Invoking Support

Restarting Apache and the ZMC to Fix Common Problems

The Zmanda Management Console (ZMC) run on top of Apache and PHP, which means that it is subject to the same memory leaks and other small problems that can plague all long-running applications that depend on that stack. The fix is simple: simply restart the ZMC by running the following command as root:

/etc/init.d/zmc_aee restart

Not only does a restart clean up RAM and reset the PHP interpreter which may have become polluted; it also cleans up temporary backup set files (/etc/amanda/zmc_test*) that the ZMC uses for checking production backup sets.

If excessive RAM consumption or stuck PHP processes become a chronic problem on an Amanda server, you may want to schedule the above command as cron task on that machine. Create a file called /etc/cron.daily/zmc.daily with the following content:

#!/bin/sh
/etc/init.d/zmc_aee restart

Running the Support Script

ZMC includes a support script that gathers various logs helpful for troubleshooting. It includes options for mailing the logs to the Zmanda Support Team (e-mail must be configured and running on the Amanda server).

To start the script, log in as root and run the following commands:

# cd /opt/zmanda/amanda/bin 
# ./zm-support  

This generates an archive of all the log files in the current directory. The automatically-generated file name will be displayed at the end of zm-support run:

.
.
.
/opt/zmc/logs/zmc_gui_debug.log
/opt/zmc/logs/zmc_gui_errors.log
/opt/zmc/logs/zmc_installer_16904.log
/opt/zmc/logs/zmc_server.log
/opt/zmc/mysql/data/mysqld.log
/opt/zmc/apache2/logs/access_log
/opt/zmc/apache2/logs/error_log
/opt/zmc/apache2/logs/httpd.pid
/opt/zmc/apache2/logs/NOTEMPTY

Please send this log file -> zm-logs-ZmandaNetworkAccountID-LogID.tar.g

You can email the file using your regular e-mail mechanism.

Alternatively, use zm-support --ship-to-zmanda to send the logs, assuming e-mail is configured on the Amanda server.

zm-support Options

The --help option generates a usage message. Options are detailed below.

--config ConfigFile1 [, ConfigFile2...] 

Specifies configuration files to include in the archive. By default, all configuration files are archived.

--skip-config ConfigFile1 [, ConfigFile2...] 

Same as above, except this specifies configurations to exclude.

--no-zmc 

Excludes ZMC and related information from the archive.

--no-amanda 

Excludes Amanda and related information from the archive.

--no-mysql-dump 

Excludes the ZMC mysql database from the archive.

--no-mysql-zrm 

Excludes the ZMC mysql-zrm log files from the archive.

--no-var-log-messages 

Excludes the /var/log/messages file from the archive.

-f or --ftp-to-zmanda 

Automatically transfer the archive to Zmanda Support using ftp.

-ship 

Automatically mails the archive to Zmanda Support.

--no-tar

Rather than creating an archive, create a system information file (system-info-timestamp) in the current directory, and list the configurations and logs that should be examined or sent to Zmanda Support.

-v 

List the files as they are gathered. The default to operate silently.

--help 

Display a usage message.