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 error codes.

• 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 chassis is lit, one or more error LEDs on the BladeCenter chassis components also might be lit. These LEDs help identify the cause of the problem. For more information about the blade server error LEDs, see 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.

  Note: If you are unable to find the system error logs in the blade server firmware code, view the advanced management module event log.
• Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) Preboot diagnostic program
  The DSA Preboot diagnostic programs are stored in read-only memory. DSA Preboot collects and analyzes system information, as well as offers a rich set of diagnostic tests 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
  • Microprocessor, input/output hub, and UEFI error logs
  • Scalability Link status

  DSA creates a DSA log, which is a chronologically ordered merge of the system-event log (as the IPMI event log), the integrated management module (IMM) chassis-event log (as the ASM event log), and the operating-system event logs. You can send the DSA log as a file to IBM service or view the information as a text file or HTML file.

  DSA Preboot offers the following diagnostic tests of your server:

  • Microprocessor
  • Memory
  • IMM I²C
  • Optical (CD or DVD) drive
  • Hard disk drive
  • Ethernet controller

  For more information about diagnostic programs and error messages, see the IBM Dynamic System Analysis.