[FASherman]

Whether or not it would be useful to you depends on the problem you're experiencing and the data you've collected. A snap file can contain a lot of information that makes little sense to anyone besides IBM support engineers. For example, it usually contains dump data, kernel data and (where available) adapter firmware dumps. It also contains ODM entries.

IBM engineers have a program called, aptly enough, CRASH, which using that data as input and allows them to step through exactly what the server was doing for a period of time at levels of detail the end user can't see.

But it also contains some pretty basic data like volume group, logical volume and filesystem data along with the proc list that is human readable and easily interpretted.

If you have maintenance support and you are having a problem, then the best advice is to let IBM have a go at it. If you've never cracked open a snap and tried to decypher it, they'll have the analysis done to a greater level of detail in the same amount of time it would take you to figure out the structure of it solo.