Release Notes for STM on HP-UX 11.00 (March 2001)

• Overview
• Documentation
• Changes
  • Changes to User Interface and Platform
  • General Changes to Tools
  • Changes to Specific Tools
• Known Problems
• Defect Reporting
• SD Product Structure

These release notes cover the March 2001 release of Support Plus for HP-UX 11.00 running on S800/S700 systems.

NOTE: As of the September 1999 release, the name of the Diagnostic/IPR Media has been changed to Support Plus. In addition, the format has changed so that there is a separate CD-ROM for each version of the operating system (HP-UX 10.20 and HP-UX 11.0).

Overview

The Support Tools Manager (STM) provides a complete set of online support tools for HP-UX systems, enabling you to verify and troubleshoot PA-RISC system hardware, and to examine system logs.

STM offers several tool types, including information tools, verifiers, exercisers, expert tools, firmware update tools, diagnostics and utilities.

Installed with STM (as of IPR 9902) are the EMS Hardware Monitors, an important tool for maintaining system availability. The EMS hardware monitors allow you to monitor the operation of a wide variety of hardware products and be alerted immediately if any failure or other unusual event occurs. For more information, see /usr/sbin/stm/Rel_NOTES.HWE.

Documentation

For the latest and most complete information on STM and EMS Hardware Event Monitors, see the Web page "Diagnostics":

  http://docs.hp.com/hpux/diag/

At this site, you will find Overviews, Tutorials, Quick Reference Cards, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and much other material.

Changes

The online Support Tools Manager (STM) was enhanced and updated for the current release.

Changes to User Interface and Platform

• Modified the STM daemon memlogd to log a message to its activity log when it starts up and when it shuts down.
• Added support for HPA6188A product. It is now recognized as a Virtual Array with specific tools.
• (JAGad36990) Fixed problem in xstm whereby a large number of devices causes the graphical display of the device map to become corrupt. Now, if the number of devices exceeds 50, the device map will be displayed as a text map rather than a graphical map.
• (JAGac88759) Fixed a problem in mstm, whereby when attempting to view a large file through the mstm file viewer, mstm would abort with the following message:

  Exiting the STM UI due to an unexpected error.
  Possible Causes: Internal Application Error.
  The UI Activity Log and/or the System Activity Log
  may contain more detailed information. If possible,
  refer to those log files for additional help.
  

• Corrected a parameter name in an error message. When the system resources for the number of processes that can wait for a semaphore were exceeded, the message displayed in the error log referenced the wrong kernel parameter to adjust. The previous message was:

   Increase the system configuration parameter that
  controls the maximum number of processes that can
  request a SEM_UNDO (semmnu).
  

  The new message is:

    Increase the system configuration parameter that
  controls the maximum number of processes that can
  request a SEM_UNDO (semume).
  

• (JAGad38739). Fixed a problem with the daemonkill command. Previously, when no daemons were active on the system and the user selected the daemonkill command, the UI would display an empty dialog message requesting the user to select a daemon to kill. In cstm, the UI would go into an infinite loop with an error indicating no item was selected, until it was aborted. With this fix, the UI will display a message indicating there are no daemons running on a system when the daemonkill command is requested and there are no daemons running.

General Changes to Tools

• (JAGad23562) Eliminated logging of informational messages as errors in the activity logs of tools that make calls to Processor Dependent Code (PDC). Previously, an error was logged if PDC returned a status that indicated that the PDC call was not supported. With this fix, an error is not logged in these cases, and a failure status value is no longer returned. Instead, a new informational status is reported that informs the user that the PDC call is not supported.
• Added support for C1118J, C1118M, C1100J, and C1100M ("Stretch Vette emulation of Vette"). This is an existing product that reports an unusual Product ID and the change was made so that STM tools will support it. This device is a Magneto-Optical library that holds up to 2 MO drives and has 24 storage slots. Normally, the Product ID of this device is either C1118J (for 8X technology) or C1118M (for 14X technology). However, some new devices will report C1100J or C1100M which is a 16-slot library. This was done to support some ISV applications that will only support the C1100-type libraries.
• Enhanced tools for Visualize-FXE graphics systems, to be able to distinguish between HPA4982A ("Pinnacle I") and HPA4982B (Pinnacle II) and handle both appropriately (device frequency and framebuffer size).

