Chapter 5 Monitoring and Debugging Tools

This chapter describes the monitoring and debugging tools:

• "Network Computer Service Diagnostics"

• "Network Computer Debug"

• "Network Computer Monitor"

Network Computer Service Diagnostics

This tool checks the health of each of the critical network services that are required to boot and run a network computer (NC). It also validates advanced DHCP service.

The network services checked are:

• TFTP

• NFS

• DHCP

• NIS

• DNS

• HTTP

This tool checks that the service is running, that it is up, and that the configuration files are OK.

To Check the Status of All Network Services

1. From the Main Administration Page, under "Network Computer Administration," click Network Computer Diagnostic Tools.

   The Network Computer Diagnostic Tools page is displayed.

2. Click Network Computer Service Diagnostics.

   The Network Computer Services Diagnostics page is displayed.

3. Click General network Services Status.

   The results from polling the system are displayed.

To Validate Advanced DHCP Service

The Advanced DHCP Diagnostic emulates the broadcast of a DHCP DISCOVER request from a particular NC and captures the response from every DHCP server that replies. From this list we can determine whether the local DHCP server is responding properly and if there are any other DHCP servers errantly responding to our requests.

1. From the Main Administration Page, under "Network Computer Administration," click Network Computer Diagnostic Tools.

   The Network Computer Diagnostic Tools page is displayed.

2. Click Network Computer Service Diagnostics.

   The Network Computer Services Diagnostic page is displayed.

3. Click Advanced DHCP Service Validation.

   The Advanced DHCP Service Validation page is displayed.

4. Highlight the NC you plan to validate the proper operation of the DHCP service for and click OK.

   The Responding DHCP Servers Page is displayed.This page states if the local DHCP service responded or not, and lists all the other DHCP servers responding.

5. Click on the hostname of a responding server to view the decoded response.

Network Computer Debug

This debug tool puts a graphical user interface (GUI) front end on the snoop command. It traces the data traffic in and out of a particular NC. The information helps the administrator determine the source of any boot problems. The trace data is written to a file and can be viewed at any time during the trace.

See the JavaStation Client Software Guide for a sample snoop trace with brief description.

To Start a Debug Trace

1. From the Main Administration page, under "Network Computer Administration," click Network Computer Diagnostics Tools.

   The Network Computer Diagnostics Tools page is displayed.

2. Click Network Computer Line Trace.

   The Network Computer Line Trace page is displayed.

3. Click New Trace.

   The next Network Computer Line Trace page is displayed.

4. Select one NC from the NC to trace list.

5. Enter a Trace Filename.

6. Select one Trace Limit:

   • Unlimited - continues trace until you stop it

   • Time (minutes) - trace ends when time has elapsed

   • File size (KB) - trace ends when file is full

7. Click OK.

   The Trace Started Success page is displayed.

8. Select either Terse or Verbose.

   This formats the trace data, then displays it in the mode you selected.

To Delete a Debug Trace

1. From the Main Administration page, under "Network Computer Administration," click Network Computer Diagnostic Tools.

   The Network Computer Diagnostic Tools page is displayed.

2. Click Network Computer Line Trace.

   The Network Computer Line Trace page is displayed.

3. Click Delete for the selected trace.

   The Deletion confirmation page is displayed listing the tracefile name.

4. Click OK.

   The listed tracefile is deleted.

To Stop a Debug Trace

1. From the Main Administration page, under "Network Computer Administration," click Network Computer Diagnostic Tools.

   The Network Computer Diagnostic Tools page is displayed.

2. Click Network Computer Line Trace.

   The Network Computer Line Trace page is displayed.

3. Click Stop Trace for the selected trace.

   The Stop Trace confirmation page is displayed.

4. Click OK.

   The trace is stopped.

Network Computer Monitor

This tool displays a table with the status of each configured NC. The attributes of an NC that can be monitored are:

• Host Name

• MAC Address

• IP Address

• IP Lease

• Lease Time Expiration

• State, Up Time

• Home Directory

• Home Directory Server

• DNS Domain

• NIS Domain

• Hardware Platform

• JavaOS Version

• JavaOS Build

• RAM Size (kilobytes)

• Desktop Application

The NC Monitor only runs in a JDK1.1 compliant browser with RMI capabilities.

You can select as many attributes to monitor and as many NCs as you want. The static information is retrieved from the DHCP configuration file server; the dynamic information is from polling each NC for its current state.

To Monitor Network Computers

1. From the Main Administration Page, under "Network Computer Administration," click Network Computer Diagnostics Tools.

   The Network Computer Diagnostics Tools page is displayed.

2. Click Network Computer Monitor.

   The Network Computer Monitor page is displayed.

3. Select one or more of the attributes listed under "Check attributes to monitor."

4. Select one or more of the NCs listed under "Highlight NCs to monitor."

5. Click OK.

   The table with the selected NCs and attributes is displayed.