The sosreport tool collects information about a system, such as hardware configuration, installed software packages, configuration, and operational state. This information is stored in a single compressed file in the /var/tmp directory, and the file can be sent to a support representative to assist in troubleshooting a problem. The sosreport tool replaces an earlier version of the tool called sysreport.
Installing sosreport Package
To run the tool, first install the sos package:
# yum install sos
Running the sosreport
You should run the report as the root user. The version of the tool is displayed along with a short description of the tool and the output it produces. You are prompted to press Enter to continue or Ctrl + C to quit.
# sosreport sosreport (version 3.2) This command will collect diagnostic and configuration information from this Red Hat Enterprise Linux system and installed applications. ... Press ENTER to continue, or CTRL-C to quit.
Press Enter to start. You are prompted as follows:
Please enter your first initial and last name [host03...]: Please enter the case number you are generating this report for:
The name and case number that you provide becomes part of the file name created by the tool. After the tool completes, you can uncompress the file and view the contents, by running the following commands:
# cd /var/tmp # xz -d [sosfile].xz # tar xvf [sosfile].tar
Extracting the file creates a directory, which includes the output of several system status commands as well as the contents of some configuration directories on your system. The following is a sample list of the output collected on a system named geeklab:
# ls /var/tmp/sosreport-geeklab* boot/ etc/ lib/ proc/ sos_commands/ uptime chkconfig free lsmod ps sos_logs/ usr/ date hostname lsof pstree sos_reports/ var/ ...
sosreport Plugins
The sosreport uses plug-ins, which can be turned on and off. Use the following command to list the plug-ins, which are enabled and disabled, and plug-in options:
# sosreport -l sosreport (version 3.2) The following plugins are currently enabled: abrt Automatic Bug Reporting Tool acpid ACPI daemon information anaconda Anaconda installer anacron Anacron job scheduling service ata ATA and IDE information ... The following plugins are currently disabled: activemq inactive ActiveMQ message broker apache inactive Apache http daemon ceph inactive CEPH distributed storage cluster inactive Red Hat Cluster High Availability and GFS2 cobbler inactive Cobbler installation server ... The following plugin options are available: abrt.backtraces off collect backtraces for every report boot.all-images off collect lsinitrd for all images dmraid.metadata off capture dmraid device metadata filesys.lsof off gathers information on all open files filesys.dumpe2fs off dump filesystem information libraries.ldconfigv off collect verbose ldconfig output ....
Additional options exist to control the plug-ins and the tool. The following is a partial list:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| -n PLUGNAME | Do not load specified plug-in(s). |
| -e PLUGNAME | Enable the specified plug-in(s). |
| -o PLUGNAME | Enable only the specified plug-in(s), disable all others. |
| -k PLUGNAME.PLUGOPT=[VALUE] | Specify options for plug-ins. |
| -a | Enable all (Boolean) options for all loaded plug-ins. |
| –tmp-dir DIRECTORY | Specify an alternative temporary directory. |
| –name NAME | Specify a name to be used for the archive. |
| –ticket-number NUMBER | Specify a ticket number to be used for the archive. |