Compaq 108164-003 - ProLiant - 800 Quick reference guide

WHITEPAPER

ECG075/0798

July 1998

Prepared by

Management

Solutions Marketing

Compaq Computer

Corporation

CONTENTS

Executive Summary .........1

Introduction.....................3

The Importance of

Service Tools...................3

What is Compaq

Survey Utility...................4

Theory of operation................4

Key Features....................5

On-line Serviceability.............5

Simplified Collection ..............6

Audit Trail .............................6

Remote Insight integration......7

How Compaq

Survey Utility

Works ..............................7

Accessing and Viewing...........7

Collecting and Updating.......11

Transferring and Printing......11

Conclusion ...................12

Specifications ...............13

Compaq Survey Utility

This paper provides an overview of the technology, features and use of Compaq Survey

Utility.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

With the complexity of today’s server applications and the criticality of data stored on

servers, maximizing server availability is a requirement in order to maintain the

successful operation of a business. Compaq Survey Utility was designed as a service

tool, in order to deliver enhanced serviceability for Compaq servers, and increase overall

availability.

In addition to robust management tools, service tools can be invaluable in bringing about

the quick resolution of server problems. In order to streamline the service process, and

resolve problems quickly, it is necessary to have the right information available at the

time that a service call is placed. The primary information requirement, and the one that

provides the greatest insight into potential server issues, is the configuration of the

system. Compaq Survey Utility delivers this critical data, and addresses customer

requirements for enhanced service tools and higher server availability through its

comprehensive feature design:

•On-line installation and operation: No requirement to take the server off-line or

reboot the server in order to use Compaq Survey Utility

•Comprehensive configuration capture under a single tool: Gathers detailed hardware

and operating system configuration information under a single tool.

•Automatic configuration audit trail: Compaq Survey Utility automatically maintains

a configuration history for the server. By storing multiple configuration snapshots

and highlighting changes and differences, the utility is able to provide a detailed

record of the server history.

This combination of features simplifies the service process, and minimizes downtime

experienced by a server. Versions of Compaq Survey Utility are available for Microsoft

Windows NT™ and Novell NetWare, and the utility is supported on all ProSignia and

ProLiant servers.

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ECG075/0798

NOTICE

The information in this publication is subject to change without notice.

COMPAQ COMPUTER CORPORATION SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR TECHNICAL

OR EDITORIAL ERRORS OR OMISSIONS CONTAINED HEREIN, NOR FOR

INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM THE

FURNISHING, PERFORMANCE, OR USE OF THIS MATERIAL.

This publication does not constitute an endorsement of the product or products that were tested.

The configuration or configurations tested or described may or may not be the only available

solution. This test is not a determination of product quality or correctness, nor does it ensure

compliance with any federal, state or local requirements. Compaq does not warrant products other

than its own strictly as stated in Compaq product warranties.

Product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their

respective companies.

Compaq, Contura, Deskpro, Fastart, Compaq Insight Manager, LTE, PageMarq, Systempro,

Systempro/LT, ProLiant, TwinTray, LicensePaq, QVision, SLT, ProLinea, SmartStart, NetFlex,

DirectPlus, QuickFind, RemotePaq, BackPaq, TechPaq, SpeedPaq, QuickBack, PaqFax, registered

United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Aero, Concerto, QuickChoice, ProSignia, Systempro/XL, Net1, SilentCool, LTE Elite, Presario,

SmartStation, MiniStation, Vocalyst, PageMate, SoftPaq, FirstPaq, SolutionPaq, EasyPoint, EZ

Help, MaxLight, MultiLock, QuickBlank, QuickLock, TriFlex Architecture and UltraView,

CompaqCare and the Innovate logo, are trademarks and/or service marks of Compaq Computer

Corporation.

Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their

respective companies.

Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Windows NT Advanced Server, SQL Server for Windows NT

are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

White Paper: Compaq Survey Utility

Second Edition: July 1998

Document Number : ECG075/0798

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ECG075/0798

INTRODUCTION

In today’s business environment servers are being deployed to run increasingly critical

and complex applications. The successful operation of the business depends on the

continuing operation of the servers. Therefore, server availability has become a key

requirement.

Enhanced server management tools have been developed to aid in optimizing the

performance of the system and identifying potential problems before they are manifested

to users on the system. In the event that a problem does occur, however, tools must be

available that allows administrators to work issues and resolve problems without taking

the server off-line. Tools that can provide on-line serviceability are able to deliver an

increase in server availability, minimizing the interruption of daily business activities.

Compaq Survey Utility was developed to fill the need for an on-line service tool.

THE IMPORTANCE OF SERVICE TOOLS

The complexity of environments combines with the fact that administration budgets and

staffs are shrinking, resulting in the requirement that servers must not only be highly

available, but tools must be available to make administrators more efficient. Effective

service tools are as important as ongoing management tools in meeting this objective.

