Whatever happened to Novell Abend Analysis?

NETWORK WORLD NEWSLETTER: DAVE KEARNS ON NOVELL NETWARE TIPS
08/11/05
Today's focus: Whatever happened to Novell Abend Analysis?

Dear networking.world@gmail.com,

In this issue:

* Where is Novell when your system experiences an abnormal
  ending?
* Links related to Novell NetWare Tips
* Featured reader resource
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Today's focus: Whatever happened to Novell Abend Analysis?

By Dave Kearns

Lately we've been talking a lot about tools and utilities that
either make your NetWare network better, or help you to correct
problems - sometimes even before they occur. But sometimes it's
only after a disaster that you realize that some forensic
research might help you to both understand why the problem
occurred and help you to fix the environment that led to the
problem.

Ever since NetWare 3, a crashed server - one that has
experienced an "Abend," an ABnormal ENDing - has had the ability
to do a memory dump. That is, it could write to a file an image
of what was in RAM at the time of the crash.

Frequently, Novell technical support would ask a user who had
initiated a telephone service call to do a memory dump and send
it in so that Novell could analyze the situation and diagnose
the problem. Initially this dump had to be done to floppy
diskette - you remember, those small squares of hard plastic
with a thin magnetic disk inside. As server RAM increased,
though, the number of disks needed grew astronomically - a
server with 1G byte of RAM would require more than 850
diskettes.

In the late 1990s, Novell changed what happened when an Abend
occurred and released the Abend Analysis System. When a crash
occurs, NetWare would (sometimes) write out an Abend log that
contained meaningful data and information about the state of the
machine at the point of crashing. As a NetWare network manager,
you could upload your Abend log to Novell, which would compare
to known Abend issues that it had resolved. If your Abend
matched a known issue for which a solution exists, Novell would
e-mail the solution to you immediately. If no solution was
available, Novell would add your log file to the database and
reuse it along with others received that might be similar to try
to identify a solution. It wasn't ideal (at best, the success
rate was less than 20%) but it did offer a better way to do a
post-mortem on a server crash.

When longtime reader Al de la Torre went to the Abend Analysis
Web page <http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell4909> to submit a
log recently, he was met by a "404: page not found" error
message. A little investigation showed that it hadn't
disappeared, but had simply moved - to
<http://abend.novell.com/> (which does require you to register
and log on). But, in asking around to find out what had happened
to the system, I discovered that it will not accept logs from
NetWare 6.5 SP3 systems (or Open Enterprise Server, for that
matter).

But there is a glimmer of hope. According to someone close to
Novell Technical Services, the Abend Analysis tool is being
worked on with the intention to enhance it to work with not only
NetWare 6.5, but also the SuSE Linux core from Open Enterprise
Server. The recent Novell layoffs (mostly in Europe) will not
affect this work, but it still isn't a completely "done deal."
Should you happen to still have contact with Novell Sales in any
way, you might start asking about this tool and program which
can be - if it's ever fully fixed - a useful tool for your
network.

The top 5: Today's most-read stories

1. Microsoft open source exec: Not the loneliest guy in Redmond
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell4910>

2. EMC announces surveillance management application
<http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/080905-emc.html?t5>

3. DKIM fights phishing and e-mail forgery
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell4911>

4. Microsoft fixes Print Spooler, Plug and Play flaw
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell4912>

5. Sprint, Nextel expect to finish merger Friday
<http://www.networkworld.com/nlnovell4913>
_______________________________________________________________
To contact: Dave Kearns

Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's
written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print
"Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks." His musings can be
found at Virtual Quill <http://www.vquill.com/>.

Kearns is the author of three Network World Newsletters: Windows
Networking Tips, Novell NetWare Tips, and Identity Management.
Comments about these newsletters should be sent to him at these

respective addresses: <mailto:windows@vquill.com>,
<mailto:netware@vquill.com>, <mailto:identity@vquill.com>.

Kearns provides content services to network vendors: books,
manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing,
technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill
provides "words to sell by..." Find out more by e-mail at
<mailto:info@vquill.com>
_______________________________________________________________
This newsletter is sponsored by Tacit Networks
Network World Executive Guide: Staying Focused on the Moving
Target that is Storage

Keeping pace with evolving storage strategies, architectures,
and trends is not unlike keeping pace with your organizations
underlying capacity needs. From ILM strategies to SAN management
to the threat of those USB memory sticks, this Network World
Executive Guide will help you stay focused on the moving target
that is Storage. Register now and get a free copy of Network
World's Storage Executive Guide.
http://www.fattail.com/redir/redirect.asp?CID=109988
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