ZKLWHýSDSHU. 3UHð)DLOXUHý:DUUDQW\ý 0LQLPL]LQJý8QSODQQHGý'RZQWLPH. +3ý 1HW6HUYHUý 0DQDJHPHQW. Executive Summary. A Closer Look

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1 3UHð)DLOXUHý:DUUDQW\ý 0LQLPL]LQJý8QSODQQHGý'RZQWLPH ZKLWHýSDSHU Executive Summary The Hewlett-Packard Pre-Failure Warranty 1 helps you run your business with less downtime. It extends the advantage of HP s limited warranty by providing coverage on critical components, such as hard drives, memory and power supplies, before they actually fail. It allows the server to monitor the status of these critical subsystems, notifying the system administrator if the components appear to be degrading. The Pre-Failure Warranty ensures that when customers receive notification from system management that a critical server component may fail, the component is replaced free of charge under the warranty. Whether you re launching a business from the Web, or expanding your current IT investments, you need to be able to keep your business up and running 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. The HP Pre-Failure Warranty is another tool that helps you to do just that. A Closer Look The cost of downtime, the time when a system is unavailable to users, can be prohibitively expensive to a business. System configurations continue to increase in complexity server systems require more processors, memory, and drives making management and maintenance more difficult. HP, recognizing this trend, has developed better management tools that improve system uptime and availability. Tools that focus on problem prediction, realtime correction and post-error recovery (key elements of a self-healing server) provide better ways to manage critical errors that can bring down a system. RFWREHUýìäää Predicting Problems The process of predicting an event requires three different activities: monitoring, detecting and analyzing. Monitoring entails looking at the operating parameters of the system components. Detecting means that the server finds the required events as they occur. Analyzing ensures that the severity or frequency of the occurrence is understood, and if it indicates an impending failure, then the system alerts the system administrator. ýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýý 1 This warranty covers those HP NetServers that use HP TopTools for Servers software, version 4.5 or higher. 1

2 Real-time Correction Once an event is predicted and an alert is issued, the system prescribes appropriate corrective action so that downtime is prevented. In some cases, the system can dynamically reallocate resources, in effect, creating a work-around so that the problem area is bypassed and downtime is prevented. In other cases, the system administrator receives a recommendation to take action. For example, the system may recommend adding disk capacity or replacing a failing disk drive. Post-failure Recovery If a failure occurs, there are many hardware and software techniques that automatically bring a server back on-line, which will minimize downtime. For example, if a hard disk drive fails in a RAID set with a hot spare drive, then RAID automatically replicates data from the failed drive onto the hot spare, permitting the system to recover from the failure. HP Solutions Hewlett-Packard offers a Pre-Failure Warranty as an additional weapon in a broad arsenal that is designed to enable administrators to achieve the highest possible system uptime with their server configurations. The HP Pre-Failure Warranty uses agents and event reporting as the means to monitor and predict potential problems. The Pre-Failure Warranty covers the key subsystems and components that are discussed in the following sections. Event Reporting Every hardware subsystem in a HP NetServer, such as disk storage, system memory, or power supplies, has a robust set of management capabilities. The tools that provide access to this information are HP TopTools for Servers and the TopTools Remote Control Card. HP NetServer agents are used to report incidents to an event log. An event log is a collection of entries, automatically recorded by the monitoring software, which reports failures or potential failure conditions. HP TopTools for Servers is an easy-to-use, standards-based application that allows network administrators to manage and maintain servers remotely. It is a graphically intuitive tool based on the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and the Desktop Management Interface (DMI). It provides integrated management of the server environment. HP TopTools for Servers displays configuration information including hardware components, operating statistics, operating system (OS) device driver version numbers, firmware version numbers, an event log for a complete history of server activity including pre-failure alerts indicating potential system problems. The HP TopTools Remote control card provides remote management capabilities regardless of the state of the system. The event log can be accessed using this card even if the operating system or power is down. 2

3 HP NetServer Agents HP NetServer Agents unlock the monitoring capabilities designed into HP NetServers. These Agents monitor the current state of server subsystems by measuring certain operating parameters, counting the occurrence of particular events (for example, the number of read operations performed on a disk drive), and report on the state of critical functions (such as whether the system cooling fan is operating). The Agents provide information to management applications and can generate alarm notifications for the system administrator if significant changes occur in the fault or performance aspects of system operation. For example, when an Agent detects that the hard disk drive exceeded a preset threshold, and is likely to fail, then the Agent issues an alert through SNMP. HP TopTools for Servers receives the alert and immediately issues an alarm to the system administrator. The process of monitoring and sending alerts is called the Pre-Failure Monitor Service. Alerts and Thresholds The HP NetServer Agents detect the health of the server (and server components) by measuring and collecting server operating parameters and comparing the measured values to a set of pre-determined and user-established values called thresholds. A threshold defines the minimum, maximum, or specific value for a given fault or performance parameter. If a value of a server parameter falls outside of its threshold, the Agents immediately generate an alarm that is displayed and can be forwarded to a pager or so that the administrator is promptly notified. All alerts are recorded in the Event Log. The Event Log within the Status Tab displays a summary of events received by the management system, which can be viewed, deleted, printed or saved to a text file. See Figure 1 for an example of the information provided when a memory module is likely to fail. 3

