syschk command

Syntax

 
  syschk keyword{=value} {...} {(options}

Parameter(s)


start	Starts the syschk command running as a phantom with the same argument as the last time it was started. If necessary, the process is stopped before it is restarted. If the process was never started, a set of defaults is applied.
edit	Enters the Update processor to allow editing the arguments used by the start command. Note that if any edits are made to the arguments, the syschk process needs to be stopped and restarted for the edits to take affect.
now	Instructs the syschk phantom process to take a sample immediately, and sends the anomaly messages, if any, to the terminal requesting the sample, instead of the normal notify mechanism.
stop	Stops the syschk command running as a phantom.
`options`	a	Logs a short summary of all error messages to the errors file. The initial swap space control is always logged, and can be specified by using the `logall` keyword.
	f	Starts syschk in foreground on the current process, as opposed to a phantom process. With this option, the only way to stop the process is to do a break/end, or a logoff.
	l	Logs a short summary of the error messages to the errors file. The initial swap space control is always logged, and can be specified by using the `log` keyword.
	q	Quiet option suppresses the user messages (for example, `started`, `stopped`).
	v	Verbose option can be used if syschk runs in the foreground, instead of a phantom.

CAUTION:

The syschk command uses UNIX system commands, such as sar, ps, and some others. If the process that executes this command does not have root privilege, it might be necessary to change the permissions of the required utilities to make these commands work.

If the syschk command fails to access a system parameter, an error message, such as: Cannot get swap usage, is sent to the system administrator. See the following error messages. Usually, changing the set user-ID bit gives adequate permissions to the tools.

For example, to run sar as non-root on AIX:

 chmod 06755 /usr/sbin/sar
 chmod 06755 /usr/lib/sa/sadc

 AIX: ’lsps -a/’ 
 Linux: !cat /proc/meminfo |grep Swap

This command can use some very intrusive UNIX commands. Do not run it with a sampling period less than a few minutes.

Description

The UNIX parameters are obtained through a variety of more or less UNIX-dependent commands. Often, on a given UNIX version, there might be several ways of obtaining the information. Therefore, results shown by syschk might differ from results provided by other UNIX tools and be very difficult to compare to results given by another system.

For example, a given application might prompt the syschk command to complain about heavy CPU usage on a UNIX platform and not on another, all other factors being equal (if this is possible). When a UNIX device is specified in the notify parameter, the messages are written asynchronously on the device, even if it is not logged on to either UNIX or D3. It is a good idea to specify the UNIX console as a notify device.

Error Message Types

Could not get the swap information. These are the UNIX commands used:

Note: The Linux command used is case sensitive.

 Cannot get swap usage: syschk

Could not get the amount of physical memory.

Note: The Linux command used is case sensitive.

These are the UNIX commands used:

 Cannot get real memory: syschk

 AIX: ’lsattr -l sys0 -E’
 Linux: !cat /proc/meminfo |grep Memtotal

Could not get information on the currently active processes. On all systems, this is obtained by a ps -ef.

 Cannot get proc list: syschk

Could not get information on the UNIX file systems. On all systems, this information is obtained by some form of df. The most common errors involve a remote file system, which is unreachable.

 Cannot get FS: syschk

Example(s)

Example 1

This example starts a phantom process to check the system every 30 minutes for a CPU system usage above 10%, a swap usage above 60% and a process runaway limit of 10%.

In case of anomaly, a message is sent to the:

UNIX terminal /dev/tty0
D3 user bob if he is logged on
Line 0, whether it is logged on or not

A short message is also logged in the errors file. The other parameters are left to their default values.

 syschk sampling=00:30:00 syscpu=10%
 notify=/dev/tty0,bob,!0
 swapusg=60% proccpu=10% log

Example 2

This example logs syschk messages to the errors file and uses syschk edit to set the check period to 30 seconds. After starting syschk with the A option, run the following program:

 fin=1
 loop while fin do
 repeat

You will see messages logged every 30 seconds logged about CPU usage.

Example 3

This example checks whether syschk is running:

 syschk
 syschk is running on port 132
 Started on 03/11/94 at 08:20:21
 Current running parameters:
      Sampling period 00:30:00
      Notify list /dev/tty0 bob !0
      Maximum system CPU % 10
      Maximum CPU % per process 25
      Maximum % of swap 60
      Maximum % of overflow 90
      UNIX file systems /
      Log messages (0=no;1=yes) 1
 Current System Status:
      User CPU usage 3%
      System CPU usage 11%
      Waiting for IO 82%
      Idle CPU 4%
      Total swap space 128 Mb
      Used swap space 76 Mb (59%)

Example 4

This example stops the phantom running syschk as a background process, suppressing the message stopped. This command could be included in the user-shutdown macro.

 syschk stop (q

Example 5

This example restarts the syschk phantom with the same parameters.

 syschk start

Example 6

This example edits the syschk command line to change the arguments. Use the Update processor command to edit the command line.

 syschk edit

Syntax

Parameter(s)

Description

Error Message Types

Example(s)

See also