IBM RS/6000 44P manual Spare Sector Availability, SSA Service Aid, Update Disk-Based Diagnostics

Spare Sector Availability

This selection checks the number of spare sectors available on the optical disk. The spare sectors are used to reassign when defective sectors are encountered during normal usage or during a format and certify operation. Low availability of spare sectors indicates that the disk needs to be backed up and replaced. Formatting the disk does not improve the availability of spare sectors.

This task can be run directly from the AIX command line. The syntax of the command is as follows:

diag -c -d < deviceName -T chkspares

SSA Service Aid

This service aid provides tools for diagnosing and resolving problems on SSA-attached devices. The following tools are provided:

vSet Service Mode

vLink Verification

vConfiguration Verification

vFormat and Certify Disk

Update Disk-Based Diagnostics

This service aid allows fixes (APARs) to be applied.

This task invokes the SMIT Update Software by Fix (APAR) task. The task allows the input device and APARs to be selected. Any APAR can be installed using this task.

Update System or Service Processor Flash

This selection updates the system or service processor flash for CHRP system units.

Further update and recovery instructions may be provided with the update. It is necessary to know the fully qualified path and file name of the flash-update image file that was provided. If the flash-update image file is on a diskette, the service aid can list the files on the diskette for selection.

Refer to the update instructions or the system unit's service guide to determine the level of the system unit or service processor flash.

When run from online diagnostics, the flash-update image file is copied to the /var file system. If there is not enough space in the /var file system for the flash-update image file, an error is reported. If this occurs, exit the service aid, increase the size of the /var file system and retry the service aid. After the file is copied, a warning screen asks for confirmation to continue the update flash. Continuing the update flash reboots the system. The system does not return to diagnostics, and the current flash image is not saved. After the reboot, the /var/update_flash_image file can be removed.

Chapter 6. Introducing Tasks and Service Aids 141