Reference Guide

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Z-Series Debugging and Diagnostics
This chapter describes debugging and diagnostics for the Z-Series platform.
Offline Diagnostics
The offline diagnostics test suite is useful for isolating faults and debugging hardware.
The diagnostics tests are grouped into three levels:
• Level 0 — Level 0 diagnostics check for the presence of various components and perform essential
path verifications. In addition, they verify the identification registers of the components on the board.
• Level 1 — A smaller set of diagnostic tests. Level 1 diagnostics perform status/self-test for all the
components on the board and test their registers for appropriate values. In addition, they perform
extensive tests on memory devices (for example, SDRAM, flash, NVRAM, or EEPROM) wherever
possible.
• Level 2 — The full set of diagnostic tests. Level 2 diagnostics are used primarily for on-board
Loopback tests and more extensive component diagnostics. Various components on the board are
put into Loopback mode and test packets are transmitted through those components. These
diagnostics also perform snake tests using VLAN configurations.
Important Points to Remember
• Diagnostics only test connectivity, not the entire data path.
• Diagnostic results are stored on the flash of the unit on which you performed the diagnostics.
Z-Series Debugging and Diagnostics
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