Chapter 26 Prestoserve Test (pstest)

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.

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 character, short, and long comparison on each space. The pstest runs 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, 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 ensure consistent results, 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 run pstest and kmem tests at the same time. Running these tests together causes SunVTS to report erroneous errors.

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pstest Options

Figure 26-1 pstest Option Menu

pstest Test Modes

Table 26-1 pstest Test Modes

Test Mode	Description
Functional Test	The test runs 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

Table 26-2 pstest Command Line Syntax

Argument	Explanation
e	Enables performance warning, which displays a warning message if the performance ratio is less than 1:5.
l	Enables the long memory test.
f=testfile_directory	Specifies the directory of a test file.

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Note -

64-bit tests are located in the sparcv9 subdirectory: /opt/SUNWvts/bin/sparcv9/testname. If a test is not present in this directory, then it may only be available as a 32-bit test. For more information refer to "32-Bit and 64-Bit Tests".

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pstest Error Messages

Table 26-3 pstest Error Messages

	Error Message	Probable Cause(s)	Recommended Action
6001	Checking prstatus failed:
6002	Failed to turn prestoserve DOWN:
6003	File I/O test failed with low performance ratio: number		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:
6008	NVRAM write failed:
6009	NVRAM read failed:
6010	Failed to get status of Prestoserve failed:
6011	Failed to reinitialize Prestoserve:
6012	Failed to turn prestoserve UP:
6013	Failed to munmap prestoserve:
6014	File write failed:
6015	File read failed:
6016	Data compare failed
6017	Failed to restore prestoserve state: %s
6018	Prestoserve test is applicable in Functional test only
8001	Failed to open prestoserve board:	Prestoserve hardware not installed.
		NVSIMM/NVRAM SBus board not seated correctly.
		Prestoserve software not installed.
		Not in superuser mode.
8002	Prestoserve is in the ERROR state	Errors 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!