DIAGNOSTIC.readme file (Sept 04)

Overview

Required and Recommended Patches

Loading Patches

Known Problems

Removing Diagnostics

Getting More Information

This DIAGNOSTICS.readme document covers the September 2004 release of OE media for HP-UX 11i Version 2.0 (11.23).

CAUTION: You must install certain patches before loading Online Diagnostics (Support Tools). See "Required and Recommended Patches", below.
Overview

OE media contain a complete build of the following support tools:

Support Tool Manager (STM) for online diagnostics

ODE (offline diagnostics) / LIFLOAD

EMS hardware monitors

EMS Kernel resource monitors

The support tools are all contained in a Software Depot (SD) bundle named "OnlineDiag". This bundle is distributed in several ways:

OE Media

HP Software Depot website

This is the generic command line for listing various content levels of the depot:
swlist -l <level> -s /<mount_point>/DIAGNOSTICS/<os_release>

where <level> 
         = bundle       Bundle level listing
         = product      Product level listing
         = subproduct   Sub-product level listing
         = fileset      File set listing

      <mount_point>     Location where the CD file system
                        is mounted.

      <os_release>      The OS contents of the depot.
         = B.11.00
The Support Tools Manager and ODE/LIFLOAD must be loaded after the Operating System is installed. The EMS Hardware Monitors are installed automatically when STM is installed.

OE Media can be:

Mounted and used to install online diagnostics and support tools via swinstall(1m).

For this September 2004 release:

All diagnostic defect repairs and enhancements as of June 1, 2004, are included. Any future patches dated after September must be loaded after this version of OnlineDiag is loaded.

Support for the new hardware in all active releases as of September 1, 2004.

Required and Recommended Patches

CAUTION: You must install certain patches before loading Online Diagnostics (Support Tools).

This document lists the required and recommended patches at the time of writing.

For the HP-UX 11i V2.0 (March 2004) Release, two patches are included in the HWEnable11i bundle on the OE CDs that are required for hp mx2 dual processor module systems:

PHKL_30165 (diag2)

PHKL_30155 (machdep)

The HWEnable11i patch bundle MUST be installed on all hp mx2 dual processor module systems; failure to do so will result in system instability. Both patches are kernel patches and will require you to reboot your system.

Loading Patches

You can load the patches in one of three different ways:

Method 1: Entire patch bundle. Install the entire Hardware Enablement Bundle (HWE), or Quality Pack (QPK) patch bundle for your system. Advantages: Simple and tested process. Disadvantages: The bundle can be many megabytes in size.

Choose the hardware patch bundle appropriate for your system.

The patch bundles are distributed in the same way as the OnlineDiag bundle:

The OE Media

The HP Software Depot website

The procedure for using swinstall to load the patches is described in Chapter 5 of the "Support Plus: Diagnostics Users Guide."

Method 2: Individual patches from the bundle. Install ONLY the individual patches required for your system from the patch bundle described above. Advantages: Small number of patches. Disadvantages: Requires knowledge of SD (swinstall) to select patches (interactive selection or command line selection).

Method 3: Individual patches from website. You can also obtain the patches through the HP IT Resource Center (http://us.itrc.hp.com). A problem with loading individual patches from this website is that a system reboot is required for every patch that requires a reboot (patches to the kernel, indicated by "PHKL" in the patch name, all require a reboot).

Known Problems

If the SysFaultMgmt product is installed on your system, you must take the following steps, before and after updating the OnlineDiag product:
Shut down the SysFaultMgmt subsystem via the command line:
                /sbin/init.d/cimserver stop
                
Perform the OnlineDiag update.
After the update is completed, restart the SysFaultMgmt subsystem via the command line:
                /sbin/init.d/cimserver start
                
NOTE:Should you need to kill monitoring during normal system operation, you must use steps 1 and 3, above, to avoid an automatic restart of monitoring; step 2 is the action you need to perform while monitoring is turned off.

Future updates to SysFaultMgmt and OnlineDiag will resolve this problem.

Problem: Clock problem causes EMS HW Monitors to go into NOT_READY state.
Symptoms:

The boot time recorded on the system is later than the current time. An easy way to tell if this has occurred is to check the system restart time in the /var/adm/syslog/syslog.log file against the time returned by the "time" command.

Cause/Action:

The most likely cause of this problem is that the EFI time was incorrectly set or modified.

If the restart time is later than the current time, the EMS HW Monitors will go into a NOT_READY state, and will not start monitoring the system until the current time on the system actually catches up to the boot time recorded. In order to determine if the monitors are in the NOT_READY state, perform the following:
Run /etc/opt/resmon/lbin/monconfig.
Choose the C)heck command.
Each monitor will be listed, as in the example below, and the state will be NOT_READY:
        > /storage/events/disks/default ... NOT READY.
This problem will occur on every reboot.
Workaround:

Shutdown EMS HW Monitors and OnlineDiag:

Run /etc/opt/resmon/lbin/monconfig.

