This chapter describes the monitoring and debugging tools:
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.
From the Main Administration Page, under "Network Computer Administration," click Network Computer Diagnostic Tools.
The Network Computer Diagnostic Tools page is displayed.
Click Network Computer Service Diagnostics.
The Network Computer Services Diagnostics page is displayed.
Click General network Services Status.
The results from polling the system are displayed.
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.
From the Main Administration Page, under "Network Computer Administration," click Network Computer Diagnostic Tools.
The Network Computer Diagnostic Tools page is displayed.
Click Network Computer Service Diagnostics.
The Network Computer Services Diagnostic page is displayed.
Click Advanced DHCP Service Validation.
The Advanced DHCP Service Validation page is displayed.
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.
Click on the hostname of a responding server to view the decoded response.
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.
From the Main Administration page, under "Network Computer Administration," click Network Computer Diagnostics Tools.
The Network Computer Diagnostics Tools page is displayed.
Click Network Computer Line Trace.
The Network Computer Line Trace page is displayed.
Click New Trace.
The next Network Computer Line Trace page is displayed.
Select one NC from the NC to trace list.
Enter a Trace Filename.
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
Click OK.
The Trace Started Success page is displayed.
Select either Terse or Verbose.
This formats the trace data, then displays it in the mode you selected.
From the Main Administration page, under "Network Computer Administration," click Network Computer Diagnostic Tools.
The Network Computer Diagnostic Tools page is displayed.
Click Network Computer Line Trace.
The Network Computer Line Trace page is displayed.
Click Delete for the selected trace.
The Deletion confirmation page is displayed listing the tracefile name.
Click OK.
The listed tracefile is deleted.
From the Main Administration page, under "Network Computer Administration," click Network Computer Diagnostic Tools.
The Network Computer Diagnostic Tools page is displayed.
Click Network Computer Line Trace.
The Network Computer Line Trace page is displayed.
Click Stop Trace for the selected trace.
The Stop Trace confirmation page is displayed.
Click OK.
The trace is stopped.
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.
From the Main Administration Page, under "Network Computer Administration," click Network Computer Diagnostics Tools.
The Network Computer Diagnostics Tools page is displayed.
Click Network Computer Monitor.
The Network Computer Monitor page is displayed.
Select one or more of the attributes listed under "Check attributes to monitor."
Select one or more of the NCs listed under "Highlight NCs to monitor."
Click OK.
The table with the selected NCs and attributes is displayed.