IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, Version 7.1

Show commands for the server or storage agent

SHOW commands are unsupported diagnostic commands that are used to show information about in-memory control structures and other runtime attributes. The SHOW commands are used by development and service only as diagnostic tools. Several SHOW commands exist for the backup-archive client.

Depending upon the information that a SHOW command shows, there might be instances where the information is changing or cases where it might cause the application (client, server, or storage agent) to stop. The SHOW commands must be used only with the recommendation of IBM Software Support. The SHOW commands that are included here are a portion of the available SHOW commands.
Table 1. Server or storage agent SHOW commands
SHOW command Description Recommendation
AGGREGATE Shows information about an aggregate object in the server storage hierarchy. The syntax is SHOW AGGRegate aggrID-high aggrID-low. aggrID-high and aggrID-low are the high-order and low-order 32-bit words of the 64-bit aggregate ID of the aggregate that is being queried. Issue this command to determine the existence and logical files that are stored in an aggregate object in the server's storage hierarchy. The offset, length, and active state of backup files is displayed for files within the aggregate. If you have problems restoring or retrieving files, expiring or moving data, backing up primary storage pools, copying active data to active data pools, or auditing volumes, you might issue this command.
ASQUEUED Shows the mount point queue. The syntax is SHOW ASQueued. To use a drive, a client session or server process, you must first obtain a mount point. The mount point management on the server allows for queuing waiters for mount points if more mount points are needed than are available. This command is useful for determining the state of a mount point request, especially if a session or process is stopped and waiting for a mount point.
ASVOL Shows assigned volumes. The syntax is SHOW ASVol. As sequential media volumes are assigned for use by a session or a process, they are tracked in an in-memory list. You can view this list to determine the state of in-use volumes, and stoppages or deadlock situations where a session or process is stuck waiting for a volume or holding a volume and waiting for something else.
BFOBJECT Shows the following information in the server storage hierarchy data:
  • The active/inactive state of logical files within an aggregate
  • The offset/length of logical files within an aggregate
  • The active state or owner bitfile ID of logical files within an aggregate
  • The link bitfile ID if the deduplicated extent is linked to another extent
The syntax is SHOW BFObject.		 This command helps you determine the existence and attributes of a bitfile object in the server's storage hierarchy. If you have problems restoring, retrieving, expiring, or auditing the object, you might issue this command.
CMD DEDUPDELETEINFO Shows the status of background deletion threads for dereferenced deduplicated objects. Issue this command to check the status of the background deletion process for deduplicated objects. When a file is deleted or moved out of a deduplicated storage pool, the extents are queued to a background processor for attempted removal from the storage pool. This command is useful for checking the backlog of queued extents and the status of each deletion thread.
CONFIGURATION The CONFIGURATION command is a summary SHOW command that actually issues many different show commands and queries. The syntax is SHOW CONFIGuration. Issue this command to provide general configuration and other information about the server to IBM service.
DB2CONNECTIONS The DB2CONNECTIONS command shows the defined DB2® connections from the various connection pools. This command does not require any additional parameters. The syntax is SHOW DB2CONnections. Issue this command to show how many DB2 connections are defined, in-use, and free in total and within a particular pool.
DB2TABLES The DB2TABLES command shows the registered tables and their column attributes. This command does not require any additional parameters. The syntax is SHOW DB2TABles. Issue this command to show the registered tables and their column attributes.
DBVARS Shows database global attributes. The syntax is SHOW DBVars. Issue this command to view the current state and attributes of the server database.
DEDUPOBJECT Shows data deduplication information for files. When you issue this command, you must specify the objectID parameter. Issue the SHOW VERSION command to determine the value of this parameter. The syntax is SHOW DEDUPObject. Issue this command to show data deduplication information, such as:
  • The bit file ID for each extent
  • The owning bit file ID
  • The offset and length of the owning bit file
  • The digest type and value of the data deduplication object
DEVCLASS Shows information about device classes. The syntax for this command is SHOW DEVCLass. Issue this command to show the states of allocated drives, device class attributes, and other information. This command is often used to diagnose problems with devices or locks up waiting for a drive, library, or volume. The command SHOW LIBRARY also gives good complementary information about drives and libraries.
GROUPLEADERS Shows all backup group leaders for an object in the server inventory. The syntax is SHOW GROUPLeaders objID-high objID-low. objID-high and objID-low are the high-order and low-order 32-bit words of the 64-bit object ID of the object that is being queried. The high-order word is optional; if not specified, a value of zero is assumed. The object must be a backup object. Issue this command to determine the backup group relationships of an object in the server's inventory. If you have problems restoring, retrieving, expiring, or auditing the object, you might issue this command.
GROUPMEMBERS Shows all backup group members for an object in the server inventory. The syntax is SHOW GROUPMembers objID-high objID-low. objID-high and objID-low are the high-order and low-order 32-bit words of the 64-bit object ID of the object that is being queried. The high-order word is optional; if not specified, a value of zero is assumed. The object must be a backup object. Issue this command to determine the backup group relationships of an object in the server's inventory. If you have problems restoring, retrieving, expiring, or auditing the object, you might issue this command.
