Hints and Tips 237
• Your SPOT server in the bootp server address field.
• Your client's gateway in the gateway address field. If broadcasting will be
used to obtain a boot image, leave these IP address fields empty.
• Specify the subnet mask for your client machine if you are prompted for
one in the subnet mask field. All machines in your subnet have the
same subnet mask.
7. After you specify the addresses, press Enter to save the addresses and
continue.
8. The RIPL screen is displayed. Select the Ping option and try to ping the
server.
9. Go back to the SMS main menu and select the Multiboot function. Enter
the Boot Sequence menu and select the network adapter to be used as
the client's boot device.
10.After making your selections, you can boot the machine over the network.
8.6 Using the Error Logging Facility
Problem determination is much easier when you have some information
about the nature of the problem that occurs. To enable access to more
detailed information about problems that occur in your system, you should
install the AIX error logging feature of AIX.
The error logging features are provided with the bos.sysmgt.serv_aid fileset.
Once this fileset is installed, you will be able to use the errpt command to
look at the AIX error log. The command:
errpt -a |more
will display all the information in the error log starting from the most recent
entry. Not all entries in the error log are errors. For example, every time the
system is powered on, an entry will be logged to say that the error log has
been turned on.
The error log is useful for resolving problems before they make an impact on
your system. By regularly checking the error log, for example, you could
discover that your hard disk was receiving temporary errors and was
performing block relocations. If the errors were frequent (for example, every
day), you could take actions to replace the disk without impacting the users.
To clear the error log, you can use the errclear command. For example, to
clear all the entries from the error log, you would run the command: