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What is Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter?

What is Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter?

How Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Operates

Setting Up the Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Configuration

Setting Up and Using the Report Tool

Setting Up and Using the Mail Receiver Tool

What is Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter?

Instead of keeping the console running in the foreground, you can use Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter as a companion utility of Sun StorEdge Configuration Service that runs as a background service that sends messages when triggered events occur from the hosts and arrays to specified email addresses. Using Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter you can:

  • Define the types of message traps sent

  • Define the timing of messages sent

  • Send encrypted messages

  • Receive messages and decrypt encrypted messages on the Mail Receiver Tool (which functions as an email viewing program if you do not have a program such as Microsoft Outlook on the receiving computer)

To use Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter throughout the storage data network, install it as a service on each computer that has a controlling Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agent (a controlling agent is the only agent that talks to a specific array).

One major benefit of installing Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter on all host computers is that it can be configured to ping each computer periodically, and to send a single-point-of-failure message from a Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agent to the specified email addresses when a host fails.

Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter includes the following components:

  • Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter agent (daemon) - Operates in the background continuously on the computer where it is installed. The daemon can be installed and used on any computer where Sun StorEdge Configuration Service is running.
  • The Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Config Tool (the UI) - A utility that configures the types of message traps that are sent to the Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agent, and that are sent to a specific email address as an alert or for informational purposes. Also known as the UI (user interface).
  • Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Mail Receiver Tool - displays the messages that are collected. (Also known as the POP3 Mail Receiver.)

NOTE: To ensure that Sun StorEdge Configuration Service receives email, see the Email and SNMP appendix in the Sun StorEdge Configuration Service User's Guide for information on setting traps.

How Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Operates

After connecting to a Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agent, Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter receives any event from the agent; if the event is assigned a TRAP condition, Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter emails the event to the user-specified email address.

NOTE: For the Sun StorEdge 3120 SCSI array, Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter sends triggered event notification only for environmental failures and hard drive failures.

If Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter cannot connect to any agent or the agent is offline, it tries to discover the agent every five minutes. This prevents Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter from being disconnected from the agent when network traffic is congested.

In the typical setup shown in the following figure, the array Hosts (computers #1, #2, and #3) are used with the array devices (#A, #B, and #C respectively). Each host contains a Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agent and a Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter daemon. Each Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter daemon can be configured by the Config Tool to send event messages to any email address (shown as computer #5, which uses the Mail Receiver Tool to download the messages).

In the typical setup shown in the following figure, the Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Config Tool and the Sun StorEdge Configuration Service Console program are located on one computer (#4) for convenience only, and can be located on any computer on the network.

Typical Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Setup.

Setting Up the Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Configuration

Only one instance of the Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Config utility can be open at a time. The configuration information is saved to a file named ssdgrpt_cfg.xml.

NOTE: To implement any configuration change to a Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter server, you must be connected to a Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter server and you must click Save Configuration after you have completed the changes.

To set up the configuration, perform the following steps:

  1. Start Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter.
  2. On a Solaris, Linux, HP-UX, or IBM AIX OS, type

    ssdgrptui

    On a Windows 2000 OS, select Start > Programs > Sun StorEdge 3000 Family > Diagnostic Reporter Config Tool.

    On a Windows 2003 OS, choose Start > All Programs > Sun StorEdge 3000 Family > Diagnostic Reporter Config Tool.

    If you have previously configured and connected to one Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter daemon, the Config Tool automatically connects to the server that you last used.

  3. For the first-time installation and configuration, you must first set up a connection between the Config Tool and a server where Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter is running.
    1. To create a server connection, select Servers > Server List Setup.

    2. In the Server List Configuration dialog box, click Add and type the Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter daemon Server name and IP Address.
    3. Keep the default port number (which is displayed automatically and is used by Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter to communicate with the Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter daemon).
    4. Type the ssconfig login password for the server. This is the same login password that was set when you installed Sun StorEdge Configuration Service. If this password has not already been set, you must set it before continuing. For the UNIX operating system, see Creating Users and Passwords. For the Microsoft Windows operating system, see Creating Users and Passwords.
    5. Click Apply.

    The Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Server Name and IP Address are displayed in the Server List. The Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Config Tool can access multiple servers, but can only connect to one server and one Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Service at a time.

    If you do not specify a password for each server, you are asked for a password each time you reconnect to a server.

  4. Click Close.
  5. To connect to a Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter server, select Servers > Connect to DR Agent, and then select the desired server from the list that is displayed.
  6. Click the Basic Information tab and provide information used for the email server and event messages.
  7. The System ID and Location are descriptive fields for the server where Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter resides.

    The Customer and Contact Information provide information to be attached to the event emails, which is helpful when the event messages are sent to multiple email locations.

    The SMTP Server is the IP address for the server that Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter uses to send email. If you specify an incorrect address (or domain name), Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter cannot find it and mail messages are not sent. If the SMTP server needs authorization, you must provide the necessary information to log in to the SMTP server.

  8. You must configure the From field using the following format:

    name@domain

  9. To specify the trap messages that are to be reported, select the Trap Information tab and click Add.
  10. In the Add one Trap dialog box, select the desired parameters.

    At a minimum, select a trap event, specify the minimum interval between mails, and provide one email address. To provide multiple email addresses, separate each address with a space, comma, or semicolon.

