Technical overview

Dynamic System Analysis (DSA) is a system information collection and analysis tool that is used by IBM System x Service and Support personnel to aid in the diagnosis of system problems. This software can be used while the operating system is running.

Two editions of Dynamic Systems Analysis are available:

Preboot Edition

This edition of Dynamic System Analysisruns as an embedded Preboot image or from the boot menu.

You can create bootable media such as CD, DVD, ISO, USB or PXE using IBM ToolsCenter Bootable Media Creator (BoMC) or download the Windows/Linux update package for Preboot DSA to flash an embedded Preboot image. Reboot the system from the image you created or enter the boot menu to enter Preboot DSA.

For more information, see the IBM Bootable Media Creator (BoMC) User’s Guide.

Portable Edition

This edition of Dynamic System Analysis runs from a command line interface as a self-extracting executable file.

DSA creates a temporary directory called /tmp on Linux or %TEMP% on Windows, and extracts all of the Dynamic System Analysis files to that directory. DSA then runs the command. When the command has finished executing all actions, the temporary directory and all of the Dynamic System Analysis files are deleted from the local system.

You can download the Portable Edition from the IBM website and install it on removable media, such as: CD, DVD, or a USB flash drive.

Dynamic System Analysis collects information about the following aspects of a system, if applicable:

Drive Health Information
Event logs for the operating system, ServeRAID controllers, and service processors
Event logs for the system including Chassis Event log and IPMI Event log
FoD Activation key information
Hardware inventory, including PCI and USB information
IBM LightPath status
Installed packages
Kernel Modules
LSI RAID and controller configuration
Network interfaces and settings
Option cards for firmware and driver information:
- Broadcom
- Brocade Adapter
- Diablo FlashDimm
- Emulex
- LSI Controller
- Mellanox Adapter
- Qlogic
Performance data and details for running processes
ServeRAID configuration
Service Processor status and configuration
System configuration
System environmental information
Vital product data, firmware, and basic input/output system (BIOS) information

System information is collected into a compressed XML file that can be sent to IBM Service and Support. You can view the system information using an optionally generated HTML Web pages or text files.

You can use Dynamic System Analysis to create a merged log that includes events from all collected logs and to compare the firmware configurations on a server to those from UpdateXpress.

Important:

To install or use Dynamic System Analysis, you must be logged in to the local system using a user ID that has administrator or root privileges. On a Linux system, you must log in using the root user name and privilege.
On Linux systems, run Dynamic System Analysis from a journaling file system (such as ext3 or ReiserFS). You cannot run these commands from a virtual machine file system (VMFS).