4 Figure 1. HP TopTools information provided during a memory module failure Subsystems and Components Covered by the Pre-Failure Warranty The HP Pre-Failure Warranty covers all HP NetServers using HP TopTools for Servers, during the normal warranty period. 2 The Pre-Failure Warranty specifically applies to hard disk drives, memory, and power supplies. 3 (See Table 1 for information on coverage by platform.) Since the memory, power supplies and hard disk drives represent the three major building blocks of the system, the failure of any one may be catastrophic. The HP Pre-Failure Warranty covers only HP-made or HP-qualified components. Other third-party vendors products are not warranted. Table 1. HP Pre-Failure Warranty Coverage by Platform Product Hard Disk Drives Memory Power Supplies HP NetServer E Series X HP NetServer L Series (except below) X X HP NetServer LXr 8000 & LXr 8500 X X X ýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýý 2 3 Pre-failure alerts for memory require HP TopTools 4.5 or higher. Pre-failure alerts for disk drives and power supplies require HP TopTools 3.11 or higher. Pre-failure warranty on power supplies is available on the HP NetServer LXr 8000, LXr 8500, and above. 4

5 Hard Disk Drives All hard disk drives shipped with HP NetServers or available as accessories are now SMART (Self-Monitoring and Reporting Technology)-enabled. 4 These drives have been designed with the capability to inform the host (system administrator) when a drive is experiencing abnormal operation that is likely to lead to drive failure. Indicators (attributes) that correlate to imminent drive failure have been determined through research. Some of these indicators include start times, short/average/long seek times and recoverable and unrecoverable data error rates. SMART drives constantly take internal measurements of these indicators to determine performance or operation deterioration. If a SMART attribute crosses a predefined threshold, then an error is reported to the system administrator through HP TopTools for Servers. By sending this warning in advance of the drive failure, HP alerts the administrator to schedule drive replacement prior to drive failure. HP recommends that, in most cases, the drive should be replaced within 24 hours of a SMART report. Of course, no system can predict all possible failure mechanisms. Server components, including hard disk drives, are simply too complex. The HP method of alerting the system administrator through the Pre-Failure Warranty provides reasonable protection against a significant number of possible failure scenarios. Third-Party Drives Before HP ships any drive model, it must pass a stringent battery of qualification tests. The HP testing process has been customized over many years of experience with disk drives. HP continues to improve the testing process so that even the most obscure problems may be detected. Because third-party drives have not undergone the HP qualification process, the HP Pre-Failure Warranty does not cover them. In fact, HP customers who have purchased certain hot-swappable drives that are advertised as 100%-compatible, but that have not been qualified by HP, may receive false pre-failure notifications or even no notification at all. Memory Memory system integrity is essential to keeping complex networking systems up and available. A memory subsystem failure can significantly affect a company s productivity. Basic fault-management components, such as Error Correction Code (ECC) memory and the Pre-Failure Warranty, are necessary to support memory-intensive applications such as databases. As both the memory configurations and the user population increase in size, the potential increases that a memory failure will negatively impact a great number of users. Two types of memory errors can occur. A hard error is a physical failure within a Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) cell that prevents data from being stored reliably in one or more locations. Failure of a single DRAM cell can abruptly halt a system. Soft errors often result from a temporary loss of charge in a DRAM cell. These errors, which are ýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýýý 4 Only SMART-enabled hard disk drives will issue pre-failure alerts. 5