INVOBJECT Shows information about an inventory object in the server. The syntax is SHOW INVObject objID-high objID-low. objID-high and objID-low are the high-order and low-order 32-bit words of the 64-bit object ID of the object that is being queried. The high-order word is optional; if not specified, a value of zero is assumed. The object can be a backup object, an archive object, a space-managed object, and so on. Issue this command to determine the existence and attributes of an object in the server inventory. You might issue this command if you are having problems restoring, retrieving, expiring, or auditing the object.
The INVOBJECT command reports the following items:
  • New information for archive retention protected objects.
  • Whether the archive object is in deletion hold.
  • Whether the object uses event-based retention.
LIBINVENTORY Shows the current state of the library inventory for the library specified. The syntax is SHOW LIBINVentory libraryName where libraryName is optional, and if it is left out, the command returns the inventory information for all libraries. Issue this command if there is a problem with the library inventory information. The command shows current in-memory properties of the library inventory.
LIBRARY Use the LIBRARY command to show the current state of the specified library and all of its drives. The syntax is SHOW LIBRary libraryName where libraryName is optional. If it is left out, the command returns information for all the libraries. This command is useful to gather a quick view of all in-memory information about a library and its drives. This output can be gathered for any problem that is related to libraries or drives; for example, mounting problems.
LOCK Shows lock holders and waiters. The syntax is SHOW LOCK. The server and storage agent use locks as a mechanism to serialize access and updates to information and other constructs. This information is used to diagnose stoppages or other resource contention issues.
MEMTREND The MEMTREND command reports the memory that is used by the server, in megabytes. It is recorded at hourly intervals for the last 50 hours This command is set in the server code. It is not configurable. The command also shows a histogram to help visualize the usage trend. The syntax is SHOW MEMTREnd. Issue this command to determine if the server has a memory leak. If the memory usage is constantly increasing, a memory leak might have occurred. For the measurements to be valid, the measurement period (the last 50 hours) must be normal, steady state server activity. The reported usage represents the amount of memory that internal server routines request from the pseudo-kernel memory routines. It does NOT represent the total amount of memory that the server is using. This command helps to determine the server's memory usage trend.
MP Shows mount points. The syntax is SHOW MP. Issue this command to determine which volume is in-use by a mount point and other attributes for the assigned mount points. SHOW LIBRARY and SHOW DEVCLASS have useful complementary information with this command to show the current state of drives and current devclass mount point counts.
NASDEV Shows the SCSI devices that are attached to a network-attached storage (NAS) file server that is associated with a NAS datamover definition. The syntax is SHOW NASDev. Create a Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) connection to the specified NAS file server and show the attached SCSI devices on the file server. This command requires a NAS node and datamover definition only.
NASFS Show the file systems on a NAS file server that is associated with a NAS datamover definition. The syntax is SHOW NASFs. Create an NDMP connection to the specified NAS file server and show the file systems that are defined on the file server. Any file systems that are shown might be backed up by IBM® Tivoli® Storage Manager. This command requires a NAS node and datamover definition only.
NASINFORMATION Shows configuration information about the NAS file server that is associated with a NAS datamover definition. The syntax is SHOW NASInformation. Create an NDMP connection to the specified NAS file server and show general configuration information that is retrieved from the file server. This command is useful for identifying basic communication problems with NAS file servers such as authentication errors. This command requires a NAS node and datamover definition only.
NASWORKLOAD Shows the workload of NAS files that are used for all Tivoli Storage Manager operations. The syntax is SHOW NASWorkload. Issue this command to determine the workload of backend data movement and backup and restore operations.
REPLICATION Shows all known replication servers and their globally unique identifier (GUID) and all running replication processes. The processes might include the individual statistics of each file space and the status of each replication session. Issue this command if replication is not progressing or if replication is not working correctly.
RESQUEUE Shows the resource queue. The syntax is SHOW RESQueue. Use the resource queue to monitor common resources on the server. If a resource is stopped or holding a resource for an unreasonable amount of time, the resource monitoring algorithms for the server cancel the resource user. This command is used to show information about transactions, locks, and other resources that are used by a storage agent on the database server that it is configured to use.
SESSIONS Shows information about sessions that are connected to the server or storage agent. The syntax is SHOW SESSions. Issue this command to diagnose stoppages or other general session problems while a session is still connected to the server. This command is also useful in cases where a session is canceled and is still shown in the QUERY SESSION.
SLOTS Shows the current state of the specified library's slot information; for example, which volumes are in the library and in which slot). The syntax is SHOW SLOTS libraryName. The information that is shown is the information that is saved directly from the library hardware to in-memory values. This information can be used to determine whether this information is out-of-sync, incorrect, or if the values returned from the library hardware itself are incorrect.

