Prestoserve Test (pstest)

The Prestoserve^TM is an NFS accelerator. It reduces the frequency of disk I/O access by caching the written data blocks in nonvolatile memory. Prestoserve then flushes the cached data to disk asynchronously, as necessary.

The pstest verifies the Prestoserve accelerator's functionality with the following three checks:

Board Battery Check To ensure proper battery power level, the test runs this check before running the other two checks. If it finds a bad battery, it exits pstest immediately with a fatal error message.

Board Memory Check This check maps the entire board memory to a process address space and locks the board to prevent multiple accesses. The test then travels through the mapped address spaces sequentially, doing a char, short, and long comparison on each space. The pstest executes this check twice.

Board Performance and File I/O Access Check This check exercises only synchronous read/write access. pstest writes data equal to the amount of on-board memory to the memory cache and reads the data back for comparison. The time taken to write that data is measured twice:

the first time with the Prestoserve accelerator disabled, the second time with Prestoserve enabled. The first value is divided by the second to get the performance ratio. If the ration is less than 1.5 on three passes of the test, the Prestoserve board may or may not have a problem.

Since the Prestoserve accelerator speeds up the /opt partition during testing and this partition may be mounted remotely, there may or may not be a problem with the Prestoserve board itself; rather, a network performance problem could be the problem. In either case, a warning message is displayed if the performance ratio is less than 1.5.

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Caution - To insure that consistent results are obtained, run as many concurrent tests as possible when a Prestoserve product has been installed. Tests are selected from the Option menu. The default is 2; the maximum is 10. However, do not enable pstest and kmem at the same time. Running these tests together causes SunVTS to report erroneous errors.

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pstest Options

Figure 20-1 pstest

pstest Test Modes

Connectivity Mode Not available for pstest.

Online Mode Not available for pstest.

Offline Mode The test executes the Board Battery Check subtest, Board Memory Check subtest, and Board Performance and File I/O Access Check subtest.

pstest Command Line Syntax

 /opt/SUNWvts/bin/pstest standard_argument -o e,l,f=testfile_directory

Argument	Explanation
e	Enables performance warning, which displays a warning message if the performance ratio is less than 1.5.
l	Enables long memory test.
f=testfile_directory	Specifies the directory of a test file.

pstest Error Messages

The pstest error messages are listed below with explanations or probable causes:

6001    Checking prstatus failed: <error_message>

6002    Failed to turn prestoserve DOWN: <error_message>

6003    File I/O test failed with low performance ratio:
<number>

Recommended_Action(s):

a. Please check that prestoserve is configured for /tmp.

6004    byte compare: location = <address>, observed =
<number>,expected = <number>

6005    word compare: location = <address>, observed =
<number>, expected =<number>

6006    (data type) long compare: location = <address>,
observed = <number>, expected = <number>

6007     lseek() failed: <error_message>

6008     NVRAM write failed: <error_message>

6009     NVRAM read failed: <error_message>

6010     Failed to get status of Prestoserve failed:
<error_message>

6011     Failed to reinitialize Prestoserve: <error_message>

6012     Failed to turn prestoserve UP: <error_message>

6013     Failed to munmap prestoserve: <error_message>

6014      File write failed: <error_message>

6015   File read failed: <error_message>

6016     Data compare failed.

6017     Failed to restore prestoserve state: %s

6018   Prestoserve test is applicable in Offline mode only.

8001     Failed to open prestoserve board: <error_message>

Probable_Cause(s):

a. Prestoserve hardware not installed b. NVSIMM/NVRAM SBus Board not seated right.

c. Prestoserve software not installed. d. Not in superuser mode

8002    Prestoserve is in the ERROR state.

Probable_Cause(s):

a. Errors have occurred on a disk drive.

8003    Some batteries are not good or not enabled.

8004    memory_check (pass <pass_id>) failed.

8005  fileio_check (pass <pass_id>) failed.

8006     File I/O test failed (Prestoserve down)

8007   File I/O test failed (Prestoserve up)

8008     Open %s also failed: %s. Please enter test file
directory.

8009   PRESTOSERVE TESTS FAILED!