platform_dump Command
Purpose
Perform platform (Hardware & Firmware) dump related actions.
Syntax
platform_dump { -c | -d | -e | -f fstype | -F flag | -l | -q | -S | -s seq_no } [ -L ]
Description
The platform_dump command was introduced in AIX® to support hardware and firmware problem determination for POWER5 platforms. You can use this command to help the operating system save firmware-related and hardware-related dumps. This command is supported only on partitions which have service authority enabled, except for Hardware Management Console (HMC) managed systems. On an HMC managed system, the dumps go to the HMC. The platform_dump command is normally run by operating system functions such as base installation and dumpcheck. Platform dumps contain:
- The hardware state
- The hypervisor state
- The FSP (Flexible Service Processor) state information
The disk space for platform dump files is reserved using the platform_dump command. A dedicated logical volume, /dev/fwdump, is created in the rootvg volume group and mounted on the /var/adm/ras/platform directory. The fwdump_dev device and fwdump_dir mount point are both saved in ODM in the SWservAt object class. During installation, AIX utilizes the platform_dump command to reserve the necessary disk space. The disk space is reserved only if the partition is designated to be a service partition. The maximum possible size for the platform dumps is indicated to AIX so that enough space can be allocated beforehand for the platform dumps. Note that this size can change dynamically. The operating system detects this and informs you about the extra requirements and automatically expands the logical volume if possible.
The -L flag is provided to record command output to the error log.
Flags
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| -c | Performs a check on the estimated platform dump size (as indicated by the firmware) and the disk space allocated for the platform dumps. It will report the following: If estimated size is less than or equal to allocated space, will return 0. If estimated size is greater than allocated space, will return 1. |
| -d | Deletes the file system space reserved for platform dumps and free up the same for other uses. Any existing dump files on the reserved disk space will be lost. |
| -e | Provides an estimate of disk space required to save the platform dumps when they occur. This option will interact with the firmware to provide this estimate. It is expected that, based on this space information, the user will have enough disk space allocated for platform dumps to be saved. The value output will be the required size in bytes. |
| -f fstype | Reserves enough disk space on the system for platforming dumps. The -f option will create a file system (if one does not exist) exclusively for platform dumps. If a file system already exists and the size is not enough, the file system size will be increased. The fstype must be a valid file system type. If the file system already exists, any may be specified. |
| -F flag | Enables or disables platform dumps. If flag is 0, platform dumps are disabled, if 1, platform dumps are enabled. |
| -l | Lists the current configuration of platform dump. |
| -L | Tells platform_dump to log its output as well as displaying it. This does not apply to the size output by the -e option. |
| -q | Checks whether the platform supports platform dumps or not. Will return 0 if platform dump is supported. |
| -s seq_no | Saves the platform dump from the firmware as identified in the dump notification event. seq_no indicates the sequence number of the dump notification event as stored in the AIX error log file. This sequence number will be used by this command to parse the detailed data area and obtain dump tag and dump type information needed to obtain the dump data from firmware. |
| -S | Saves the scan dumps on systems which support scan data. When this option is specified, the command will check for the existence of a scan dump, and if so will read and save the scandump data from firmware using the existing scan dump interface. |
Exit Status
- 0
- On successful completion.
- 1
- Returned if -c was specified, and there is insufficient space to save platform dumps.
- 255
- Returned if platform dumps are not supported on the system.
- 3
- Returned if platform dumps has been disabled.
- 2
- Returned in an error is encountered.
Security
The platform_dump may only be executed by the root user.
Example
- To get an estimate of the platform dumps size, type the following:
This will report the estimated platform dump size in bytes.platform_dump -e