System Event Log and the BMC

The BMC has a non-volatile memory buffer that stores up to 512 system events in a System Event Log (SEL). The SEL is stored in onboard flash memory on the BMC. If the buffer is full, new messages are dropped and Data ONTAP does not run, in order to preserve the diagnostic history.

The SEL stores each audit log entry as an audit event. You can view these audit log entries, along with other stored events, by using the BMC events commands. You can also use the events search command to perform a quick search for audit logs from the SEL events log.

The SEL stores platform-specific events. This log is self-contained and does not support the Syslog Translator.

The primary purpose of this log is to help you diagnose system issues. The event list from the log is automatically sent by the BMC to specified recipients as an attachment to AutoSupport e-mails. The log can also be manually downloaded using the BMC events all command. In addition, you can use DataFabric Manager to view logs from the BMCs of systems managed through DataFabric Manager.

The records contain the following data:

Hardware events detected by the BMC—for example, system sensor status about power supplies, voltage, or other components
Errors (generated by the storage system or the BMC) detected by the BMC—for example, a communication error, a fan failure, a memory or CPU error, or a “boot image not found” message
Critical software events sent to the BMC by the storage system—for example, a system panic, a communication failure, an unexpected boot loader prompt, a boot failure, or a user-triggered “down system” as a result of issuing the system reset or system power cycle command.

Note: The SEL uses the BMC’s clock to time-stamp events. BMC begins synchronizing its clock with the system clock as soon as the storage system boots up. However, synchronizing takes a few seconds. If events occur during these few seconds, they are time-stamped 'pre-init time'.

Recent records from the SEL are attached to the AutoSupport messages sent by the BMC.

The following example shows the result of entering BMC events command:

bmc shell -> events search id=#dl
Event TimeStamp               Id  Sensor          Description    
-----------------------------------------------------------------
42    03/30/2007 16:29:53 GMT #d1 Power Status    Power Off      
43    03/30/2007 16:30:04 GMT #d1 Power Status    Power On       
Total Entries=2

Parent topic: How to display information about the storage system and the BMC