6 commonplace in DRAM cells, cause data to be stored incorrectly in a memory location, but subsequent accesses can correctly store data into that cell. With properly tuned hardware and software, occurrences of soft errors should be months or possibly years apart. In reality, the environment and other hardware and software conflicts can cause noise or contention that may precipitate more frequent random memory errors. To protect the server from data loss associated with these errors, HP offers ECC memory scrubbing as a diagnostic and repair tool. Basic ECC memory detects and corrects singlebit memory errors, however, the errors themselves still remain in RAM. Each time the bad data bit is accessed, it must be re-corrected by the memory controller. Two versions of memory scrubbing are available proactive and reactive. Reactive memory scrubbing improves on basic ECC memory by writing the corrected data to RAM, after the error occurs. Proactive memory scrubbing scrubs memory at pre-scheduled times or upon demand. In either case, when a memory error is detected, the corrected data is written back to RAM. This action ensures that all ECC memory errors will be logged and the bad data bits are scrubbed from RAM. The Pre-Failure Warranty covers the replacement of Single In-Line or Dual In-Line Memory Modules (SIMMs or DIMMs) used in the server s main memory when the predefined thresholds for correctable (soft) errors have been exceeded. Soft errors are recorded in the Event log and a pre-failure alert is issued through HP TopTools for Servers. Third-Party Memory HP recognizes that purchasing or upgrading a mission-critical server requires confidence that the server possesses high-quality memory compatible with the other components and subsystems, so HP subjects its memory modules to a tough testing and qualification process. HP quality and compatibility testing identifies the most reliable memory for use in each HP NetServer. HP is confident of the quality and testing performed on its components; therefore, the company warrants all products manufactured or distributed by HP. HP warranties do not cover third-party memory, nor the damage that third-party memory might cause. Power Subsystem and Voltage Regulator Module An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is the most cost-effective step in increasing overall system availability. Once you have protected and conditioned the power reaching the system itself, the next component to consider is the power supply. Because power supplies have a lower meantime between failure (MTBF) than digital electronic circuits, it is a good idea to have redundancy built into the system. HP NetServers have redundant power supplies included throughout the L Series. The HP Pre-Failure Warranty for the power supplies provides an additional measure of protection. The HP NetServer monitors the power supply voltages (+5v, +12v, -12v and 3.3v). Additionally, since a Voltage Regulator Modulator (VRM) powers each processor in a HP NetServer, the system also monitors the voltage of each VRM. 6

7 Each voltage has an upper and lower threshold for which an alert can be issued. If any voltage is out of range, an error is logged in the Event log. For an extreme voltage deviation from range, the system issues shutdown commands to prevent hardware damage and protect customer data from unstable circuitry that can result from fluctuating voltage levels. (Thresholds can be set so that the system will shut down upon over-temperature conditions as well.) In addition, on certain HP NetServers, the power supplies will generate a pre-failure condition. Again, this pre-failure condition is monitored by the system and alerts are generated and logged in the Event log, recording the specific power supply that has encountered the pre-failure condition, which will be replaced under the system warranty. Processors Servers with multiple CPU processors are commonplace. Typically these servers are designed for high-performance applications that require more CPU power than is currently available from a single processor. CPU faults are usually unrecoverable errors, meaning that neither the operating system nor the hardware can manage the fault conditions. If a server encounters a CPU fault, the operating system halts and users lose their network connections. When this happens, the CPU needs to be taken offline for reconfiguration, after which the servers can be restarted (sometimes automatically) and users can reconnect to the server. Some server manufacturers have chosen to monitor certain aspects of processor functions, such as the L2 cache error corrections. HP has studied this failure mode and has determined that its frequency of occurrence is so low that monitoring it for a Pre-Failure Warranty is not appropriate. HP has instead implemented fault-resilient boot, so that a failed processor is removed from the configuration during POST. How to Take Advantage of the HP Pre-Failure Warranty This section details how system administrators are warned of potential Pre-Failure Warranty events. Because HP TopTools is the standard monitoring mechanism, the procedures are described in terms of what happens with HP TopTools. HP TopTools identifies pre-failure conditions by displaying a yellow status indicator to show that a component is degraded. Along with the yellow color code, HP TopTools also displays messages recommending replacement of the component in a pre-failure condition. Upon receiving a HP TopTools alert that a component has degraded, the system administrator follows the on-screen instructions or contacts an authorized HP service provider to determine procedures and eligibility for replacement of the affected component under warranty. 7

8 If any component fails or indicates a pre-failure condition, HP Support will require the following information: HP NetServer Agent version level HP TopTools for Servers version level Product serial number(s) Product model name(s) and number(s) Applicable error messages or pre-failure alert Add-on boards or hardware Third-party hardware or software OS/NOS type and revision level Conclusion Hewlett-Packard offers the Pre-Failure Warranty as another tool that helps you efficiently manage your servers and associated service and support, ensuring maximum availability and performance. Pre-Failure Warranty extends the advantage of the HP industry-leading three-year limited warranty by applying it to critical server components before they actually fail. HP provides coverage on components with the highest potential for failure, based on studies and historical service rates. HP continues to monitor new technologies and analyze system failure trends so that HP NetServers will include the appropriate components in the Pre-Failure Warranty program. For additional program details, contact your Authorized HP Reseller or the local HP Customer Care Center. 8

9 For More Information For more information on HP NetServers, see: For a complete list of current white papers and technology briefs, see: Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of, and Windows NT is a trademark of, Microsoft Corp. All other brand names are trademarks of their respective owners. Technical information in this document is subject to change without notice. Copyright Hewlett-Packard Company All Rights Reserved. 9