Release Notes for STM on HP-UX 11i (11.11) (Special vPar Release, June 2002)

• 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 Special vPar Release (June 2002) of Support Plus for HP-UX 11i (11.11) running on S800 systems.

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

• JAGad91084
  Fixed typo of 'disk30' to 'disc30' in tllibscsi3 tool library routine tl_scsi3_get_uut_hw_path. SCSI array disk errors were being sent to EMS monitor disk_em by default, rather than the to the SCSI disk monitor. The STM scsi library routine identifying the driver name was looking for the typo 'disk30' instead of 'disc30'.
• JAGae26804
  Fixed mapping in the memory information tool; the memory extender labels on N-Class and L-Class now correctly display.
• JAGae25418
  Updated cclogd, so that it would not send hostname in a chassis code chain. Archived the ccerrlog the same way as ccbootlog.
• Added support for vPar to the CPU tools and library.
• Changed message catalog for system info tool. Changed the wording from "Protection Domain" to "Partition" or "Current Partition".
• Customers/users will only see the following documented changes in the behavior of the memlogd for the HWE0206-vPar special release of the OnlineDiag product on Superdome systems with virtual partitions installed.
  1. It is required that there be a memlogd running on each virtual partition (if the OnlineDiag product is installed on that virtual partition). For example, if a Superdome has two virtual partitions set up, and the OnlineDiag product is installed on both virtual partitions, there will be one memlogd per virtual partition; hence, a total of two memlogds on the system.
  2. Each memlogd will monitor:
     • memory allocated to the virtual partition its running in
     • memory allocated to the virtual partition monitor
     • memory not allocated to any virtual partition
     • memory allocated to another virtual partition, but the memlogd in that virtual partition currently may not be running.

     Hence, users can potentially see the same memory errors logged by the memlogds in different virtual partitions. For example, a memory error, 0xadb2074, detected by memlogd A on virtual partition A belongs to the memory allocated to the virtual partition monitor, so memlogd A logs that error in its memlog file; later on, the same memory error, 0xadb2074, belonging to the memory allocated to the virtual partition monitor occurs again and is detected by memlogd B on virtual partition B, so memlogd B logs that error in its memlog file; hence, when the user views the memlog file in partition A, it will see the memory error 0xadb2074 and then when the user views the memlog file in partition B, it will also see the memory error 0xadb2074 as well. As a result, users can potentially be alerted by the EMS HW Memory Monitor on each virtual partition (depending on how the memory monitor's configuration file, default_dm_memory.clcfg, file is setup on each virtual partition) on the system about the same faulty memory component (this is because from resulting from the same memory errors).

  3. Memlogd will handle a memory error belonging to the memory allocated to another virtual partition if:
     • that virtual partition is believed to be not running or
     • the memlogd in that virtual partition is believed to be not running; this means that the memlogd in another virtual partition is not able to detect the error after one hour from the time the error was detected by the memlogd of the current virtual partition. The memlogd of the current virtual partition will assume that the memlogd of another virtual partition is not running and handle the error.
  4. If running on a virtual partitions system and user selects to view the detailed information of the memlog file via logtool, there are two new page statuses introduced in addition to the existing page statuses:
     • "Pending: page could not be entered into pdt"

       This page status is used to indicate to the user that the following page could not be entered into the page deallocation table (PDT) either because the pdt is full or an error was encountered when memlogd tried to enter this page into the PDT.

     • "Pending: page may still be active"

       This page status logged by the memlogd in the memlog file only applies to pages not belonging to the virtual partition which the memlogd is running in to indicate to the user that the page has been entered into the PDT but memlogd can not determine if the OS has deallocated the page or not.

