Compaq 108164-003 - ProLiant - 800 Quick reference guide

WHITEPAPER
1
ECG075/0798
July 1998
Prepared by
Management
Solutions Marketing
Compaq Computer
Corporation
CONTENTS
Executive Summary .........1
Introduction.....................3
The Importance of
Service Tools...................3
What is Compaq
Survey Utility...................4
Theory of operation................4
Key Features....................5
On-line Serviceability.............5
Simplified Collection ..............6
Audit Trail .............................6
Remote Insight integration......7
How Compaq
Survey Utility
Works ..............................7
Accessing and Viewing...........7
Collecting and Updating.......11
Transferring and Printing......11
Conclusion ...................12
Specifications ...............13
Compaq Survey Utility
This paper provides an overview of the technology, features and use of Compaq Survey
Utility.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
With the complexity of today’s server applications and the criticality of data stored on
servers, maximizing server availability is a requirement in order to maintain the
successful operation of a business. Compaq Survey Utility was designed as a service
tool, in order to deliver enhanced serviceability for Compaq servers, and increase overall
availability.
In addition to robust management tools, service tools can be invaluable in bringing about
the quick resolution of server problems. In order to streamline the service process, and
resolve problems quickly, it is necessary to have the right information available at the
time that a service call is placed. The primary information requirement, and the one that
provides the greatest insight into potential server issues, is the configuration of the
system. Compaq Survey Utility delivers this critical data, and addresses customer
requirements for enhanced service tools and higher server availability through its
comprehensive feature design:
•On-line installation and operation: No requirement to take the server off-line or
reboot the server in order to use Compaq Survey Utility
•Comprehensive configuration capture under a single tool: Gathers detailed hardware
and operating system configuration information under a single tool.
•Automatic configuration audit trail: Compaq Survey Utility automatically maintains
a configuration history for the server. By storing multiple configuration snapshots
and highlighting changes and differences, the utility is able to provide a detailed
record of the server history.
This combination of features simplifies the service process, and minimizes downtime
experienced by a server. Versions of Compaq Survey Utility are available for Microsoft
Windows NT™ and Novell NetWare, and the utility is supported on all ProSignia and
ProLiant servers.
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WHITE PAPER (cont.)
2
ECG075/0798
NOTICE
The information in this publication is subject to change without notice.
COMPAQ COMPUTER CORPORATION SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR TECHNICAL
OR EDITORIAL ERRORS OR OMISSIONS CONTAINED HEREIN, NOR FOR
INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE
FURNISHING, PERFORMANCE, OR USE OF THIS MATERIAL.
This publication does not constitute an endorsement of the product or products that were tested.
The configuration or configurations tested or described may or may not be the only available
solution. This test is not a determination of product quality or correctness, nor does it ensure
compliance with any federal, state or local requirements. Compaq does not warrant products other
than its own strictly as stated in Compaq product warranties.
Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their
respective companies.
Compaq, Contura, Deskpro, Fastart, Compaq Insight Manager, LTE, PageMarq, Systempro,
Systempro/LT, ProLiant, TwinTray, LicensePaq, QVision, SLT, ProLinea, SmartStart, NetFlex,
DirectPlus, QuickFind, RemotePaq, BackPaq, TechPaq, SpeedPaq, QuickBack, PaqFax, registered
United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Aero, Concerto, QuickChoice, ProSignia, Systempro/XL, Net1, SilentCool, LTE Elite, Presario,
SmartStation, MiniStation, Vocalyst, PageMate, SoftPaq, FirstPaq, SolutionPaq, EasyPoint, EZ
Help, MaxLight, MultiLock, QuickBlank, QuickLock, TriFlex Architecture and UltraView,
CompaqCare and the Innovate logo, are trademarks and/or service marks of Compaq Computer
Corporation.
Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their
respective companies.
©1998 Compaq Computer Corporation. Printed in the U.S.A.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Windows NT Advanced Server, SQL Server for Windows NT
are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.
White Paper: Compaq Survey Utility
Second Edition: July 1998
Document Number : ECG075/0798
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WHITE PAPER (cont.)
3
ECG075/0798
INTRODUCTION
In today’s business environment servers are being deployed to run increasingly critical
and complex applications. The successful operation of the business depends on the
continuing operation of the servers. Therefore, server availability has become a key
requirement.
Enhanced server management tools have been developed to aid in optimizing the
performance of the system and identifying potential problems before they are manifested
to users on the system. In the event that a problem does occur, however, tools must be
available that allows administrators to work issues and resolve problems without taking
the server off-line. Tools that can provide on-line serviceability are able to deliver an
increase in server availability, minimizing the interruption of daily business activities.
Compaq Survey Utility was developed to fill the need for an on-line service tool.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SERVICE TOOLS
The complexity of environments combines with the fact that administration budgets and
staffs are shrinking, resulting in the requirement that servers must not only be highly
available, but tools must be available to make administrators more efficient. Effective
service tools are as important as ongoing management tools in meeting this objective.
