory.
2. Execute:
   invscout -c
   
3. Find the output Microcode Survey Concatenated Upload File in the same directory as the upload file for a Microcode Survey.

To concatenate a set of existing VPD Survey upload files, do the following:

1. Copy the files into the VPD Survey Concatenation Input Directory.
2. Execute:
   invscout -v -c
   
3. Find the output VPD Survey Concatenated Upload File in the same directory as the upload file for a VPD Survey.

Each time that invscout is invoked, the command only processes one of the two kinds of concatenation (Microcode or VPD).

Implementation Specifics

This command is valid only on the POWER-based platform.

Flags

Exit Status

This command returns the following exit values:

If an error occurs, the command writes an error log.

Security

Only users with an effective user ID of root can execute this command.

Examples

1. To run one Microcode Survey and send the results to a formatted text report file and an upload file, type:

   invscout
   

2. To run one VPD Survey and send the results to an upload file, type:

   invscout -v
   

3. To concatenate previously produced Microcode Survey upload files into a single upload file, type:

   invscout -c
   

4. To concatenate previously produced VPD Survey upload files into a single upload file, type:

   invscout -v -c
   

Files

Related Information

The invscoutd command.