Problems

Problems

To aid serviceability, the appliance detects persistent hardware failures (faults) and software failures (defects, often included under faults) and reports them as active problems on this screen. If the phone home service is enabled, active problems are automatically reported to Sun Support, where a support case may be opened depending on the service contract and the nature of the fault.

Active problems display

For each problem, the appliance reports what happened, when the problem was detected, the severity and type of the problem, and whether it has been phoned home. Below are some example faults as they would be displayed in the BUI:

This information can also be viewed in the CLI:

gefilte:> maintenance problems show
Problems:

COMPONENT    DIAGNOSED            TYPE            DESCRIPTION
problem-000  2010-7-27 00:02:49   Major Fault     SMART health-monitoring
                                                  firmware reported that a
                                                  failure is imminent on disk
                                                  'HDD 17'.

Selecting any fault shows more information about the fault including the impact to the system, affected components, the system's automated response (if any), and the recommended action for the administrator (if any). In the CLI, only the "uuid", "diagnosed", "severity", "type", and "status" fields are considered stable. Other property values may change from release to release.

For hardware faults, you may be able to select the affected hardware component to locate it on the Hardware screen.

Repairing problems

Problems can be repaired by performing the steps described in the suggested action section. This typically involves replacing the physical component (for hardware faults) or reconfiguring and restarting the affected service (for software defects). Repaired problems no longer appear on this screen.

While the system typically detects repairs automatically, in some cases manual intervention may be required. If a problem persists after the affected components have been repaired, contact support. You may be instructed to mark the problem repaired. This should only be done under the direction of service personnel or as part of a documented Sun repair procedure.

Related features

• A persistent log of all faults and defects is available under Logs as the Fault log.

• Faults and defects are subcategories of Alerts. Filter rules can be configured to cause the appliance to email administrators or perform other actions when faults are detected.