Choose the K)ill command.

Type "y" in response to the "do you want to do this" question.

Wait for the K)ill to complete.

Choose the Q)uit command.

Run /usr/sbin/cstm.

Type "ssd" at the prompt.

Type "ok" in response to the "do you want to do this" question.

Type "exit" to exit.

Type "ok" in response to the "do you want to do this" question.

Resync the EFI time and system time:

Use the "date" HP-UX command to set the time to the correct time.

NOTE: Just changing the timezone will NOT correctly resync the EFI time to the HP-UX time; the actual time needs to be modified.

Restart OnlineDiag and EMS HW Monitors:

Run /usr/sbin/cstm.
You will see messages indicating the diagnostic system isn't active.

Type "ssu" at the prompt.

Type "exit" to exit.

Type "ok" in response to the "do you want to do this" question.

Run /etc/opt/resmon/lbin/monconfig.

Choose the E)nable command.

Wait for the Enable to complete.

Problem: Online help may not work for xstm diagnostics.
Symptoms: In xstm (the graphical interface for online diagnostics), no online help appears when you enter a command for online help. The diagnostics themselves are still functional.

Cause/Action: Online help for xstm requires that the Netscape browser be installed on the computer. The xstm interface invokes the Netscape browser to display .htm files located in the diagnostics sub-directories on disk. (The mstm and cstm interfaces do not use the Netscape browser.)

The easiest way to install the Netscape browser is from the AR (Application Release) Media supplied with the computer.

Alternative: Using any computer, you can view online help for xstm, mstm, and cstm on the Internet at: http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/diag/stm/sth_summ.htm

CAUTION: UPS Monitor May Need a Patch
In some cases, the UPS monitor (dm_ups) will not function and will instead generate event 45 (formerly event 42) with the text:
Probable Cause / Recommended Action:

The monitor was unable to locate the fifo pipe that should have been
created by ups_mond.  Therefore, information about the ups cannot be sent
to the monitor.
You need version (80.1.2.3) of ups_mond or greater. To update your system with the correct version of ups_mond, install the following patch:
HPUX 11.11: PHCO_27828 (supercedes PHCO_24173, PHCO_23832)
To fix the problem, load the indicated patch or load the HWE patch bundle which contains this patch. For HP-UX 11i, the ups_mond patch PHCO_23832 is also distributed on the Sept 01 OE.
This problem will affect most systems with a UPS when the September 2001 diagnostics are installed. The only systems not affected will be those which are being updated from certain versions of the diagnostics (September 2000 through March 2001) and which do not have patch PHCO_19040 (HP-UX 11.00) installed.

CAUTION: Compatibility Problem with EMS-Related Products (ServiceGuard, HA Monitors, etc.)
If you install the OnlineDiag bundle (Dec 99 or later) onto a computer running older revisions of EMS-related products, these products may experience compatibility problems. Affected products include MC/ServiceGuard, ServiceGuard OPS Edition and High Availability Monitors. The only critical problems occur with the following versions:
MC/ServiceGuard            A.10.10, A.11.01, A.11.03
ServiceGuard OPS Edition   A.11.02, A.11.03
Support Tools and the EMS hardware monitors are not affected. For complete information, see EMS Incompatibility Problem.

Removing Diagnostics

If you wish to remove the STM online diagnostic system after it has already been installed, type:
           swremove OnlineDiag 
    
Getting More Information

You can get more information on Diagnostics (Support Tools) in the following ways:
Once you install a specific stream (e.g., HP-UX 11.11/11i), the Release Notes for that stream are available:
   Support Tools Manager (STM): /usr/sbin/stm/Rel_NOTES.STM 
   EMS hardware monitors:  /usr/sbin/stm/Rel_NOTES.HWE
For the latest information on hardware support tools, such as STM and EMS Hardware Monitors, refer to the "Diagnostics" section of Hewlett-Packard's online documentation Web site at:
     http://docs.hp.com/hpux/diag/
This site provides manuals, tutorials, FAQs, and other reference material. Two complete manuals ("Support Plus: Diagnostics User's Guide" and "EMS Hardware Monitors User's Guide") appear on the Web site and in the two following locations:
In the DIAGNOSTICS directory under your mount point for the CD-ROM (e.g., /diagtemp/DIAGNOSTICS ). The files are named DIAG_USR.PDF and EMS_USR.PDF and can be read with the Adobe Acrobat viewer which can be downloaded from the Adobe Web site.

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URL: http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/diag/st/str_1123pi.htm
Last updated: Thur Sept 02 09:19:36 PDT 2004