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DIAGNOSTIC.readme file (December 99)

This DIAGNOSTICS.readme document covers the December 1999 (IPR 9912) release of Support Plus for S800/S700 systems (HP-UX 10.20 and 11.00).

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).

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

Overview

Support Plus, in addition to IPR software, contains a complete build of the following support tools:

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

The Support Tools Manager, ODE/LIFLOAD, and (optionally) Predictive Support must be loaded after the Operating System is installed. The EMS Hardware Monitors are installed automatically when STM is installed.

Support Plus can be:

For this December 1999 release:

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. However, these patches may be superseded by the time you do your install.

Patch REQUIRED for HP-UX 11.0 (S800 and S700):

For HP-UX 11.0 (S800 and S700):
      PHKL_18543: s700_800 11.00 PM/VM/UFS/async/scsi/io/DMAPI/JFS/perf patch
For proper operation of the Online Diagnostics (HP-UX 11.0 version only), you must install the above patch BEFORE installing Online Diagnostics. Otherwise, you may see error messages about the missing patches during the installation of Online Diagnostics; you can get further information by reviewing the swagent.log file.

This is a large patch which can take a while to load (for example 30 minutes). It also has the following dependencies (other patches that must be loaded):

PHKL_19800
PHKL_19169 
PHKL_20016 (for G70,H70,I70 systems only)
PHKL_17038
PHCO_17792
PHCO_17556

Patches for diag drivers no longer required on HP-UX 10.20

HP-UX 10.20 no longer requires you to install the diag driver patches for its operation (for example "diag0", "diag1" and "diag2" patches), as of the September 1999 release (IPR 9909). These patches are automatically installed when the Support Tools are installed; a reboot will take place.

Patch STRONGLY RECOMMENDED for older systems with HP-PB bus (HP-UX 10.20/S800 only)

For HP-UX 10.20 (S800):
      PHKL_20327: s800 10.20 Handle more devices, fixes system hang
Since release IPR 9912 was frozen, a problem was discovered in the hardware diagnostics (STM) for HP-UX 10.20 on the older S800 systems which have an HP-PB (NIO) bus. Because of this problem, running an online diagnostic tool on SCSI interface cards or devices may cause a system hang. For these systems, HP strongly recommends that you install patch PHKL_20327. This is a kernel patch which will require a system reboot. It is only available from the HP IT Resource Center (http://us.itrc.hp.com). The patch is not in the HWCR patch bundle on the Support Plus Media. The following systems have HP-PB and are affected by this problem: K-Class, T-Class, 832/922 (Silverfox), F/G/H/I (xx7). The following systems do NOT have HP-PB and are NOT affected: D-Class, V-Class, N-Class, and other new systems.

Patch recommended (but not required) for older systems with HP-PB bus (HP-UX 11.0/S800 only):

For HP-UX 11.0 (S800):
      PHKL_19321: s700_800 11.00 diag0 cumulative patch
Patch required only if you intend to run the EMS hardware monitors for the Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop Hub Monitor or the Fibre Channel Switch Monitor: 
For HP-UX 11.0 (S800 and S700):
      PHSS_16587:HP aC++ runtime libraries (aCC A.03.13) 

For HP-UX 10.20 (S800 and S700):
      PHSS_17872: s700_800 10.X HP aC++ runtime libraries (aCC A.01.21) [1]

         [1] PHSS_17872 has a dependency, PHSS_17225
             (dld.sl:Purify:Shared:VTable),
Patch required only if your system includes a HP SureStore E Disk Array FC60. This patch is required to to run the EMS hardware monitor (fc60mon) or STM tools for this device. 
For HP-UX 11.0 (S800 only):
      PHCO_19571: s700_800 11.00 HP Array Manager/60 cumulative patch 

For HP-UX 10.20 (S800 only):
      PHCO_19485: s700_800 10.20 HP Array Manager/60 installation patch

Loading Patches

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

Method 1: Entire patch bundle. Install the entire HW or HWCR patch bundle for your system. Advantages: simple and tested process. Disadvantages: the bundle can be many megabytes in size.

Choose the Hardware Critical (HWCR) or Hardware (HW) patch bundle appropriate for your system. For example, choose XSW800HWCR1020 for a Series 800 system running HP-UX 10.20.

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

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

Method 2: Individual patches from bundle. Install ONLY the individual patches required for your system from the HW or HWCR 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 kernal, indicated by "PHKL" in the patch name, all require a reboot).

Known Problems

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.
Problem: Incorrect version of PHCO_19571 delivered in Dec. 1999 bundle

An incorrect version of patch PHCO_19571 was delivered in the XSWHWCR1100 bundle on the December 1999 Support Plus CD-ROM. The AM60 software contained in the incorrect patch may not work with the FC60 disk array and the diagnostic hardware monitors. Please see the following URL for the software installation requirements for the FC60 disk array:
http://www.hp.com/essd/FC60_documentation.html

To determine if you have the incorrect patch installed on your system, use the following command:

  $ swlist PHCO_19571
  # PHCO_19571                 B.11.00.06  HP Array Manager/60 cum.
patch
    PHCO_19571.ADMN-ENG-A-MAN  B.11.00.06  HPArray Manager/60 Utilities
                                           Manual Pages
    PHCO_19571.ARRAY-MGMT      B.11.00.06  HPArray Manager/60 Utilities
The incorrect version (as listed above) has the revision "B.11.00.06". The correct version has the revision "B.11.00.07".

