Hardware Management Console Installation and Operations Guide
This chapter provides information about using the Service Focal Point
application.
Service representatives use the HMC as the starting point for all service
issues. The HMC groups various system management issues at one control
point, allowing service representatives to use the Service Focal Point
application to determine an appropriate service strategy.
Traditional service strategies become more complicated in a partitioned
environment. Each partition runs on its own, unaware that other
partitions exist on the same system. If one partition reports an error
for a shared resource, such as a managed system power supply, other active
partitions report the same error. The Service Focal Point application
enables service representatives to avoid long lists of repetitive call-home
information by recognizing that these errors repeat, and the filtering them
into one error code.
Errors that require service are reported to the HMC as serviceable
events. Because the HMC stores these serviceable events for 90
days and then discards them, it is important to have the partition and HMC
date and time set correctly. For instance, if the date on a
partition's software is set 90 days behind the HMC's set
time, the serviceable events reported from this partition are immediately
discarded. For more information about setting the HMC's date and
time, see . To set the partition's date and time, see the
documentation provided with the operating system that is running on that
partition.
When you are setting up Service Focal Point, keep the following in
mind:
- If the time configured on a partition is 90 days older than time
configured on the HMC, serviceable events cannot be reported.
- Verify that the HMC host names are defined. For more information on
using fully qualified and short host names, see Setting Host Names.
- If you need to add or change a partition name, see Assigning a Host Name to Your Partition.
To ensure that Service Focal Point is configured properly, generate a test
error by doing the following:
- In the partition, run diagnostics to test the managed system's
operator panel.
- When the diagnostics window asks you if you see 0000 on the
managed system's operator panel, select NO. This action
generates an error.
- In the SRN window, type Enter to proceed.
- When the system asks you if you want the error sent to Service Focal
Point, select YES.
- Type F3 to exit diagnostics.
- Wait for one minute while the managed system sends the error to Service
Focal Point.
- Check the Serviceable Event window to ensure that the error was sent to
Service Focal Point and that Service Focal Point reported the error.
For more information about working with serviceable events, see Working With Serviceable Events.
The Service Focal Point Settings task in the Contents area allows you to
configure your HMC's Service Focal Point application.
- Note:
- The Advanced Operator, Operator and Viewer roles have read-only access to the
following tasks.
You can configure the HMC to automatically call an appropriate service
center when it identifies a serviceable event.
To enable or disable the call-home feature, you must be a member of one of
the following roles:
- System Administrator
- Service Representative
To enable or disable the call-home feature for one or more systems, do the
following:
- Note:
- It is strongly recommended that you not disable the call-home feature.
When you disable the call-home feature, serviceable events are not
automatically reported to your service representative.
- In the Navigation area, click the Service Applications
icon.
- In the Navigation area, double-click the Service Focal Point
icon.
- In the Contents area, click Service Focal Point
Settings.
- The Service Focal Point Settings window opens. Select the CEC
Call Home tab on the top of the window.
- Click on the managed system you want to enable or disable.
- Click Enable to enable call-home for the selected system, or
click Disable to disable call-home for the selected system.
- Click OK.
Service Focal Point surveillance generates serviceable events when it
detects communication problems between the HMC and its managed systems.
You can configure how you want the HMC to survey the following:
- The number of disconnected minutes considered an outage
- The number of connected minutes you want the HMC to consider a recovery
- The number of minutes between outages considered a new incident
To set up surveillance, you must be a member of one of the following
roles:
- System Administrator
- Service Representative
To set up surveillance, do the following:
- In the Navigation area, click the Service Applications
icon.
- In the Navigation area, double-click the Service Focal Point
icon.
- In the Contents area, select Service Focal Point
Settings.
- The Service Focal Point Settings window opens. Select the
Surveillance Setup tab on the top of the window.
- In the first field, select the number of minutes you want the HMC to wait
before sending a disconnection error message.
- In the second field, select the amount of connection time that the HMC is
considered to be recovered. This amount is expressed in minutes.