  11. Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter can connect to multiple Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agents at the same time. To connect to one or more Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agents, click the SSCS Agent Information tab and click Add.
  12. For each Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agent, you must specify the Agent Name, Agent IP Address, Port and Password for the ssconfig user accessing that agent.

    Agent Name: Name that is included in emails. You can use the real machine host name or give an alias.

    Port: The Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agent listener port number. Keep the default value 1270 (other valid values are 1271, 1272, and 1273). If you cannot connect to the agent, change the value and try again.

    Password: The password for the ssconfig user. Before the Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Service can connect to the Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agent, the Service must provide the correct password for the ssconfig user.

  13. After you have provided the agent parameters, click Discard to cancel changes, or click Apply to save the configuration. Each agent listed in the agent list sends the specified event messages to the Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Service where this configuration has been saved.
  14. After you create or edit any configuration, click Save Configuration in the main window to save the configuration to the Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Service. Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter restarts to read the configuration file again.
  15. To see the current status of all agents at a specific moment, click Probe SSCS Agent in the main window. In the SSCS Agent Information tab, the SSCS Agent List shows colored status buttons to indicate if Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter is active with the Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agent on each agent server.
  16. Red - Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter cannot connect to the Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agent

    Yellow - Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter is seeking the Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agent

    Green - Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter is connected to the Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agent

    None - The Sun StorEdge Configuration Service agent information has not been saved

    The color and text of this button can change every 20 seconds.

Host Event Log

When there is a triggered event, Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter attaches the host event log to the email that is sent. The events are logged into the system log of the host where the agent is installed. Event Log lists the locations where the events are logged to in each OS.

Because the host can generate a large amount of messages, it is possible to exceed the mail size limit allowed by some SMTP servers. Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter limits the size of the host event log to 5 Mbyte. This limit can be changed by defining the mail size limit attribute of the smtp element in ssdgr_cfg.xml. The following table lists the location of this file for each OS.

Operating System ssdgrpt_cfg.xml File Location
Solaris, Linux, and HP-UX OS /opt/SUNWsscs/ssdiagreporterd/
Microsoft Windows OS <install path>\service\, where the default install path is C:\Program Files\Sun\ssdgrpt
IBM AIX OS /opt/SUNWsscs/ssdiagreporterd

For example, to define the host event log size limit to 1 Mbyte (1 Mbyte = 1024 x 1024 = 1048576), define the mail size limit attribute as follows:

		  

smpt auth="false" username="" password ="XXXX" mail_size_limit="1048576" from="test@sina.com" >smtp.sina.com

NOTE: If the mail size limit attribute is not defined, Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter uses the default value of 5 Mbyte.

Setting Up and Using the Report Tool

The report capability enables you to generate a report that contains the configuration of all locally attached arrays.

The following steps describe how to set up the report tool on UNIX systems.

  1. On a UNIX OS, configure the local host to monitor the locally attached arrays.

    1. From the main Sun StorEdge Configuration Service window, choose Array Administration > Controller Assignment. The Assign Server to Manage a RAID Controller window is displayed.

    2. Select a server from the Server to manage this controller list and click Apply. This enables the selected server to manage an array controller. It also disables all servers listed from managing the same array.

    3. Click Close to close the view.

  2. Add the local server to the ssdgrcli.cfg file by typing the following command from the server that is attached to and managing the array.

    # /usr/sbin/ssdgrptd -c -s password@ipaddress

    You are prompted for the ssconfig password.

  3. Run the following command to generate the report:

    # /usr/sbin/ssdgrptd -r

    The default report file name is report.xml. For systems running the Solaris, Linux, or HP-UX OS, it is saved to /opt/SUNWsscs/ssdiagreporterd. For systems running the IBM AIX OS, it is saved to /usr/SUNWsscs/ssdiagreportered.

The following steps describe how to set up the report tool on a Microsoft Windows OS.

  1. Change to the directory where ssdgrptd was installed (default C:\Program Files\Sun\ssdgrpt).

  2. Run the following command:

    java -cp .\;.\ssdgrptd.jar sscs_daemon -x -x

    where the x's are c and s to generate the report in xml format, or r and e to generate the report in txt format.

    NOTE: Whether you generate the report as xml or txt, the extension remains xml.

  3. Run the following command:

    java -cp .\;.\ssdgrptd.jar sscs_daemon -r

    The default report file name is report.xml and is saved to the directory where ssdgrptd was installed.

Setting Up and Using the Mail Receiver Tool

The Mail Receiver Tool is optional and can be used in place of your regular email application. It can be used to receive and forward unencrypted and encrypted email.

  1. Start the mail receiver tool.
  2. On a Solaris, Linux, HP-UX, or IBM AIX host, type

    ssdgrptpop

    On a Windows 2000 OS, choose Start > Programs > Sun StorEdge 3000 Family > Diagnostic Reporter Mail Receiver Tool.

    On a Windows 2003 OS, choose Start > All Programs > Sun StorEdge 3000 Family > Diagnostic Reporter Mail Receiver Tool.

  3. In the POP3 Mail Receiver window, identify the UserName, Password, and email server IP address (POP3 Server) where the event messages are sent.
  4. If needed, specify the appropriate SMTP information.

  5. To receive event messages, click Connect.
  6. If decryption is necessary, click Decrypt File.
  7. For event information or alerts that need to be sent to additional staff, click Forward All or Forward Selected and specify the destination address(es).
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