Changes to Specific Tools

• Information tools:
  • Added a new Information Tool for the Command View Storage Device Manager (SDM) ("Pandora"), providing information about devices like the Virtual Array 7100 with Autoraid, that are managed by the Command View SDM.
  • Added support for new HSC Tachlite cards: HP6684A_Tachyon and HP6655A_Tachyon.
  • Added support for C7461AE and C7466A ("Quantum SuperDLT") drives.
  • (JAGad25829). Enhanced information tool for SCSI disks so that the maximum size for serial numbers is expanded from 64 to 256 characters.
  • (JAGad33286) Fixed a problem with the Memory Information Tool. On heavily loaded systems with multiple memory controllers, the tool would occasionally (rarely) terminate with an "incomplete" status.
  • System Info Tool:
    • (JAGad37127) Enhanced the System Info Tool to display the PDC revision number in the same format as other applications display it, namely in a major.minor decimal format. The upper 32 bits returned from PDC are the major number and the lower 32 bits are the minor number. The new format will be used to display general system information, so as to match the format of the CPU Info Tool. The new format will also be used to display the PDC rev for cell, so as to match the gsp and SAM partition manager.
    • (JAGad37129) Fixed a problem with the System Info Tool. In cstm, when displaying the System Info Tool log, the cstm pager (more -d) would exit with pipe error when attempting to display the formatted FRUID data portion of the log. The reason was due to some of the ascii characters not being displayable characters and causing problems with "more".
    • (JAGad37128) Enhanced the System Info tool by adding a text definition of the term "unknown" which is used to describe the state of the hardware in the hardware table. ("Unknown" is a particular hardware state, as defined in the computer architecture specification.) The System Info tool was also changed to eliminate any information about I/O slots which do not exist for each cell.
    • (JAGad39310) Fixed a problem with the System Info Tool, which would abort with an "incomplete" status. It failed to log cabinet information, cpu information, and fruid information.
    • Modified the System Info Tool so that it will always display the system serial number if it is returned from PDC.
    • (JAGad46093) Fixed an intermittent problem with the System Info Tool, whereby invalid cabinet information could be displayed for non-Superdome computers. The information displayed only made sense for Superdome computers.
  • Modified information tools so as not log an error when attempting to get HPA/SPA (Hard Physical Address/Soft Physical Address) on hardware which doesn't support it. Previously, information tools would complete successfully in such a case, but an error would be logged in the activity log indicating that there was a failure to get information, and a value of 0 would be displayed to the user. The error message was:

    An STM_KEY_TOKEN_DEF (15) io_errno indicates that the
    specified item does not exist in the I/O tree node.
    
    Possible Causes/Recommended Action:
       The driver is not placing the data in the I/O tree node.
    This could be a defect or it may merely mean the driver does
    not implement this feature.
       The device is misconfigured.  Reconfigure the device
    making sure that the correct device driver is utilized.
    

    In addition, the information log will no longer display the "Hard Physical Address" field with a value of 0 for the HPA if it is not available. Previous display:

    Software Option:        XXXX
    Hard Physical Address:  0
    Soft Physical Address:  0
    Slot Number:            XXXX
    

    New display:

