Diagnostic tools overview

The following tools are available to help you diagnose and solve hardware-related problems:

• POST codes, error messages, and error logs

  The POST error codes indicate the detection of a problem. For more information, see POST.

• Troubleshooting tables

  These tables list problem symptoms and actions to correct the problems. See Troubleshooting tables

• Light path diagnostics

  Use light path diagnostics LEDs on the system board to diagnose system errors. If the system-error LED on the system LED panel on the front or rear of the BladeCenter unit is lit, one or more error LEDs on the BladeCenter unit components also might be lit. These LEDs help identify the cause of the problem. For more information about the blade server error LEDs, see Blade server light path diagnostics LEDs.

• Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) Portable Edition diagnostic program

  DSA tests the major components of the BladeCenter unit, including the management modules, I/O modules, removable-media drives, and the blade servers, while the operating system is running. For documentation and download information for DSA, see http://www.ibm.com/systems/management/. For more information about diagnostic programs and error messages, see IBM Dynamic System Analysis Preboot diagnostic program

  Note: If you are unable to find the system-error logs in the blade server firmware code, view the system-event log in the BladeCenter management module.

• Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) Preboot diagnostic program

  The DSA Preboot diagnostic programs are stored in read-only memory and collect and analyze system information to aid in diagnosing server problems. The diagnostic programs collect the following information about the server:

  • Drive health information
  • Event logs for ServeRAID controllers and service processors
  • Hardware inventory, including PCI and USB information
  • Light path diagnostics status
  • LSI RAID and controller configuration
  • Network interfaces and settings
  • ServeRAID configuration
  • Service processor status and configuration
  • System configuration
  • Vital product data, firmware, and Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) configuration

  The diagnostic programs create a merged log that includes events from all collected logs. The information is collected into a file that you can send to IBM service and support. Additionally, you can view the information locally through a generated text report file. You can also copy the log to removable media and view the log from a web browser.