Alternatively, issue this command to determine the drive element numbers for a SCSI library if QUERY SAN is unavailable for a particular library.
SSPOOL Shows information storage pools. The syntax is SHOW SSPool. Issue this command to show the states and attributes of defined storage pools.
THREADS Shows information about all threads that are known to the server. The syntax is SHOW THReads.
Important: On some operating systems (as an example: HP), the information that is reported is obtained without serialization. On a busy system, information can be inconsistent, multiple threads might report holding the same mutex, or a thread might report that it is waiting on a mutex that is held by another thread that does not claim to hold it.
The server displays information about each thread, typically including the Tivoli Storage Manager thread ID, the system thread id, the thread name, mutexes it holds (if any), and mutex or condition it is awaiting (if any). This command is platform-specific, so each platform might have slightly different information. You might want to issue this command if the server or a particular server process is stopped so that you can see whether there are threads waiting for resources that are held by another thread.
TOCSETS Shows all Table Of Contents (TOC) sets known to the server. The syntax is SHOW TOCSets DELETE=setNum TOUCH=setNum. The DELETE parameter causes the specified TOC set number to be deleted. The TOUCH parameter updates the last used date of the specified TOC set number. A TOC set is retained for the TOC retention period that follows the last used date (see SET TOCRETENTION command). A TOC set is used during file-level NDMP operations. During an NDMP backup with the TOC=YES parameter, a TOC is built in the server database. During a restore, one or more TOCs might be loaded into the server database to provide file and directory names to the client GUI. This command shows the status of the TOC set; for example, building or loading, and how much temporary database space is in use for each TOC set. You might issue this command if you are experiencing problems with an NDMP backup with the TOC=YES parameter, or have problems restoring files from an NDMP backup, or if TOC sets are being retained in the server database too long or not long enough.
TOCVARS Shows information about the TOC component of the server. The syntax is SHOW TOCVars. Issue this command to determine the status of the TOC component. You might issue this command if you are experiencing problems completing an NDMP backup with the TOC=YES parameter, or have problems restoring files from an NDMP backup.
TXNTABLE Shows information about transactions that are on the in-use list on the server. The syntax is SHOW TXNTable. The transactions that are mined by this command are used by server processes, sessions, or other operations to read information from the database, make updates to the database (such as insert, update, or delete information), or to manage locks. This information is useful for diagnosing stoppages or other transaction-related failures while the transaction is still open on the server.
VALIDATE LANFREE Validates whether the definitions are in place on the server so that a client can complete LAN-free data movement operations. In cases where these definitions are not present or are incorrect, it might be difficult to determine whether the LAN-free environment is configured correctly. The syntax is VALIDATE LANFREE nodeName storageAgent.
Note: The VALIDATE LANFREE command replaced the SHOW LANFREE command.
 This command evaluates all possible destination storage pools for this client node and reports whether the storage pool is able of LAN-free data movement operations.
VERSIONS Issue the SHOW VERSIONS command to retrieve an objectID. The objectID is necessary to issue the SHOW DEDUPOBJECT command. The syntax is SHOW Versions. Issue this command to show object IDs.
VOLINUSE Shows whether the volume specified is in the server's in-use list. The VOLINUSE command shows extra information that might be helpful, including whether the volume is pending removal from the in-use list. The syntax is SHOW VOLINUSE volumeName. If the volume must be removed from the in-use list, you can specify the following parameter to remove the volume from the list: SHOW VOLINUSE volumeName REMOVE=YES. Issue this command to determine whether a volume is on the in-use list and, if necessary, to remove it from that list. Operations that are associated with this volume might fail if the volume is removed from the in-use list.
Parent topic: Enabling a trace for the server or storage agent

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