Users Guide

support.dell.com Troubleshooting 5-1
CHAPTER 5
Troubleshooting
This chapter discusses troubleshooting, diagnostic testing, and error messages,
including the following sections:
•
Diagnostic overview
•
Status and activity indicators
Diagnostic Overview
The switch is designed for maintenance-free operation. When there is a suspected
failure, the switch has self-diagnostic capabilities to aid in isolating any equipment or
fabric failures.
The switch supports power-on self-tests (POSTs) and diagnostic tests. The diagnostic
tests determine the switch’s status and isolate problems.
Telnet commands are used to determine the switch’s status, error conditions, and
switch operating statistics.
Diagnostic Error Messages
Error messages are stored in volatile random-access memory (RAM) and are lost
whenever power is removed from the switch. Access the error message log to view
error messages before removing power from the switch.
Error messages are available both via the switch’s front panel RS-232 serial port and
through a Telnet session. These messages are also stored in the system log and are
displayed when the
errShow
command is executed.
If you run the
portStatsShow
or the
diagShow
command prior to running a test on
the switch, errors may appear as a result of the normal synchronization process.
These errors should be addressed if the number of errors found increases when run-
ning the
portStatsShow
command again.
Where multiple probable cause and corrective actions are listed following an error
message, they are listed with the most probable first and the least probable last.
If any port fails during a diagnostic test, it is marked
BAD
in the status display and is
ignored (not tried) until the system is rebooted.