The HP patch database and ftp sites have the correct version of this patch. The incorrect version is only found on the December 1999 Support Plus CD-ROM.

HP recommends that you remove the incorrect version of PHCO_19571 and install the correct version. The incorrect version of PHCO_19571 is found in this bundle:

  December 1999
    XSWHWCR1100 (B.11.00.47)
The correct version of PHCO_19571 is found in these bundles: 
  March 2000
    XSWGR1100 (B.11.00.48)
    XSWHWCR1100 (B.11.00.48)
CAUTION: 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 dialogd 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.

Problem: (September 1999 Release): Error Messages While Intalling Support Tools

While installing the September 1999 Support Tools, you may see error messages during the analysis phase of the installation of products with a dependency on Event Monitoring Services. For example, you may see these messages when EMS hardware monitors are being installed. Similar messages may appear during the installation of EMS High Availability (HA) Monitors and MC/ServiceGuard, if you are installing those products.

Error messages may begin with a line like:

"ERROR: A later revision (one with a higher revision number) of
        fileset "EMS-Config.EMS-GUI,r=A.03.00" has already been
        installed.  Either remove this fileset or change the
        "Allow_downdate" option to "true"
Workaround: You can ignore these error messages. The "EMS-Config.EMS-CORE,r=A.03.00" and "EMS-Config.EMS-GUI,r=A.03.00" filesets will be skipped. The "SD Intall" screen "Status" field will show "Completed with errors." The products will be installed OK.
Problem: (N-Class Only): PCI Fibre Channel Interface Information tool will exit with an INCOMPLETE status and log the following message: 
       This card ( PCI Fibre Channel Interface ) is not 
       supported by the Information tool on N class machines.

Removing Diagnostics

If you wish to remove the STM online diagnostic system after it has already been installed, type:

           swremove OnlineDiag
NOTE: Executing the "swremove OnlineDiag" command also removes the Predictive Support package.

Problem with Removing Diagnostics (HP-UX 10.20): There is a problem removing Diagnostics and associated patches once they have been installed on systems running HP-UX 10.20. For example, this problem occurs if you try to remove an old patch for diag1:

  (S800) PHKL_17590: diag1 support PCI with subvendor/subsystem info
  (S700) PHKL_17589: diag1 support PCI with subvendor/subsystem info
When you try to remove the diag1 patch, there will be an attempt to rebuild the kernel (required after removing a kernel patch). This kernel rebuild will fail, leaving an entry in the /var/adm/sw/swagent.log file that contains this text (and more): 
      /usr/ccs/bin/ld: Unsatisfied symbols:
          diag1_install (code)
This problem will occur even if you remove the Diagnostics first.

FIX: Avoid the problem entirely; DO NOT REMOVE THE PATCHES. Instead, just remove the Diagnostics (if desired) by using swremove.

Removing the diag1 and diag2 patches is not recommended. The patches are small, their functionality is limited to the diagnostics and OS error logging, removal and installation require that the system be rebooted, and they are required for versions of STM starting with A.14.00 (IPR 9902). In addition, one of them corrects a potential system panic and data corruption problem.

If you feel you must remove the patches associated with diagnostics on HP-UX 10.20 (not recommended), here is the procedure:

  1. Edit the file /stand/system and remove the line containing the word "diag1"
  2. Remove the Diagnostics using swremove.
  3. Now you can remove the diag1 and other patches. (again, this is not recommended).

Getting More Information

You can get more information on Diagnostics (Support Tools) in the following ways:

  1. Once you install a specific stream (e.g. HP-UX 10.20), 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
   Predictive Support:     /opt/pred/bin/Rel_NOTES.PRED
  2. 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:
  3. 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.
  4. On the Instant Information CD-ROM.
EMS Hardware Monitors

Included on the Support Plus CD-ROM are the EMS Hardware Monitors which are an important tool for maintaining system availability. The EMS 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. Hardware event monitoring is available to users running HP-UX 10.20 or 11.X (IPR February 1999 and later).

Hardware event monitoring provides a high level of protection against system hardware failure. By using hardware event monitoring, you can virtually eliminate undetected hardware failures that could interrupt system operation or cause data loss.

For complete information on installing and using EMS hardware event monitors, as well as a list of supported hardware, refer to the documents listed in "Getting More Information" earlier in this file.

The EMS Hardware Monitors are installed at the same time as the Support Tools Manager. Once the monitoring software is installed, monitoring is automatically enabled.

By default, messages regarding major warning, serious and critical events that occur on hardware being monitored will be:

All events will be stored in /var/opt/resmon/log/event.log.

To configure, enable, or disable hardware event monitoring, run the monitoring request manager: /etc/opt/resmon/lbin/monconfig .

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URL: http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/diag/st/str_9912.htm
Last updated: Thu Oct 26 15:42:55 PDT 2000