DiagTools and Diagnostic Assistant Offline Diagnostics
For HP Netserver Products
What are they?
HP DiagTools for Netservers – and its predecessor, Diagnostic Assistant – are offline diagnostic programs used to quickly validate hardware to assist in focusing troubleshooting between hardware problems and software/configuration issues. They run from a bootable flexible disk created from the Navigator CD or downloaded from the Web.
DiagTools and Diagnostic Assistant between them cover the entire Netserver line:
- DiagTools for Netservers runs on the following systems and systems released since them:
LC3, LH3, LH3r, LXr8000
- Diagnostic Assistant runs on all previous systems – and also on the LC3, LH3, and LH3r.
- Either program will display an error if an attempt is made to run on an unsupported system.
Be sure to use the right program:
- DiagTools for Netservers is different from HP DiagTools for Vectras, DiagTools for Omnibooks, or DiagTools for Pavilions. All are based on AMI Diagnostics, an industry-standard third-party product, but each is customized and runs only on the HP system family for which it was designed.
- Use of the retail AMI package is not supported; it lacks many of the features of HP DiagTools.
Major differences between DiagTools (DT) and Diagnostic Assistant (DA) include:
- DT gives more details as to the progress of each test as it runs.
- DT has the ability to exercise one SCSI drive at a time – via a user-programmable batch mode.
- DT has detailed error code information available either on-line from the program or via the Web.
- DT includes a Disc Array Controller diagnostic for the NetRAID card family – the only DACs supported in the new Netserver systems.
- DA can test SCSI drives connected via NetRAID or the previous generation DACs, but cannot test the DACs themselves.
- DT does not have the SCSI Bus Scan test.
- DT produces a "Support Ticket" – a different approach than DA's Hardware Inventory.
What they are not…
- An online diagnostic. DA and DT do not run under the network operating system. They are complete stand-alone combinations of a simple operating system and a simple application program – this ensures that you have a complete substitute environment which is orders of magnitude simpler that the production environment..
- A 100% hardware certification. An offline diagnostic, since it runs on the system under test, has limitations as to what it can control and observe. For example, it is difficult for a diagnostic to differentiate between SCSI controller and drive problems because the program cannot probe the bus between the controller and drive to monitor the transactions between them.
- A substitute for use of log files. A memory test that would find all possible address line, data line, and memory cell limitations in a server-size memory would take much longer to run than is practical. The system log files catch those problems "in the act" – as they happen in system operation.
When would I use them?
- During telephone diagnosis before CE dispatch, use DT or DA to quickly validate hardware – to refocus troubleshooting toward configuration and software. "Please run this and call us back if necessary."
- On-site to quickly check for hard failures – especially after completing a repair.
- To focus on one or several hard drives, using the batch mode of DT.
How are they installed and where can I find them?
Make a flexible disk from the Diskette Library on a Navigator CD or download the latest version from the Web at:
http://www.hp.com/Netserver/servsup/downlds/
How do I run them?
- Insert the diskette you have made and reboot the system.
- Be sure to check the DT Support Ticket or the DA Hardware Inventory to ensure that all of the processors, memory, and drives physically in the system are being recognized by the hardware – and therefore will be tested by the diagnostic.
What are the system requirements?
The system must have a working display and have enough working core hardware that it will boot.