I was attempting to configure a new installation of lpar2rrd (version 2.65) for a customer today when I encountered the following error during the initial load of data from the HMC:

 

lpar2rrd@nim [/home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd]$ ./load.sh

LPAR2RRD version 2.65

HMC            : hmc01

managed system : 750-1 (type_model*serial : 8233-E8B*0646D0P)

HMC version    : 77301

There is no RRD: attempting to do initial load, be patient, it might take some time

sample rate    : 60 seconds

fetching HMC   : hmc01:750-DR CPU lpar config

fetching HMC   : hmc01:750-DR CPU/MEM global config

sys change     : hmc01:750-DR:100

installing WWW : install-html.sh 2.59

An error occured in lpar2rrd, check ./error.log and output of load.sh

 

$ tail -3 ./error.log

 

Argument "" isn't numeric in numeric le (<=) at /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd.pl line 532.

Can't use string ("") as a SCALAR ref while "strict refs" in use at /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd.pl line 533.

Wed 23 Nov 12:04:09 2011 : hmc01 : An error occured in lpar2rrd.pl, check ./error.log and output of load.sh

 

We were able to get this working by hacking the lpar2rrd.pl script.

 

The following code:

 

    if ( $loadhours <= 0 || $loadmins <= 0) {   # workaround as this sometimes is negative , need to check it out ...

      my $t1 = localtime($$last_rec);

      my $t2 = localtime($t);

      print STDERR "$act_time: time issue 1   : $host:$managedname $loadhours $loadmins \n";

      print STDERR "  Last saved record (HMC lslparutil time) : $$last_rec ; HMC time : $t \n";

      print "$act_time: time issue 1   : $host:$managedname $loadhours $loadmins \n" if $DEBUG ;

      print "  Last saved record (HMC lslparutil time) : $$last_rec ; HMC time : $t \n" if $DEBUG ;

      $loadhours = 3;

      $loadmins  = 140;

    }

 

Was changed to:

 

      $loadmins  = 140;

    if ( $loadhours <= 0 || $loadmins <= 0) {   # workaround as this sometimes is negative , need to check it out ...

      my $t1 = localtime($$last_rec);

      my $t2 = localtime($t);

      print STDERR "$act_time: time issue 1   : $host:$managedname $loadhours $loadmins \n";

      print STDERR "  Last saved record (HMC lslparutil time) : $$last_rec ; HMC time : $t \n";

      print "$act_time: time issue 1   : $host:$managedname $loadhours $loadmins \n" if $DEBUG ;

      print "  Last saved record (HMC lslparutil time) : $$last_rec ; HMC time : $t \n" if $DEBUG ;

      $loadhours = 3;

    }

 

The initial load then ran successfully.

 

Then we changed the code back to its previous configuration:

 

    if ( $loadhours <= 0 || $loadmins <= 0) {   # workaround as this sometimes is negative , need to check it out ...

      my $t1 = localtime($$last_rec);

      my $t2 = localtime($t);

      print STDERR "$act_time: time issue 1   : $host:$managedname $loadhours $loadmins \n";

      print STDERR "  Last saved record (HMC lslparutil time) : $$last_rec ; HMC time : $t \n";

      print "$act_time: time issue 1   : $host:$managedname $loadhours $loadmins \n" if $DEBUG ;

      print "  Last saved record (HMC lslparutil time) : $$last_rec ; HMC time : $t \n" if $DEBUG ;

      $loadhours = 3;

      $loadmins  = 140;

    }

After which, all subsequent loads worked as expected! Fortunately my colleague, Nathan Edwards, had already hit this bug a while ago and was able to help me. Thanks again Nathan!

 

According to Pavel Hampel (lpar2rrd developer), the next version of lpar2rrd (2.66) will fix this issue.

 

Tags:  numeric line ref "strict le at "" string while a can't in as scalar isn't 532. /home/lpar2rrd/lpar2rrd/l... ("") 533. refs" (<=) argument use