Overview

C H A P T E R 1

Overview

This chapter introduces Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter. Topics covered in this chapter include:

Installing Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter

What is Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter?

How Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Operates

Installing Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter

For installation instructions, refer to the Sun StorEdge 3000 Family Software Installation Guide.

What is Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter?

Instead of keeping the Sun StorEdge Configuration Service 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 background mode 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.

Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Config Tool (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, refer to the “Email and SNMP” appendix in the Sun StorEdge 3000 Family 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, then 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 then 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 FIGURE 1-1, 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).

The Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Config Tool and the Sun StorEdge Configuration Service console can be located on any computer on the network and are located on one computer (#4) for convenience only.

Diagram showing typical Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter setup.

FIGURE 1-1 Typical Sun StorEdge Diagnostic Reporter Setup