     • If running on a virtual partitions system and user selects to view the detailed information of the memlog file via logtool, the page status of the same memory page could potentially be different from the views of different virtual partitions. Example: a memory error, 0xadb2074, detected by memlogd A on virtual partition A belongs to the memory allocated to the virtual partition B, however, since memlogd B on virtual partition B was not running, memlogd A handles the memory error by logging it in its memlog file. The memory error, 0xadb2074, occurs again within 24 hours and memlogd A on virtual partition A handles the memory error again by entering it into the PDT and updating the memory error in its memlog file. Since the memory error has already been entered into the PDT, the page status of that memory error in the memlog file becomes "Pending: page can not be obtained" in memlogd A on virtual partition A. When memlogd B on virtual partition B finally starts up (e.g., user invokes memlogd B on virtual partition B), memlogd B would read the entries in the PDT and request the OS on virtual partition B to deallocate any entries belonging to the memory allocated to the virtual partition B. Since the memory error, 0xadb2074, (already in the PDT) belongs to the memory allocated to the virtual partition B, memlogd would request the OS on virtual partition B to deallocate the page containing that memory error. If the OS on virtual partition B is able to deallocate that page, the page status of that memory error in the memlog file becomes "Deallocated: page is no longer in use" in memlogd B on virtual partition B. Hence, the page status of that memory error in the memlog file could differ between the memlogds on different virtual partitions.
• JAGae10868
  A fix was made for JAGae10868, to solve occasional CPU Information Tool failures.
• Added support for the following CD-ROMs: TEACDV-28E-A, TEACDV-28E-b, TEACDW-28E, LITE-ONLTR-24102B, and HL-DT-STD VD-ROM GDR8161B.
• JAGae16777
  Fixed a potential problem with dc_chassis, that may cause the file system to fill up, if attempting to decode a corrupt raw chassis code file.
• Updated diagmond to keep track of OLA/R capable pci slots, to determine which associated hardware paths may be suspended, in order to update the monitor hardware paths list, so suspended paths can be ignored by EMS monitors.
• Updated diaglogd to handle MCA data processing.
• Error messages are no longer logged if a driver name does not exist for a given io tree token.
• Updated iSCSI by adding mapping of iscsi driver.
• Licensing now supports:

          Keystone(Perfpak)  hversion 0x5eb
          Matterhorn(Leone)           0x5eb
          Marcato W+ DC-              0x5da
          Superdome(Pacu)             0x5ea
  

• JAGae13080
  Fixed a problem where the 14x optical libraries would fail to be recognized as supported devices.
• Included the Mt Hamilton and Mt Hamilton DC- hversion mnemonics.
• JAGae09320
  Added support for the missing MARCATO_W_DC_MINUS hversion for STM tools.
• JAGae09320
  Added support for MARCATO_W_DC_MINUS 0x5DA/Marcato W+ DC- w/Landshark Processors.
• JAGae68931
  This is a submittal to provide support for Marca to W+ DC- machines, by including the Marcato (L3000) W+ DC- (0x5DA) hversion mnemonic.
• JAGad97675
  Added a security governer into a libdiaggs.sl library function that creates new stm directories. This function was modified so it may now either refuse to allow the new directory to be created or it may alter the access modes for the new directories being created. If the new path is /var/stm/ or any path under this, then the user must be root to create the directory. Otherwise the directory will not be created and an error message will be logged. All directories under /var/stm/ shall be created with rwxr-xr-x permissions, with the exception of /var/stm/logs and /var/stm/catalog which shall both be created with rwxrwxrwxt permissions. All other directories may be created by anyone, but will be created to be writable by the creator only.

General Changes to Tools

• The CPU Info, Expert, and Exerciser tools will operate on the CPUs in the current partition, because the partition does not see hardware on other partitions. The tools try to gather information about the CPUs in the whole system, and then filter out the information for the CPUs not in the partition. The process of discovering the CPUs in the partition will log an entry in either Activity Log or the api.log file indicating that the tool could not gather information about the processor(s) that don't belong to the current partition. The text of the log entry is similar to:

  Failed to convert HPA (0xfffffffffce7a000) to spu_number. It may be 
  possible that the CPU is deconfigured or the CPU is not in the Current 
  partition.
  

  Even though this looks like an error, it in fact is NOT an error because it is referring to the CPU outside the partition.

  The CPU (LPMC) monitor in non-vPar environment will deactivate a CPU and activate one of the iCOD CPUs if any are available. Since, in vPar environment, iCOD CPUs are NOT visible to the partition, the monitor will not be able to activate the CPU. The user is advised to use iCOD command to find out if iCOD CPUs are available on the system and activate one of them. To determine the number of iCOD cpus that are instantly activatable for the local vPar, use the following command:

  icod_stat -i
  

  and the command will print out a single number. Alternatively, the user can use the command icod_stat and look for information for Unassigned processors that can be assigned.

