AIX - Problem Determination

sysdumpdev

Changes the primary or secondary dump device designation in a running system. The default primary dump device is LV /dev/hd6 and the default secondary dump device is /dev/sysdumpnull. A dedicated primary dump device LV /dev/lg_dumplv is created (if sufficient disk space is available) in systems with at least 4 Gigabytes of real memory.

sysdumpdev -l : displays current dump device settings.
sysdumpdev -P -p /dev/hd7 : changes the primary dump device permanently from the default to LV /dev/hd7.
sysdumpdev -e : estimates the dump size (in bytes) for the current running system.
sysdumpdev -L : displays statistical information about the last dump.
chdev -l sys0 -a autostart=true : automatically reboot after a crash (default is false).

dumpcheck
Checks the disk resources used by the system dump and logs in the system error log. Run default by cron at 3:00 pm local time each day.
/usr/lib/ras/dumpcheck -p : requests a dumpcheck. The result is printed to stdout (-p).
/usr/lib/ras/dumpcheck -r : discontinues running dumpcheck (removes the crontab entry).

kdb
Displays system images for examining a dump.
kdb /var/adm/ras/vmcore.0 /unix : starts kdb using the uncompressed dump file /var/adm/ras/vmcore.0 and kernel file /unix.

snap
Gathers system configuration information and compresses the information into a pax file.

snap -a -o /dev/rmt0 : gathers all system configuration information (needs approximately 8 MB space in directory /tmp/ibmsupt) and creates a compressed pax image (snap.pax.Z) of directory /tmp/ibmsupt.

snapcore
Gathers the core file, program, and libraries used by a program to directory /tmp/snapcore (default) and compresses the information into a pax image. The collected information allows debugging and resolving problems within an application.

snapcore -d /tmp/snapcore2 core.xx : gathers all needed information for core dump file core.xx and writes it to directory /tmp/snapcore2/snapcore_32811.pax.Z, where 32811 is the process id ($pid) of the snapcore command.
uncompress -c snapcore_32811.pax.Z | pax : displays the contents of the pax archive.
check_core

Used by snapcore to gather all information about a core dump. The bos.rte.serv_aid fileset must be installed.
/usr/lib/ras/check_core core.xx : displays a list containing the program that caused core dump core.xx and the used libraries.

shconf
Manages the system hang detection parameters for the system hang daemon shdaemon.
shconf -d : displays if priority problem detection and lost I/O detection are enabled or not.
shconf -E -l prio -H : displays the current shdaemon settings.