Service tools ensure that in the event a problem does occur, it will be resolved quickly
and easily in order for the server to continue to support users and applications.
Administrators today encounter a number of challenges in managing their environments.
As a result of these challenges, specific requirements have emerged in terms of improving
serviceability. The primary requirements for service tools include:
•On-line functionality to identify and resolve problems without taking the server off-
line
•Simplify the collection process for gathering the information required to effectively
resolve service cases
•Deliver automatic configuration tracking and audit trail history that is accessible on-
demand
Fulfilling all of these requirements results in:
•Faster problem resolution times
•Minimized administration costs and resources
•Higher server availability
Compaq Survey Utility was designed to address these user requirements and deliver the
benefits of higher availability and minimized costs.
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WHITE PAPER (cont.)
4
ECG075/0798
WHAT IS COMPAQ SURVEY UTILITY?
Compaq Survey Utility is an online information-gathering agent similar to other Compaq
management agents that run on servers. It gathers critical hardware and software
information from various sources to give a complete view of the server. Survey Utility
delivers comprehensive configuration capture, provides a means for automatically
identifying and comparing configuration changes, and automatically maintains a server
configuration history. The information is saved as a history of multiple sessions in a
single configuration history file that can be downloaded to the user’s system.
This utility was developed to allow resolution of problems without taking the server off-
line and to assist in maximizing server availability. The information obtained by the
utility is useful in troubleshooting server problems, and streamlines the service process
by enabling quick and easy identification of server configurations, which is the first step
in resolving service cases.
Compaq Survey Utility version 2.04 and later includes a web browser interface in
addition to the command-line interface to allowing access using a familiar user interface.
This also enables remote control of the utility and facilitates easy transfer of survey
information from remote machines to a service provider.
Theory of Operation
The Compaq Survey Utility captures data as sessions; a session is defined as an organized
group of data describing the configured state of the system at a specific point in time. The
Compaq Survey Utility maintains up to 10 distinct sessions.
The session information is maintained in a file called SURVEY.IDI, located in the same
directory as the executable portion of the program. This file contains all of the binary
information captured for every session. This file can be analyzed locally by the Survey
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WHITE PAPER (cont.)
5
ECG075/0798
Utility, or it can be sent to another location such as a help center, or to Compaq where the
Survey Utility can generate custom reports on the information.
The sessions are organized as three distinct types:
Active
The Active session (referenced as session number 1) is the most recent information
captured. The utility overwrites this session each time a sample is taken. When using
Compaq Survey Utility from a browser, sessions will be listed by the date and time of the
session rather than by the number of the session.
Original
The Original session (referenced as session number 2) is the first session sampled. The
Compaq Survey Utility will treat this session as a "master configuration" and the utility
will never overwrite this session.
Checkpoint
The Checkpoint sessions (referenced as session numbers 3 to 10) are the next 8 samples
that "differ significantly" from the previous session. These sessions are maintained in a
"first in, first out" (FIFO) fashion and may be deleted as newer Checkpoint sessions are
added. The "significance" of a Checkpoint is determined programmatically based on the
type of information captured. The utility makes an attempt to only generate a Checkpoint
when something that would not change under normal operation of the server is changed.
So, not all items that change will generate Checkpoints.
KEY FEATURES
In developing the Survey Utility, Compaq addressed the primary requirements customers
have for service tools. These requirements were designed in as key features of the
product:
On-line Serviceability
A key benefit of Compaq Survey Utility is that it delivers configuration capture and
reporting in an on-line format. Not only can Compaq Survey Utility collect information
while the server is on-line, but can also be initially installed without having to reboot the
server.
On-line configuration capture is critical, because when the need for a service call does
arise, one of the first requests made of the customer is to provide detailed configuration
information. Service personnel use this information to determine possible component
interactions and pinpoint problem sources. Without having a clear understanding of the
system configuration, the problem resolution process cannot move forward effectively.
Compaq Survey Utility represents an enhancement to currently available service tools
such as Inspect. Inspect has long been used as an off-line utility to capture detailed
hardware configuration information such as identification of hardware devices installed
and critical error log information. Survey Utility adds to this capability by capturing
software information in addition to the hardware elements.
The on-line format of Survey Utility allows administrators to run the tool on demand,
without any interruption to applications or users.
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WHITE PAPER (cont.)
6
ECG075/0798
Simplified Collection Process
In order to meet the information requirements for a service call, a user is typically asked
to complete a number of steps. It includes capture of information relating to NetWare
modules, operating system version number, operating system parameters, operating
system error log files, startup files, etc. This is in addition to the hardware configuration
information. This process requires administrators to generate reports from multiple
sources.
Use of Survey Utility reduces the time and effort needed to collect this information. By
combing hardware and software configuration capture, Compaq Survey Utility delivers a
comprehensive view of the server with the ease and simplicity of a single tool. This
single tool approach minimizes problem resolution time, and also minimizes
administration resources because less time is spent resolving problems when they do
occur.
Automated Configuration History / Audit Trail Reporting
In addition to capturing and reporting the current configuration, another primary
customer need is a tool to provide effective configuration tracking. Compaq Survey
Utility also satisfies this need.