  To activate an iCOD processor, use the command:

                                  icod_modify -a 1 \ 
               <[description]:user_name:manager_name:manager_email:manager_phone>
  

  For more information on the iCOD commands, refer to iCOD documentation.

  In vPar environment, when the CPU (LPMC) monitor marks the last CPU in the partition for deconfiguration, the user is strongly advised to reboot the system - rather than rebooting the partition only. When the partition is rebooted, the faulty CPU will still be active but when the system is rebooted after bringing all the partitions down, the faulty processor will not be visible to the system. The goal of the CPU (LPMC) monitor is to remove the faulty component and this goal can be achieved only by rebooting the system.

• There is a new evlib routine, that will remove all iscsi related devices in list of device paths. The SCSI-related monitors which use this routine are:
  • armmon
  • disk_em
  • dm_fc_scsi_mux
  • dm_ses_enclosure
  • dm_stape
  • fc60mon
  • fw_disk_array
  • ha_disk_array
  If any of these tools are monitoring a SCSI device that is a descendant of an iscsi virtual node, then that device will be removed from that monitor's pathlist of resources, and will no longer be monitored.
• The following id modules were modified, so they will ignore iSCSI devices:
  • scsi_dev
  • scsi_arry
  • scsi_mux_bus
  • i2o_raid
  If an iSCSI device is discovered while scanning hardware to build the S TM map, all paths below that device will be filtered out of the STM map. Example of STM map prior to filtering out iSCSI devices:

                                 hpfcs214.cup.hp.com
  
    Dev                                                 Last        Last Op
    Num  Path                 Product                   Active Tool Status
    ===  ==================== ========================= =========== ===== ========
      1  10                   Bus Adapter (582)
  2  10/0                 PCI Bus Adapter (782)
      3  10/0/12/0            Core PCI 100BT Interface
  .
  .
  .
     25  255/0/0.0            iSCSI Virtual Node (iSCSI
     26  255/0/0.0.0.0        SCSI Disk (SEAGATEST39103
     27  255/0/0.0.0.1        SCSI Disk (SEAGATEST39103
     28  255/0/1.0            iSCSI Virtual Node (iSCSI
     29  255/0/1.0.0.0        SCSI Disk (SEAGATEST39103
     30  255/0/1.0.0.1        SCSI Disk (SEAGATEST39103
     31  255/0/2.0            iSCSI Virtual Node (iSCSI
     32  255/0/2.0.0.0        SCSI Disk (SEAGATEST39103
  

  Example of STM map after filtering out iSCSI devices:

                                 hpfcs214.cup.hp.com
  
    Dev                                                 Last        Last Op
   Num  Path                 Product                   Active Tool Status
    ===  ==================== ========================= =========== ===== ========
      1  10                   Bus Adapter (582)
      2  10/0                 PCI Bus Adapter (782)
      3  10/0/12/0            Core PCI 100BT Interface
  .
  .
  .
     28  255/0/0.0            iSCSI Virtual Node (iSCSI
     29  255/0/1.0            iSCSI Virtual Node (iSCSI
     30  255/0/2.0            iSCSI Virtual Node (iSCSI
  

• JAGae11212
  New JBODs Smuggler and Apex have to be supported in existing STM tools and Monitors. Hence tlses.h is changed in such a way that it supports the new JBODs.

Changes to Specific Tools

• Information tools:
  • The CPU Information Tool was updated for vPar. There are minimal customer visible differences; specifically, some information may not be available due to the architecture, and "N/A" will be displayed, instead of CPU-specific data.
  • JAGae11212
    STM info tool supports the new JBODs Smuggler and Apex from this release onwards.
  • JAGae09438
    Fixed printing of long integer for max_block_addr in info/scsi_disk.
  • JAGae11065; JAGae11638; JAGae09438
    Fixed printing of Max Block Address in srm_disk information tool. Added support for new CD-ROMs and DVDs: TEACDV-28E-A, TEACDV-28E-B, TEACDW-28E, HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8160B, and LITE-ONLTR-24102B in srm_disk information tool.
  • JAGae15588
    Info tool for Apex was exiting with SIGSEGV. This problem was due to a bug in tlses library. This defect is fixed for this release.
  • JAGad89341
    Product_id description for MAXTOR drive problem is fixed. Earlier the buffer length for product_id description was 13 characters, so now it is changed to 16 characters to fix the problem.
  • JAGae09320
    Added functionality for the Marcato (L3000) W+ DC- machines.
  • JAGae05550
    The info activity log file would have the following message when there was a stable store problem; the stable store failing is not a problem and should not be logged:

    An unexpected return came from the stable store 
    function. This is informational only and does not
    materially effect the results.
    

