sos, machine information collection tool

A few weeks back, I have encountered a problem on one of my redhat server. Since the server is licensed, I send an email to redhat customer support through redhat network in search for the solution. The first thing that redhat reply to me was to run a command named 'sosreport'. What is sosreport?

According to the man page:
Sosreport (formerly known as sysreport) generates a compressed tarball of debugging information for the system it is run on that can be sent to technical support reps that will give them a more complete view of the overall system status.

Sosreport belongs to the sos package:

# whereis sosreport
sosreport: /usr/sbin/sosreport
# rpm -qf /usr/sbin/sosreport
sos-1.7-9.2.el5_2.2
# rpm -qi sos
Name : sos Relocations: (not relocatable)
Version : 1.7 Vendor: Red Hat, Inc.
Release : 9.2.el5_2.2 Build Date: Thu 17 Jul 2008 11:50:34 PM MYT
Install Date: Fri 17 Oct 2008 12:27:17 PM MYT Build Host: js20-bc2-10.build.redhat.com
Group : Development/Libraries Source RPM: sos-1.7-9.2.el5_2.2.src.rpm
Size : 421400 License: GPL
Signature : DSA/SHA1, Thu 28 Aug 2008 08:02:35 PM MYT, Key ID 5326810137017186
Packager : Red Hat, Inc.
URL : http://sos.108.redhat.com/
Summary : System Support Tools
Description :
SOS is a set of tools that gathers information about system
hardware and configuration. The information can then be used for
diagnostic purposes and debugging. Sos is commonly used to help
support technicians and developers.

To use sosreport:

1. type 'sosreport' as root
2. answer a few questions
3. wait for a while
4. check your sosreport output (bz2) at /tmp
5. You can use the sosreport output to troubleshoot remote machine or to ask help from remote technical support personnel
   

That's all folks :)