Hp COMPAQ PROLIANT 8000 NMI Crash Dump Feature

White Paper

January 2000
11N8-0100A-WWEN
Prepared by:
Industry Standard Server Division
Compaq Computer Corporation

Contents

What Is NMI Crash Dump........... 3

Compaq Automatic Server

Recovery (ASR) ........................ 4

Initiating a NMI Crash Dump

Under NetWare............................ 6

Initiating a NMI Crash Dump
Under SCO OpenServer 5

and SCO UnixWare 7.................. 6

How to Set Up NMI Crash

Dump Under Windows NT 4.0.... 7

Microsoft Software .................... 7

Compaq Software ..................... 8

How to Set Up NMI Crash

Dump Under Windows 2000 ...... 8

Microsoft Software (subject

to change) ................................. 8

Compaq Software (subject to

change) ..................................... 9

Where Is the Crash Dump

Button located? ........................ 10

ProLiant 8000.......................... 10

ProLiant 8500.......................... 11

Compaq ProLiant Server NMI
Crash Dump Feature

Abstract: This document provides a description of the Compaq
ProLiant Class Computer Systems implementation of NMI-based
Crash Dump facilities. This facility can be beneficial to system
administrators in their root cause failure analysis.

NMI Crash Dump allows customers to obtain critical diagnostic
information in the event of system lock-ups and other failures. Both
user-initiated and automatic crash dump support is presented.

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Compaq ProLiant Server NMI Crash Dump Feature 2

Notice

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DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION, OR LOSS OF
BUSINESS INFORMATION), EVEN IF COMPAQ HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
SUCH DAMAGES.

The limited warranties for Compaq products are exclusively set forth in the documentation accompanying
such products. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting a further or additional warranty.

This publication does not constitute an endorsement of the product or products that were tested. The
configuration or configurations tested or described may or may not be the only available solution. This test
is not a determination of product quality or correctness, nor does it ensure compliance with any federal,
state, or local requirements.

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Microsoft, Windows, and Windows NT are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Microsoft
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Other product names mentioned herein may be trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective
companies.

© 2000 Compaq Computer Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

Compaq ProLiant Server NMI Crash Dump Feature
White Paper prepared by Industry Standard Server Division

First Edition (January 2000)
Document Number 11N8-0100A-WWEN

11N8-0100A-WWEN

Compaq ProLiant Server NMI Crash Dump Feature 3

What Is NMI Crash Dump

Non-Maskable Interrupt (NMI) Crash Dump is a diagnostic mechanism. It allows for crash dump
files to be created in situations when a system is hung and not able to respond to traditional debug
mechanisms.

Crash dump analysis is an essential part of diagnosing reliability problems such as hangs in
operating systems, device drivers, and applications. Many crashes will freeze a system in such a
way that your only recourse is to do a hard reset-(i.e. power cycle the system). Since resetting the
system erases any information that would support an analysis of the problem, it is desirable for
the system to be able to perform a memory dump before a hard reset is performed. A dump
switch and the associated support in Windows NT, Windows 2000, NetWare, SCO OpenServer 5,
and SCO UnixWare 7 provide this function.

Figure 1: NMI Crash Dump Issue Resolution Events

The dump switch can be used to diagnose software failures by forcing the operating system to
invoke the non-maskable interrupt (NMI) handler and generate a crash dump log. The crash dump
log can provide critical information for root-cause analysis that may be difficult or impossible to
obtain through other means

A user initiates a Non Maskable Interrupt (NMI) event by pressing the dump switch. The NMI
can allow a hung system to become responsive enough to generate a crash dump log.

WARNING: Using the NMI Crash Dump switch on a functioning system (using any operating
system) will cause the unit to abruptly fail. This is the designed functionality of the NMI Crash
Dump Switch. Thus, is should never be used during normal operation.

Compaq has enhanced Automatic Server Recovery (ASR) handling for situations where an
automated crash dump may be desired. ASR detects a lockup and normally provides a system
reset. ASR can be configured to generate the Crash Dump NMI instead of a reset. This will allow
for a crash dump file to be written prior to a system reset.

The Compaq health (systems management) driver must be loaded in order to properly
differentiate an NMI caused by the dump switch from a PCI SERR NMI. The dump switch
operates even if the health driver is not loaded.

The NMI Crash Dump switch may not work in all situations: after another NMI has already
occurred in the system, when the OS crash handler is incapable of running properly, following
some hardware failures, and when ASR is in progress, for example.

11N8-0100A-WWEN

Compaq ProLiant Server NMI Crash Dump Feature 4

Compaq Automatic Server Recovery (ASR)

ASR provides a means to recover from a lockup caused by either the software or the hardware.
The feature consists of a hardware countdown timer and a software driver, which periodically
refreshes the countdown timer. If the driver fails to report in and refresh the timer, the ASR
hardware timer normally resets the machine.

When configured for NMI Crash Dump, in Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, SCO OpenServer 5
and SCO UnixWare 7 ASR initiates the NMI Crash Dump instead of resetting the machine

ASR does not cover cases where the operating system or applications may be executing in an
indeterminate state. These cases would require the system administrator to intervene and initiate
the NMI with the crash dump button.

Note: All Compaq systems require the Compaq health (systems management) driver to support
ASR.

Compaq Sysmgmt Driver

(ASR Refresh)

Hardware Abstraction Layer

NMI

NMI Dump

Button

Figure 2: Simplified Block Diagram of NMI Crash Dump Architecture

Compaq Hardware

(NMI Tracker)

ASR Timer

Crash Dump/Mass

Storage Driver

Crash dump file

11N8-0100A-WWEN