Stand-alone tools

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Stand-alone tools are installed on a device on which you perform an IPL. Different tools are available depending on the device type.

The following stand-alone dump tools are shipped in the s390utils package as part of zipl:
  • DASD dump tool for dumps on a single DASD device
  • Multi-volume DASD dump tool for dumps on a set of ECKD™ DASD devices
  • Tape dump tool for dumps on (channel-attached) tape devices
  • SCSI disk dump tool for dumps on SCSI disks
  • NVMe disk dump tool for dumps on NVMe disks

You need to install these tools on the dump device. A dump device is used to initiate a stand-alone dump by IPL-ing the device. It must have a stand-alone dump tool installed and should provide enough space for the dump. For Linux® on z/VM®, the dump device must be on subchannel set 0. For Linux in LPAR mode, the device can be on any subchannel set. Linux on KVM does not support these stand-alone dump tools.

Typically, the system operator initiates a dump after a system crash, but you can initiate a dump at any time. To initiate a dump, you must IPL the dump device. This is destructive, that is, the running Linux operating system is killed. The IPL process writes the system memory to the IPL device (DASD device, tape, SCSI disk, or NVMe disk).

You can configure a dump device that is automatically used when a kernel panic occurs. For more information, see dumpconf - Configure panic or PSW restart action.

For more information on zipl, refer to the zipl man page and to the zipl description in Device Drivers, Features, and Commands on Red Hat® Enterprise Linux 9.2, SC34-7750. You can find the latest version of this document at: 
ibm.com/docs/en/linux-on-systems?topic=distributions-red-hat-enterprise-linux