Beechglen Development Inc. - Excessive I/O Log Errors

Beechglen Development Inc.
3862 Race Road - Cincinnati, Ohio 45211 - (513) 922-0509 - Fax (513) 347-2834

Excessive Messages in System Logs for I/O Errors

This month I would like to discuss a question we have answered frequently over the years. While scanning system log files you encounter an exorbitant number of I/O errors (type 111) for product name DTS-IIOM. Is this an indication of a serious problem? The typical log entry when formatted by LOGTOOL looks like this.

:sysdiag
dui> logtool
logtool>  list log=1531;type=111

PRODUCT NAME:       DTS-IIOM            PDEV:               56.139
LDEV:               216                 DEVICE CLASS:       15
I/O EVENT CLASS:    Software            LLIO STATUS:        $00000001

MPE/XL I/O Status: Proc. Num. = 0, Error Num. = 0, Subsystem = 1

RETRY SCHEME:       Summarized Retries  WILL RETRY:         NO
I/O RESULT:         I/O Failed          RUN AUTODIAG:       NO
RETRY COUNT:        0                   MGR PORT NUM.:      $FFFFFCE5
TRANS. NUM.:        $0                  # HDWR BYTES:       0
HARDWARE STATUS:

No hardware status was logged.

DATA LEN:           72                  MGR CODE:           134
      1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10  11  12
      ==  ==  ==  ==  ==  ==  ==  ==  ==  ==  ==  ==
  1:  04  44  B0  0A  00  00  00  01  02  03  FE  C8   . D . . . . . . . . . .
 13:  00  00  00  01  1C  1F  00  00  00  00  00  00   . . . . . . . . . . . .
 25:  00  00  00  00  00  00  00  16  00  00  00  1E   . . . . . . . . . . . .
 37:  40  00  00  00  00  00  00  30  00  00  12  85   @ . . . . . . 0 . . . .
 49:  00  62  D6  03  81  FD  A0  08  00  00  00  DD   . b . . . . . . . . . .
 61:  34  00  00  00  00  00  00  DD  81  FD  A0  20   4 . . . . . . . . . . .

These particular log entries are nothing to be concerned about. They are the result of leftover "bugcatcher" code that HP put into the operating system. A common practice HP employs to solve problems they are unable to reproduce is to add code to trace or log events as they occur. After the bug is found the bugcatcher code is supposed to be removed. Occasionaly the fix is implemented but the tracing code that was added is inadvertently left behind. These specific I/O errors fall under this category. They may be a nuisance but are not indicitive of a problem.