Gathering Information For Technical Support; Troubleshooting Questions - HP AA979A - StorageWorks SAN Switch 2/8V Administrator's Manual

Gathering information for technical support

If you are troubleshooting a production system, you need to gather data quickly. As soon as a problem is
observed, perform the following tasks (if using a dual CP system, run the commands on both CPs):
1. Enter the supportSave command to save RASLOG, TRACE, and supportShow (active CP only)
information for the local CP to a remote FTP location. On a dual CP system, only the local CP
information is saved and supportShow information is not available on the active CP.
NOTE: It is recommended that you use the supportFtp command to set up the supportSave
environment for automatic dump transfers and the use of the -n -c options; this will save you from having
to enter (or know) all the required FTP parameters needed to successfully execute a supportSave operation.
For details about the supportSave command, refer to
page 298.
2. Enter the pdShow command to display data from a panic dump file. The panic dump file contains
information that might be useful to determine the cause of the system panic.
3. Enter the saveCore command to save or remove core files created by daemons.
For more details about these commands, refer to the Fabric OS Command Reference Manual.

Troubleshooting questions

Common steps and questions to ask yourself when troubleshooting a system problem are as follows:
1. What is the current Fabric OS level?
2. What is the switch hardware version?
3. Is the switch operational?
4. Impact assessment and urgency:
• Is the switch down?
• Is it a standalone switch?
• Are there VE, VEX or EX ports connected to the 4/256 SAN Director?
• How large is the fabric?
• Is it a secure fabric?
• Is the fabric redundant?
5. Run the supportSave command. (Refer to
and "Setting up automatic trace dump
6. Document the sequence of events by answering the following questions:
• What happened just prior to the problem?
• Is the problem reproducible?
• If so, what are the steps to produce the problem?
• What configuration was in place when the problem occurred?
7. Did a failover occur?
8. Was security enabled?
9. Was POST enabled?
10. Are serial port (console) logs available?
1 1. Which CP blade was active? (only applicable to the SAN Director 2/128 and 4/256 SAN Director)
12. What and when were the last actions or changes made to the system environment?
282 Troubleshooting
"Setting up automatic trace dump
"Viewing and saving diagnostic
transfers" on page 298).
transfers" on
information" on page 278