How To Use the SAN Support Log Collector

Content

System Requirements:

Memory requirements are minimal.  Disk space requirements are 15 MB for the utility, plus 500 MB per switch data collection for the uncompressed data.  The utility will remove the uncompressed data and only keep the compressed output.   You can collect the logs then upload to IBM and delete the files if you wish. You need write access to the directory on the system that the utility is being run from.

Supported Devices

The utility currently supports Cisco MDS and Broadcom fibre-channel switches.  It will collect support log data from both IBM and non-IBM sold switches as there are some use cases where IBM products are connected to non-IBM sold switches.  

General Switch Requirements:

A user on the switch with Switch Admin level user access, or an access level that can collect support log data.

The system where the collector is running needs to be able to connect to the switch on the management network.

Specific Cisco Requirements:

The system where the collector is running needs to be able to connect to the switch on the management network. The embedded sftp server is not used for Cisco support log collection.

Specific Broadcom Requirements:

The switch needs to be at FOS 8.2.2 or greater. Earlier versions of FOS have some restrictions that don’t allow the collector to run. The collector will check the FOS level prior to collecting support logs and will exit if the FOS level is below 8.2.2

The switch must be able to reach the system where the collector is running to access the embedded sftp server. 

SFTP Server Requirements (currently Broadcom only):

Port 52222 has to be open on the firewall on the host system and any network firewalls.

Deploying the Application

1. Download the IBM Semeru Java runtime from this page.  You will need to select version 17 for download.  Select "IBM Semeru Open Edition" and "Java 17 (LTS)" from the drop down, then select your operating system. Later versions of the runtime may work but have not yet been tested.  
2. Unzip the Java Runtime.
3. Download the utility from IBM Fix Central.  Browse to the site and search for "SAN Support Log Collector".   Download the latest version - currently v0.0.1.0.   Save the .jar file to a folder that you have write access to on a filesystem that meets the above space requirements.    

Running the utility:

The -h, u, -p, and -t parameters are always required.

The -l and -s parameters are optional, however at least one or the other is required.  The -l parameter collects the support logs.  The -s parameter clears the switch port statistics. 

The -t parameter will be either "Broadcom" or "Cisco"

See below for an example command.

Running the application with no arguments displays this help:

usage: java -jar supportlogollector.jar

-h <arg> Switch IP Address

-l include this to collect logs

-p <arg> password

-s include this to clear port statistics

-t <arg> switchtype - Cisco or Broadcom

-u <arg> username

-h, -p, -t, -u are required. At least one of either -l and -s is required, or enter both options

Example to collect logs from a Broadcom switch where the IBM Semeru JRE has been extracted to the user’s home folder on Linux:

~/jdk-17.0.10+7/bin/java -jar supportlogcollector.jar -h 9.9.9.9 -u foo -p bar -t Broadcom -l

Example to collect logs from and clear port statistics on a Broadcom switch where the IBM Semeru JRE has been extracted to the user’s home folder on Linux:

~/jdk-17.0.10+7/bin/java -jar supportlogcollector.jar -h 9.9.9.9 -u foo -p bar -t Broadcom -l -s

Output:

A folder called supportlogs is created in the folder that the utility is run from. In that folder will be a folder with the switch name. Inside that folder will be one or more folders where each folder is named for the switch system clock from the time the utility was run. Inside that folder will be a .zip file. The zip file has the format <switch name>.<switch systemclock>.zip This is the file that should be uploaded to IBM Ecurep or Blue Diamond.

See instructions on uploading to Ecurep here.

See instructions on uploading to Blue Diamond here.

Example Output

Here is some example where the utility was run from a folder called logcollector in the user’s home directory:

$ ls ~/logcollector/supportlogs

A folder was created with the name of the switch the supportlog was collected from:

$ SVC5_7840a 

Inside that folder is one or more folders with the timestamp of the switch clock. If support logs are collected multiple times from the same switch, each log collection will be in a separate folder named the timestamp of the switch clock at the time of the data collection.

$ cd supportlogs/SVC5_7840a

$ ls

$ 2024-03-12T13.46.13 

$ cd 2024-03-12T13.46.13

$ ls *.zip

In the folder is the zip file to upload to IBM Storage Support.

$ SVC5_7840a.2024-03-13T11.13.06.zip 

Known Issues

1.  On Linux, when running the utility wrap the switch password with single quotes like this:

logcollector.jar -h 9.9.9.9 -u foo -p ’ bar’ -t Broadcom -l

There are some special characters such as '!' that have meaning on the Linux command line. Having those special characters in the password could cause the command to fail.

2. The host key is generated by the SFTP server the first time the program is run, and a switch connects to it. The host key file is saved in the same folder the utility is run from. If the host key file is lost or deleted, this causes the host key to change on the embedded SFTP server the next time the utility is run and the server is started. If this occurs, Cisco log file collection is not affected as it currently does not use the embedded server. Broadcom log file collection will fail due to the host key changing. The workaround is to manually log into the Broadcom switch and run the command sshutil delknownhost -all to remove the host keys from the switch. This will need to be done on each Broadcom switch and requires a user with admin privileges to run the command.

What Data is Collected? 

 For Cisco switches,  the output of 'show tech-support details' and 'show logging onboard' is collected.  Other commands such as 'show tech-support slowdrain' are under consideration for future releases.   

For Broadcom switches, the output of the 'supportsave' command is collected. 

For both Cisco and Broadcom switches, The utility can also run the commands necessary to clear port statistics, but no data is saved when these commands are run.   No login credentials, host addresses or any other data passed as arguments to the utility are saved.  A future version of the program may save a list of switches.  Login credentials will never be saved or stored in any manner.

Reporting Problems or Providing Feedback

If you have a question or suggestion about the utility send an email to supportlogcollector@ibm.com

To report a problem, there is a folder created in the folder you extract the utility to called log. Compress this folder and attach it to an email and send it to the above email address along with a description of what the program was doing when it failed.