Standalone Diagnostic OperationUse standalone diagnostics to test the system when the online diagnostics are not installed and as amethod of testing the disk drives that cannot be tested by the online diagnostics.Note: No error log analysis is done by the standalone diagnostics. The standalone diagnostics:v Are resident on a Network Installation Management (NIM) serverv Provide a method to test the system when the online diagnostics are not installed or cannot beloaded from the disk drivev Allow testing of the disk drives and other resources that cannot be tested by the onlinediagnosticsv Do not have access to the AIX configuration datav Do not have access to the AIX error logv Do not allow for running of error log analysisPartitioned System Considerations for Standalone DiagnosticsTo run standalone diagnostics on a full system partition, you must reboot the entire system. However, for apartition in a partitioned system, you can boot standalone diagnostics either in a given partition or on theentire system (which is the same procedure as a full system partition). For a partitioned system, beforerunning standalone diagnostics on a given partition, the user must move the device from the existinglocation where standalone diagnostics is booted (the network adapter connected to the NIM server, in thecase of NIM boot of standalone diagnostics), to the partition that will run standalone diagnostics. Devicesin a partitioned system are moved on an I/O-slot basis.Running Standalone Diagnostics from a Network InstallationManagement (NIM) ServerA client system connected to a network with a NIM server can boot standalone diagnostics from the NIMserver if the client-specific settings on both the NIM server and client are correct.Notes:1. All operations to configure the NIM server require root user authority.2. If you replace the network adapter in the client, the network adapter hardware address settings for theclient must be updated on the NIM server.3. The Cstate for each standalone diagnostics client on the NIM server should be kept in the diagnosticboot has been enabled state.4. On the client partition, the NIM server network adapter can be put in the bootlist after the boot diskdrive. This allows the system to boot in standalone diagnostics from the NIM server if there is aproblem booting from the disk drive. Another option is to use the Select Boot Options function in theSMS menu to set up the network adapter that is connected to the NIM server for a one-time boot ofstandalone diagnostics.NIM Server ConfigurationRefer to the “Advanced NIM Configuration Tasks” chapter of the AIX Installation Guide and Reference, forinformation on doing the following:v Registering a client on the NIM serverv Enabling a client to run diagnostics from the NIM serverTo verify that the client system is registered on the NIM server and the diagnostic boot is enabled, run thecommand lsnim -a Cstate -Z ClientName from the command line on the NIM server. Refer to thefollowing table for system responses.Chapter 6. Using the Online and Standalone Diagnostics 69
