Manually take an ILOM snapshot

DBMA has to collect the ILOM snapshot as per the request from oracle support, As many of you might be asked by Oracle support to provide ILOM snapshot to troubleshoot Exadata Hardware issues.

I had to diagnose a hardware issue recently and was not able to use web interface because for firewall issue. Fortunately, you can generate ILOM snapshot using following CLI method.

[1] let’s connect and set the snapshot type to normal

Step 1 : Login to ILOM using root user.

[root@myclusterdb01 ~]# ssh myclustercel05-ilom
Password:
Oracle(R) Integrated Lights Out Manager
Version 3.2.7.30.a r112904
Copyright (c) 2016, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Warning: HTTPS certificate is set to factory default.
Hostname: myclustercel05-ilom

Step 2 : Set snapshot dataset to normal.

-> set /SP/diag/snapshot dataset=normal
Set 'dataset' to 'normal'

Step 3 : Set snapshot output location.

-> set /SP/diag/snapshot dump_uri=sftp://root:"passowrd!"@10.21.101.22/tmp’

Set 'dump_uri' to 'sftp://root:"passowrd!"@10.21.101.22/tmp’

Step 4 : Change directory to snapshot

-> cd /SP/diag/snapshot
/SP/diag/snapshot

Step 5 : Check Status of snapshot , make sure its running

-> show
/SP/diag/snapshot

Targets:
Properties:
dataset = normal
dump_uri = (Cannot show property)
encrypt_output = false
result = Running

Step 6: Keep checking status till it’s completed. May take up to 10 mins

-> show
/SP/diag/snapshot
Targets:

Properties:
dataset = normal
dump_uri = (Cannot show property)
encrypt_output = false
result = Collecting data into

sftp://oracle@10.21.101.22/etc/snapshot/exa01dbadm01-ilom_XXXX30AG_2018-09-14T23-04-46.zip

TIMEOUT: /usr/local/bin/spshexec show /SP/bootlist
TIMEOUT: /usr/local/bin/create_ueficfg_xml

Snapshot Complete.
Done.

Step 7: Upload files to Oracle support.

oracle@10.21.101.22/tmp/exa01dbadm01-ilom_XXXX30AG_2018-09-14T23-04-46.zip

[2] let’s connect and set the snapshot type to full :

A full ILOM snapshot (which is the one Oracle support will most likely ask you) may (yes, “may”) reset the host as per the documentation :
Note – Using this option might reset the host operating system.
“Reset the host” meaning rebooting the host.

Fred mentioned in his blog that he did it few times on production cells and they have never been rebooted but this is something to keep in mind if you are asked to take a full ILOM snapshot of a database server. Indeed, a cell reboot would be transparent but this is a different story with a database server.

[root@myclusterdb01 ~]# ssh myclustercel05-ilom
Password:
Oracle(R) Integrated Lights Out Manager
Version 3.2.7.30.a r112904
Copyright (c) 2016, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Warning: HTTPS certificate is set to factory default.
Hostname: myclustercel05-ilom
-> set /SP/diag/snapshot dataset=full

Set 'dataset' to 'full'

->

Then start the ILOM snapshot using the IP of the target system we will put 
the ILOM on and its root password
(it'll copy the ILOM snapshot in /tmp in the below example) :

-> set /SP/diag/snapshot dump_uri=sftp://root:root_password@10.11.12.13/tmp
Collecting a "full" dataset may reset the host. Are you sure (y/n)? y
Set 'dump_uri' to 'sftp://root@10.11.12.13/tmp'

Now that the ILOM snapshot has been started, 
you can monitor it using the below command :

-> show /SP/diag/snapshot

/SP/diag/snapshot
Targets:

Properties:
dataset = full
dump_uri = (Cannot show property)
encrypt_output = false
result = Running

Commands:
cd
set
show

->

After few minutes you should see the ILOM snapshot as completed :

-> show /SP/diag/snapshot

/SP/diag/snapshot
Targets:
Properties:
dataset = full
dump_uri = (Cannot show property)
encrypt_output = false
result = Collecting data into sftp://root@10.11.12.13/tmp/myclustercel07-ilom_1133FMM02D_2018-02-04T23-18-06.zip
Snapshot Complete.
Done.

Commands:
cd
set
show

->

This is actually quite a small file easy to transfer to MOS :

[root@myclusterdb01 ~]# du -sh /tmp/myclustercel07-ilom_1133FMM02D_2018-02-04T23-18-06.zip
2.5M /tmp/myclustercel07-ilom_1133FMM02D_2018-02-04T23-18-06.zip
[root@myclusterdb01 ~]#

Thank you Oracle ACE Fred Denis for sharing his experience

Thank you for visiting this blog 🙂