IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment, Version 7.1.1.16

Troubleshooting Java API

If you are experiencing problems, try looking in the following places for errors:
Java™ API exceptions
Many problems are reported with an exception at the Java API level. For example, improper use of the API or problems contacting the provisioning server.
Exception status in RBActivityTarget
When there is a problem with a task, it is reported in the status field with the method getError().
Task traces
Traces are stored on the provisioning server. By default, the file path is c:\tpmfos files\global\hosttasks . The .ini files contain parameters for the task and for each target. The log files contain a copy of the console of the target. The target are identified by their BOMID, an identifier used internally by the product. If you know only the IP address, MAC address or serial number (SN) of the target, you have to search for it in all .ini files of target activities. Then you can retrieve the corresponding log file. Accessing these traces from the Web interface is more convenient.
Server traces
Server traces are stored on the provisioning server. By default, they are located in the file path, c:\tpmfos files\logs. The default detail level is 3, which can be raised to 4 without impacting the performance, or even to 5, but this slows down the server. The easiest way to change this debug level is in the Web interface, or with RBServerConfig.setGlobalDebugLevel(). To change the debug level using the Web interface click on Server parameters, then click Configuration and under the heading Base parameters there is a Global debug level which can be edited. If the parameter is present in the config.csv file, the value changes next time the server reloads its OS configuration, for example, when it is restarted. The reference for config.csv is at http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21247013. These traces can also be accessed from the Web interface.
Web Interface Extension traces
These traces are located by default in file path, c:\program files\common files\ibm tivoli\rbagent.log. Errors occurring when the target of a task is rbagent can be found there.
Database traces
Tracing is disabled by default for the product Database Gateway (= dbgw.exe = remboodbc service). It can be very useful to turn these traces on because all database requests performed by the provisioning server and all task targets pass using this process. Tracing of the SQL queries is only enabled if the process is run from the command line with "dbgw -d -v 4 -f <log-path>". Tracing of the SQL queries and results are enabled if the verbosity parameter is 5 instead of 4. Both slow down significantly the overall performance of the server. The same command line parameters can be used to run the remboodbc service with traces: from Windows service manager user interface to start the service manually with Start parameters="-d -v 4 -f <log-path>". The JDBC version of the database gateway (com.rembo.dbgw.Dbgw) traces queries and results when started with option "-d".
Database content check
The easy way to inspect database contents is by opening the file c:\program files\ibm\tpmfosd\autodeploy.mdb with Microsoft Access. If Microsoft Access is not installed on your provisioning server and you cannot reach the file from another computer, you can still look at database contents directly on the provisioning server with a simple "telnet localhost 2020". Port 2020 is the TCP port used to communicate with our database gateway. This is documented in http://www.rembo.com/rbo/docs/SQLOpenEx.html. An updated description of all tables and columns in the product SQL database can be downloaded directly from the server using the URL http://<server-name-or-ip>:8080/virtual/AutoDeployDistrib.ini
Server OS configuration
The main OS configuration files are rembo.conf, config.csv and radb.ini.


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