Sun POST-Based Hardware Diagnostics

The POST-based hardware diagnostics only check out the devices and buses required to access I/O devices; they do not check the devices themselves. Even so, the onboard hardware diagnostics can often pinpoint the source of a hardware failure.

To run Sun hardware diagnostics, perform the following at the ok> prompt:

ok> setenv auto-boot? false
ok> setenv diag-switch? true
ok> setenv diag-level max
ok> setenv diag-device disk net (if appropriate)
ok> reset
(watch results of diagnostic tests)

If devices appear to be missing, you can also run the following tests:

ok> probe-scsi-all
ok> probe-sbus
ok> show-sbus
ok> show-disks
ok> show-tapes
ok> show-nets
ok> show-devs


In addition, the following commands can be used to examine the CPUs or switch to another CPU:

ok> module-info
ok> processor_number switch-cpu

Sometimes additional information can be obtained by navigating the PROM device tree. You can also try Sun's web site for additional information on PROM monitor diagnostics.

At the end of this process, reset your PROM parameters:
ok> setenv auto-boot? true (if appropriate)
ok> setenv diag-switch? false (if appropriate)

(Note that the diagnostics can take a substantial amount of time to run, depending on your hardware configuration. Most admins prefer to turn them off unless they are diagnosing a problem.)

For sun4u (Ultra) systems, you can get some of this information by running /usr/platform/`arch -k`/sbin/prtdiag -v on a running system.

Results from the above should be compared to log entries in /var/adm/messages or console error messages.

Additional PROM Diagnostics

Some additional PROM diagnostics are available at the ok> prompt. To discover what additional diagnostics are available for your hardware, type help diag at the ok> prompt. The output will include the appropriate syntax for all available PROM diagnostic functions. Note that reset should be run as above before running the tests. It is also possible that test-all might hang the system, requiring a power cycle.