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 s390-tools package as part of the zipl package:
  • 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 process is destructive, that is, the running Linux operating system is killed. The IPL process writes the system memory to the IPL device (DASD device, channel-attached 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.

GRUB 2 usage: You cannot use GRUB 2 to install the stand-alone dump tools. You must use the zipl command as described in this document for the dump tools.

For more information about zipl, see zipl - Prepare devices for stand-alone dump.