• Exerciser tools:
  • CPU Exerciser Tool supports Virtual Partitions. CPUs that are not in the partition, but are eligible to be moved into the partition by the Virtual Partition monitor, have a status of "inactive,".
  • JAGad92025
    This is a fix for the problem where "Exercise" Visualize-EG (Graffitti) graphics adapters are failing with a gopen error.
  • JAGae00180
    There is a message that occasionally is displayed in the activity log file for the exerciser/cpu that states: "child 25016 last wrote random data at: C4641FFC, 0 half (loop: 525,round: 0, pass !)" The portion "0 half" should not be in the message, which will now read "child 25016 last wrote random data at: C4641FFC, (loop: 0, round: 525, pass 0)", or some similar message.
• Verifier tools:
  • N/A
• Diagnose tools:
  • JAGae13462
    Corrected driver name so that bt100d diagnose tool displays information correctly.
• Firmware update tools:
  • JAGae11212
    STM firmware update tool supports the new JBODs Smuggler and Apex from this release onwards.
  • JAGad96592
    Fixed a problem with the Firmware Update Tool, to allow correct firmware downloading, when using the STK 9840 tape drives. The STM error message was "failed firmware download".
  • JAGad96592
    Fixed a problem with the Firmware Update Tool when using STK library systems L180 and L700. The STM error message was "Illegal Request Sense Key".
• Expert tools:
  • CPUs that are not in a partition, but are eligible to be moved into the partition by the Virtual Partition monitor, have a status of "inactive," but cannot be activated by using the Expert Tool.
  • For the HWE0206-vPar special release, customers/users will see the following changes in the behavior of the memory expert tool on Superdome systems (that differs from the existing IPR releases):
    1. If running on a virtual partitions system, the user selects to run the memory expert tool-> memory test, there are additional error messages that can be logged to the memory expert activity log file when the memory test failed (only on a virtual partitions system):

       • An attempt to obtain exclusive access to a memory controller via the vpmonitor driver failed.
         This error is unexpected.  The memory expert tool can not continue with the memory test.
         
         Possible Cause(s)/Recommended Action(s):
            Internal application error.
         

       • The memory subsystem is not recognized by this tool to support virtual partitions.  The memory 
         expert tool can not continue with the memory test.
         
         Possible Cause(s)/Recommended Action(s):
            Internal application error.
         

       • An attempt to read syndrome error information was not successful.  The memory expert tool 
         can not continue with the memory test.
         
         Possible Cause(s)/Recommended Action(s):
            A process (possibly memlogd) in another virtual partition has took the virtual partition lock
            away from the memory expert tool.  Rerun the tool later.
         

       • An attempt to release the virtual partition lock failed.  This error is unexpected.  The memory
         expert tool can not continue with the memory test.
         
         Possible Cause(s)/Recommended Action(s):
            Internal application error.
         

  • JAGae08770
    The catalog was update to the current version (A.02.10), which means users will see the correct messages for the version.
  • JAGae03687
    Previously, in the graphical version of STM, a warning message was displayed before CPU selection. With this bug fix, the warning message is displayed after a CPU is selected for activation.
  • JAGae01231
    This is a fix for the DDS expert tool, which would hang STM (this problem was noticed on 64-bit systems running HPUX 11.11). Although it would time out, the process was left running and no other STM access to that device was possible until the process was killed using kill -9. Exiting and re-starting STM would not reset it.
  • JAGae02480
    Certain users are unable to connect to Version A.29.00 of stm. When attempting to connect, the following error message may appear:

    -- Error --
    Hostname (sshapd1.rose.hp.com) could not be connected due to an invalid
    user login name or password.
    Please Refer to the UI Activity Log for more details.
    

