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IBM Europe, Middle East, and Africa Hardware
Announcement ZG10-0214
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation
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a clear, concise view of available service applications, the Service Interface allows
the support team to manage system resources and service information in an
efficient and effective way. Applications available via the Service Interface are
carefully configured and placed to give service providers access to important service
functions.
Different service interfaces are used, depending on the state of the system and its
operating environment. The primary service interfaces are:
• LEDs
• Operator Panel
• Service Processor menu
• Operating system service menu
•
Service Focal Point
TM
on the HMC
• Service Focal Point Lite on IVM
In the light path LED implementation, the system can clearly identify components
for replacement by using specific component-level LEDs, and can also guide the
servicer directly to the component by signaling (turning on solid) the amber system
fault LED, enclosure fault LED, and the component FRU fault LED. The servicer
can also use the identify function to blink the FRU-level LED. When this function is
activated, a roll-up to the blue enclosure locate and system locate LEDs will occur.
These LEDs will turn on solid and can be used to follow the light path from the
system to the enclosure and down to the specific FRU.
First Failure Data Capture and Error Data Analysis
First Failure Data Capture (FFDC) is a technique that helps ensure that when a fault
is detected in a system, the root cause of the fault will be captured without the
need to re-create the problem or run any sort of extending tracing or diagnostics
program. For the vast majority of faults, a good FFDC design means that the root
cause can also be detected automatically without servicer intervention.
First Failure Data Capture FFDC information, error data analysis, and fault isolation
are necessary to implement the advanced serviceability techniques that enable
efficient service of the systems and to help determine the failing items.
In the rare absence of FFDC and Error Data Analysis, diagnostics are required to re-
create the failure and determine the failing items.
Diagnostics
General diagnostic objectives are to detect and identify problems such that they can
be resolved quickly. Elements of IBM's diagnostics strategy include:
• Provide a common error code format equivalent to a system reference code,
system reference number, checkpoint, or firmware error code.
• Provide fault detection and problem isolation procedures. Support remote
connection ability to be used by the IBM Remote Support Center or IBM
Designated Service.
• Provide interactive intelligence within the diagnostics with detailed online failure
information while connected to IBM's back-end system.
Automatic diagnostics
Because of the FFDC technology designed into IBM Servers, it is not necessary to
perform re-create diagnostics for failures or require user intervention. Solid and
intermittent errors are designed to be correctly detected and isolated at the time the
failure occurs. Runtime and boot-time diagnostics fall into this category.
Stand-alone diagnostics
As the name implies, stand-alone or user-initiated diagnostics require user
intervention. The user must perform manual steps, including: