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Using SDA CLUE Commands to Analyze Crash Dump Files (Alpha and I64)  



SDA CLUE (Crash Log Utility Extractor) commands automate the analysis of crash dumps and maintain a history of all fatal bugchecks on a standalone system or cluster. You can use SDA CLUE commands in conjunction with SDA to collect and decode additional dump file information not readily accessible through standard SDA. You can also use SDA CLUE with Dump Off System Disk (DOSD) to analyze a system dump file that resides on a disk other than the system disk.

Understanding CLUE (Alpha and I64)  

On Alpha and I64 systems, SDA is automatically invoked by default when you reboot the system after a system failure. To better facilitate crash dump analysis, SDA CLUE commands automatically capture and archive summary dump file information in a CLUE listing file.

A startup command procedure initiates commands that:

The CLUE HISTORY command adds a one-line summary entry to a history file and saves the following output from SDA CLUE commands in the listing file:

The contents of this CLUE list file can help you analyze a system failure.

If these files accumulate more space than the threshold allows (default 5000 blocks), the oldest files are deleted until the threshold limit is reached. This can also be customized using the CLUE$MAX_BLOCK logical name.

To inhibit the running of CLUE at system startup, define the logical CLUE$INHIBIT in the SYLOGICALS.COM file as /SYS TRUE.

It is important to remember that CLUE$nodename_ddmmyy_hhmm.LIS contains only an overview of the crash dump and does not always contain enough information to determine the cause of the crash. If you must do an in-depth analysis of the system crash, HP recommends that you always use the SDA COPY command to save the dump file.

Displaying Data Using SDA CLUE Commands (Alpha and I64)  

Invoke CLUE commands at the SDA prompt as follows:

SDA> CLUE CONFIG
CLUE commands provide summary information of a crash dump captured from a dump file. When debugging a crash dump interactively, you can use SDA CLUE commands to collect and decode some additional information from a dump file, which is not easily accessible through standard SDA. For example, CLUE can quickly provide detailed XQP summaries.

You can also use CLUE commands interactively on a running system to help identify performance problems.

You can use all CLUE commands when analyzing crash dumps; the only CLUE commands that are not allowed when analyzing a running system are CLUE CRASH, CLUE ERRLOG, CLUE HISTORY, and CLUE STACK.

Refer to the OpenVMS System Analysis Tools Manual for more information about using SDA CLUE commands.

Using SDA CLUE with Dump Off System Disk (Alpha and I64)  

Dump off system disk (DOSD) allows you to write the system dump file to a device other than the system disk. For SDA CLUE to be able to correctly find the dump file to be analyzed after a system crash, perform the following steps:

  1. Modify the command procedure SYS$MANAGER:SYCONFIG.COM to add the system logical name CLUE$DOSD_DEVICE to point to the device where the dump file resides. You need to supply only the physical or logical device name without a file specification.
  2. Modify the command procedure SYS$MANAGER:SYCONFIG.COM to mount systemwide the device where the dump file resides. Otherwise, SDA CLUE cannot access and analyze the dump file.

In the following example, the dump file is placed on device $3$DUA25, with the label DMP$DEV. You need to add the following commands to SYS$MANAGER:SYCONFIG.COM:

$ mount/system/noassist $3$dua25: dmp$dev dmp$dev
$ define/system clue$dosd_device dmp$dev

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