    The current workarounds are to: 1) login as a different user. 2) change user password.
  • JAGad62032
    The following warning message has been changed from:

    CAUTION! RAID 0 DOES NOT PROVIDE DATA REDUNDANCY. THE FAILURE OF ANY
    DISK WITHIN A RAID 0 LUN WILL RESULT IN THE LOSS OF ALL DATA IN THAT
    LUN. RAID 0 SHOULD ONLY BE USED FOR NON CRITICAL DATA THAT COULD BE
    LOST IN THE EVENT OF A HARDWARE FAILURE. RAID 0 SHOULD ONLY BE USED
    IN SITUATIONS WHERE HIGH PERFORMANCE IS IMPORTANT THAT DATA
    PROTECTION.
    

    to:

    CAUTION!  RAID 0 does not provide data redundancy.  The failure of any
    disk within a RAID 0 LUN will result in the loss of all data in that
    LUN.  RAID 0 should only be used for non-critical data since it might
                                            ^              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    be lost in the event of a hardware failure.  RAID 0 should only be used
    ^^
    in situations where high performance is more important than data
                                            ^^^^           ^^^^
    protection.
    

    where the ^^^^ indicates change in the message text.
  • JAGae00180
    There is a message that occasionally is displayed in the activity log file for the exerciser/cpu that states: "child 25016 last wrote random data at: C4641FFC, 0 half (loop: 525,round: 0, pass !)" The portion "0 half" should not be in the message, and will now read "child 25016 last wrote random data at: C4641FFC, (loop: 0, round: 525, pass 0)" or some similar message.
  • JAGae00185
    Fix was made for occasion where multiple cpus would be exercised when the user only requested one from the cpu expert tool. This would result in the following message:

    The child process with process ID xxxxx (0xhhhhh) exited with unexpected
    status (125 (0x7d)). This child process was launched to exercise 
    floating point coprocessor associated with processor x (0xh)
    at path xxxxxxxxxxx (at HPA 0hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh).
    
     Possible Causes/Recommended Action:
    
    Internal application error.
    

  • JAGad92076
    The Memory Expert tool was printing the DIMM Slot with an extra /b/c/d in the slot string. The extra part of the string has been removed. Prior to the fix, a request for address resolution would return info of the form:

    Address:       0x00000000000001
    Page:          0
    Page Status:   RESERVED by operating system
    Board:         CELL 1/4  0a/b/c/d/b/c/d
    Physical Bank: N/A
    Logical Bank:  N/A
    

    whereas now, that same request returns

    Address:       0x00000000000001
    Page:          0
    Page Status:   RESERVED by operating system
    Board:         CELL 1/4  0a/b/c/d
    Physical Bank: N/A
    Logical Bank:  N/A
    

    (note the change for "Board:" not having /b/c/d displayed twice.)

  • Made a fix for running the exercise option in ET. It complained about IOCTL call failure.
  • Fixed a problem with selecting a SPU to be marked for deconfiguration. In previous releases, the SPU marked for deconfiguration would always be the last SPU, and not the SPU selected (unless it was the last one that was selected!)
  • Made the following two fixes: 1. Fix for : CPU expert tool logs an error, but behaves correctly. 2. Fix for : CPU expert tool does not reconfigure the processor that it just deconfigured.
• Logtool:
  • N/A
• Utilities:
  • There is a new release of cc_translator, which includes chassis codes from PDC firmware version 35.1.
  • JAGae09320
    Added support for missing MARCATO_W_DC_MINUS hversion for STM tools.

Known Problems

Info Tool Causes HPMCs on K- and T-Class (HP-UX 11i only)

K-Class and T-Class computers running HP-UX 11i will experience HPMCs or Data Page Faults if you run the STM Info Tool to retrieve configuration information from HP-PB SE SCSI adapters (JAGad88317, JAGad97126).

The root cause is a problem in the HP-UX 11i kernel, which is exposed when the Info Tool is run as described above. To correct the problem and avoid potential HPMCs, load patch PHKL_25552 or its successor. This is a kernel patch and requires a system reboot.

STM only exposes this problem if the Info Tool is run on HP-PB SE SCSI adapters. STM does not expose the problem if the Info Tool is run against other I/O devices.

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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