Datacentre Support Reference Guides

HP:  Crash Analysis Procedures
 
 
 

USING Q4 TO ANALYZE SYSTEM DUMP FILES

(For 10.10 and greater)

    When a 10.X HP-UX system crashes, it saves a copy of the RAM in /var/adm/crash. Since these files are binary code, a utility call q4 was created to analyze them and create readable text from which the response center can determine the failure cause.

Do you have q4 loaded? Type this:

$ type q4

You should see: q4 is /usr/contrib/bin/q4. If not, try:

$ swlist -l file | grep contrib
OS-Core.Q4: /usr/contrib

The q4 utility should be located in /usr/contrib/bin. If it isn't loaded:
 

Load the INSTALL media


# swlist -l fileset -s /cdrom | grep Q4
OS-Core.Q4 B.10.10 HP-UX Crash Dump Debugger for PA-RISC systems

Use swinstall to select and load it if not loaded.

# swinstall -vs /<CD-ROM mount point> OS-Core.Q4
 

Identifying the dump

After a crash, dumps are typically saved in /var/adm/crash. You would see:

/var/adm/crash/core.0/INDEX.gz
/var/adm/crash/core.0/vmunix.gz
/var/adm/crash/core.0/core.0.1.gz
/var/adm/crash/core.0/core.0.2.gz
/var/adm/crash/core.0/core.0.3.gz
/var/adm/crash/core.0/core.0.4.gz

(the suffix numbers may differ)

The INDEX file contains a summary of the crash.

*********************** Prepare q4 *****************************

(If this was done once previously, skip steps 2 through 4)
 
  1. cd to the dump directory ie: cd /var/adm/crash/core.0
  2. $ uncompress /usr/contrib/lib/Q4Lib.tar.Z
  3. $ tar -xf /usr/contrib/lib/Q4Lib.tar (output goes to your current dir.)
  4. $ cp q4lib/sample.q4rc.pl ~/.q4rc.pl (output goes to your home directory)
  5. $ /usr/contrib/bin/gunzip vmunix.gz
  6. $ /usr/contrib/bin/q4pxdb vmunix

****** After the "prep" steps, run q4 as follows *****************

If not already there...

$ cd /var/adm/crash/core.0 (or the core directory you wish to q4)
 

  1. Now type: $ q4 -p .   This will put you in the q4 utility prompt.
  2. At the q4 prompt type:  include analyze.pl
  3. Run Analyze from the q4 prompt: run Analyze AU > ana.out
  4. When the q4> comes back type: exit
  5. ana.out is an ASCII text file that the Response Center can read to determine the nature of the crash.
  6. If you have internet mail capability, email the ana.out file to hpcu@hpuerca.atl.hp.com and use the CALL ID as the subject!