The audit trail feature of Compaq Survey Utility maintains a record of configurations,
and has the intelligence to automatically identify and highlight where changes in the
configuration have occurred. Upon an event trigger (either a reboot of the server,
scheduled time interval, or user-initiated action) Compaq Survey Utility collects a
snapshot view of the hardware and operating system configuration, and stores the file on
the server.
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WHITE PAPER (cont.)
7
ECG075/0798
The audit trail feature operates by maintaining multiple snapshots of the configuration in
a file. Eight snapshot generations plus the initial baseline configuration and the active
session are all maintained as part of the configuration audit trail. As each snapshot is
taken, it is compared to the previous generation already stored in the Survey Utility file to
judge whether a significant change has occurred. If a significant change is detected, then
the differences are “checkpointed” to automatically highlight where they have occurred.
All configuration snapshots are time and date stamped to ensure that the administrator or
service provider is always able to identify when a particular change took place.
Integrated with the Remote Insight Board
Each time the Survey Utility captures the system configuration, it also saves it in the
memory of the Remote Insight Board (servers in which the Remote Insight Board has
been installed). In instances when the server has lost power, the administrator can dial
into the Remote Insight Board and view information that is critical to bring the server
back up as soon as possible. Critical information such as the hardware and software
configuration information collected by the Survey Utility is now available to the user.
HOW COMPAQ SURVEY UTILITY WORKS
The Compaq Survey Utility agent resides on each managed server and communicates
with device drivers in the system to capture detailed information. This communication, or
interaction, includes capturing data from sources such as: the file systems, the system
BIOS, SCSI drivers, disk array drivers, the NT Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), the
NT Registry, NetWare API’s, and the Compaq health driver. This enables the Survey
agent to identify both hardware and operating system information within the same polling
process. When a configuration snapshot is initiated, the Survey Utility agent polls all of
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WHITE PAPER (cont.)
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ECG075/0798
these sources for the most up to date information and view of the system. This makes it
truly an on-line service tool.
Accessing and Viewing Information
The information the utility gathers can be accessed in the following ways:
•Locally at the host server console (Survey.txt)
•Remotely or locally from a browser.
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WHITE PAPER (cont.)
9
ECG075/0798
•Remotely or locally via the Remote Insight Board
The available options allow the information to be parsed in several ways in order to
provide different types and levels of information. The administrator cannot only request
viewing of the active session, but since multiple configuration snapshots are stored, can
request that the Survey Utility generate a report, which automatically compares any two
snapshots. In completing the comparison, Survey Utility will automatically match the
snapshots and highlight any differences that exist between them. This is a useful feature
for enabling clear audit trail tracking. It allows the administrator or service provider to
identify the history of events and the order and point at which specific changes were
made, which provides significant assistance in identifying the source of server problems.
With the comparison feature, several report types are available which enable the
administrator to specify just the particular type and level of information that will be most
useful in a particular case. The different report types available are:
•Show Only Differences Report: This feature provides a mechanism for filtering the
level of information displayed when comparing two different configuration snapshots
(or sessions). For example, when a user requests that Survey Utility generate a
comparison of sessions 3 and 5 using the “differences” filter, the tool automatically
compares those two sessions (which are already stored in the Survey file). It then
generates a report that shows only the differences between the two generations. In
this case, the differences report will include only differences, such as changes in CPU
utilization levels, or amounts of free memory. Reviewing the differences occurring
between different configuration snapshots can help identify trends causing
intermittent server problems, such as low memory resources, or the CPU running at
maximum capacity.
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WHITE PAPER (cont.)
10
ECG075/0798
•Show Only major Differences Report: This feature provides a more targeted view
of the system changes. The Show Only Major Differences Report provides a quick,
at-a-glance view of only the significant changes that may have impacted the operation
of the server. When the request for this information is issued, Survey Utility
generates a report that shows only those differences between the two configuration
sessions that caused a checkpoint to occur. This provides a mechanism to pinpoint
what changes have triggered a problem with the server operation, such as a SCSI
controller being removed, or identifying a NetWare NLM that is no longer loaded.
•Show Standard Details and Differences Report: This report identifies the basic
components installed in the server. This report is useful for gathering a quick view of
the server hardware and software assets. The summary report includes information
such as hardware components that are installed and high-level information about the
operating system.
•Show More Details and Differences Report: This report is generated under the
default settings for the utility and provides the level of detail that is necessary for
service personnel to get a clear picture of the system configuration. In addition to the
high-level information provided in the summary report, this report provides a much
greater depth of information on operating system services, drivers and NetWare
modules that are running on the system.
•Show All Details and Differences Report: The Show All Details and Differences
report is the most comprehensive report available through Compaq Survey Utility.
This report is used in the event that the service person needs to drill down on a
specific area of information, perhaps a checkpoint area that was highlighted in the
advanced report. This report level goes a layer deeper to provide information on not
only information regarding what is currently running, but providing a listing of all
services configured on the server and more detailed disk drive parameter information.
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