Release Notes for Intel System Information Retrieval Utility (SysInfo)
Version 14.1 Build 21

Apr 13, 2018
Copyright (c) 2018 Intel Corporation.
===========================================

Contents
--------

1. Introduction
2. Supported Platforms
3. Supported Operating Systems
4. Pre-requisites
5. Installation and Un-installation
6. Usage
7. Known Issues
8. Unsupported Features
9. Change List
10. Legal Information

1. Introduction
---------------
The System Information Retrieval Utility (SysInfo) is used for collecting the system information.
This utility dumps the following information to log files:

    1. Platform Firmware Inventory
    2. Sensor information
    3. Sensor Data Records
    4. BMC SEL (IN HUMAN READABLE FORM)
    5. BMC SEL (IN HEX FORM)
    6. Base Board FRU
    7. System BMC Boot Order
    8. BMC User Settings
    9. BMC LAN Channel Settings
    10. BMC SOL Channel Settings
    11. BMC Power Restore Policy Settings
    12. BMC channel settings
    13. SMBIOS Type 1, Type 2, Type 3
    14. Processor
    15. Memory
    16. Operating System Information
    17. IDESCSI
    18. HARD Drive
    20. Device Manager Information (a.k.a drivers)
    21. List Of Software Installed
    22. BIOS Settings (per BIOS SETUP F2 Screen).
    23. RAID settings and RAID log
    24. Operating System Event Log
    25. SATA
    26. PCI Bus Device Information
    27. Power Telemetry (If Available)

2. Supported Platforms
----------------------
   Intel(R) Server Board based on Intel(R) Xeon(R) Processor Scalable Performance Family

3. Supported Operating Systems
------------------------------
   UEFI Shell
   WinPE* 4.0 (x64)
   Windows* Server 2016 
   Windows* Server 2012 R2 
   Windows* 10 
   RHEL* 6.8 (x64)
   RHEL* 7.3
   SLES* 11.4 (x64)
   SLES* 12.2
   CentOS* 7.3 (x64)
   Debian* 8.10

4. Pre-requisites
-----------------
    1. Download the latest platform S/W stack (BIOS/FW/FRUSDR package) for the platform and install it. Ensure system
       is running with the latest platform S/W stack. For the latest platform S/W stack, refer the link http://support.intel.com

    2. Utility works only if it is executed with Administrator privilege on Windows* and with root privilege on Linux* OSes.

Windows
-------
   1. Boot to Windows Server 2008 (32 bit or EM64T) with WMI enabled.

   2. An external RAID driver needs to be loaded for RAID log generation in Windows. This driver can be downloaded from http://www.intelraid.com/. This download  
       supports Intel RAID Controllers using SAS software stack. Steps to download the driver from http://www.intelraid.com/
      i. Under Support, go to Download Center
      ii. Select a product family: Server Products
      iii. Select a product line: Intel (R) RAID Controllers
      iv. Select a product name: Intel (R) RAID Controller. Eg. RS25DB080
      v. Download 'SAS Hardware RAID Driver'.
      vi. Follow Install Instructions as per ReadMe document.

Linux
-----
    1. System is booted and running with any of the supported operating systems.

    2. In order to successfully install sysinfo into system, please make sure your Linux installation with all the dev packages or a customized one. 
       As like are some libraries(ncurses-libs-xx, libstdc++ etc) are pre-requested for sysinfo successful installation. 
       64 bit libs with "x86_64" suffix for 64 bit binary, 32 bit libs with "i686" suffix for 32 bit binary.

    3. An external RAID driver needs to be loaded for RAID log generation in Linux. This driver can be downloaded from http://www.intelraid.com/. This download  
       supports Intel RAID Controllers using SAS software stack. Steps to download the driver from http://www.intelraid.com/
      i. Under Support, go to Download Center
      ii. Select a product family: Server Products
      iii. Select a product line: Intel (R) RAID Controllers
      iv. Select a product name: Intel (R) RAID Controller. Eg. RS25DB080
      v. Download 'SAS Hardware RAID Driver'.
      vi. Install DKMS support under Linux console
            # rpm -ivh dkms-2.0.22.0-1.noarch.rpm
      vii. Install RAID driver using DKMS driver installation package
            # rpm -ivh ir3_sas-v00.00.06.12-1.noarch.rpm
    
    4.On RHEL*, SLES*, CentOS*, UEFI aware Linux or other Linux
      There might be a driver conflict between internal driver and kernel. You need to start up OpenIPMI driver and make sure "/dev/ipmi0" device exists.

      For RHEL* run the below command and make sure "/dev/ipmi0" device exists.
         #modprobe ipmi_devintf or #modprobe ipmi_si
      For SLES* run the below command and make sure "/dev/ipmi0" device exists.
         #service ipmi start

    5. If the utility installation fails with error message
         "depends on libncurses5 (>= 6); however: Version of libncurses5:amd64 on system is 5.9+20140913-1+deb8u2."
         This indicates libncurses version must be >= 6, please install new libncurses.

