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SANtricity commands

Start controller trace

Contributors netapp-driley

The start controller command starts an operation that saves debug trace information to a compressed file.

Supported Arrays

This command applies to any individual storage array, including the E2700, E5600, E2800, E5700, EF600 and EF300 arrays, as long as all SMcli packages are installed.

Roles

To execute this command on an E2800, E5700, EF600, or EF300 storage array, you must have the Storage Admin role.

Context

The debug trace information can be used by technical support to help analyze how well a storage array is running.

Syntax

start controller [(a
 | b
 | both)] trace
dataType=(current | flushed | currentFlushed | all)
forceFlush=(TRUE | FALSE)
file="fileName"

Parameters

Parameter Description

controller

The controller for which you want to collect the trace debug information. Valid controller identifiers are a or b, where a is the controller in slot A , and b is the controller in slot B. You can also simultaneously collect debug for both controllers by entering both . Enclose the controller identifier in square brackets ([ ]). If you do not specify a controller, the storage management software returns a syntax error.

dataType

The type of data that you want to collect:

  • current — Retrieves the current DQ traces

  • flushed — Retrieves all flushed DQ traces

  • currentFlushed — Retrieves both the current DQ trace and the flushed DQ trace

  • all — Retrieves the current DQ trace, flushed DQ trace, and all platform DQ traces

Note

If dataType=flushed and forceFlush=True, an error message is returned indicating that only active traces can be flushed to the buffer on retrieval.

forceFlush

The setting to move the DQ information in the current buffer to the flushed buffer when the DQ trace information defined by the dataType parameter is retrieved. To enable force flush, set this parameter to TRUE. To disable force flush, set this parameter to FALSE.

Note

If dataType=flushed and forceFlush=True, an error message is returned indicating that only active traces can be flushed to the buffer on retrieval.

file

The file path and the file name to which you want to save the DQ trace information. Enclose the file name in double quotation marks (" ").

Refer to the Notes section for information about naming the files.

Notes

The DQ trace information is written to a compressed file with an extension of .zip. The file name is a combination of a user-defined file name and the storage array identifier (SAID). A constant of "dq" is also added to the file name. The complete file name has this form:

user_defined_file_name-SAID-dq.zip

The compressed file contains the information listed in this table.

File Name Directory Comments

user_provided_file_name-SAID-A.dq

SAID/timestamp/

The DQ trace data retrieved from controller A.

user_provided_file_name-SAID-B.dq

SAID/timestamp/

The DQ trace data retrieved from controller B.

user_provided_file_name-SAID-trace_description.xm

SAID/timestamp/

The description file in an xml format that describes the DQ file attributes for future data mining.

Minimum firmware level

7.75