Managing Systems and Workgroups: A Guide for HP-UX System Administrators

Administering a System: Booting and Shutdown
Abnormal System Shutdowns
Chapter 5 549
backed into the disk array, etcetera). Other times the cause is not readily
apparent. It is for this reason that HP-UX is equipped with a dump
procedure to capture the contents of memory at the time of the crash for
later analysis.
Systems Running HP-UX Releases Prior to Release 11.0
For systems running HP-UX releases prior to Release 11.0, if you have
dump devices defined in your kernel configuration - the default is to use
the primary paging (swap) device - HP-UX dumps as much of your
computer’s physical memory contents to the dump devices as dump space
permits. A panic message will also be written to the system console and
logged in the file /var/adm/shutdownlog (or /etc/shutdownlog), if
shutdownlog exists.
Operator Override Options
Dump control options are displayed at the system console during a crash.
If you are running HP-UX Release 11i, compressed dumps are an option.
Prior releases of HP-UX provide a subset of the dump control options,
depending on the release.
You have the option to control the dump as follows:
• C or S option – Select a compressed or uncompressed dump
• N option – Choose to abort the dump
If you opt to continue with the dump, you can also control the dump type,
as follows:
• S option – Perform a selective dump
• P option – Perform a partial dump
• F option – Perform a full dump
The following example simulates a dump by using the TC option from
the guardian service processor (GSP) console, on a system running
HP-UX Release 11i Version 2:
*** The dump will be COMPRESSED.
*** To change this dump type, press any key within 10 seconds.
*** Select one of the following dump types, by pressing the corresponding key:
C) The dump will be compressed.
S) The dump will be without compression.
N) There will be NO DUMP performed
*** Enter your selection now.