5. Installation and Un-installation
-----------------------------------
     Installation
     ------------

     UEFI
     ----
     1. Copy the un-compressed ZIP file into your local directory (e.g. fs0:\sysinfo)
     2. Go to "UEFI" folder. Please do not remove or use sysinfo_temp.efi, which is internal temporary file.
     3. Run sysinfo.efi
     4. Here the sysinfo binary is available. sysinfo.efi logs system information as below
            a. sysinfo_log.txt 
               ( Platform Firmware Inventory, Sensor Information, Sensor Data Records, BMC SEL (IN HUMAN READABLE FORM), 
               BMC SEL (IN HEX FORM),  Base Board FRU, System BMC Boot Order, BMC User Settings, 
               BMC LAN Channel Settings, BMC SOL Channel Settings,  BMC Power Restore Policy Settings,
               BMC channel settings, SMBIOS Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Processor, Memory, Operating System Information,
               BIOS settings per F2 screen).                             
            b. RAID_NVRAMlog.txt (RAID settings and RAID log)
            c. PCI_Log.txt (PCI Bus info).

     Windows
     -------
     1. Copy the compressed ZIP file into your local directory (e.g. C:\sysinfo)
     2. Unzip into the folder. (release notes is available in this folder)
     3. According to OS architecture go to "Win_x86\Drivers" or "Win_x64\Drivers" folder and run "install.bat" as administrator to install ipmi, smi and memory map drivers.
     4. For 32 bit Windows and WinPE, go to "Win_x86\Binaries" folder and run "sysinfo.exe" as administrator.
     5. For 64 bit Windows and WinPE, go to "Win_x64\Binaries" folder and run "sysinfo.exe" as administrator.
     6. sysinfo.exe logs system information as below
        a. sysinfo_log.txt 
            ( Platform Firmware Inventory, Sensors, Sensor Data Records, BMC SEL (IN HUMAN READABLE FORM), 
            BMC SEL (IN HEX FORM),  Base Board FRU, System BMC Boot Order, BMC User Settings, 
            BMC LAN Channel Settings, BMC SOL Channel Settings,  BMC Power Restore Policy Settings,
            BMC channel settings, SMBIOS Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Memory, Processor, IDESCSI,
            HARD Drive, Operating System Information, Device Manager Information (a.k.a drivers),
            List Of Software Installed, BIOS Settings (per BIOS SETUP F2 Screen)).                              
        b. RAID_NVRAMlog.txt (RAID settings and RAID log)
        c. OS_Eventlog.txt (Operating System Event Log)
        d. SATA_log.txt (SATA information)
        e. PCI_log.txt (PCI Bus information). 

     Linux
     -----
     1. Copy the ZIP file into your local directory (e.g. /root/sysinfo/) on your Linux m/c.
     2. Unzip using the standard Linux "unzip" command, use "# chmod 755" to change executable and script.
     3. Go to "Linux_X86" or "Linux_X64" folder based on the operating system.
     4. If there is another version already has been installed previously, uninstall that version first with running "uninstall.sh" before installing the new version.
     5. Run "source install.sh" command on the shell prompt, to install the sysinfo components.
     6. Now run "./sysinfo" on the shell prompt, sysinfo logs system information as below
            a. sysinfo_log.txt 
            ( Platform Firmware Inventory, Sensor information, Sensor Data Records, BMC SEL (IN HUMAN READABLE FORM), 
            BMC SEL (IN HEX FORM),  Base Board FRU, System BMC Boot Order, BMC User Settings, 
            BMC LAN Channel Settings, BMC SOL Channel Settings,  BMC Power Restore Policy Settings,
            BMC channel settings, SMBIOS Type 1, Type 2, Type 3, Processor, Memory, Operating System Information, Device drivers installed,
            List Of Software Installed, BIOS Settings (per BIOS SETUP F2 Screen)).
            b. RAID_NVRAMlog.txt (RAID settings and RAID log)
            c. PCI_Log.txt (PCI Bus info).
            d. OS_Eventlog.txt (operating System Events).

     Uninstallation:
     ---------------
     UEFI
     ----
     1. Remove the folder in which sysinfo.efi present.

     Windows
     -------
     1. Go to "Win_x86\Binaries" or "Win_x64\Binaries" folder in the main folder
     2. Run uninstall.bat (for un-installing sysinfo).

     Linux
     -----
     1. Run the "./uninstall.sh" present in Linux_xxx/RHEL folder or Linux_xxx/SUSE folder depending on Linux distribution.
     2. Remove the Linux folder.

6. Usage
--------
UEFI
----
      sysinfo.efi [-h or /?] [type] [-ni]
        
        -h or /?     -- view the command-line help page.
        type      -- no switch - log system information (sysinfo_log.txt, PCI_log.txt).
                     [-raid]   - log system information including RAID info (sysinfo_log.txt, RAID_NVRAMlog.txt, PCI_log.txt).
        -ni       -- log system information in a non-interactive way. 


