This section explains how to perform tasks related to recovering and troubleshooting a crashed remote system using the DRAC 5 Web-based interface. For information about troubleshooting your DRAC 5, see "Deploying Your Operating System Using VM-CLI."
Troubleshooting a remote system
Managing power on a remote system
Using the System Event Log (SEL)
Viewing the Last System Crash screen
Using the RAC Log
Using the Diagnostic Console
First Steps to Troubleshoot a Remote System
The following questions are commonly used to troubleshoot high-level problems in the managed system:
Is the system powered on or off?
If powered on, is the operating system functioning, crashed, or just frozen?
If powered off, did the power turn off unexpectedly?
The DRAC 5 enables you to remotely perform several power management actions on the managed system so you can recover after a system crash or other system event.
Use the Power Management page to do the following:
Perform an orderly shutdown through the operating system when rebooting, and power the system on or off.
View the system's current Power Status—either ON or OFF.
To access the Power Management page from the System tree, click System and then click the Power Management tab.
NOTE: You must have Execute Server Action Commands permission to perform power management actions.
Selecting Power Control Actions
Select one of the following Power Control Actions.
Power On System— Turns on the system power (equivalent to pressing the power button when the system power is off).
Power Off System— Turns off the system power (equivalent to pressing the power button when the system power is on).
Reset System— Resets the system (equivalent to pressing the reset button); the power is not turned off by using this function.
Power Cycle System— Power off, then reboot (cold boot) the system.
Click Apply to perform the power management action (for example, cause the system to power cycle).
Click the appropriate Power Management page button to continue (see Table 5-1).
Table 5-1. Power Management Page Buttons (Top Right)
Button
Action
Print
Prints the Power Management page
Refresh
Reloads the Power Management page
Viewing System Information
The System Summary page displays information about the following system components:
Main System Chassis
Remote Access Controller
Baseboard Management Controller
To access the system information, expand the System tree and click Properties.
Maximum number of session that can be active at the same time.
Number of Current Active Sessions
Total number of current active sessions.
Firmware Version
Version of the BMC firmware.
LAN Enabled
LAN Enabled or LAN Disabled.
Using the System Event Log (SEL)
The SEL Log page displays system-critical events that occur on the managed system.
To view the System Event Log, perform the following steps:
In the System tree, click System.
Click the Logs tab and then click System Event Log.
The System Event Log page displays the event severity and provides other information as shown in Table 5-6.
Click the appropriate System Event Log page button to continue (see Table 5-7).
Table 5-6. Status Indicator Icons
Icon/Category
Description
A green check mark indicates a healthy (normal) status condition.
A yellow triangle containing an exclamation point indicates a warning (noncritical) status condition.
A red X indicates a critical (failure) status condition.
A question mark icon indicates that the status is unknown.
Date/Time
The date and time that the event occurred. If the date is blank, then the event occurred at System Boot. The format is mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm:ss, based on a 24-hour clock.
Description
A brief description of the event
Table 5-7. SEL Page Buttons
Button
Action
Print
Prints the SEL in the sort order that it appears in the window.
Clear Log
Clears the SEL.
NOTE: The Clear Log button appears only if you have Clear Logs permission.
Save As
Opens a pop-up window that enables you to save the SEL to a directory of your choice.
NOTE: If you are using Internet Explorer and encounter a problem when saving, be sure to download the Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer, located on the Microsoft Support website at support.microsoft.com.
Refresh
Reloads the SEL page.
Viewing the Last System Crash Screen
NOTICE: The last crash screen feature requires the managed system with the Auto Recovery feature configured in Server Administrator. In addition, ensure that the Automated System Recovery feature is enabled using the DRAC. Navigate to the Services page under the Configuration tab in the Remote Access section to enable this feature.
The Last Crash Screen page displays the most recent crash screen, which includes information about the events that occurred before the system crash. The last system crash information is saved in DRAC 5 memory and is remotely accessible.
To view the Last Crash Screen page, perform the following steps:
In the System tree, click System.
Click the Logs tab and then click Last Crash.
The Last Crash Screen page provides the following buttons (see Table 5-8) in the top-right corner of the screen:
Table 5-8. Last Crash Screen Page Buttons
Button
Action
Print
Prints the Last Crash Screen page.
Save
Opens a pop-up window that enables you to save the Last Crash Screen to a directory of your choice.
