Using the dump commands to work with directories

The lsdumps command returns a list of dumps in a particular directory.

Dumps are contained in the following directory structure:
  • /dumps
  • /dumps/audit
  • /dumps/cimom
  • /dumps/elogs
  • /dumps/feature
  • /dumps/iostats
  • /dumps/iotrace
  • /home/admin/update
  • /dumps/drive
  • /dumps/enclosure
  • /dumps/configs
  • /dumps/debug
  • /dumps/mdisk
  • /dumps/syslogs
  • /dumps/tejas

Use the lsdumps command with the optional prefix parameter to specify a directory. If you do not specify a directory, /dumps is used as the default. Use the optional node_id_or_name parameter to specify the node to list the available dumps. If you do not specify a node, the available dumps on the configuration node are listed.

Use the cpdumps command to copy dump files from a nonconfiguration node to the configuration node. You can use this command to retrieve dumps that were saved to an older configuration node. You can retrieve files and put them on the configuration node to be copied.

Use the cleardumps command to delete dump directories on a specified node. You can clear specific files or groups of files based on the use of a wildcard (an asterisk, *). You can delete files on a single directory or all of the dump directories (by specifying the /dumps variable).

An audit log tracks the action commands that are issued through an SSH session or from the management GUI. To list a specified number of the most recently audited commands, issue the catauditlog command. To dump the contents of the audit log to a file on the current configuration node, issue the dumpauditlog command. This command also clears the contents of the audit log.

Dumps contained in the /dumps/cimom directory are created by the CIMOM (Common Information Model Object Manager) that runs on the system. These files are produced during normal operations of the CIMOM.

Dumps that are contained in the /dumps/elogs directory are dumps of the contents of the error and event log at the time that the dump was taken. An error or event log dump is created by using the dumperrlog command. The command dumps the contents of the error or event log to the /dumps/elogs directory. If no file name prefix is supplied, the default errlog_ is used. The full default file name is errlog_NNNNNN_YYMMDD_HHMMSS, where NNNNNN is the node front panel name. If the command is used with the -prefix parameter, the prefix value is used instead of errlog.

Dumps that are contained in the /dumps/iostats directory are dumps of the per-node I/O statistics for disks on the system. An I/O statistics dump is created by using the startstats command. As part of this command, you can specify a time interval for the statistics to be written to the file; the default is 15 minutes. Every time the time interval is encountered, the I/O statistics that were collected are written to a file in the /dumps/iostats directory. The file names that are used for storing I/O statistics dumps are Nm_stats_NNNNNN_YYMMDD_HHMMSS, Nv_stats_NNNNNN_YYMMDD_HHMMSS, Nn_stats_NNNNNN_YYMMDD_HHMMSS, and Nd_stats_NNNNNN_YYMMDD_HHMMSS, where NNNNNN is the node name for the MDisk, volume, node, or drive.

Dumps that are contained in the /dumps/iotrace directory are dumps of I/O trace data. The type of data that is traced depends on the options that are specified by the settrace command. The collection of the I/O trace data is started by using the starttrace command. The I/O trace data collection is stopped when the stoptrace command is used. It is when the trace is stopped that the data is written to the file. The file name is prefix_NNNNNN_YYMMDD_HHMMSS, where prefix is the value that is entered for the filename parameter in the settrace command, and NNNNNN is the node name.

Software update packages are contained in the /home/admin/upgrade directory. These directories exist on every node in the system.

Dumps of support data from a disk drive are contained in the /dumps/drive directory. This data can help to identify problems with the drive, and does not contain any data that applications might have written to the drive.

Dumps from an enclosure or enclosures are contained in the /dumps/enclosure directory.

Dumps that are contained in the /dumps directory result from application abends. Such dumps are written to the /dumps directory. The default file names are dump.NNNNNN.YYMMDD.HHMMSS, where NNNNNN is the node front panel name. In addition to the dump file, there might be some trace files written to this directory that are named NNNNNN.trc.

Because files can only be copied from the current configuration node (by using secure copy), you can issue the cpdumps command to copy the files from a nonconfiguration node to the current configuration node.