ZFCPDBF(8)

💅 ZFCPDBF — zfcp trace data sort/analyse tool ✨

okay bestie, so you know ZFCPDBF(8)? that's the manual page name — it lives in the System Manager's Manual, and the command is zfcpdbf, a zfcp trace data sort/analyse tool. she's an 8th-section girlie, very system-administration, very demure. let's get into it 🎀

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

zfcpdbf [OPTIONS] <adapter>
zfcpdbf {-h|-v}

literally that's the whole shape of it. options plus an adapter, or just a lil -h/-v and you're out. 💖

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so zfcpdbf interprets the information from various logging and tracing sources — think zfcp-, qdio- and cio-trace records, plus system messages if they're available. it's giving detective energy fr fr 🔍

with offline debug data — like the stuff collected by dbginfo.sh, or extracted from a Linux system dump with crash version 5.1.0 or later — zfcpdbf can run on any platform that has a suitable Perl language environment. no cap, any platform. 🫶

now the compatibility tea, because this part matters:

• any zfcpdbf since version 1.13.0 works with debug data from any Linux kernel since version 2.6.38.
• recent zfcpdbf versions paired with older kernel versions will show zeros or empty values for newer trace record fields that the old kernel didn't have yet. 😭
• older zfcpdbf versions paired with recent kernel versions just show the old trace record fields that zfcpdbf already knows about, and ignore any newer trace record fields of the kernel. 🙈

for full exploitation, it is recommended to always use the latest version of zfcpdbf, no matter which kernel version the debug data comes from. periodt. 👑

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

• -h, --help — print usage information, then exit. the classic "what does anything do" button 🎀
• -v, --version — print version information, then exit. main character energy, she tells you who she is 💅
• -x <AREA[,AREA]>, --exclude=<AREA[,AREA]> — list of trace areas to exclude (default none). blocklist behaviour, we love a boundary 🚫
• -i <AREA[,AREA]>, --include=<AREA[,AREA]> — list of trace areas to include (default all). allowlist behaviour, very inclusive of her 🌈
• -z, --zfcp-only — zfcp trace areas only. it's a short cut, lowkey the lazy-girl option and honestly? slay 💅
• -t <DIFF>, --timediff=<DIFF> — highlight requests with a round-trip processing time of <DIFF> or more. slow requests get the spotlight 🔥
• -e, --def-error — do NOT show deferred error messages. note the capital NOT, bestie, it's the reverse of what you'd expect 😭
• -f, --force — force execution on a detected version mismatch. she's gonna do it anyway, might as well let her 🫶
• -p <PATH>, --path=<PATH> — use directory <PATH> for the location of the trace records. point her at the evidence 📁
• -r <PATH>, --root=<PATH> — prepend <ROOT> to standard trace record location. same vibe, but a prefix. (yes the manual says <PATH> in the synopsis and <ROOT> in the description — that's just how she is, don't @ me) 🧚
• -m <ZONE>, --timezone=<ZONE> — set time zone for system message timestamps. timezone queen, she contains multitudes 🌍

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🍓 PARAMETERS 🍓

The trace areas

<AREA> may be REC, HBA, SAN, SCSI, QDIO, QDIO_SETUP, QDIO_ERROR, CIO_TRACE, CIO_MSG, CIO_CRW, KERNEL or MULTIPATH.

that's the whole menu, twelve of them, memorise them or don't (you can just scroll up, i'm not the police) 💜

The diff

<DIFF> is the value in seconds which has to be lapsed between sending the request and receiving its response. so: how long the round trip took. that's it, that's the number ⏱️

The paths

<PATH> is specifying the location (directory) of trace records which were pulled from another system — e.g. pulled from a dump. 🗂️

<ROOT> is specifying a directory which has to be prepended to the standard location of the trace records, e.g. typically used in conjunction with the result of the dbginfo script.

<PATH> and <ROOT> are only useful if used on non-live systems, and therefore typically used by service- or development-staff. if you're on a live system, these are not your girls 🙈

The zone

<ZONE> is a time zone value in the [+-][h]h[:mm] format. yes that's the exact bracket situation, copy it carefully bestie ✨

The adapter

<adapter> — aka busid — is specifying the host adapter of which the trace information should be processed.

and here's the cute little quality-of-life bit: if a 4-digit value is provided, it is automaitically extended to the correct format 0.0.xxxx. (yes, "automaitically" — that's how the original spells it, i'm not fixing her typo, it's part of the lore 😭💖) so you can be lazy and she'll format it for you. iconic.

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🧚 a lil sign-off 🧚

this whole vibe check comes to you courtesy of s390-tools, dated May 2022 — that's the source and version and date, all wrapped up with a bow 🎀 go sort some traces, bestie, you're gonna eat 💅✨