Adapters Troubleshooting and Maintenance Manual

Troubleshooting and Maintenance Manual for LightPulse Adapters Page 10
Tools to Collect Data
Emulex provides tools to collect data about a problem or behavior with Emulex products. Sometimes,
more importantly, these tools provide information about general SAN operation, even if the problem
appears to be outside of Emulex's domain.
Driver Tools
All Emulex OS device drivers can log additional events beyond critical errors. This can be useful in
troubleshooting. By default, Emulex drivers log only severe errors, but can be configured to log more
events. Examples of events: FC timer expiration, RSCN reception, SCSI errors (such as Check
Condition errors, Busy or Queue Full), and FC errors (to detect bad cables or transceivers). Emulex
considers this type of event logging a powerful troubleshooting tool.
The HBAnyware Utility
• HBAnyware GUI interface. The HBAnyware utility can show all targets and LUNs an adapter
port has detected on the SAN. Problems such as fabric zoning and array configuration can be
detected. Detect persistent binding problems: if the target shows in the HBAnyware utility and is
not seen in the OS storage management tool, the persistent binding entries should be checked.
• HBAnyware port statistics. All FC ports contain link quality data (Link Error Status Block). This
structure counts events such as link transitions, CRC errors received, invalid transmission words
received and other statistics. These counters can detect bad cables or ports or misbehaving
devices. The HBAnyware utility can display these counters for selected Emulex adapter ports.
• Version Checking. Ensure that all versions of Emulex adapters, firmware, drivers, and software
are correct. This is critical to ensuring a stable SAN. The HBAnyware utility can collect and
display this data all in one place.
• Diagnostic Dump. If necessary, use the HBAnyware utility to keep a record of all the attributes
of a server's adapter installation The HBAnyware Diagnostic Dump feature collects attributes
such as adapter models, firmware, driver, and software versions, driver configuration
parameters and stores it in a standard text file. The dump stops the selected adapter port and
dumps the adapter memory to a file for analysis by Emulex. This is not often required, but can be
useful when it is needed. Emulex Technical Support can advise when the adapter memory dump
file is required.
• Diagnostic tests. Use the HBAnyware utility to test the adapter port hardware and firmware.
These tests are similar to the tests used in Emulex manufacturing and can help identify
malfunctioning adapter hardware.
Other ways to Collect Data
Other SAN component manufactures provide tools to collect additional data. For example most fabric
switches provide ways to dump the port and switch configurations which can provide the switch firmware
revision, detailed information about zones, the display the port error counters for each switch port.
Note: Drivers for Linux only: Emulex's provides a "grab" tool to collect pertinent adapter,
driver and system information for processing by Emulex and stores it in a tarball file.
This tarball file is available for download from the Support section of the Emulex Web
site.