Problem Determination Guide - Systems Group

information. It is critical to monitor RAS information as an indicator of system
health. For more information about monitoring RAS, see 3.2, “Hardware
monitor” on page 114 and “RAS events” on page 126.
► Diagnostic data: Contains the results from diagnostic tests on the hardware.
1.4.2 Service Node system processes
The following paragraphs describe Blue Gene/L system processes that run on
the Service Node.
mmcs_db_server
The Midplane Management Control System (MMCS) server process is
responsible for the management of blocks. Blocks are partitions (sets of compute
and I/O nodes) of the Blue Gene/L in which jobs run. The mmcs_db_server
process configures blocks at boot time and identifies what physical hardware
should be used and in what configuration. It also polls the database for block
actions and starts the boot processes.
ciodb
After the blocks are booted, ciodb manages the job launch to the block. It then
handles passing back stdin, stdout, and stderr for each job. The ciodb daemon
talks to the ciod process running on the I/O node.
idoproxydb
The idoproxydb daemon handles hardware related communication
communication through the Service Network. It communicates with the IDo chips
located on the Service, Link, and Node Cards.
bglmaster
The bglmaster process is the parent process for the other three system
processes. It starts all three of the main system processes (idoproxy,
mmcs-db_server, and ciodb) and restarts them if a process is ended for any
reason. It can also provide information about the latest status of the spawned
processes.
Additional software
For the Service Node to function, additional software is required. For more
information, see Unfolding the IBM eServer Blue Gene Solution, SG24-6686.
Chapter 1. Introduction 31