Sun Microsystems StorEdge 6900 Series - Manual (Page 18)

2 Sun StorEdge 3900 and 6900 Series Troubleshooting Guide • March 2002
Predictive Failure Analysis Capabilities
The Storage Automated Diagnostic Environment software provides the health and
monitoring functions for the Sun StorEdge 3900 and 6900 series systems. This
software provides the following predictive failure analysis (PFA) capabilities.
■ FC links —Fibre Channel links are monitored at all end points using the link FC-
ELS link counters. When link errors surpass the threshold values, an alert is sent.
This enables Sun personnel to replace components that are experiencing high
transient fault levels before a hard fault occurs.
■ Enclosure status —Many devices, like the Sun StorEdge network FC switch-8 and
switch-16 switch and the Sun StorEdge T3+ array, will cause the Storage
Automated Diagnostic Environment alerts to be sent if the temperature
thresholds are exceeded. This enables Sun-trained personnel to address the
problem before the component and enclosure fails.
■ SPOF notification —Storage Automated Diagnostic Environment notification for
path failures and failovers (that is, Sun StorEdge Traffic Manager software
failover) can be considered PFA, since Sun-trained personnel are notified and can
repair the primary path. This eliminates the time of exposure to single points of
failure and helps to preserve customer availability during the repair process.
PFA is not always effective in detecting or isolating failures. The remainder of this
document provides guidelines that can be used to troubleshoot problems that occur
in supported components of the Sun StorEdge 3900 and 6900 series.