Insight Diagnostics is used as one of the steps in a series of standard troubleshooting procedures. When a server problem occurs:
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Ensure that all firmware is up to date
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Check the server health and status LEDs
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Use Survey to verify the hardware configuration
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Use the IML to look for system errors
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Use the offline diagnostic tests to help validate the hardware
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Use Diagnose to test the functionality of hard drives and power supplies
Insight Diagnostics Online Edition for Windows and Linux runs in an online mode, while Insight Diagnostics SmartStart Edition runs in an offline mode. In this mode the operating system of the server is running and the server is in production. Software information from the server is available to the diagnostics in this mode.
Survey Feature
The Survey feature of the Insight Diagnostics, provides the system hardware and software configuration data as session. A session is defined as an organized group of data, describing the configured state of the system at a specific point in time. The Survey functionality maintains up to ten distinct sessions.
The original configuration session is stored in a file named surveybase.xml
, which is created when you run the Insight Diagnostics for the first time. If this file is deleted, a new one is created whenever a session capture is triggered. User options are provided to schedule session captures. Survey feature can also capture individual sessions through the command line and save them to user-specified file names.
Each time the Insight Diagnostics runs, a survey file is saved on the hard drive and remains there until the user manually deletes the file. The survey sessions are stored as xml files. The file name contains the word "survey" and have the date and time appended to the name.
Features such as Survey history files and history comparison are available only in online operation.
Test Feature (available in Linux Offline Edition only)
The Insight Diagnostics Test feature provides the capability to test the functionality of all the major hardware components in the system. The Test feature enables the user to customize test selections by providing the following different modes and types of testing:
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Quick Test
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Complete Test
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Custom Test
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Interactive Mode
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Unattended Mode
Diagnose Feature
The Diagnose feature of Insight Diagnostics provides the capability to test the functionality of hard drives attached to an Smart Array Controller, and the power supplies that are deemed diagnosable.
Smart Array Drive Diagnosis provides the testing and troubleshooting recommendations when testing logical drives created using Smart Array Controllers. Smart Array Drive Diagnosis also provides the following unique capabilities:
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Prediction of imminent failure
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Generates specific repair recommendations based on Diagnosis results
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Detects whether or not a disk drive in a fault mode is defective
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Manual flashing of disk drive LEDs for easy identification
The Power Supply Diagnosis allows you to assess the health of selected power supply and it detects the following power supply related failure conditions:
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Over Voltage
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Over Current
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Over Temp
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Fan Failure
Whenever Over Voltage, Over Current, and Over Temp conditions occur, the power supply shuts down to prevent possible system damage.
Log Feature
The Log feature provides the capability of reporting events and results of running and testing hardware components.
For more information about Log features, see the User interface chapter.