Checking Cache Battery information using SST

Hi,

Just wanted to expand the same topic about finding the Cache battery using the Service tools application. For this you need to use an id that has authority to run service tool and also you need have the service tools id and password. In general, these passwords are protected and is provided on valid request. This passwords are kept in a database that cannot be accessed by the Admin team. It is provided to admin team on demand and is kept protected. This enables Industry to keep check on how these are used and when, so that there is no misuse.

To start the Service tools application use command :- STRSST

It will ask to provide the SST user id and password, once you are inside this the screen looks as below,

Take option 1 to start, after this the following screen appears and take option 4 there.

Then take option 1

Take Option 2 in below screen,

In the LIC screen take page down,

Check for advance analysis, take option 14,

Check for Battery info and select that in Advance analysis screen,

Now, this will provide you full information of all the cache battery.

Page down to check more information.

Here, you can clearly identify in above example the DC01 battery needs to be replaced immediately as the Est. time to warning and Est. time to error are zero.

Cache Battery Information

The Cache battery plays a significant role to provide power to the hard disk. When one of these batteries dies, it affects the array of disk that it controls and will have a significant impact on the hard disk performance. The Cache battery or lithium ion batteries can be hot swapped, means  they can be changed when the system is up and running. However, sometimes depending on the machine type it would require to bring down the system to change the battery.

The battery sends warning messages to QSYSOPR message queue before 90 days of its expiry.

CPPEA13 - *Attention* Contact your hardware service provider
CPP8988 - A critical system hardware problem has occurred. Critical Message Handler has been run.

Once, you confirm that this is a battery that is about to expire from work with problem (WRKPRB) or via STRSST or by QSMBTTCC program.

Through QSMBTTCC program:-

CALL PGM(QSYS/QSMBTTCC)  

As you can see here the Estimated time to warning and Estimated time to error , you can determine how many days are left to change the battery. Then you have to call up IBM and inform them your battery resource name , serial number that needs to change. IBM will deliver the new battery and will the CE(customer engineer) will replace this. In order to avoid any critical situation , it is wise to record the battery information once a week or month for all the system that you manage. 

You can also pull the same information by using STRSST profile.

STRSST :- 

After you sign in to SST, you can check the status of all cache batteries on your machine by selecting option 1 (Start a Service Tool) followed by option 7 (Hardware Service Manager), and option 9 (Work with resources containing cache battery packs). The Work with resources containing battery packs screen displays all the resources that contain a battery pack. If you take an option 5 (Display battery information) for any of the battery packs, you will see a screen that looks something like this. 

Battery Information         

                                                         

Resource name . . . . . . . . . . . :  DC01              

Serial number . . . . . . . . . . . :  xx-xxxxxxx        

Type-model  . . . . . . . . . . . . :  2757-001          

Frame ID  . . . . . . . . . . . . . :  1              

Card position . . . . . . . . . . . :  C01               

Battery type  . . . . . . . . . . . :  Lithium Ion (LiIon)

Battery state . . . . . . . . . . . :  Warning condition 

Power-on time (days)  . . . . . . . :    806             

Adjusted power-on time (days) . . . :    945             

Estimated time to warning (days)  . :      182            

Estimated time to error (days)  . . :     273

Note :- Both the message warning value and the time to error value are marked as estimates. This means that these numbers are not exact predictive values; battery failure could be much closer than you think and you should get IBM in as soon as possible to help survey the situation and schedule a cache battery pack change.