Chapter 3. DiagnosticsThis topic provides general information about diagnostic tools to help resolveissues with the server.This chapter describes the diagnostic tools that are available to help you solveproblems that might occur in the server.If you cannot diagnose and correct a problem by using the information in thischapter, see Appendix D, “Getting help and technical assistance,” on page 1027formore information.Diagnostic toolsThis topic provides a list of tools to help you diagnose and resolve issues with theserver.The following tools are available to help you diagnose and solve hardware-relatedproblems:v Light path diagnosticsUse light path diagnostics to diagnose system errors quickly. See “Light pathdiagnostics” on page 57 for more information.v IBM Dynamic System AnalysisIBM Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) collects and analyzes system informationto aid in diagnosing server problems. DSA collects the following informationabout the server:– Drive health information– Event logs for service processors– Hardware inventory, including PCI and USB information– Installed applications and hot fixes– Kernel modules– Light path diagnostics status– Network interfaces and settings– Service processor (integrated management module) status and configuration– System configuration– Vital product data and firmware informationDSA creates a DSA log, which is a chronologically ordered merge of thesystem-event log (as the IPMI event log), the integrated management module(IMM) chassis-event log (as the ASM event log), and the operating-system eventlogs. You can send the DSA log as a file to IBM service to aid in problemdetermination or view the information as a text file or HTML file.Note: Use the latest available version of DSA to make sure that you are usingthe most recent configuration data.v Troubleshooting tablesThese tables list problem symptoms and actions to correct the problems. See“Troubleshooting tables” on page 42.v IBM Electronic Service AgentIBM Electronic Service Agent is a software tool that monitors the server forhardware error events and automatically submits electronic service requests to© Copyright IBM Corp. 2014 37
