Create Diagnostic Partition Option

The diagnostic partition is preinstalled on the Sun Ultra 27 workstation. You need to reinstall the diagnostic partition only if you reformatted your hard drive. Using the Erase Primary Boot Hard Disk utility on the Tools and Drivers DVD preserves the diagnostic partition (see the Sun Ultra 27 Workstation Linux and Solaris Operating System Installation Guide).

The Create Diagnostic Partition option installs a diagnostic partition on the first bootable disk seen by the workstation. The first bootable disk is on the primary or master storage (for example, SATA) device.

The following sections explain how to create and access the diagnostic partition on the Sun Ultra 27 workstation:

• To Add a Diagnostic Partition to the First Bootable Disk

• To Create a Log File on the Diagnostic Partition

• To Access the Diagnostic Partition Under Red Hat Linux

• To Access the Diagnostic Partition Under the Solaris 10 OS

• To Access the Diagnostic Partition on a Windows System

To Add a Diagnostic Partition to the First Bootable Disk

From the boot loader, Pc-Check can view only the first or second hard disk on the system. The software automatically installs the diagnostic partition on the first bootable disk. To add the diagnostic partition on the first bootable disk:

1. Insert the Tools and Drivers DVD into the DVD drive.

2. Reboot the workstation.

   The workstation boots from the DVD drive.

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   Note –

   If the workstation does not boot from the DVD drive, access the BIOS Setup Utility and make the DVD drive the primary boot device.

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3. At the Tools and Drivers DVD main menu, type 1 to run Hardware Diagnostics.

   The Hardware Diagnostics menu appears.

4. From the main menu, choose Create Diagnostic Partition.

   • If the first bootable disk is clear of partitions, the Sun Microsystems Partitioning Utility window appears. It states

     “Your primary hard disk is not partitioned. Would you like to partition it now?”

   • Select Yes, and press the Enter key.

     A window appears stating:

     “Partitioning complete. Your machine will now be restarted.”

   • If the first bootable disk is not clear of partitions, a window appears stating that the software is unable to create a hardware diagnostic partition because there are already partitions on the disk.

     If this happens, repeat this procedure after you remove the partitions as described in the section, To Erase the Currently Installed OS in Sun Ultra 27 Workstation Linux and Solaris Operating System Installation Guide or in the section, Chapter 4, Preparing Disks for the Operating System, in Sun Ultra 27 Workstation Windows Operating System Installation Guide.

5. Press the Enter key to reboot your workstation.

To Create a Log File on the Diagnostic Partition

All the scripts that are loadable with the hardware diagnostics software are predefined with logging to the diagnostic partition enabled. The names of log files correspond to the name of the script. For example, a script named noinput.tst creates a log file named noinput.jrl.

The following instructions show an example of how to create and access a log file on the diagnostic partition for the noinput.tst script.

1. Insert the Tools and Drivers DVD into the DVD drive.

2. Reboot the workstation.

3. From the Tools and Drivers DVD main menu, choose 1 to run the Hardware Diagnostics software.

   The Hardware Diagnostics menu appears.

4. From the Hardware Diagnostics main menu, choose Immediate Burn In Testing.

5. Select Load Burn In Script.

6. Do one of the following actions:

   • Type noinput.tst and press the Enter key.

   • If you are using a test you created yourself, type d:\testname.tst in the Load Burn In Script field. where testname is the name of the test you created.

7. Select Perform Burn In Tests to run the script.

8. When the tests are complete, press the Escape key to exit the Display Results window.

9. Select Exit to DOS and press the Enter key.

10. At the DOS prompt, type the following:

    C:> d:

11. Type the following to list the contents of the diagnostic partition.

    D:> dir

    The noinput.jrl log appears.

To Access the Diagnostic Partition Under Red Hat Linux

1. Remove the Tools and Drivers DVD from the DVD drive.

2. Reboot the workstation and start the Red Hat Linux OS.

3. Log in as superuser.

4. To determine whether your diagnostic partition is configured to be mounted, type the following command:

   # ls /diagpart

   • If this command does not list the log files created by the hardware diagnostics software, then the OS was not configured to mount the diagnostic partition. Continue to Step 5.

   • If the command lists the log files created by the hardware diagnostics software, then the OS is configured to mount the diagnostic partition. All users have read access to this partition. Only the superuser has read/write access to this partition. You do not need to continue this procedure.

5. Insert the Tools and Drivers DVD into the DVD drive.

6. When the DVD mounts, open a terminal window.

7. Type the following command:

   # cd mountpoint/drivers/linux/linux_version

   where mountpoint is the DVD mountpoint

   where linux_version is the version of Linux that you installed. For example:

   # cd /mnt/cdrom/drivers/linux/red_hat

8. Type the following command to install the diagnostic partition:

   # ./install.sh

9. Press the Enter key.

   The following lines appear if the diagnostic partition is mounted successfully:

   Mounting Diagnostic Partition Installation Successful

10. Type the following command:

    # ls /diagpart

    The contents of the diagnostic partition are listed.

To Access the Diagnostic Partition Under the Solaris 10 OS

1. Remove the Tools and Drivers DVD from the DVD drive.

2. Reboot the machine, and start the Solaris 10 Operating System.

3. Log in as superuser.

4. Type the following command to determine if your diagnostic partition is configured to be mounted:

   # ls /diagpart

   • If this command does not list the log files created by the hardware diagnostics software, then the OS is not configured to mount the diagnostic partition. Continue to Step 5.

   • If this command lists the log files created by the hardware diagnostics software, then the OS is configured to mount the diagnostic partition. All users have read access to this partition. Only the superuser has read/write access to this partition. You do not need to continue this procedure.

5. Insert the Tools and Drivers DVD into the DVD drive.

6. When the DVD mounts, open a terminal window.

7. Type the following to change directories:

   # cd /cdrom/cdrom0/drivers/sx86

8. Type the following command to install the diagnostic partition:

   # ./install.sh

9. Press the Enter key.

   The following lines appear if the diagnostic partition is mounted successfully:

   Mounting Diagnostic Partition Installation Successful

10. Type the following command to list the contents of the diagnostic partition:

    # ls /diagpart

To Access the Diagnostic Partition on a Windows System

If you are running Windows XP on the Sun Ultra 27 workstation, you cannot access the diagnostic partition using Windows XP.

The only way to retrieve the contents (log files) on the diagnostic partition is to attach a USB diskette drive to the Sun Ultra 27 workstation and complete the following procedure.

1. Connect the USB diskette drive to any USB port on the Sun Ultra 27 workstation.

2. Insert the Tools and Drivers DVD into the DVD drive.

3. Reboot the workstation.

4. At the Tools and Drivers DVD main menu, type 4 to exit to DOS.

5. To change to the d: drive, enter the following at the DOS command prompt.

   C:> d:

6. Copy the log file to the diskette.

   For example, to copy a file named noinput.jrl to the diskette, enter:

   D:> copy d:\noinput.jrl a:\

   The journal file is now saved to the diskette in the USB diskette drive.