    Software Option:        XXXX
    Slot Number:            XXXX
    

• Exerciser tools:
  • (JAGad38119). Fixed a problem with the memory exerciser that can occur on systems with huge amounts of memory (e.g., 132 GB). The memory exerciser would not perform correctly if memory in the computer exceeded the value of 2,147,483,647 times the value of the kernel parameter "maxsiz".
• Verifier tools:
  • N/A
• Diagnose tools:
  • Added a new Diagnose Tool for the Command View Storage Device Manager (SDM) ("Pandora"), providing diagnostic information for devices like the Virtual Array 7100 with Autoraid, that are managed by the Command View SDM.
  • Added support for C7461AE and C7466A ("Quantum SuperDLT") drives.
• Firmware update tools:
  • Added a new Firmware Update Tool for the Command View Storage Device Manager (SDM) ("Pandora"), providing information about how to launch the Command View SDM user interface that provides the firmware update facility for devices like the Virtual Array 7100 with Autoraid, that are managed by the Command View SDM.
  • Added support for C7461AE and C7466A ("Quantum SuperDLT") drives.
  • Modified firmware update tools for SCSI devices, so that more time is allowed for devices to complete flashing firmware. There had been several reports about the Sept 2000 release of the diagnostics (IPR 0009), in which the firmware update tool timed out before the flashing process was complete, causing a false failure to be reported. The time was increased to give all the devices ample time to complete the flashing process after firmware was update. In most cases, the end user will see little change in the tool.
  • Updated firmware update tool for C7369A Tape drive ("Ultrium LTO"). In rare cases, the tool may require a user to enter a password and use the advanced menu to select a desired firmware file (the basic menu defaults to using only the most current version available and only allows it if it's more current than what is loaded in the drive).
• Expert tools:
  • Added a new Expert Tool for the Command View Storage Device Manager (SDM) ("Pandora"), providing information about how to launch the Command View SDM user interface to configure devices like the Virtual Array 7100 with Autoraid, that are managed by the Command View SDM.
  • Added support for C7461AE and C7466A ("Quantum SuperDLT") drives.
  • Modified the CPU Expert Tool, to change the way dialog boxes show the available selections. Previously, the CPU Expert Tool has shown all of the CPUs in the dialog boxes, with those available for the requested action being pre-selected.
    This has been revised so that only the CPUs available for a selection are shown, with none of the items pre-selected. For example, if the user chooses to activate a SPU, and one SPU is deactivated, say SPU 2, then only SPU 2 would be shown in the dialog box. SPU 2 would NOT be pre-selected.
    This change applies to the following actions: activate, deactivate, assign, mark for deconfiguration, mark for reconfiguration, and exercise.
  • (JAGad40902) Fixed a problem with the CPU Expert Tool. Previous versions did not properly assign a process to a selected SPU. This version will correctly assign the process to a given SPU with the following caveat: any I/O that is performed by the process will take place on the Monarch SPU. This is a limitation in the HP-UX kernel. Once the I/O is complete, processing will resume on the SPU the process was assigned to.
• Logtool:
  • (JAGad41507). Added help text describing "Details" button. By default, the display of details is OFF in xstm, but ON in cstm.
  • Enhanced behavior of Chassis Code Log Daemon (cclogd):
    • cclogd now logs all chassis codes from BOOT_START into the boot file ccbootlog and does not stop logging them after the one hour time frame ends.
    • The boot log is now archived when it reaches 750k bytes or when a new BOOT_START sequence starts.
    • Cclogd no longer logs a chassis code activity log and now puts error level 1's and above in the chassis code error log. (This behavior now matches that of HP-UX 11i.)
    • Fixed a problem with chassis code decoder, whereby physical locations were not displayed.
• Copyutil (Utilities):
  • (JAGab73084) Disallowed multiple selections of disks. Now only one disk can be selected at a time.
  • (JAGad46784) Fixed a problem which prevented a device from being selected on some systems.
• Sarray (Utilities):
  • (JAGaa47265) Changed the syntax of the command SET FREQ <freq> to FREQ <freq> . Sarray is a "wrapped" tool that formerly was part of the sysdiag diagnostics.

Known Problems

: Monitoring Changes for disc30, sdisk and disk array devices

As of IPR 9902 (Feb 99 release), there has been a change to the way that monitoring is done for disc30, sdisk and the HA Disk Array Models 10, 20, and 30FC.

Formerly, the "diaglogd exec" programs (pdisc30_exec, pharaymon_exec, and psdisk_exec) handled driver error entries for these devices.

As of IPR 9902, these programs have been deleted and their functionality is now provided by the EMS Hardware Monitors.

If you had customized the configuration files for the diaglogd exec programs (disk30_exec.cfg, sdisk_exec.cfg, and haraymon_exec.cfg) you may wish to re-configure the EMS Hardware Monitors to achieve the same results.

Defect Reporting

Use CHART to report defects in STM. The project name is diag.stm.tools.hpux for individual tools, and diag.stm.ui.hpux for the user interface. If you don't have access to CHART, contact an HP representative to enter a defect for you.

SD Product Structure

The product number for STM is B4708AA.

SD PRODUCT: Sup-Tool-Mgr
   Description: On-line Diagnostic System (Series 800/700)

   SD SUB-PRODUCT: Manuals
   Description: Support Tools Manager Manual Pages

      FILESET: STM-MAN
         Description: S800/S700 STM Manual Pages

      FILESET: STM-SHLIBS
         Description: S800/S700 STM Shared Libraries

      FILESET: STM-UI-RUN Corequisite Filesets: STM-SHLIBS
         Description: S800/S700 STM User Interface
         
      FILESET: STM-UUT-RUN  Corequisite Filesets: STM-SHLIBS
         Description: S800/700 STM Unit Under Test Runtime 

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