- In the third field, select the number of minutes between outages that you
want the HMC to wait before sending a new incident report.
- Select one or more managed systems from the table in the lower part of the
window and then click Enable or Disable.
Surveillance is then either enabled or disabled for the selected managed
systems.
You can enable or disable surveillance-error notification from this HMC to
connected managed systems. Enabling this notification causes errors to
be passed to the Service Agent application for notification.
- Note:
- You must further configure Service Agent to handle notifications sent by
Service Focal Point. For more information about Service Agent, see FORM='TEXTONLY'..
To set up surveillance, you must be a member of one of the following
roles:
- System Administrator
- Service Representative
To set up surveillance-error notification, do the following:
- In the Navigation area, click the Service Applications
icon.
- In the Navigation area, double-click the Service Focal Point
icon.
- In the Contents area, select Service Focal Point
Settings.
- The Service Focal Point Settings window opens. Select
the Surveillance Notification tab on the top of the window.
- Select one or more managed systems from the list and then click
Enable or Disable. Surveillance notification is
then either enabled or disabled for the selected managed systems.
You can view, add, or update serviceable event information, including error
details.
To view serviceable events, you must be a member of one of the following
roles:
- System Administrator
- Service Representative
- Advanced Operator
- Operator
- Viewer
To view a serviceable event, do the following:
- In the Navigation area, click the Service Applications
icon.
- In the Navigation area, double-click the Service Focal Point
icon.
- In the Contents area, click Select Serviceable Event.
- Designate the set of serviceable events you want to view. Click
OK when you are finished.
- The Serviceable Event Overview window opens, and the entries displayed are
ordered by time stamp. Each line in the Serviceable Event Overview
window corresponds to one error within a serviceable event. On this
window, designate the set of serviceable events you want to view by specifying
your search criteria (such as event status or error class).
- Note:
- Only events that match all of the criteria that you specify are
shown.
When you are finished, click OK.
When you select a line in the Serviceable Event Overview window, all lines
in the same serviceable event are selected. To open the Serviceable
Event Details window for the selected event, select the event and click
Event Details.
To view serviceable event details, do the following:
- Perform the steps in Viewing Serviceable Events.
- The Serviceable Event Details window opens, showing extended serviceable
event information, including the following:
- Status
- Earliest original time stamp of any managed object
- AIX error log
- Should this error ever get called home?
- Error was called home
- Pointer to extended error-data collection on the HMC
The window's lower table displays all of the errors associated with
the selected serviceable event. The information is shown in the
following sequence:
- Failing device system name
- Failing device machine type/model/serial
- Error class
- Descriptive error text
To view serviceable event error details, do the following:
- Perform the steps in Viewing Serviceable Event Details.
- Select an error in the lower table, and click Error
Details.
To view service processor error details, do the following:
- Perform the steps in Viewing Serviceable Event Error Details.
- If the serviceable event error details you are viewing are for a service
processor-class error, the lower table on the resulting window contains
service processor errors. Select a service processor error from the
lower table, and click Service Processor Error Details to see
further details.
To save extended error (EE) data, do the following:
- Perform the steps in Viewing Serviceable Event Details.
- Click Save EE Data. To save extended error data for only
one error associated with the serviceable event (rather than for
the entire serviceable event), select the error from the lower table and then
click Error Details. In the next menu, click Manage EE
Data.
To add comments to a serviceable event, you must be a member of the Service
Representative role.
To add comments to a serviceable event, do the following:
- Note:
- You cannot edit or delete previous comments.
- Perform the steps in Viewing Serviceable Event Details.
- Select the error to which you want to add comments to and click
Comments.... If you want to close the
event and add comments, click Close Event from this window.
The Serviceable Event Comments window opens.
- Type your name and add comments as appropriate. You can also review
previous comments, but you cannot edit this information.
- If you clicked Comments on the Serviceable Event Details
window, clicking OK commits your entry and returns you to the
Serviceable Event Details window.
