Diagnostics and service aids

For systems running the AIX® operating system, the diagnostics and service aids are available as part of the operating system. For AIX partitions that cannot be started, or for systems running the Linux operating system, the diagnostics and service aids are available on a CD or DVD that is included with the system unit hardware.

These hardware diagnostics are known as online diagnostics. The online diagnostics are always available in a partition, and they have the advantage of keeping error log files as long as the operating system is running. This enables the online diagnostics to analyze the error logs to help pinpoint any hardware problems without shutting down the partition. With concurrent maintenance capabilities of the hardware, many repairs can be made concurrently and system users can continue their work without interruption. These hardware diagnostics are known as stand-alone diagnostics. The stand-alone diagnostics can be booted from the CD or DVD, or if there is no CD or DVD drive available, the diagnostics also can be loaded from a Network Installation Management (NIM) server.

The procedures and functions of the HMC Enhanced + Tech Preview (Pre-GA) login option and interface type, which was provided with the Hardware Management Console (HMC) version 8.2.0, are the same as the HMC Enhanced+ login option and interface type that is provided with HMC version 8.3.0 and later. Only the HMC Enhanced+ is referred to in the documentation, but that content also applies to the HMC Enhanced + Tech Preview (Pre-GA) interface.