Service tools ensure that in the event a problem does occur, it will be resolved quickly

and easily in order for the server to continue to support users and applications.

Administrators today encounter a number of challenges in managing their environments.

As a result of these challenges, specific requirements have emerged in terms of improving

serviceability. The primary requirements for service tools include:

•On-line functionality to identify and resolve problems without taking the server off-

line

•Simplify the collection process for gathering the information required to effectively

resolve service cases

•Deliver automatic configuration tracking and audit trail history that is accessible on-

demand

Fulfilling all of these requirements results in:

•Faster problem resolution times

•Minimized administration costs and resources

•Higher server availability

Compaq Survey Utility was designed to address these user requirements and deliver the

benefits of higher availability and minimized costs.

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WHAT IS COMPAQ SURVEY UTILITY?

Compaq Survey Utility is an online information-gathering agent similar to other Compaq

management agents that run on servers. It gathers critical hardware and software

information from various sources to give a complete view of the server. Survey Utility

delivers comprehensive configuration capture, provides a means for automatically

identifying and comparing configuration changes, and automatically maintains a server

configuration history. The information is saved as a history of multiple sessions in a

single configuration history file that can be downloaded to the user’s system.

This utility was developed to allow resolution of problems without taking the server off-

line and to assist in maximizing server availability. The information obtained by the

utility is useful in troubleshooting server problems, and streamlines the service process

by enabling quick and easy identification of server configurations, which is the first step

in resolving service cases.

Compaq Survey Utility version 2.04 and later includes a web browser interface in

addition to the command-line interface to allowing access using a familiar user interface.

This also enables remote control of the utility and facilitates easy transfer of survey

information from remote machines to a service provider.

Theory of Operation

The Compaq Survey Utility captures data as sessions; a session is defined as an organized

group of data describing the configured state of the system at a specific point in time. The

Compaq Survey Utility maintains up to 10 distinct sessions.

The session information is maintained in a file called SURVEY.IDI, located in the same

directory as the executable portion of the program. This file contains all of the binary

information captured for every session. This file can be analyzed locally by the Survey

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Utility, or it can be sent to another location such as a help center, or to Compaq where the

Survey Utility can generate custom reports on the information.

The sessions are organized as three distinct types:

Active

The Active session (referenced as session number 1) is the most recent information

captured. The utility overwrites this session each time a sample is taken. When using

Compaq Survey Utility from a browser, sessions will be listed by the date and time of the

session rather than by the number of the session.

Original

The Original session (referenced as session number 2) is the first session sampled. The

Compaq Survey Utility will treat this session as a "master configuration" and the utility

will never overwrite this session.

Checkpoint

The Checkpoint sessions (referenced as session numbers 3 to 10) are the next 8 samples

that "differ significantly" from the previous session. These sessions are maintained in a

"first in, first out" (FIFO) fashion and may be deleted as newer Checkpoint sessions are

added. The "significance" of a Checkpoint is determined programmatically based on the

type of information captured. The utility makes an attempt to only generate a Checkpoint

when something that would not change under normal operation of the server is changed.

So, not all items that change will generate Checkpoints.

KEY FEATURES

In developing the Survey Utility, Compaq addressed the primary requirements customers

have for service tools. These requirements were designed in as key features of the

product:

On-line Serviceability

A key benefit of Compaq Survey Utility is that it delivers configuration capture and

reporting in an on-line format. Not only can Compaq Survey Utility collect information

while the server is on-line, but can also be initially installed without having to reboot the

server.

On-line configuration capture is critical, because when the need for a service call does

arise, one of the first requests made of the customer is to provide detailed configuration

information. Service personnel use this information to determine possible component

interactions and pinpoint problem sources. Without having a clear understanding of the

system configuration, the problem resolution process cannot move forward effectively.

Compaq Survey Utility represents an enhancement to currently available service tools

such as Inspect. Inspect has long been used as an off-line utility to capture detailed

hardware configuration information such as identification of hardware devices installed

and critical error log information. Survey Utility adds to this capability by capturing

software information in addition to the hardware elements.

The on-line format of Survey Utility allows administrators to run the tool on demand,

without any interruption to applications or users.

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Simplified Collection Process

In order to meet the information requirements for a service call, a user is typically asked

to complete a number of steps. It includes capture of information relating to NetWare

modules, operating system version number, operating system parameters, operating

system error log files, startup files, etc. This is in addition to the hardware configuration

information. This process requires administrators to generate reports from multiple

sources.

Use of Survey Utility reduces the time and effort needed to collect this information. By

combing hardware and software configuration capture, Compaq Survey Utility delivers a

comprehensive view of the server with the ease and simplicity of a single tool. This

single tool approach minimizes problem resolution time, and also minimizes

administration resources because less time is spent resolving problems when they do

occur.

