Brocade Fabric OS Message Reference (Supporting Fabric OS v7.3.0) - Manual (Page 49)

Fabric OS Message Reference 27
53-1003140-01
Responding to a system message
1
• Document the sequence of events by answering the following questions:
- What happened just prior to the problem?
- Is the problem repeatable?
- If so, what are the steps to produce the problem?
- What configuration was in place when the problem occurred?
• Did a failover occur?
• Was security enabled?
• Was POST enabled?
• Are serial port (console) logs available?
• Which CP was master?
• What and when were the last actions or changes made to the system?
Common steps to be followed when troubleshooting a system message are as follows:
• Execute the errDump command on each logical switch.
• Execute the supportFtp command (as needed) to set up automatic FTP transfers, and then
execute the supportSave command.
Support
Fabric OS creates a number of files that can help support personnel troubleshoot and diagnose a
problem. This section describes those files and how to access or save the information for support
personnel.
Panic dump and core dump files
The Fabric OS creates panic dump files and core files when there are problems in the Fabric OS
kernel. You can view panic dump files using the pdShow command. These files can build up in the
kernel partition (typically because of failovers) and might need to be periodically deleted or
downloaded using the supportSave command.
The software watchdog process (SWD) is responsible for monitoring daemons critical to the
function of a healthy switch. The SWD holds a list of critical daemons that ping the SWD periodically
at a predetermined interval defined for each daemon. The ping interval is set at 133 seconds, with
the exception of the Fabric Watch daemon and the IP storage demon, which ping the SWD every
333 seconds. (For a complete listing of daemons, refer to the KSWD entry in
Table 6 .)
If a daemon fails to ping the SWD within the defined interval, or if the daemon terminates
unexpectedly, then the SWD dumps information to the panic dump files, which helps to diagnose
the root cause of the unexpected failure.
Execute the pdShow command to view these files or the supportSave command to send them to a
host workstation using FTP. The panic dump files and core files are intended for support personnel
use only.