Q4 Scripts & what.out

[SSP_1]

Hi Guys,

I heard about something named Q4 scripts and what.out files. Can I know what are these synonyms and used for which purpose?

[John Payne_2]

Q4 is a core dump analyzation tool. You can use it to see what all was implicated in a core dump or system crash. (In a nutshell.)

John

[SSP_1]

Hi John,

Can this be more specific..I mean to say in more wider view , with a real life stimulation if in case U have it.

[John Payne_2]

Ok, Suppose I had a machine crash. Before contacting HP, I will use Q4 to proces the system dump as follows: (I will give you steps)

. /usr/contrib/Q4/bin/set_env
/usr/contrib/Q4/bin/q4pxdb vmunix
/usr/contrib/Q4/bin/q4 -p .

Then

run Analyze AU > ana.out
run WhatHappened -HANG > what.out
exit

Then you can do a 'grep HPMC ana.out' and if you return an HPMC, you had a hardware failure.

Now, the what.out file will have information about your machine's architecture, what's in the message buffer, Which processor started the crash and what it was running, the HPMC registers, some performance info, what may have caused the hang, installed kernel patches, etc, etc. (Stuff the Crash Dump team can look at to find the cause of the crash.)

The ana.out has some of the same information, but it a much deeper few of process structures, addresses, and processes at the time of the crash.

After a crash, if you have opened a call to the HP response center, they will likely ask you to run this Q4 process and send the output to them so they can take a look at it.

The HP education class "Inside the HP-UX Operating System" (H5081) covers these topics and more with using Q4 in extreme (or at least lengthy) detail, if you are interested. I took the class this time last year. It was very interesting.

Hope it helps

John

[Uday_S_Ankolekar]

Shripad,

The basic concept of Q4 is here..
http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en_US&docId=200000066277577

If you have trouble opening this then let forum know..

-USA..