Automated Configuration History / Audit Trail Reporting

In addition to capturing and reporting the current configuration, another primary

customer need is a tool to provide effective configuration tracking. Compaq Survey

Utility also satisfies this need.

The audit trail feature of Compaq Survey Utility maintains a record of configurations,

and has the intelligence to automatically identify and highlight where changes in the

configuration have occurred. Upon an event trigger (either a reboot of the server,

scheduled time interval, or user-initiated action) Compaq Survey Utility collects a

snapshot view of the hardware and operating system configuration, and stores the file on

the server.

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The audit trail feature operates by maintaining multiple snapshots of the configuration in

a file. Eight snapshot generations plus the initial baseline configuration and the active

session are all maintained as part of the configuration audit trail. As each snapshot is

taken, it is compared to the previous generation already stored in the Survey Utility file to

judge whether a significant change has occurred. If a significant change is detected, then

the differences are “checkpointed” to automatically highlight where they have occurred.

All configuration snapshots are time and date stamped to ensure that the administrator or

service provider is always able to identify when a particular change took place.

Integrated with the Remote Insight Board

Each time the Survey Utility captures the system configuration, it also saves it in the

memory of the Remote Insight Board (servers in which the Remote Insight Board has

been installed). In instances when the server has lost power, the administrator can dial

into the Remote Insight Board and view information that is critical to bring the server

back up as soon as possible. Critical information such as the hardware and software

configuration information collected by the Survey Utility is now available to the user.

HOW COMPAQ SURVEY UTILITY WORKS

The Compaq Survey Utility agent resides on each managed server and communicates

with device drivers in the system to capture detailed information. This communication, or

interaction, includes capturing data from sources such as: the file systems, the system

BIOS, SCSI drivers, disk array drivers, the NT Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), the

NT Registry, NetWare API’s, and the Compaq health driver. This enables the Survey

agent to identify both hardware and operating system information within the same polling

process. When a configuration snapshot is initiated, the Survey Utility agent polls all of

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these sources for the most up to date information and view of the system. This makes it

truly an on-line service tool.

Accessing and Viewing Information

The information the utility gathers can be accessed in the following ways:

•Locally at the host server console (Survey.txt)

•Remotely or locally from a browser.

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•Remotely or locally via the Remote Insight Board

The available options allow the information to be parsed in several ways in order to

provide different types and levels of information. The administrator cannot only request

viewing of the active session, but since multiple configuration snapshots are stored, can

request that the Survey Utility generate a report, which automatically compares any two

snapshots. In completing the comparison, Survey Utility will automatically match the

snapshots and highlight any differences that exist between them. This is a useful feature

for enabling clear audit trail tracking. It allows the administrator or service provider to

identify the history of events and the order and point at which specific changes were

made, which provides significant assistance in identifying the source of server problems.

With the comparison feature, several report types are available which enable the

administrator to specify just the particular type and level of information that will be most

useful in a particular case. The different report types available are:

•Show Only Differences Report: This feature provides a mechanism for filtering the

level of information displayed when comparing two different configuration snapshots

(or sessions). For example, when a user requests that Survey Utility generate a

comparison of sessions 3 and 5 using the “differences” filter, the tool automatically

compares those two sessions (which are already stored in the Survey file). It then

generates a report that shows only the differences between the two generations. In

this case, the differences report will include only differences, such as changes in CPU

utilization levels, or amounts of free memory. Reviewing the differences occurring

between different configuration snapshots can help identify trends causing

intermittent server problems, such as low memory resources, or the CPU running at

maximum capacity.

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•Show Only major Differences Report: This feature provides a more targeted view

of the system changes. The Show Only Major Differences Report provides a quick,

at-a-glance view of only the significant changes that may have impacted the operation

of the server. When the request for this information is issued, Survey Utility

generates a report that shows only those differences between the two configuration

sessions that caused a checkpoint to occur. This provides a mechanism to pinpoint

what changes have triggered a problem with the server operation, such as a SCSI

controller being removed, or identifying a NetWare NLM that is no longer loaded.

•Show Standard Details and Differences Report: This report identifies the basic

components installed in the server. This report is useful for gathering a quick view of

the server hardware and software assets. The summary report includes information

such as hardware components that are installed and high-level information about the

operating system.

•Show More Details and Differences Report: This report is generated under the

default settings for the utility and provides the level of detail that is necessary for

service personnel to get a clear picture of the system configuration. In addition to the

high-level information provided in the summary report, this report provides a much

greater depth of information on operating system services, drivers and NetWare

modules that are running on the system.

•Show All Details and Differences Report: The Show All Details and Differences

report is the most comprehensive report available through Compaq Survey Utility.

This report is used in the event that the service person needs to drill down on a

specific area of information, perhaps a checkpoint area that was highlighted in the

advanced report. This report level goes a layer deeper to provide information on not

only information regarding what is currently running, but providing a listing of all

services configured on the server and more detailed disk drive parameter information.

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