HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Chapter 9 Dump Analysis Tool (DAT) The Dump Analysis Tool (DAT) aids support and lab personnel in analyzing MPE XL system events such as process hangs, operating system failures, or hardware failures. This tool is used primarily by Hewlett-Packard support personnel. Input to the DAT is a snapshot dump generated by the DUMP utility (refer to the MPE XL System Startup, Configuration, and Shutdown Reference Manual (32650-90042) for details on how to use DUMP). Once a dump tape has been produced, DAT copies the dump tape data to disk, where it can be analyzed interactively. DAT reads a dump tape produced by the DUMP utility into a single disk file. Commands are provided to open a dump file for analysis (OPENDUMP) and to purge the file when it is no longer needed (PURGEDUMP). DAT commands allow the user to display data in main memory as well as secondary store data saved by DUMP. Physical, secondary, and virtual addressing modes are supported. Physical and secondary addressing can be performed regardless of the accuracy of the dump file contents. However, virtual addressing requires that certain data structures involved in the translation process not be corrupt. The System Debug symbolic formatting commands and functions may be used to symbolically format data within a dump. The commands provided by DAT presuppose a certain degree of familiarity with MPE XL. In order to perform skilled dump analysis, a solid background in MPE XL internals is required. To help reduce the need for every dump analysis engineer to possess detailed knowledge of MPE XL, a group of dump analysis macros have been developed to assist field and lab support personnel in the task of dump analysis. This group of macros is referred to as "The DAT Macros." An external specification document and quick reference guide exists and should be available from HP support organizations. The DAT program, supported macros, and symbolic data type files are distributed in the TELESUP account.