How to identify spare memory slots

[Berd]

I am looking to identify current memory usage, and upgrade limits for a pair of rp4440 servers. I have used cstm to identify what is currently configured within the machine. One having 16*1024MB DIMMS and the other 24*2048MB DIMMS. Therefore, the machine using 2GB DIMMS must have a 32 slot memory extender board. How can I confirm whether the other machine has free slots or not, or even the type of memory extender board it is using ?

[Peter Godron]

Berd,
I thought there were two memory board available:
A9738B with max 16 DIMM
A9739B with max 32 DIMM

cstm should show any extender boards as EXT prefix.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

Used memory slots can be displayed with the cstm utility.

Server docs at http://docs.hp.com will tell you how many slots should be reported.

SEP

[Berd]

Peter/Steven

cstm does show me used memory slots, but how do I know how many are spare, as I did not order/configure boxes. How can I identify which memory extender board is in use ?

Cheers,
Berd

[Torsten. · Accepted solution]

Hi,

the "offline" method:

stop at BCH and run "info memory" (in me):

MEMORY INFORMATION


MEMORY STATUS TABLE (MB) (Current Boot Status)

Slot 0a 1024M Active
Slot 0b 1024M Active
Slot 0c 1024M Active
Slot 0d 1024M Active

Slot 1a 1024M Active
Slot 1b 1024M Active
Slot 1c 1024M Active
Slot 1d 1024M Active

Slot 2a 1024M Active
Slot 2b 1024M Active
Slot 2c 1024M Active
Slot 2d 1024M Active

Slot 3a 1024M Active
Slot 3b 1024M Active
Slot 3c 1024M Active
Slot 3d 1024M Active

Slot 4a 0
Slot 4b 0
Slot 4c 0
Slot 4d 0

Slot 5a 0
Slot 5b 0
Slot 5c 0
Slot 5d 0

Slot 6a 0
Slot 6b 0
Slot 6c 0
Slot 6d 0

Slot 7a 0
Slot 7b 0
Slot 7c 0
Slot 7d 0

Subtotal 16384M

TOTAL = 16384 MB
---------

This will report all empty slots too.

Online:

Run the information tool against the system item and note the "FRU Name: Mem Extender" entry. This is different for the 2 extender boards (part number and product name).
It is "A7124-60202" for the example above.

Torsten

[Peter Godron]

Berd,
please see:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=1056100 for cstm commands

or as a one-liner:

echo "selclass qualifier memory ; info ; wait ; infolog" | cstm

[Berd]

Torsten,

Here is the output from my cstm

cstm>infolog
-- Converting a (2652) byte raw log file to text. --
Preparing the Information Tool Log for MEMORY on path 8 File ...

.... tokyo.btyp : 10.1.2.239 ....

-- Information Tool Log for MEMORY on path 8 --

Log creation time: Wed Sep 27 11:56:25 2006

Hardware path: 8


Basic Memory Description

Module Type: MEMORY
Total Configured Memory : 16384 MB
Page Size: 4096 Bytes

Memory interleaving is supported on this machine and is ON.

Memory Board Inventory

DIMM Slot Size (MB)
--------- ---------
0A 1024
0B 1024
0C 1024
0D 1024
1A 1024
1B 1024
1C 1024
1D 1024
2A 1024
2B 1024
2C 1024
2D 1024
3A 1024
3B 1024
3C 1024
3D 1024
--------- ---------
System Total (MB): 16384

Memory Error Log Summary

The memory error log is empty.

Page Deallocation Table (PDT)

PDT Entries Used: 0
PDT Entries Free: 3000
PDT Total Size: 3000
-- Information Tool Log for MEMORY on path 8 --

No information regarding memory board/extender ?

Cheers,
Berd

[Berd]

Peter,

This command shows me same info as above. 16 DIMMs in use. Would this command show me spare slots, or are you saying I've got 16 and they are all in use ?

I'd be inclined to think it's only showing me what is in use. As I have another rp4440 which shows 24 slots in use, and the memory boards come in only 16 or 32 slot capacities so therefore that machine has 8 slots spare.

Cheers,
Berd

[Geoff Wild]

Sysinfo also gives you the memory slots:

I run from cron like so:

# Run the sysinfo script
0 6 1 * * /usr/bin/SysInfo -a -b -o /usr/tmp/`hostname`.sysinfo ; /usr/bin/chmod 644 /usr/tmp/`hostname`.sysinfo >/tmp/sysinfo.cron 2>&1

I do the chmod so I can grab the file as another user and put it on my documentation server...

Rgds...Geoff

[Peter Godron]

Berd,
I would read your cstm output as your machine having a A9738B with 16 slots filled.

[Berd]

Peter,

How could I confirm I have a 16 slot memory extender ?

Berd

[Peter Godron]

Berd,
as a final check you can always open the machine ;-)

[Berd]

Peter,

Nice thought, but we are seperated by a few hundred miles :-(

Berd

[Berd]

Would I be correct in saying the only manner in which to confirm used and unused memory slots is to reboot and interrogate at BCH ?

[Torsten.]

You should run the info tool against the "system" (the first) entry, not only the memory.

Here you will find information about the memory extender FRU as mentioned earlier.

[Berd]

Well, it would appear that some of our boxes provide memory info via cstm indicating spare slots and some do not. I approached our reseller, providing serial no: details for host machine and he confirmed that it had a 32 slot memory board and yet cstm only dsplayed the 16 or 24 used and no spares. Our HP Account Manager will be feeding this back to Support Centre, if it gets resolved I'll let you know.

Many thanks for your input all.

[Dave Wherry]

As has already been covered, I've always used cstm or xstm.
Another tool to look at is Systems Insight Manager (SIM). It provides a good deal of information on your systems and it is a free download from HP.
In your spare time, and I know all SA's have a lot of that, I would look at putting SIM on all your systems.