Collector Tool

Someone asked me how to run collector tool. IBM Doc says, run the tool not from APPSERVER_INST_PATH/bin, but run from working directory. What exactly is that?

The collector tool gathers information about your WebSphere Application Server installation and packages it in a Java archive (JAR) file that you can send to IBM Customer Support to assist in determining and analyzing your problem. Information in the JAR file includes logs, property files, configuration files, operating system and Java data, and the presence and level of each software prerequisite.

collector command - summary option

WebSphere Application Server products include an enhancement to the collector tool beginning with Version 5.0.2, known as the collector summary option.

The collector summary option helps you communicate with WebSphere Application Server technical staff at IBM Support. Run the collector tool with the -Summary option to produce a lightweight text file and console version of some of the information in the Java archive (JAR) file that the tool produces without the -Summary parameter. You can use the collector summary option to retrieve basic configuration and prerequisite software level information when starting a conversation with IBM Support.

The collector summary option produces version information for the WebSphere Application Server product and the operating system as well as other information. It stores the information in the Collector_Summary.txt file and writes it to the console. You can use the information to answer initial questions from IBM Support or you can send the Collector_Summary.txt file directly to IBM Support.

Collector tool collect key information including ffdc, configuration, logs, and so on and makes a jar file with all the information. So, depending on your configuration and all, jar file may occupy lot of space. So, IBM docs says that, create a folder out of appserver installation path.
Example,
mkdir /tmp/collector
cd /tmp/collector

Then run the script as needed
/appserver/instpath/profiles/profilename/bin/collector.sh
or
/appserver/instpath/profiles/profilename/bin/collector.sh -summery