Chapter 3. Diagnostics; Diagnostic Tools - IBM x3690 X5 Service Manual

Chapter 3. Diagnostics

This chapter describes the diagnostic tools that are available to help you solve
problems that might occur in the server.
If you cannot diagnose and correct a problem by using the information in this
chapter, see Chapter 1, "Start here," on page 1 and "Getting help and technical
assistance," on page 423 for more information.

Diagnostic tools

The following tools are available to help you diagnose and solve hardware-related
problems:
v Light path diagnostics
v POST error codes and event logs
v Troubleshooting tables
v IBM Dynamic System Analysis
© Copyright IBM Corp. 2013
Use light path diagnostics to diagnose system errors quickly. See "Light path
diagnostics" on page 67 for more information.
The power-on self-test (POST) generates messages to indicate successful test
completion or the detection of a problem. See "Event logs" on page 35 and
"POST error codes" on page 38 for more information.
These tables list problem symptoms and actions to correct the problems. See
"Troubleshooting tables" on page 50 for more information.
Two editions of IBM Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) are available for
diagnosing problems, DSA Portable and DSA Preboot:
– DSA Portable
DSA Portable collect and analyze system information to aid in diagnosing
server problems. DSA Portable runs on the server's operating system and
collect the following information about the server:
- Drive health information
- Event logs for ServeRAID controllers and service processors
- Installed hardware, including PCI and USB information
- Installed applications and hot fixes
- Kernel modules
- Light path diagnostics status
- Microprocessor, input/out hub, and UEFI error logs
- Network interfaces and settings
- RAID controller configuration
- Scalability link status
- Service processor (integrated management module) status and
configuration
- System configuration
- Vital product data, firmware, and UEFI configuration
DSA Portable create a DSA log, which is a chronologically ordered merge of
the system-event log (as the IPMI event log), the integrated management
module (IMM) chassis-event log (as the ASM event log), and the
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