Delete
Deletes the Last Crash Screen page.
Refresh
Reloads the Last Crash Screen page.
NOTE: Due to fluctuations in the Auto Recovery timer, the Last Crash Screen may not be captured when the System Reset Timer is set to a value less than 30 seconds. Use Server Administrator or IT Assistant to set the System Reset Timer to at least 30 seconds and ensure that the Last Crash Screen functions properly. See "Configuring the Managed System to Capture the Last Crash Screen" for additional information.
Using the RAC Log
The RAC Log is a persistent log maintained in the DRAC 5 firmware. The log contains a list of user actions (such as log in, log out, and security policy changes) and alerts issued by the DRAC 5. The oldest entries are overwritten when the log becomes full.
To access the RAC Log, perform the following steps:
In the System tree, click Remote Access.
Click the Logs tab and then click RAC Log.
The RAC Log provides the information in Table 5-9.
Table 5-9. RAC Log Page Information
Field
Description
Date/ Time
The date and time (for example, Dec 19 16:55:47).
When the DRAC 5 initially starts and is unable to communicate with the managed system, the time given will represent the time lapsed since the DRAC 5 was started. The DRAC 5 will assume that it was started on Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970.
Source
The interface that caused the event.
Description
A brief description of the event and the user name that logged into the DRAC 5.
Using the RAC Log Page Buttons
The RAC Log page provides the following buttons (see Table 5-10).
Table 5-10. RAC Log Buttons
Button
Action
Print
Prints the RAC Log page.
Clear Log
Clears the RAC Log entries.
NOTE: The Clear Log button only appears if you have Clear Logs permission.
Save As
Opens a pop-up window that enables you to save the RAC Log to a directory of your choice.
NOTE: If you are using Internet Explorer and encounter a problem when saving, be sure to download the Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer, located on the Microsoft Support website at support.microsoft.com.
Refresh
Reloads the RAC Log page.
Using the Diagnostic Console
The DRAC 5 provides a standard set of network diagnostic tools (see Table 5-11) that are similar to the tools included with Microsoft® Windows® or Linux-based systems. Using the DRAC 5 Web-based interface, you can access the network debugging tools.
To access the Diagnostic Console page, perform the following steps:
In the System tree, click Remote Access.
Click the Diagnostics tab.
Table 5-11 describes the options that are available on the Diagnostic Console page. Type a command and click Submit. The debugging results appear in the Diagnostic Console page.
To refresh the Diagnostic Console page, click Refresh. To execute another command, click Go Back to Diagnostics Page.
Table 5-11. Diagnostic Commands
Command
Description
arp
Displays the contents of the Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) table. ARP entries may not be added or deleted.
ifconfig
Displays the contents of the network interface table.
netstat
Prints the content of the routing table. If the optional interface number is provided in the text field to the right of the netstat option, then netstat prints additional information regarding the traffic across the interface, buffer usage, and other network interface information.
ping <IP Address>
Verifies that the destination IP address is reachable from the DRAC 5 with the current routing-table contents. A destination IP address must be entered in the field to the right of this option. An Internet control message protocol (ICMP) echo packet is sent to the destination IP address based on the current routing-table contents.
gettracelog
Displays the DRAC 5 trace log. See "gettracelog" for more information.
Troubleshooting Network Problems
The internal DRAC 5 Trace Log is used by administrators to debug DRAC 5 alerting and networking. You can access the Trace Log from the DRAC 5 Web-based interface by clicking the Diagnostics tab, typing the gettracelog command, or typing the racadm gettracelog command. See "gettracelog" for more information.
The Trace Log tracks the following information:
DHCP — Traces packets sent to and received from a DHCP server.
IP — Traces IP packets sent and received.
The trace log may also contain DRAC 5 firmware-specific error codes that are related to the internal DRAC 5 firmware, not the managed system's operating system.
NOTE: The DRAC 5 will not echo an ICMP (ping) with a packet size larger than 1500 bytes.
Troubleshooting Alerting Problems
Use logged SNMP trap information to troubleshoot a particular type of DRAC 5 alert. SNMP trap deliveries are logged in the Trace Log by default. However, since SNMP does not confirm delivery of traps, use a network analyzer or a tool such as Microsoft's snmputil to trace the packets on the managed system.