Windows
-------
      sysinfo.exe [-h/-?] [type] [-ni]

        -h/-?      -- view the command-line help page.
        type       -- no switch    - log system information (sysinfo_log.txt, OS_Eventlog.txt).
                      [-raid]      - log system information including RAID info (sysinfo_log.txt, RAID_NVRAMlog.txt, OS_Eventlog.txt).
                      [-sata -pci] - log system information (SATA_log.txt, PCI_log.txt).
        -ni        -- log system information in a non-interactive way. 
Linux
-----
      ./sysinfo [-h/-?] [type] [output_dir] [-ni]

        -h/-?      -- view the command-line help page.
        type       -- no switch - log system information (sysinfo_log.txt, PCI_log.txt, OS_Eventlog.txt).
                      [-raid]   - log system information including RAID info (sysinfo_log.txt, RAID_NVRAMlog.txt, PCI_log.txt, OS_Eventlog.txt).
        output_dir -- log system information in user specified output directory. 
        -ni        -- log system information in a non-interactive way. 

      Note: Sysinfo Utility in Linux can be invoked from any directory. Hence, the utility can also be invoked as "sysinfo" instead of "./sysinfo".

7. Known Issues
---------------
   1. There are a few additional BIOS settings related to Boot Options(not seen in the F2 screen) logged in the file. 
   2. The channel information for an unsupported channel number for the platform would be logged as an error in the file.
   3. The system information retrieval takes around 11 minutes in EFI shell.
   4. Sensor information logged in UEFI in sysinfo_log.txt, contains junk characters when viewed on Windows OS.
   5. IPV6 Configuration is not supported on S1200 platform series.
   6. RAID, SATA and PCI logging is not supported in WinPE 3.0/4.0.
   7. WinPE3.x/4.x EM64T binary does not support OS related information retrieve.
   8. "RAID_NVRAMlog.txt" is generated by third party tool "StorCLI". It may have some specific limitations.
      Please read its release note in "\Licenses\storcli" for its supported RAID cards and more details.
   9. Utilities, SNMP-SA and IASC cannot run at the same time due to KCS port conflict. There will be error message 
      "Error: Application Cannot Communicate to the BMC.".
   10. IO port access is not allowed in Linux when UEFI secure boot is enabled. Please disable UEFI secure boot in F2 menu before running utility.
   11. SATA and PCI logging is not supported in Windows when UEFI secure boot is enabled. Please disable UEFI secure boot in F2 menu before running utility.
   12. In Windows 2012 and previous version, Sysinfo can't get correct information of over-32GB DIMM due to WMI limitation.
   13. Debian OS does not allow IO memory map by default. User needs to add "iomem=relaxed" to grub boot option to enable IO memory map. Otherwise some features may not work. 

8. Unsupported Features
------------------------
   Utility cannot be executed successfully when UEFI secure boot is enabled under Linux because Linux closes all IO port access when UEFI secure boot is enabled. If customer wants to use it under Linux environment, please ensure UEFI secure boot is disabled in BIOS F2 menu. 

9. Change List
--------------
   Build 21
   Add deb package for Debian

   Build 20
   Change DIMM index from 0-based to 1-based   

   Build 19
   Support new SKU

   Build 18
   Support BMC LAN DNS display

   Build 17
   Upgrade storcli from verion 1.15 to 1.21

   Build 16
   Fix one typo defect

   Build 15
   Support FPGA-relative SEL translation
   Fix the issue of dumping PCIe Gen3 device info
   
   Build 14
   Support new BMC version format

   Build 13
   Support new SKU
   Fix a SEL translation defect for "AutoCfg Status".

   Build 12
   Support new SKU

   Build 11
   Fix the performance issue caused by BIOS security fix
   Fix exception hang issue under EFI shell

   Build 10
   Support BIOS security fix

   Build 9 
   Fix SEL translation typo of "PCI Express Bad TLP"
   Use 1 byte GID for SEL translation

   Build 8
   Support SSB thermal trip SEL

   Build 7
   Support a new SKU
   Update supported OS list 

9. Legal Information
--------------------
========================================================
                               LEGAL INFORMATION
========================================================

Information in this document is provided in connection with Intel Products
and for the purpose of supporting Intel developed server boards and systems.
No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any intellectual 
property rights is granted by this document. Except as provided in Intel's 
Terms and Conditions of Sale for such products, Intel assumes no liability 
whatsoever, and Intel disclaims any express or implied warranty, relating to 
sale and/or use of Intel products including liability or warranties relating 
to fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability, or infringement of any 
patent, copyright or other intellectual property right. Intel Corporation may 
have patents or pending patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other 
intellectual property rights that relate to the presented subject matter.  
The furnishing of documents and other materials and information does not 
provide any license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any 
such patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights.  
Intel products are not intended for use in medical, life saving, or life 
sustaining applications. Intel may make changes to specifications and product 
descriptions at any time, without notice.
Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation. 
*Other names and brands are the property of their respective owners.
Copyright (c) 2018 Intel Corporation.
(end)