If you clicked Close Event on the Serviceable Event Details
window, clicking OK commits all changes and opens the Update FRU
Information window. For more information about updating field
replaceable unit information, see Updating Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) Information.
To close a serviceable event, do the following:
- Perform the steps in Viewing Serviceable Event Details.
- Select the error to which you want to add comments and click
Comments....
- Click Close Event from this window. The Serviceable
Event Comments window opens.
- Click OK to commit your comments. The Update FRU
Information window displays. See Updating Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) Information for information on completing this window. Click
OK on the Update FRU Information window to close the
serviceable event.
- Note:
- You must close a serviceable event after it has been serviced to ensure that
if a similar error is reported later, it is called home. If an old
problem remains open, the new similar problem is reported as a
duplicate. Duplicate errors are neither reported nor called home to a
service center. Close a serviceable event when the partition that
reports the error is active. Closing the event causes the new status of
the serviceable event to be properly sent to the partition.
This task allows you to update the FRU information you changed or modified
as a result of this serviceable event. From this panel, you can also
activate and deactivate LEDs and search for other serviceable events that
contain the same FRU entries.
To update FRU information, do the following:
- Perform the steps in Viewing Serviceable Event Details.
- Click FRU Information... . The
Update FRU Information window opens.
The lower table shows any parts that you have replaced or added during your
current update session but that have not been committed to the serviceable
event. The changes from the lower table are committed by clicking the
OK or Apply.
From this window, you can also activate and deactivate LEDs and search for
other Serviceable Events that contain the same FRU entries.
To replace a part already listed for this serviceable event, do the
following:
- Perform the steps in Updating Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) Information.
- In the upper table, double-click the part you want to replace.
- If the FRU has a new part number, type it in the New FRU Part
Number field.
- Click Replace FRU. The Update FRU Information window
displays the FRU replacement information in the lower table. Click
OK or Apply to commit the changes to the serviceable
event.
You can add a part to the serviceable event that was not listed in the
upper table of the Update FRU Information window. To add a new FRU for
this serviceable event, do the following:
- Perform the steps in Updating Field Replaceable Unit (FRU) Information.
- Click Add New FRU to List.
- Type the FRU's location code and its part number in the appropriate
fields.
- Click Add to List. The Update FRU Information window
opens and displays the newly added FRU in the lower table.
- Click OK or Apply to commit these changes to the
serviceable event.
- Note:
- After you click OK or Apply, you cannot change this
information. If you clicked the Close Event button in the
Serviceable Event Details window, then clicking OK also completes
the close dialog and changes the status of the serviceable event to
Closed.
You can view partition information associated with this serviceable
event. This information includes each affected partition's state
and resource use.
- Perform the steps in Viewing Serviceable Event Details.
- Click Partition Info....
This task allows you to activate or deactivate a managed system's
system attention LED or any FRU identity LED. FRU identity LEDs are
helpful in determining which FRUs need servicing.
To activate or deactivate a managed system's System Attention LED, do
the following:
- In the Navigation area, click the Service Applications
icon.
- In the Navigation area, double-click the Service Focal Point
icon.
- In the Contents area, select Hardware Service Functions.
The LED Management window opens.
- In the LED Management window, select one or more managed systems from the
table.
- Select either Activate LED or Deactivate LED.
The associated System Attention LED is then either turned on or off.
To activate or deactivate a FRU associated with a particular managed
system, do the following:
- In the Navigation area, click the Service Applications
icon.
- In the Navigation area, double-click the Service Focal Point
icon.
- In the Contents area, click Hardware Service Functions.
The LED Management window opens.
- In the LED Management window, select one managed system from
the table.
- Click the List FRUs... button. The
list of FRU slot indices and their respective current LED states
display.
- Select one or more FRU slot indexes.
- Click either the Activate LED or the Deactivate LED
button.
The associated FRU Identity LEDs are now either enabled (blinking) or
off.
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